Hi, June. I've never had much seed loss from the socks, oddly enough. They really are so cheap and easy to keep during our brief goldfinch season that I almost always use them. I've gone through three of them this spring, but now I'm down to just two goldfinches and they are feeding mostly on sunflower seed at the tray feeder. I do have one screened in thistle seed feeder, but the birds didn't seem to like it as much as the sock. I've thought about getting one like you linked to, but never bothered with the extra expense, since the goldfinches are only here for 3 or 4 weeks before heading back north. They come through in the fall, too, but not for as long. No matter which style feeder used, they do LOVE those thistle seeds, and it is so worth putting out for them. I had males this year completely colored up, solid brilliant yellow with black wings and cap, by the time they left. They were breathtaking. (Not my photo, btw) One thing, though...I didn't see a single bunting this year. Last year, I had indigos almost every day, and two painted buntings for about a week or 10 days. I also had a rose-breasted grosbeak one day, and a blue grosbeak once. So far, none of them has shown up this year, sniff! My catbird is still here and still eating seeds, but the myrtle warbler has finally figured out that he isn't supposed to be a seed eater and has gone off to find the rest of his flock. The garden is so much the richer for these wonderful creatures I share it with. They make my heart happy, and I hope to find more and more plants and flowers that will help bring them in. Marcia

Steaming means that when you hit their burning skin/hair with water to put out the fire, the water turns to steam and burns them more. It is the reason you won't see a firefighter spraying water on a burning animal to put out the fire, and it is tough to see. That's why I turn away--I cannot bear to watch it. The first time I saw animals on fire (armadilloes and possums), I begged the firefighters to spray water on them to put them out, and they said "Can't do it. It will kill them." I think they probably died anyway though. There is nothing near me. Are you kidding? Even a trip into Marietta takes 30 minutes round trip and that's just if you're popping into a gas station convenience store for a cold drink. Other than whatever is in Marietta (which in terms of shopping is not much), we have to drive 30 miles north or south to reach any decent shopping destination,and by decent I mean something like Wal-Mart. That sounds like a long way, but when we first moved here we had to drive 50-60 miles to get to a Lowe's or Home Depot. We also had NO cell service within 2 or 3 miles of our house, and no internet service. We had to buy a DirectPC satellite dish to have the internet. Our then-15-year-old son thought we had moved to a foreign planet. Eventually cell phone service moved closer to us. At one point we had cell service if standing down in the road 300' from the house, then eventually we had cell service in the living room of the house but no farther, and then finally anywhere in the house, but not north or west of the house. Now we have cell service everywhere on our property. See how we're moving on up to the big time? Eventually we had dial-up internet but it was painfully slow after having had DirctPC. However, it only cost maybe 1/3rd as much. Now we have (hallelujah!) wireless internet. You still lose all cell service when you get pretty far out west in our county, although a new cell tower was supposed to solve that. I haven't been out west since it went up, but someone who has been out that way said it was not the solution they said it would be. Once you get far west in our county, even the fire/police radio reception can be spotty, and I don't like that. Don't get me wrong. When we moved here we knew it was very rural and very remote, but the lack of cell service and internet service was a little surprising. Because we're in a lowlying area, Channel 12 was the only tv channel, period, that we could pick up and that was spotty and with a big antenna. So, we got DirecTV and still have it. Sometimes you have to give up some modern conveniences in order to live way out in the sticks. I am grateful every day for internet shopping and UPS. It is so much easier to order stuff and have it delivered than to drive 90 or 100 miles one way looking for it. The nearest Baskin-Robbins I can think of, by the way, is in Denton, TX, and I am not even sure if it is still there. There's a Braum's in both Ardmore and Gainesville but both are sort of off the beaten path and we rarely go there. During the dry months we leave Love County as little as possible because there's nothing worse than being 30 miles from home when the fire pager goes off. It makes Tim crazy and it is hard to get him to patiently wait while I finish the grocery shopping, for example, before we head back home. The fire either will still be burning when he gets there, or it won't, is my attitude. A couple of years ago we were in Lewisville shopping for a new treadmill and started getting phone calls and text messages urging us to hurry home because there was a big wildfire. We did. By the time we reached Denton, TX, we could see the smoke plume from the fire in western Love County, but we kept thinking it must be from a closer fire in Cooke or Montague County. We probably were already between Sanger and Gainesville before we realized that the smoke plume we'd been seeing since we were east of Denton was from our fire. That was a fire that took several days and all the departments in our county to extinguish it fully. In the summer or winter fire season, any time we leave home, we have a 'to do' list and hurry, hurry, hurry to do it and get back home. To me, it is a thrill to get to spend 4 hours in Denton without rushing back, but that only happens a couple of times a year. We'll eat lunch at a real restaurant, walk around the mall, maybe browse the bookstore. It is like a vacation, albeit a brief one. I am not complaining, either. One day of dealing with traffic and crowds in the D-FW metroplex and I'm ready to stay home for the next month. I love living in the country for many reasons, but shopping convenience is not one of them. Dawn

This bird seeded to be mostly yellow with some dark on the wings. This picture was under the patio umbrella on a brugmansia branch. It also moved to several places in the crape myrtle bush. I was busy trying to get a picture instead of looking at the bird, so I don't have any idea what it is. I'm going to watch for it today. I couldn't get a good shot because I was inside and was afraid it would leave if I opened the door. We have various feeders around the patio, but it didn't show interest in any of them. This post was edited by ruthz on Sun, Aug 18, 13 at 9:22

Hi Pandy. I'm new at this too and a couple of weeks ago I saw a bird just like yours at my feeder. It took me a while and I made an incorrect guess at first, but I came to the conclusion that it was a female painted bunting. Look at the beak shape and the yellow ring around the eye. Maybe this spring we'll be able to see its beautiful mate! I would post my picture, but i have yet to figure out how to do it!