We intended to start removing bird houses from the horse stalls today but ran into some problems getting the shelving off the wall. The previous owner used some massive braces to support it and we couldn’t use the new angle grinder to cut it off because it made far too much noise. Sunday’s are supposed to be quiet days so we put it away for later this week.
So we decided to tackle the first set of vines on the storage buildings instead. It’s a quiet procedure and definitely needed to be done.
Stefan actually shocked himself during the process. There are electric cables running on the wall outside and the vines were all intertwined with them. We’re not really sure how he managed to touch them but he definitely felt the voltage. Needless to say we were much more careful around that area afterwards.
We’d already made quite a dent in things when I started taking photos. We found that we now have three blackbird (Amsel) nests up here instead of the one we had last year. We also thought we found a dead blackbird in one of them but now aren’t so certain if maybe he was just playing dead because we totally scared him when we started removing the vines. I guess we’ll have to revisit that nest and investigate.
Here’s a shot of Stefan pulling some of these evil vines out from the eaves of the house. They just get everywhere and were even crawling up under some of the roof tiles. When we pulled them out, they were nearly white and all under developed, sort of albino really. We have dubbed them “alien vines” π
Here’s the last photo I got of our progress. We didn’t get quite everything down from the roof yet but we did cut the main “power source” to those vines so they have started dying already. It’s amazing how quickly these things start to wilt after you have cut them.
We decided today that at the end of the season we will absolutely be removing these vines. They grow way too fast and we don’t really want to be up on a ladder once a month for about an hour maintaining this thing. What we will likely do is take down the chain link fencing that is along the wall now and bracing these vines on the wall. We’ll remove all these aggressive vines and then will replant something less invasive. We’re currently thinking more grape vines would be really nice and would also up our chances for a decent harvest to make wine. π
Just curious if you have any vines on your house too? Ive read vines can actually work as great insulation for homes, that and shrubs and bushes too. Our home has zero insulation and with it getting hot outside our inside temps are 89*F or about 30.5*C. Unfortunately we dont even have vines!
We do have some vines growing on the front corner of our house and the back of our barn but I don’t really think they make any impact on the temps inside those buildings. I always thought that applied more if you had them growing on a pergola and were using the vines to provide shade on the side of the house or a patio underneath. In that case, it absolutely makes a difference. Our last rental house had wisteria growing outside above our patio and it was a massive difference in the shade of those vines versus the sun. I’m just not sure if you would get the same total effect if the vines were growing directly on the house.
I’m pretty sure there are a few paints out there with insulating properties although we haven’t tried any of them. Our big concern is our windows. They are old single-pane windows from the 1800’s and they lose a lot of heat through them. So we’re trying to figure out how to make our own heat dampening window covers π
Projects upon projects..
There are several companies out there that make window film. 3M, SolarGard, etc. I had called one installer, told him Ive got about ten 4 foot by 4 foot windows and he said it would be about $500 for the film and installation. Seems expensive for us right now, especially since the rest of our house has zero insulation.