My cats love to watch out windows. Molly thinks the bathroom window is her own private bird-viewing platform, and she wants it open in all weather. (You can probably guess that winter is her least favorite season, because that window stays CLOSED most of the time, lol.) B.C. likes windows, but doesn't want to be outside. If he DOES get out (and a door closes behind him), he cries until he gets back into the house. I think Sophia would be happy to be outside, but she doesn't try to get out. When the weather is nice I let them out on the tiny back deck and stairs, and I sit with them so they don't wander. I'm sure if any mouse was foolish enough to get into the house, it wouldn't last long. We don't have a problem with many critters, but I've thought that a dog might help with the woodchuck issue we've had in the past. Our neighbor's outdoor cat occasionally leaves us a mole as a gift. Sophia, the grand dame of the house. B.C. (Bad Cat) and Sophia, in their favorite bird-viewing spot - the feeders are outside that window. B.C. is almost 13, and Sophia is 11. My favorite picture of Molly, and our son Ian. Molly is the baby, not yet 2. Sophia thinks she's a pain in the behind; we jokingly call Molly "Nermal," to go with Sophia's "Garfield," and B.C. does a very good "Odie." Laurel

Birds often fly into our windows, especially in the spring and fall when they're migrating and unfamiliar with our yard. There's a gigantic silver maple that shades our back yard and provides a great, safe place for birds, but it's close to the house. We have a big bank of windows on that side, too, and that's where most of our trouble is. Having screens on the outsides of the windows helps, but doesn't eliminate the problem. For the windows without screens, I bought window cling film (tinted) and just made a 10" flying-bird-shaped template out of cardboard to make cut-outs. I put 2 of these on the outsides of each of the windows and it REALLY cuts down on the strikes -- we noticed a dramatic decrease right away. Just Google "tinted cling film for windows" and you'll see stuff at Amazon and other retailers. I'll see if I can find a photo of our clings.

Mmmm, nice visual with that oats analogy, John. ;-p I've got a layout now. I was working through all the load calculations by hand in figuring out where the piers needed to go, how thick the beams and joists needed to be, etc. when I saw an offer on decks.com. $100 gets you a deck design. That was hard to pass up, so I bit the bullet, and 24 hours later I've got them in hand (how cool is that?). It's bare bones, no 3D rendering or anything, but it did my engineering calcs for me, so I'm a happy camper. Here's my excel mock-up, showing some of the detail. Here's the framing plan and the pergola plan. The left portion is about 15x20 and pergola'd. The upper right portion is about 10x20 and pergola'd. (this is west-facing). The bottom right is just benched, with a fire pit planned. Decking is going perpendicular to the house so I can use full boards and avoid butt joints. Any input welcome, as to our layout and any issues you potentially see with construction.

Thanks Josephine. Maybe somebody here in this city needs to start a hosta business. But I don't have the money or the space for that. And being in Saskatchewan a short growing season, it wouldn't profit much for me......BUT wait...I like your idea of splitting mine and making a few dollars, but again these are hostas!!!! I can't even give them away to my sisters!! LOL. I was actually thinking of doing this with the daylilies to tell you the truth, or try too, but I've got so much work to do around here I never get to that part. I was going to advertise daylilies on texting to everybody I know and then on facebook......who knows