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—Wynell Witaker
Greenbrier, Tennessee

Fido's Follow-up

For those of us who live in the city or suburbs, tidying up after our pets' excursions outdoors can be made more pleasant with this tip. Take along a paper sack partially filled with sawdust, and use this to carry any waste until you can dispose of it. Southern yellow pine sawdust has a strong aromatic scent that offsets offensive odors, and you can usually obtain it free at a sawmill or lumberyard.

—Mark Mitchell
Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Laundry Lore

When washing plastic tablecloths and shower curtains, add a tablespoon of glycerine to the rinse water to keep the material soft and pliable. This treatment helps plastic articles last longer, too.

—Pat Juenemann
Clements, Minnesota

Sparrow Busters

Sparrow Busters

During the winter I keep a corncob stuck in the entrance hole of every bluebird house. The cobs stay there till the sparrows (who build much earlier than bluebirds and who otherwise would set up housekeeping in the birdhouses) get discouraged and nest elsewhere. Often a holdout sparrow will try to take over a house after I've unplugged it, but by that time the bluebirds are in residence, and the male is a little scrapper who will hold his own against all comers.

—W.E. Frye
Elizabethtown, Kentucky

Before the spring garden gets planted, I make a batch of little "scare-sparrows." With a supply of corks and chicken feathers, I stick a feather into the end of each cork. After the seeds are in the ground, I tie the corks two feet apart onto strings that are stretched above the rows I want to protect. The slightest breeze keeps the feathers fluttering, scaring away the sparrows.

—Bobbie Mae Cooley
Bowen, Illinois

Color-Coded Rids

If your little ones are like mine, they want to pick out what to wear but usually end up with mismatched shirts and pants. Here's a little trick: Find some scraps of material in different colors (bright solids are best, and cut out a lot of little tags with pinking shears; simple circles are fine. Then, with the child's help, divide all the clothes into groups. For example, there may be four shirts that all match up with two pairs of pants; every piece in this group gets the same color of tag stitched in. Then, when your little one chooses what to wear, all he or she needs to do is find matching tags. Children think this is fun, and it gives them the confidence to make decisions. They look better, too.

—Lois E Klein-Miller
Gold Bar, Washington

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