Here they are, the great cold frames I built for my garden. As you can see, Owen thinks they’re swell, too.

The interesting part was that I’m not really much of a carpenter. I have a few skills, and my own power tools, but I only had about half a plan when I started. I knew how big I wanted the rectangles that form the front of the frames to be, and then it got a little tricky fitting the back sides up under this little wooden lip along the side of the house. Now, as everyone knows, I miss my brother terribly, but I have to admit, I did not miss him during this project. Patrick and I used to fight when construction projects would come up, especially if I got … well, creative, with the way I intended to proceed. So it was really quite pleasant to have the opportunity to take this slow, and figure it out as I went along, and to do it my way. I didn’t miss him telling me I was doing it wrong, or that my way would never work, or that I should just get out of the way and let him do it (he did everything but mutter “stupid girl” under his breath at times like that). The real suprise was that it worked as well as it did! The storm windows fit just perfectly, and the double layer of plastic provides a good ten to twenty degrees of thermal protection for my plants every night. I love my cold frames.