HELPFUL HINTS

DEAR READERS: Today’s Sound Off is about people who have too much “yard art”:

“Dear Heloise: Two neighbors across the street from me have far too much art in their yards. They seem to think it’s cute to have every concrete figurine they can find sitting in the front yard. Another neighbor has a gnome village in her front yard, complete with fake shrubs and bridges. They hang all sorts of spinning things from the trees and have pathways leading to nowhere. Too much yard art ruins the look of any house and yard.”

— Pam in San Antonio Well, readers, do any of you have neighbors who love decorating their yard so much that they don’t know when to stop?

DEAR HELOISE: Please advise your readers to keep their product warranties and instruction booklets in a file cabinet, a binder or someplace that holds all of the instruction booklets that come with an item they’ve bought. When you need it — and eventually you will need it — the information will be at your fingertips.

— Annalise D., Wisconsin

DEAR HELOISE: We suspect we have carpenter ants in our house. I’d call an exterminator, but we live on Social Security, and our budget is tight, so can you recommend anything we can use to kill carpenter ants?

— Nell P., Meridian, Miss. DEAR READER: Nell, first make certain there are no tree branches touching your house. That’s one way they get inside. If you see small piles of sawdust, you might have carpenter ants. If you find a site, then mix up 4 tablespoons of peanut butter, 5 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of borax (found in most hardware stores). Add a little water, about 1 or 2 tablespoons, to keep it from drying out. Mix well and apply 1 teaspoon to affected sites. I use water bottle caps filled with this mixture. Be very careful to not inhale borax. Keep it away from pets and children.

DEAR HELOISE: We love our sweet little dog, and he sleeps next to me every night. To make sure he never gets lost, we keep a leash on the back of our bedroom door and on both outside doors of our home. In case of an emergency where we might have to evacuate our home quickly, we have a leash to put on him so he doesn’t get lost.

— Linda M., Washington