Power Washing

I have this old fence (I've mentioned it before) - maybe 10 years old, I'd guess. I got some pricing on building a new one, but wow, it's way out of line. So first I put in the new posts (with a little hired help). See, the posts were the only things needing to be replaced really. Took out the old posts, did some grinding (alot of grinding) to get all the old nails out of site - smoothed it out nice. But it still looked ugly and old.

Then, this past weekend I rented this high pressure / power wash machine from the hardware store. See, the pickets are what you see mostly, and if you really looked at them, you could tell there was enough substance down under the quarter inch of dirt and crud, that if I could just clean them off, I'd find some real fine and solid cedar down there. Pretty stuff.

I was right. It took a total of 24 hours, doing nothing but spraying high pressure water over each piece of wood, to remove the garbage that had collectted over the past 10 years. The Texas sun, wind, rain, dirt, exhaust fumes, bugs, chemicals, freezing ice, chlorine, oils, sap from trees, rusting nails, squirrel's and bugs running rampant over you for years - had all robbed the beautiful complexion from my cedar wood fence.

It hurt - it still hurts - it took a long time. It took 3 days. I was up and down ladders, in the mud, out of the mud, dirt flying everywhere, dirty water bouncing back and soaking me, the sheer power of the 2,500 psi's and 5.5 hp motor knocked me over (literally), the constant noise. I changed cloths a total of 6 times. I was doing 'circa de sole' (sp?) moves to get every angle, every inch of wood, in some tough unreachable spots. I'm bruised and I wasn't the one getting attacked - the fence was being assaulted by a high pressure gun - every square inch - a relentless, persistent "cleansing" was going on. I could almost here the fence shouting - PLEASE STOP!

OK - I've bored you to death. But here's my point: don't we get that way, over time. And we need to be cleaned up, before it's too late. Get power washed - my fence looks new - I mean NEW. It's what Jesus does for you. It may hurt a little - when you're being stripped of all your dirt, your pride may take a beating. But after it's over, and you're clean, you can breath and you're free, like new. You can stand there tall and firm, and watch the sun rise and set again.