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CLAYTON RYE

By Staff | Nov 13, 2015

One of the fun things in life is finding those things that offer much enjoyment at a very small cost. In fact, the closer to free, the better.

Our computer network has made finding these items very easy.

The online auction and Craig’s List are just two favorite shopping places for us bargain hunters.

I enjoy buying a used most anything from the clothes I wear to my camera equipment and about everything else.

Used is generally my first choice.

One of my favorites is buying used books, especially in hardcover, on whatever subject I want to read about.

I have many used books sitting on my shelves that have been read or will be read, one of these days.

Going online is not a requirement as my wife and I learned a few weeks ago.

My chair at the kitchen table has a small, round pillow that I have sat on for about 20 years and it looks that way.

We were at a local discount store and my wife was looking for a pillow to replace the flattened, misshaped, coming apart at the seams, lime green cushion.

As we were getting in the car to head for home she told me that the only cushions she saw in the store were not the right shape and were priced around $20.

Just across the highway was the Salvation Army thrift store and I said we could look there.

We walked in the door and I looked straight ahead at the far end of the room where I could see cushions that were stacked together.

When we got within a few feet of the display, one cushion caught my eye.

I held it in my hands and I could see it was meant as a cushion to fit a chair, rounded in back and squared off in front.

It was cloth on top with a rubber backing and in excellent condition.

But wait. It gets better.

It was red, my color. And it was priced at 2 bucks. 2 bucks!

You know where that cushion is now located. It is under my posterior when I am at the kitchen table.

The inspiration for this column came from my latest discovery of sources of cheap pleasures.

We like feeding the birds that fly around our kitchen window throughout the year and keep a supply of bird seed in the garage for the bird feeders.

We have had three wild turkeys, actually a hen with two of last spring’s hatches, hanging around our home.

I put some basic bird seed, a variety of seeds with cracked corn, in an old pizza pan on the deck outside the kitchen patio windows to see what would happen.

It didn’t take the turkeys long to find the seed and at first they stopped just before 8:00 each morning to scratch and peck at the contents of the pan.

Then they were checking the pan once or twice later in the day.

By now these two mostly grown chicks are close to adulthood with one of them looking very much the tom.

They even walk up to the patio doors to check us out from the outside.

Other birds have discovered the pizza pan buffet and are eating what the turkeys spill or leave behind.

Turkey leftovers, if you will.

Of course, a family of squirrels are there regularly, mixed in with migrating birds that we know will be here and gone.

My point is that is a lot of enjoyment for the price of a bag of birdseed.

Once the snow arrives, the old pizza pan, other bird feeders and the suet feeder will be even more popular for the enjoyment of the birds, squirrels, and us.

One of my life mottos is, “The only thing better than fun is cheap fun.”

Rye is a Farm News staff writer and farmer from Hanlontown. Reach him by e-mail at crye@wctatel.net.