When Good Frugality Goes Bad

I’ll admit it – I’m frugal.  Frugal being a nice way of saying I’m pretty darn tight with a buck.  Have been for years.  I think a lot of gardeners have this trait in common, so I’m in good company.

Being frugal is a good thing in my book.  But sometimes being frugal leads to… issues…

Tuesday morning I was out driving around the country roads near home with Zoe and I noticed some large glass windows set out by the road at the end of a driveway.  I had seen these same windows the week before on trash day so I figured they were being thrown away.  As I drove by I began thinking about them.

You see, I’m always on the lookout for things I can use that others throw away.  Trash-picking some people call it.  Dumpster-diving is another, although there weren’t any dumpsters around for miles.  But I digress.

One of my goals for Meadowwood Garden is to extend the growing season through use of things like greenhouses, row covers and cold frames.  So when I saw these windows my first thought was, “Gee, those would make some nifty cold frames for the garden!”

It always starts out innocently, doesn’t it?  On the way home my route took me back by that driveway, and almost on a whim I turned into it.  I saw some cars so I drove down (it was a long driveway) and talked to the people who owned the property.  They were very nice and it turned out that, yes, the glass was being thrown away.  Yes, I was welcome to it.  Did I need any help getting it loaded into my truck?

That probably should have been my first clue.  I told them I could manage by myself, apologized for interrupting their day and thanked them.  Back up the driveway I went and there I took the first really good look at my great find.

If I had been more observant and less excited about my find before I might have noticed that my glass “windows” were taller than the fence they were leaning up against.  As I got closer and noticed little things like a large handle and some metal runners I realized to my horror that my windows were actually sliding glass doors!

I should have just left at that point, but I had promised to take them and I was in a full-on frugal frenzy by then.  Besides, how heavy can sliding glass doors be?

I have an answer for that now.  For the record, sliding glass doors are heavy.  Very heavy.  I’m guessing well over 100 pounds each heavy.  Each door has two panes of at least quarter-inch thick glass.  I’m no small person, and I could barely budge them.

But budge them I did, little by little.  Twenty-five minutes and two rest breaks later my find was in the back of the truck all safe and sound!  I hopped back in the truck, turned to Zoe and said, “I can’t believe I just did that.”  If the look she gave me was any indication, she agreed.

That was Tuesday.  It is now Saturday.  For the past several days I’ve been driving around with these insanely heavy sliding glass doors in the back of my truck because I can’t figure out how to get them out by myself without breaking them!

That isn’t the worst part.  The worst part is that obviously the doors are so heavy there is no way I can use them to make a cold frame.  So unless I can come up with another idea for them they are going to end up at the end of my driveway, waiting for some poor sucker to come by and take them off of my hands.