Thanks everyone. I definitely intend to mortar the bricks; I never even considered dry-stacking them. The worst freezing I've seen here froze my clay solid down to about 4 inches (a couple of winters ago), but I never saw that before and haven't seen it since. Generally, the ground doesn't freeze at all, just gets water-logged. My back yard (where I intend to put these beds) is a cold-sink and will get -- and stay -- as much as 10 degrees colder than the front yard year-round, so I'll have frost and ice back there when none is evident anywhere else. I would say that there is certainly a potential for freezing, but it's not a consistant thing (which, for me, makes things harder to plan for). I might take some long walks around this area to see if I can find something similar in another yard, then figure out how they handled it. I definitely don't want to go to all this effort (it'll be just me!) and have it all be for nought. Thanks again for all the help!

Oh My...I began to spread alfalfa pellets about 5 years ago. I spread them under the bushes and small trees. I do not bother to dig them in nor sprinkle them with water. I give a handful to anything shorter than my tummy and 2 handfulls if taller. I do this once in the early spring and once in Mid-August. Kim, your post is making me wonder. Our 2 cats eat hardly any cat food in the summer. I am aware that they eat mice, voles, rats, etc.... Wonder if the alfalfa acts as a magnet for them...lol. Now if only it would attract moles and goffers... I also do a spring tonic which is alfalfa, molasses, rabbit poops, horse manure, fish emulsion and anything else I happen to have around. This goes in a 100 gallon horse trough with a cover...water before covering. Let sit for a week. Spread by the bucket load..1 per plant. It just plain stinks to high heaven and the stink lasts till the next rain. Sure seems to work much quicker than the sprinkled alfafa pellets. Have a good evening. Jeannie

Hi Leslie. Sounds like we're both in Austin, which is great; we need more attractive fences in this city! Most of them are the old rickety dog-eared variety, which can be pretty boring. For our fence face, in the end, we didn't go with ipe (we were quoted prices of $1.80 to $2.00 per foot for a 1"x6" board) but with another tropical hardwood called garapa ($1.50 a foot for a 1"x6" board). It's knot-free and almost as stable " which was primarily important to me âÂ" and also starts out as a nice golden colour. We've decided to let the wood weather to gray, however, because it means fewer chemicals and less maintenance. At Austin Wholesale Decking (where we bought the garapa, in north Austin), they have sample decking build with ipe/garapa/etc. that have been allowed to weather naturally, and it all looks really nice. FYI, the only other lumber yard I could find which stocks these hardwoods was called Texas Redwood (south Austin), which has ipe and massaranduba (beautiful, but more expensive than ipe for us, I believe), but they might not carry garapa. We're preparing to dig our post holes this weekend (renting a walk-behind post-hole digger to do this). We're using 4x4 pressure-treated from Home Depot (just delivered yesterday). I didn't consider metal, but don't see a problem with that, provided you can get your horizontal boards securely attached to the posts. Of course, with either metal or wood, if the ground shifts, the post will move with the concrete base (like the mast of a ship in a storm). But at least with metal you wouldn't have to worry about the post warping. Because of the "movement" of our sticky, black clay soil here in Central Texas, we're making our post holes 12" in diameter and 30" deep. I believe standard, for fence companies here, is 9" holes and 18" to 24" deep, but I wanted to try to minimize movement. The posts are on 5' centers (well, 4'11", just to be safe). With centers at only 5', and using the hardwood, we hope to be able to skip any additional bracing to keep our horizontal boards evenly spaced (1/2" gap inbetween). For cost, each panel is 6 feet high and consists of 14 boards (12 face boards, one cap, and one vertical board that covers the seam and post). For the garapa alone, then, each panel costs $21 a foot, without tax. The posts and cement and stainless steel screws and decking screws are all additional, and that's just the materials, not to mention the tool rental (cement mixer, post-hole machine) and (my) labour. So if you're seeing quotes of $23-$28 a foot sounds pretty good to me. I'd take it. :) I do have a SketchUp model of the fence (and the gate-like section we're also doing using the garapa). As a programmer/web developer, everything gets planned to death on the computer first, before being built. :) I'd be happy to email you my file if you can figure out how to get me your email address. All inspiration came from the web site of Peter A. Kirsch-Korff, this interesting fence builder out in California who has a really nice web site and some beautiful designs. Good luck with the fence, keep us updated. Here's a pic of our garapa being delivered this week:

HI Everyone, I wanted to update on my bay window in the eating area. It was installed yesterday and is beautiful, what a difference it makes to have the bumpout and the larger window! My previously planned kitchen expansion has contracted to just this but I am super pleased with it. I found online that Sunrise windows are well regarded and has a "projected frame" window that is made at the factory, so emailed them. They put me in touch with their local contractor. Many emails and two meetings later (I also had a door replaced and a new exterior door placed), the window part was constructed in one day. I asked for foam insulation to be added all around and then covered with Azek to be sure that the window stayed warm. Sunrise only offered this type of bay with the windows going all the way down. My next project is to create a flip up wood shelf that can sit on the seat when closed and act as a back support when opened. Total cost for the window, extra insulation, trimming with Azek,and installation is about $5000 all told and they considered the corbels sufficient support, so no torsion box needed. Some electrical had to be moved down also. The header and window width is unchanged. Absolutely worth it and it's amazing how easy the new windows and doors are to operate. My patio door went from a two handed, full body planted heaving opening effort to single finger opening. The new windows in the bay move with a few fingers. When they are closed up the garden sounds completely disappear, unlike our old windows . Super low air infiltration. Next is the kitchen remodel in the existing space, finally! Before After This post was edited by scrappy25 on Wed, May 14, 14 at 9:33