Providing things (baths, feeders, houses, etc.) for birds without having to monitor/clean them often is tough. I'd concentrate on where your water intake is and see if you can place a filter of sorts at this point - one that is easy to change out or clean regularly. We gave up using bird feeders and now toss our seed into a blue spruce - we couldn't clean the feeders enough to make them safe for the birds. You might even have to go to a different sort of bath/fountain that is designed more appropriately for just the sort of situation you are encountering (which, unfortunately, one doesn't learn about until after the fact).

My questin is, if your digestive system cannot brake down tomato skin, how can you benefit from it?. As I explained before, you don't peel tomato like a potato. You put them in boiling water few second, then in ice water. Only the though thins skin will be peeled off. Tomato itself has plenty of good stuff in it(vitamines, carataine,..) so what is the point trying to get just a little more which is not even available if the skin is not ground up before eating. Also from a visual stand point, tomato skin does not look very nice in your cooking(omlett, stew..). But peeling carrots, apples, potatos, cucumbers is not necessary in my view. BECAUSE their skin is digestable and beneficial and if you peel them (like most people that I have seen) you are actually MUDERing them. I peel any of those that has surface damage/is soiled or in case of cucumbere , it is very old... Finally, aside from facts and fictions, we all have ways and preferences in all aspects of life. So here too, I have no quarrel with anybody; Just expressing my view points. Cyrus

Since the wisteria is a huge and powerful vine unless kept diligently pruned to remain unnaturally small maybe having it wrapped around the post etc. is not going to work out anyway - and the plant should be removed. This would of course also take away the place for the birds to hang out. There are tall native conifers in this region with wisteria vines growing all the way to their tops. In time the trunks of full-sized wisteria vines become quite stout. I have also seen a big one sending out runners across the top of a bed, like a sheet of piano wire. Not really a plant for a small space in a modest setting.

There are all kinds of household anti-bacterial disinfectant cleaners available that are safe to use on plastics. Some ready to use, some you dilute in water. If nothing else you can use what many use to disinfect their plastics - a 10% clorox bleach solution. 1 part Clorox bleach to 9 parts water and spray. Dave