some ideas come to mind -- 1) "storm screens" framed into existing openings, but made to easily pop out for summer. 2) Handmade poly "windows" -- we already have two that cover an area 2 ft tall by x 13 ft long in the west wall. We took 2x4's and wrapped them with poly so the wood is sandwiched inside. This makes a dead-air space. We folded the corners like gift-wrapping, so it's sealed, but could add stripping to make sure it stays down through winter. So far it's working great to keep the beating sun and high winds off the deck. The boxes are wedged tightly inside the 2x4 framing, and not fastened otherwise. We could caulk around each one to make it more airtight for winter. 3) find old give-away windows of various shapes and sizes and hobo them into place, making sure they are removable to conform to code, and making sure some of them open for air flow. 4) Take very long/wide sheets of thickest poly and fasten one on the outside of the deck frame, and one on the inside, creating a dead-air space between them. This might be our best bet since the entire deck has a small opening between the fiberglass and the top of the window frame area. Even if we put windows into all the openings, this narrow channel would let a lot of cold air in. When it's really sunny, that might not be a bad thing, but otherwise would ruin the plan. In summer this opening lets wind from the West flow across the top, drawing hot air out on the East side. We could use wavy board, fold the inside sheet of poly over it at the top, and fasten it up against the existing fiberglass wavyboard on the inside. All of these ideas would allow us to leave in place the existing fiberglass roofing. Later we could modify the roof if we found it necessary - putting plywood and insulation underneath the fiberglass roof in every other rectangular opening. any thoughts?

Shotsi...I personally have never seen the newer Ariens mowers but from past experience this should be an easy fix for a competent repair shop....someone who's been around a long time. Severe vibrations can come from many things...defective or damaged belts going to deck, damaged or defective gear boxes or drive shafts....they are balanced and matched to one another...the yoke and sliding shaft portion....pull them apart and rotate 180 dgress and slide back together and try out, out of round pulleys..have seen the bore off center before!, bad bearings, bent blades.... even if new, damaged in shipping,improperly installed deck to begin with, unbalanced blades...have them checked for misalignment and balance using a quality magnetic balancer for blades. Most of these problems can be eliminated with time and patience...most dealers don't have the time to rectify these sort of problem...finally, try another dealer and send certified letters to Ariens customer servvice directly. Best Regards, Mark in Buffalo

My favourite support is a plain old wooden stake. I've found that the tomatoes ripen faster when I tie everything up to a single stake than when I cage them. Wood is less slippery to tie to than any metal stakes I've tried. That said, I have to admit reality. Summer is busy and I rarely keep up with tying branches and when they get to be a certain size they're terribly hard to tie back to the stake without breaking the branch or pinching a cluster. That, and I never seem to be able to sink them far enough into our clay subsoil that they don't tilt to the side at least a bit at best or fall over at worst. I've got 21 of the Lee Valley spirals and instead of using them as stakes this year, I'm going to try them in 7 tripods. I'll still be able to wind the main branches into the spiral and have more options for tying the others. We'll see how it goes. Nice that they have those little holes at the top to tie them together. Peavey Mart sells a really heavy-duty, round, stackable tomato cage (I think they call it a peony cage, but there are more rings, like a tomato cage). We have 4 already and they last forever, unlike the easily-kinked, common tomato cages made with higher-gauge wire. I'm going to get more of those for the determinates this year and be done with it. There's only so much time in a day. Rona had some nifty cages in stock when I was in Saskatoon on the weekend. They were round and stackable, but the base was wider than the top. Smart. Especially when you're rural and dealing with high winds. Unfortunately, I couldn't fit a stack of 10 in our car unless I left hubby and one of the kids behind in order to fold down a couple of seats. Drat.

For Simonton I would go for the 5500 series patio door with coastal hardware. PGT who is a Florida based manufacturer has a very good quality sliding vinyl patio door. I have not seen manufacturer with more operating configuration for a vinyl door. They specialize in coastal applications. They offer impact rated vinyl doors as well http://www.pgtindustries.com/Pages/Main.aspx?PageID=103