Early this morning -- about 6:30 -- I headed outside to prep some more lawn for non-toxic weeding. Since the weeds were breaking through the cardboard around the beds, I ripped most of that out and all the pine straw out as well. There wasn't a lot of grass growing here, but of course I don't want any to be growing, so I pulled out the worst of it. Found lots of fat earthworms nesting under the cardboard, which is a good sign. I put the most obvious into the raised bed, left any that were clinging to the cardboard to go into the compost pile.
A bit later, I went out and put this black plastic down. I ran out of both plastic and the big 'staples' that hold it in the ground, so I'll have to finish this job on Thursday. I've had my fill of Home Depot for awhile, refuse to drive over there today. I need to secure the seam in the foreground and along the edges, plus there's a swath of lawn not shown that also needs to be killed off. I'll put the pine straw back around the walkway areas once I've done all that. I ran across this method recently, with the injunction to leave it in place for 'a few months' so the heat would kill all the grass and weeds. I figured that if a summer in the Georgia heat and sunshine doesn't kill it, not much will! So this is in place until fall. This is the next section of garden beds and walkways. If this looks as if it'll work, I may do the entire front yard with it, too. We'll see.
And about those windows.....I decided last night to go about the process of taking one apart to get the upper sash out so I can start stripping and repainting soon. Like so much else, this didn't quite go as planned. I could not get the upper sash to budge, didn't see a 'door' in the window side trim that would let me get in to reach the weights, and found some nasty wood damage that looked like either termites or wood rot. So, I called an expert into the process. My contractor friend came over this morning and finished the job, but it took him almost an hour so I don't feel so bad.
I don't know what bright person put this layer of latex over enamel, but when I was working at the top of the window last night it peeled off easily and often in large sheets, so I got what I could. One less layer for the stripper to work through.
The wood inside this dug-out portion is like sawdust, but he says it's not termites and it's not wood rot and after digging out a bit more, said it wasn't bad damage and could be filled with wood putty. Whew!
In order to reach the weights, he had to take the side trim off both sides, but it was easy to do and is something I can do with the other windows. I watched closely, learned how to do the entire process. I don't have his skill and strength, but I lost some fear about being forceful. I also need a few more tools.
There were several of these old dauber nests in both cavities, but now that I've got them cleaned and vacuumed out, there is NO wood damage anywhere here. Whew again. The upper sash is still attached to its weights and goes up and down nicely now. The lower weights have been removed for now, as they were just sitting there attached to nothing. I'll use new cord for both the upper and lower when I put them back together.
These things are much bigger than I expected and are certainly heavy. That's an 18" ruler beside them. Not much more I can do here until Saturday, when I'll pick up the Citristrip and associated accoutrements from HD. Or until the new sash cord and window hardware arrive from Rejuvenation Hardware.
So here it is, not even noon, and I've done my chores for the day. Most of them, anyway. I held my nose last weekend and bought a small container of Roundup to use in my driveway and I need to do that soon, before it gets too tall again. Maybe later.
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