Feeding the birds.... Happy Mothers Day :)

At the back of our house is a nice flowering dogwood tree that makes a perfect place for my bird feeding station.  It is so close to the house that I can watch the birds while I cook and I have been enjoying it very much!

In the small hanging feeder on the left are black oil sunflower seeds.  The milk jug has the suet crumbles I made 3 months ago, and of course you can see the regular block of suet at the right.

I took this picture through the kitchen window.  The area was LOADED with birds before I came to the window, and I think I can only see one in the photo.  They saw me.  :)

Here is the list of the birds I've had to far:

black-capped chickadee

nut hatch

tufted titmouse

junco

cardinals

sparrow

gold finch

house wren

brown thrush

flicker

hairy woodpecker

house finch

common grackle

downy woodpecker

rufus-sided towhee

purple finch

blue jay

rose-breasted gross beak

AND a very happy grey squirrel (He's rather greedy.)

My mother was a great bird watcher.  I have her wonderful book Birds of America that she got in 1959.  It contains many notes that she wrote.  It is well used and well loved.  She always kept a pair of binoculars handy at the table, which was beside the window where she watched the birds.  She's been gone since 1984 and I still miss her every day.

Hence, this post - my Mother's Day tribute - if your mother is still alive, please enjoy her today.  I think mine must be pleased about my bird list.  :)

February 10, 2016... musings on a cold winter day...

Several days ago, we went to a home improvement store to pick up some needed items, and they had a fairly large display of orchids for $5.00 each!  I have longed for an orchid for a number of years, but was simply too stingy to pay the price.  Now I have one!  I hope it survives.  My Garden Fairy has always had success with orchids, and perhaps with her coaching me....

As you can see, we've had a bit of snow and today, right now, it is 17 degrees F. here.  I have seen it much colder than this (-28 degrees F one time), but this is cold enough!

Have you seen on the internet how people regrow celery and such by saving the bottom part of the plant?  I've done that, and actually planted the celery in my vegetable garden with some success.  Right now, I have 4 different vegetables growing that way on our kitchen windowsill.

Here is some Red Leaf Lettuce:

And a "red" cabbage:

Bok Choy:

And lastly, iceberg lettuce!

They add a cheery sight to the wintry landscape for me.  We will eat the little nibbles they are growing.

So far, this winter, I've had 10 different varieties of wild birds visit my bird-feeding station.  Here is the list: 

Black Capped Chickadee

Nut Hatch

Tufted Titmouse

Junco

Cardinals

Sparrow

House Finch

House Wren

Brown Thrush

Flicker

The Flicker just showed up this morning and he seems to really favor the new suet crumbles that I made, so I'm glad I made them, even though I only saved 88 cents.  :)

I have two loaves of my Every Day natural yeast bread rising in the pans.  If you come over in maybe 3 hours, I can give you a warm slice with butter.

How does that sound?

I saved 88 cents feeding the birds...

I have finally gotten back to feeding the wild birds.  What with the move into our trailer, I had let that go pretty much all last winter.  We have a nice Redbud tree right outside our kitchen window, and it is a perfect place to hang bird feeders, and then I can watch the birds as I cook.  My mother was an avid bird watcher. I know many of the local species, but want to learn more about it.

A couple of days ago, I bought a wire suet basket and put it out there and bought 2 suet cakes.  Here is one:

With the tax, it only cost $1.16.  I went to YouTube and found THIS tutorial on how to make suet dough (crumbles) to feed to the birds. I decided to make some and see if it would save me any money to make my own.

Here are all of the ingredients I purchased, except the flour, which I already had on hand.

I carefully weighed out the various components of this mix.

Then I mixed all of the dry ingredients together in a huge bowl.

Next, the crunchy peanut butter and the lard were melted together...

and added to the dry ingredients and I stirred it all until it was well mixed.

By the way, it was much easier doing this than they indicated in the video.  I think having it in a large bowl instead of a bucket helped.

Here is what I ended up with.  There are two containers like this.  It made 13# of crumbles.  Yes, 13#.

Now, here is the recipe for one smaller batch.  I multiplied this amount by 5 when I did it.

Suet Dough for the Wild Birds

1 cup crunchy peanut butter

1 cup lard

2 cups quick oats

1 cup corn meal

2 cups unmedicated chick starter

1 cup all-purpose flour

Mix the dry ingredients together.  Melt the crunchy peanut butter and the lard together.  Stir the melted ingredients into the dry mix.  Store in a lidded container at room temperature.

I calculated the price of the ingredients, added it all up, weighed the resulting mixture and figured that in comparison, by weight, the large batch of crumbles saved me a whopping 88 cents!

However, I will watch and see how this works out.  Since I will not be putting this in a suet feeder, there will probably be significantly less waste, because when the birds eat the suet, they get pretty enthusiastic and spill some on the ground.  Also, I think this mix is more nourishing and healthy for the birds.  The suet cake only has beef suet and some mixed bird seed in it.

As you can see in the following pictures, I was desperate for some way to feed the crumbles, so I made a feeder from an empty milk jug and hung it on our tree.

Here is our bird-feeding station: