The Glass Men are Here!

Here's the last photo I took of my walled patio, as I had come to think of it, on the morning of October 24, 2023.  Curtis and I were setting out on our morning hike, and we were waiting for a 9 AM meetup with the glass crew. Along about 8:55, Curtis took off running toward the house, leaving me out at the end of the orchard. I heard laughter from the yard and knew he'd found his mark. Sic 'em, Curt! 

From left: Brian, Tim and Bob McCollister from American Glass and Metalworks.  It's three brothers...omg they crack me up. Right away, I had to figure out the difference between Tim and Bob. Tim has a wavy beard and Bob's is straight. Both their beards are breathtaking. I say that as someone for whom it has taken about eight years to get used to great big beards. I'll never forget walking into a bar in Marietta when the trend was first starting and seeing all these young guys with beards from the Civil War standing around with beers. And beards. I actually asked what the heck was going on. Now I kinda dig it. 

I asked  Brian why he doesn't have a bee beard and Tim said it's because he doesn't have the hormones for it. Snort laugh! Tim is particularly terrible. But later Brian told me Tim got worms from his hogs (I said ringworm isn't a worm) and they were even. Brian is the eldest, Tim is the youngest, and Bob (in neon green) is the middle sibling, cracking the whip!

I would hang around all day just to listen to them give each other grief but don't want to be in the way.

If you look closely in the picture above you'll see Curtis is panting, because has just finished an enormous zoom through the backyard in his extreme joy at having a crew to snoopervise for the next few days. It was so funny and fast I couldn't get it on video.

The McCollisters live down south, Savannah and Georgia, and they convene for road trips to install greenhouses. They stay in a hotel for the duration of each job, which will run about four days here on Indigo Hill.

The first day was a lot of nitty gritty measuring and making sure everything was going to work. Which it will. In this photo, note that they've cut off siding and applied boards to which they can anchor the greenhouse frame, up there under the slot windows. It's really happening! 

It was very exciting seeing the struts leaning against my liberated bonsai!

There's a cap of metal flashing atop the wall, which will integrate it with the bronze frame. I had a choice of white or bronze. Knowing how algae loves to grow inside greenhouses, I opted for the darker color. I would have liked white, but the inside of the Groanhouse was absolutely green with algae after ten years, and I don't want to look at that. I'll figure out how to wash it down over time. I can run a hose in there and have at it.

A significant wrinkle in Oct. 24th's progress was the annual explosion of Asian multicolored lady beetles, the dreaded, detested ladybugs that get in everything. They were flooding into the house by every crack and crevice, and poor Brian, who was putting facing on the high siding, was bundled up in a hoodie on this warm afternoon, just trying to keep them out of his clothes. They were so bad even Curtis couldn't stand to be outdoors, but the crew kept working through this fresh hell.

Photos can't begin to show the horror of a house seething with ladybugs, which head right for one's face and neck, crawling down your shirt and up your pants legs. Then they work their way into every door and window opening so they can spend the winter biting your neck and the back of your arms, getting into the butter and the sautée pan, filling the vacuum tank so it always smells like ladybug BO when you vacuum. That kind of thing.

Curtis made sure everything was ship shape on the site.

 

Later, the ladybugs go so bad he asked to come inside. He went downstairs to continue snoopervising 

from bed! 

At sundown, the McCollisters and I went up to the towertop to see the colors. It was a nice break from the beetle assault. They would be here until dark, and they'd show up shortly after daybreak the 25th, to erect the metal frame for the glass. I didn't sleep too well that night, for the excitement of it all. The blazing fall foliage would be excitement enough, but having a greenhouse suddenly appear after nine months of gestation was a bit much for my nervous system!