This is my first year and I'm eyeballing it in a 4x6 garden I planted for my mum. Mostly working out pretty good, it's kind of a mess though - sorta like my life haha. My Dad is less of an anarchist, and is a retired engineer, his garden is neat rows with all like plants together. I tried to explain the benefits of interspersing plants for better protection from pests, and what have you but he's afraid of not knowing what's what, and he likes all the order - I had to remind myself this garden is for him after all. Pfft such a conformist. I like the edible border idea most thus far. Definitely not sacrificing materials, cost, or space to build something that's for darn sure, and getting snagged on nails sounds like something I can see myself cursing. As it is the chicken wire tries to grab me every chance it gets!

The temperature of the ambient air outside and the ambient air inside is not the issue. The heat entering the outside window will not be free to dissipate and will compound between the two windows, increasing in intensity. You would have to open the top of the inside window for 2 reasons. 1)Your outside window is single hung and won't open on top. 2)Hot air will rise and intensify in the upper portion between the two windows, so opening the bottom will not alleviate the problem. Opening the top sash of the inside window will let intensified heated air into the house, in effect, heating the house in the summertime. To not have quite this problem, you would have to have LowE glass on the outside window, which would reflect heat away from the window. If you have LowE on the inside window, the heat is passing through the old window but not the new one, building up between the two. I know what you were trying to achieve in theory, but the science of fenestration is against you. I hope your luck is better than some of us anticipate.

Faron, I only take ibuprofen when I need it. Another thing she has me working on is moving the arm the "right" way - not popping my shoulder up toward my ear when reaching. Sounds like what your PT was teaching you! I occasionally wake up with the arm aching, but it's not bad. I stopped sleeping propped up a couple of weeks ago (stopped wearing the sling around the same time, too). There's one spot that is still really sore and gives me sharp pain if I reach forward, but it's getting better. I'm trying to use it as normally as possible and get out of the habit of holding it against me or doing things left handed that I would usually do right handed. D

"Anyway, this post turned out to be more than I imagined when I posted it. I was thinking more in terms of all the stuff we all have to deal with to maintain living, such as car maintenance, paying taxes, home repairs, etc, -- the things that never seem to go away and are constantly picking at you." Boy can I relate to this! Since Christmas life has consisted of months of almost unbearable stress due to dealing with various tasks, mostly involving real estate: the clearing/updating/renting of both an investment house we own and my MIL's house. Sometime in the middle of those efforts we also bought another house, and my daughter moved out of the investment house and back home while she was in the midst of a job hunt which successfully concluded with a position in another state meaning she's asking for help with the logistics of that move. And that's on top of working full time and taking care of the house in which we live and trying to stay in touch with my lonely widower father and volunteering for my student support group and....... I can't seem to make my husband understand just how many moving parts there are to life--including all the stuff that's just normal routine maintenance. I've been repeating that hoary old joke about the housewife who one day ignores all her tasks, and when the husband comes home to a house in complete disarry and asks what happened she replies with "You know how you always ask me what I do all day? I didn't do it!" So much of these maintenance tasks are invisible as long as they are done smoothly and on time, but make a huge hassle if they're not. It is wearying. I've actually had nights I think wearily that it's too damn much effort to shower, wash my hair, brush my teeth and get ready for bed :). My comfort mantra is to remind myself that busy means engaged means people count on me means I'm needed which is better than sitting all alone with nothing to do and no one to do it for or with!