My local Wal-Mart is selling Shade Cloth, "Coolaroo" Brand, available as either 70% or 90% shade shade factor. Coolaroo claims at least 10 years of UV resistance. I believe that Coolaroo is mostly an Aussie brand (manufactured in China and sold worldwide), so it is usually promoted as protecting people from excessive UV exposure. I really don't understand why Aussies worry about skin cancer; I just thought that Crocadile Dundee would just pull out his 12 inch knife and, all by himself, dig out any funny looking moles saying, "Ah melanoma, no big deal."! The late Crocadile Hunter (may God have mercy on his soul) would just hold out his kid in front of a crock saying "Here crocky, here crocky, bite out that melanoma, that's a good crocky, that' it". And any suburban Aussie, would just rub their pet toxic cane toad above any melanoma. Oops, I digress from the topic of this post. Sorry for the American stereotypes of Aussies. The Coolaroo display box also sells accessories, such as a sewing kit with a roll of black UV-resistant (my assumption) cord plus a special sewing needle. Shade cloth is available in two forms: woven or knitted; the Coolaroo product is knitted and does not fall apart if you cut it. I purchased a roll of green 90% shade. I attempted two methods of fabrication: sewing or silicone glue (caulking). Using the Coolaroo sewing kit with their 90% shade cloth is quite difficult. Both their cord and needle are just too big; in contrast, their needle and cord should be fine for the 70% shade cloth. Sewing the 90% shade with a smaller needle and a more light weight cord, or using an aluminum wire, are alternatives that may work. Using sticks of hot glue melt may work; but the sticks carried by Wal-Mart are not resistant to UV, as far as I know; I have not tried them for that reason. I also fabricated cylinders by pumping 1 or 2 strips of silicone caulking onto a two inch wide strip of the fabric, and pulling the fabric around over the silicone caulking and pushing down to form a 2 inch wide glued seam. There was plastic film underneath the seam to protect the garage floor from silicone. I pushed a seam roller (ie., those used for wall paper) over the glued joint. The pressure from the seam roller causes the caulk to ooze out from both layers of shade cloth- the two strips of plastic film intercept this ooze to form a thin layer of silicone on both outer surfaces of the seam. I soon remove the top plastic film so that air will induce the silicone caulk to cure. Once the silicone caulk cures, I remove the second roll of protective plastic film. Note that silicone does not glue the polyethylene (or polypropylene) shade cloth per se. Rather, as the silicone oozes around the plastic threads, a continuous matrix of cured silicone forms a mechanical layer that physically traps the two layers of shade cloth together. Gee... I'm going to have to photograph this gluing process to explain it. Be careful with the silicone. Some tubes, especially those for bathtubs, contain a biocide to kill mildew; who knows what that will do to plants or those that eat the plants. Silicone, as far as I know, is inherently resistant to mold; but silicone is not inherently toxic to mold, so mold can grow on top of silicone. Nothing prevents mold from growing on top of silicone in a bathtub, unless controlled release biocide is added. Silicone for aquariums would be best, but may be pricey. Since Wal-Mart didn't have the Aquarium Silicone; I bought the "all purpose" tube for $2.65, and a cheap caulking gun. The silicone method is the easiest method of fabricating cylinders of shade cloth from pieces cut from the roll. Now I have to figure out how to fold one end of the cylinder into a bottom of the pot. Either that, I cut out a circle and attach it to one end of the cylinder. Stay tuned for further adventures with shade cloth.

I get birds hitting windows, too. And some birds are worse than others - house sparrows, for example, never hit the windows, but I've picked up lots of dead Cedar Waxwings that hit windows on the house and the garage. Big birds, like crows, blue jays, small hawks, rarely hit but those little redpolls hit frequently. I think the best method to curb the window hits while still inviting birds is to have some branches in front of the window for them to swoop in and perch on - like maybe a few tall willow or dogwood branches firmly pushed in the ground below the window, or fashion a light twig trellis. Or grow a small tree in front of the window. One year I had tall castor bean plants growing in front of the window - awesome view of the birds pirched in the plants and no window hits.

My parents put Pella casements in their new house in 1971 with roll-up screens. They also had them on the house they'd built in 1957. Never, ever, any problem with the roll-up screens. Or with walking into a window on the outside. A crank on a bathroom window is starting to have problems; that user needs to install a grab bar on the wall instead. How often do you walk right along the side of the house? They also have blinds-between-the-panes on the bathroom windows.

During the day no one can see into my house because of the thermal window covering and screens so I leave the cellular shades open all day unless it is in a heat wave then I leave them down for the extra installation. I don't know what kind of windows you have, but if you are thinking of changing them for some more energy-efficient windows then I recommend that you change the window first and then buy the window treatment. If you do it the other way around it is likely that the existing shades won't work with the new windows. Another consideration is whether there will be a TV in the room. If there's going to be a TV in the room you may need to get some of those room darkening shades so that it blocks the glare on the TV set.