I'm loving my birds

Last summer I discovered the joy to be found watching hummingbirds.

Now I'm enjoying goldfinches (Daddy used to call them "wild canaries). I found out what sort of feeder they like, and what kind of seed (thistle). I can see a goldfinch at the feeder almost anytime I look out my window; there are three of them there at this very minute. I intend to move the feeder closer to my window before long.

It's the neatest thing, seeing those flashes of bright yellow in my back yard.

Every once in awhile I see a bluebird on the fence or hopping along on the ground; I want more of those around, too. I went to Google to see what steps I might take to attract bluebirds. The first suggestion given is to get some birdhouses for them. Sounds great, but I'm afraid I'd end up providing housing for sparrows. Another suggestion was to provide meal worms for them to eat; sorry, I'm not going to buy live meal worms to feed any sort of bird. I've gotten them in my cabinets a time or two, and I'd just as soon never see them again.

A birdbath is also suggested; again, I wonder if I'd end up seeing only sparrows bathing at my facilities.

Maybe I'll just settle for seeing the occasional bluebird sitting on the fence.

So, what did I buy at the garage sales?

This is why I need to stay far away from garage sales: I always buy "bargains" and then once I get them home, I ask myself, "Will I ever use this?"

Let's face it, I already have plenty of junk without going after more.

Sometimes I could use just one more burner than my stove provides, and that's why I bought this. It was $5; online, I see new ones cost $39. We shall see.

Even Cliff liked this. I think it was $3. Did I need it? Nope.

I already had a big canner like this, but sometimes you just want to cold pack a few pints of something, so I thought this smaller one might come in handy. $2.50 isn't a bad price.

This is another thing that simply caught my eye, and Cliff's also. For now, it's in my computer room.

Cliff saw this and told me he remembered his Aunt Margaret putting her husband to work with an apple peeler like this. It's a White Mountain, so it ought to be good. I hope I can figure out how to use it when it's apple harvest time. I found a discussion about apple peelers on Homesteading Today, a discussion forum I sometimes frequent. It appears that Pampered Chef makes a peeler that people seem to love.

The one item I was looking for at garage sales yesterday: books! I found lots of them but so many of them were romantic drivel that I only came home with two. Cliff has become quite the avid reader, and he isn't really into romantic books. I passed up some John Grisham books because I wasn't sure which ones we've read. So I only came home with two books.

Cliff spent a couple of bucks on other stuff. You know, "guy stuff" that he took out to the shop as soon as we got home. I'm still thinking we might have done better just staying home.