At the TSC Country Store in Strathroy

If you have never been to a TSC Country Store, you must go. It looks a bit like a Home Hardware, but they have far more than hardware. It caters to the country dweller, so you can buy anything from rabbit pellets to beehives to horse halters to camouflage gear. There is homemade soap with crazy names and children's bicycles painted to look like John Deere tractors and puzzles with pictures of nothing but hundreds of bottles of barbecue sauce. There were bird houses that could double as doll houses, they were so elaborate. Wandering the aisles makes one want to start raising pigs and splitting logs. There are helpful charts comparing different types of chickens, sump pump kits the size of rain barrels, and thick tartan jackets that made me want to put one on and go tap some maple trees.

A couple of things made me laugh. The gun rack next to the meat-cutting band saw which was next to the barbecue grill, for example. That had a certain story-line flow to it. I also noted that the deer feed and the deer-meat jerky machines were at opposite sides of the store (and never the two customers shall meet). But the greatest thing was the set of two live animal traps for $44.99, with a picture of a raccoon on the box and the wording "Animal not included."