PINTO

I've been reading some Cormac McCarthy books over the New Year period.
McCarthy wrote No Country For Old Men from which the Cohen brothers made the excellent film of the same name.

He also wrote The Road which was made into a film that I haven't seen and which, given the quality of McCormack's writing I might do so. Hopefully The road will keep as true to the book as the film version of No Country For Old Men did.

I recently re-watched No Country For Old Men on You Tube and decided to read the book straight afterwards. It was impressive.
Driven by this I then downloaded (on Overdrive) The Border Trilogy and Blood Meridian.

Wow! The writing is as good as in No Country For Old Men but the graphic violence in Blood Meridian is really difficult to take in.
McCormack writes in a free-flow style which exactly matches the timelessness of the settings (Mexico and USA border states) which range from the mid 1800s through to mid 1900s.

I preferred the 3 books in The Border Trilogy as there was less violence involved and more characterisation. The books featured 'cowboys' or horsemen who lived day to day finding work on ranges whether cows were involved or not. There is a lot of discussion and explanation of horses north and south of the border hence the title of this post 'PINTO'

Not this PINTO which was a disastrous American car that exploded in rear end collisions as the petrol tank was unsafe

Not these which can have similar explosive results as the Pinto car

And certainly not this guy!

Not this guy and he's not my friend

Not this which was the 1980's 'real juice' that purported to be NZ but was imported overseas concentrate

This is he one I was looking for. The PINTO horse so named because of its patches of brown or black colour on a background of white.

So where are we going with this post?

We've had some solid deck furniture now for 12 or more years. It is made from macrocarpa and I bought it second hand off Trade Me. Once upon a time it had a rich golden colour and we had it on the covered deck of our Point Chevalier house. I used to dress the wood twice a year with the oil that the previous owner gave to me.

Since we moved to McLeod Bay the furniture has been on the uncovered deck and exposed to more sun, wind and sea influences. The wood has dried out. I still used to dress it but ran out of the 'good oil' and then went overseas. As a consequence the good old macrocarpa set has become a bit faded.

Last week I decided to do something about it and went to Mitre 10 to get some furniture oil. I bought a big tin thinking that I'd spread a little on now and keep topping up twice a year. Boy was I surprised. The wood just sucked up the oil as it was so thirsty. I barely made it to the end of covering the table, two seats and two benches before I ran out.

This is the oil I used.

Note the care I took in mixing and applying.

Here's a pic of how the furniture looked before I oiled it. It was quite grey looking.

Now here's how it looks after my oil application.

Look I know that you're impressed at my home handyman skills but I must here bust that bubble.

In liberally applying oil to the furniture I also managed to liberally apply it to myself. This was on Thursday (two days ago) and I still have big brown splotches on me legs and arms that make me look like this.