We do have robins here and I think the bird I rescued from my netting last year was a robin. I don't know if we have a lot of them though, and they seem to be easily scared by people. I wonder if a fake owl moved around periodically will do the trick. As for perch I think I can manage to provide no perch spot for them. I can get the lower canes up higher (have to do that to deal with the critters anyways) and try to minimize the amount of fruit exposed at the top of the shrubs? I read somewhere that you can spray fruits with grape Kool-aid mixture. Has any of you heard of that?

The thinner ones look better from afar (nearly transparent), and I believe they are made of stronger plastic as well. It can tear, but I see no reason why it won't last nearly forever. The thicker net with more of a fabric type feel can be seen from across my yard, so I find it unsightly. I am really down on all types of netting after having to free 2 birds from it recently. It has to be really taut or they will get in, and they will get caught. Luckily I found the birds in time and freed them--I'd feel terrible if I killed a bird. I have heard that small snakes can be strangled as well. Anyway, it depends on where the berries are growing--mine are on a fence so draping the net over is not going to work. So, next year, I plan on training the cane to be off the fence, and I am building a trellis structure to drape the netting over. For my blueberries, I plan on building a cage of some sort, probably with wire instead of netting, but I figure if I attach the net tightly to a wood base that will work and not risk entangling birds.

I'd like to suggest that keeping berries safe from birds without netting is wishful thinking. Consider how you might rig a support system over the berries so that you can lift up one side of the netting when you need to harvest.

I donÂt have any good free jelly roll sites, I just bought a book that IÂm excited about, but I have not made a quilt yet. However, while we are chatting about jelly rolls, I thought IÂd share my latest purchase About a week ago I went to the Hancock of Paducah web site and they had some jelly rolls on sale (I bought some). They also had a scrap bag of strips that they advertise to be between 2" and 4" wide and 32" long. It cost $10, compared to about $35 for some of the other jelly rolls and you get 40 "color coordinated" strips. Well, I decided to give it a try and my package arrived yesterday. My scrap bag had reds, greens, and tans. They blend nicely. I have not measured the thinnest strip, but just flipping through the stack the all appear to be at least 2.5". I thought this would be a good way to learn and practice jelly roll quilts.