A Different Kind of Clothesline

Last Saturday was a 'free' day, ie no farmer's market for me.  Meredith and I went out to some garage sales.  We had a lot of fun.  Didn't spend a lot of money, I think the most I spent on one thing was $3 each for a couple of big mats.  Kind of like huge shaggy bath mats.  I was just going to get one to put on Calli's bed, but ended up getting both.  They are rubber on the back, but I have since found are not water (urine) proof like I hoped.  Anyway, they have a good weight, are kind of shaggy, and figured that Calli couldn't move it when she tried to scratch it around, and I could throw it in the washer.  The other one is at the back door.  Meredith got an awesome beach type umbrella that tilts, and a very small heavy stand for it to go in, perfect for her little balcony, $8 for both.  Of course other odds and sods, and maybe my best buy was 5 ink cartridges for my Epson printer.  They are Epson cartridges, so the ink doesn't run when it gets wet, and were $2 for 5 cartridges.  The two black ones are a couple months past their expiry date, and the coloured ones are more than that, so we'll see how they go.  They will probably be just fine.

Here's one of my 25 cent purchases.  A cute little basket that hangs on the clothesline, and it was full of clothes pegs.

Except this isn't a clothesline.  It's my 'make do with what I have' way of protecting the blueberries from the birds.  I have lengths of 10' wide drapery fabric hung over a wire, and clothes pegged together.  There were two robins out there the other day having blueberry dessert before I got the line up, and the starlings would join the party any chance they got.

There's a real blueberry farm just down the road from us, less than half a mile away,  complete with propane cannons and 'birds in distress' sounds.  I'm just thankful we are not any closer.  As it is, some mornings when that first boom goes off, I'd swear it is just at the bottom of our driveway.  

Here's our bird scare device, except I think the birds are so used to it that it is just decoration now, one missing glass eye and all.

When you look on the shady side, you can see the berries through the fabric

The berries are ripening nicely

In the other row there are just a few bushes, so they are individually draped in fabric.  One bush goes for the camouflage look.

There just might be some blueberries to take to the market this weekend, if we don't eat them all first.