A varnishing frenzy. . .

This is the time of year, as has been stated here previously, where we catch up on the maintenance of the tree houses.

Basically, it means that we are sanding, staining and varnishing the inside and out of the joints for the the upcoming year.

The tree houses aren't all that large, but there is a lot of wood that needs to be covered with varnish.

Pretty much, from Jan. 1 through the end of August, we are booked solid, so September and October are our times to get the rough work done.

As of October 9, four of the five tree houses have been made over, including the Sloth tree house, which now has new flooring. The sole tree house left is the Toucan, which is closed to all starting Oct. 17. That is the only tree house that does not have a wrap-around porch, so it also makes it the most difficult to sand and varnish. Couple that with the fact that a couple of wasp nests are hnging about outside the tree house, and it gets even trickier.

For the record, we use marine varnish here, which is what I suspect folks use on their sailboats. It does rain a lot here, so the marine varnish is a good thing. The only trick, at this time of year, is finding a good window to slap the varnish down before the rains come. No easy feat. The other day, Gerardo, took the leaf blower to dry off the steps before the rains came.