During our wedding trip in 2011 (see previous posts), Croatia (and a great deal of Europe in general) experienced the worst drought they had seen in over a hundred years. In 2012, it was pretty much the same. No rain, and temperatures easily reaching 35-40 deg C.
This year, the ground is so wet, flowers are floating out of their beds here in Popovaca, and areas of Germany, Austria and Slovenia are suffering through widespread flooding.
Hilarious.
So to add further insult to injury, the area where we built the deck in 2011 heaved up in one corner around 8", and in another area, fell about 3".
Disaster. Ujo Stef came by after the freeze / thaw in the spring of 2013, and pulled up the floor boards which had simply erupted from the structure underneath.
We walked into the yard and saw this:
When we left in 2011, it looked like this:
I have to admit, Renata and I had a few tears in our eyes. It was weeks of work torn apart by Mother Nature.
I love the way the wood aged, and got a nice patina after a couple of seasons, but the structure is no longer viable.
After a full day of rest, Darryl, Susan, Renata, Eka and I spent about and hour and a half cleaning up the mess, and starting the tear down. The patient is beyond saving.
We figure that tomorrow morning, it will be a couple more hours of work, and we can have the whole thing demolished. We will be saving the wood that can be saved, and the rest will find it's way to the garbage. It was all stained when we built it, and no one is comfortable burning the now toxic wood.
We're hoping tomorrow that we can walk across the street and ask the folks at the lumber yard if they can move the Rostilj (BBQ) with the forklift for a small fee. If not, we will be forced to chip away the concrete that holds the bits together, and move it piece by piece.
All hope is not lost. We have scouted a new area for the brick patio (no more wooden decks, I do have the capacity to learn) that we will install on our visit in 2016.
Tomorrow after we complete the tear down, we will determine the rest of our touring schedule.
More to come.
Cheers,
K&R
