Basements full of windows and doors?

Who would have guessed there would be so many windows and doors cluttering up friends' basements?

My builder advisor had a 6 foot slider he wanted out of his house - we got that installed on Saturday.

Then my friend Bill, who helped with the giant window last week, mentioned he had a 4 foot by 4 foot casement window he wanted out of his house. So I retrieved it on Sunday. (Ends up that the mounting flanges were cut off, but I'm experienced now at installing new ones). Think I'll put it in the opening you see on the right - that was going to be an outward opening French door, but maybe I don't really need three large doors in a 12 x 16 foot shed (!).

Like Henry David, I'm making the most of freebies and scavenged materials.

As an aside, I mention that I have never seen a snake at the tree farm. But we often have them at the house -- black snakes, garter snakes and ring-neck snakes. I'm always glad to have black snakes around, to keep the mice away.

But last night was a first. Andrew and I walked Sami around the block. Got back and found a snake on the front porch. Andrew wanted to hold it, but didn't want to grab it. It was a black snake - they get pretty big (4 or 5 feet) and I've picked them up many times. I told Andrew that they can hardly bite, and that I'd never been bitten, but being a smart boy, he wanted me to grab it first.

And the dang thing whipped around and bit me! I've never been 'snake bit' before. The difference, best I can figure, is that this was quite a young snake (about 2 feet or so), maybe a couple of years old, and he was lightning fast! All the black snakes I've held in the past were big fat slow ones. This little one was not having any of this human interaction. I was quite surprised to say the least, especially since I didn't even know a black snake could draw blood. Interesting experience.... (no damage, only very superficial scratches).

The final window...

The sixth and final, and by far the largest window is now in. 6' tall, 4 ' wide. Essential muscle from Tim and Steve who, standing side-by-side, are also 6' tall and 4' wide.

Bill and I managed to do the management and finesse work. :-)

Tree Farming - easier said than done

Went over for a little weeding at the farm. With all this rain the trees are doing well, but the weeds are totally out of control!

There's regular grass, thistles, and Japanese stiltgrass all over the place. But then then mile-a-minute vines are covering about half of the entire area. The vines climb over everything, looking like a carpet with lumps and mounds as it blankets anything and everything. Easy to pull up, but very thorny.

Even though the stiltgrass is invasive, I would much prefer to have it the dominant weed.

I put down a second row of black weedscreen to see how well it works. I hope it doesn't make it too hot for the little Douglas firs.

Big Window finally in? Not yet.

I realize now why the window was 90% off. It's a magnificent window, but apparently it was removed, probably from a new house, by cutting off the mounting flanges.

Crafted some new flanges - aluminum sheet (for the curves) or extruded angle (for the straight sections).

Lined up 3 big guys to help at lunch - average 6'3", 290 pounds. Me being the shrimp (6'1", 180), I'll be the supervisor. Needed the big dudes since we need to hoist this 150+ pound window into place, and the sill is 7 feet above the ground.

Unfortunately big rains are forecast all day tomorrow. Weekend should be nice, then rains again Monday and Tuesday. I'll have to recruit a different, non-work, crowd if I do it this weekend.

It's the last of six windows in the shed. :-)

Note the Makita and DeWalt cordless drivers - I had to include them in the picture since I was recently ridiculed by a manly woodworker for having a wimpy Skil driver.