Lockdown Continued

In the midst of another COVID lockdown, this time a six-week stay at home order in Ontario, we continued to put idle hands to good use and plug away at various tasks.

The back deck atmosphere was augmented with the addition of a fire table, picked up curbside at Canadian Tire prior to the lockdown - since we can't have bonfires on the deck, it's something to at least take the chill off during late night movie marathons. We also added the mesh curtains to the gazebo, which had spent the winter in storage after erecting the structure in late fall.

We tackled the fourth wall of the house, after parging and painting the other three last year. This also required ripping out the yew hedges, which were growing out of control, to be replaced eventually with some lower maintenance options. We also trimmed some other long-overdue areas around the yard, and hauled several more van loads of brush off to the nearby yard waste depot. 

A gorgeous March saw flowers blooming and trees budding, only to see a sudden dumping of snow in mid-April. Thankfully it was gone a day later and didn't seem to do any lasting harm to the plant life. 

Fire table for the back deck

Spring Splash

Yew gotta go....

.....but I'm stumped!

Mesh kit for the gazebo - yes, there are three more panels!

Daffodils!

Trimming the front hedge

Parge repair on the West Wall

There's always time for puzzles!

A wet blanket on Spring

More cedar trimming

Over a Barrel

So we were looking for something funky to serve double duty on the back deck, as both a high table for standing, as well as a projector stand high enough to avoid a rakish projection angle. We came up with the somewhat brilliant idea to source a wine barrel from a local vineyard!

We set off in the van for a pleasant drive to Colchester Ridge Estate Winery (CREW), south of Harrow and along the Lake Erie shore. There were a few competing options, but since CREW is already our favourite local winery, and their barrels had fewer metal bands than some others....the choice was easy.

We even got some backstory to enrich our deck furniture experience - it's a 2015 barrel made of French Oak, and last held a batch of CREW Merlot. We also googled the info on the barrel's head and found that it was made by French barrel maker Sylvain, who have quite an extensive website detailing the process. 

Our friends Heather and Dan helped put some wheels on the bottom, at a distance of course, which not only raise the height that much more, but keep the bottom of the barrel out of the wet and makes the whole unit more easily moved.

We sanded, we stained, and we sealed. Heather and Dan also made us a nice removable table-top out of oak, so we have options. The end result is pretty stunning!

Maker's Marks 

Thanks Heather and Dan!

 

The finished product with removable top

Roll out the barrel....

A little residual Merlot

Thanks CREW!

Drying the Stain

Staining with Early American

Sealing with Spar Varnish