All Hands On Deck

I should be ashamed to share this yakabout today. I should be ashamed to show the picture, too, but I'm doing it anyway.

I guess I'm just altruistic. 

I'm willing to sacrifice my dignity to tell you about something that really works like a charm.

It's not Monistat Chafing Gel for the face this time. I've already yakked about that.. I've even copped to slathering a little Preparation H on there, too, because apparently,  I have no pride.

Today's tip is about a weathered barn face of another sort. It's the weathered floor of our back deck.

Ready?

If you're wondering how in the world it got that bad, I will remind you that this little deck of mine is located smack dab in the middle of the Piney Stick Forest.  Even if it's cleaned every year, it still gets overtaken by the creeping crud. 

And it wasn't cleaned last year...

2011, as you might recall, was the year of The Pigeon-Toed Duck Waddle.  We hardly even stepped foot on the back deck, let alone clean it.  You pretty much avoid decks and other such torture chambers during a depressing south Georgia drought.

I realize that it looks as if it wasn't cleaned the year before that either, but I distinctly remember doing so.

Actually, I distinctly remember the husband doing so. Deck duty generally falls in his jurisdiction, just like lawn duty.  Lately, however, the Man of the House has been working really hard. He barely has enough time to tackle his front lawn and other house maintenance in the one day a week he usually has to do it.

He's a travelin' man, ya know. Plus, the slave labor we procreated isn't living at home anymore.

And so, I decided to embark on what I've called The Great Back Yard Surprise. I decided to divide the entire back of the house into manageable sections and conquer one section a week. Every Friday for the past month, he has come home to a different backyard surprise.  Last week, I surprised him by cleaning the back deck.

Remember all that new exercise equipment I said I'd yak about?

Well, here's a piece of it.

Just call me the Karate Kid. 

source

Usually, we use Thompson's Deck Wash for the spring deck cleaning, but when I got ready to clean, I really didn't feel like going to the store to get some. Instead, I tried this stuff.

I love OxiClean. They really should pay me to blog about it because I use it just about everywhere.  We had never tried it on the deck, though.

I made up a strong solution with some hot water (About 2 scoops per pail) and just dumped it on a portion of the deck to see how it worked.

Then, I got distracted.

Don't ask me what distracted me. I don't remember.  I just remember that when I finally made it back to the deck about a half hour later, I noticed that the OxiClean had been hard at work eating away at the creeping crud.  I gave it some stiff bristle action, rinsed it off, and just look at the difference.

That's when I decided to blog about it.

I could hardly believe it myself.  Commercial deck wash does not work that well.  

A work in progress.

  And finally, all cleaned and ready to reseal.  

I trimmed that hedge behind it too. 

Unfortunately, it looks a little bit like the bangs I used to trim on the daughters.

Whoops.  

He gave me two thumbs up for trying, though.

  What's more, he didn't even flinch when I told him 

that I thought we should embark on a 

 Great Deck Makeover Adventure. 

He just said,

 "Why don't you surprise me, Deb-or-ah..."

And that's exactly what I think I'll do. 

Because I'm strong.

I am invincible.

I am Deck Woman.