Snow Scenes

Winter is here. We've been enjoying it as much as we can. Last year I missed Lily's first time sledding because Jude was only a few months old and too little to endure the cold. This year however was a different story. Naiya had a snow day so we happily went off to go for Jude's first time sledding. The first run down he was quiet as he took in the new experience but he quickly warmed up to it an was a belly full of giggles the rest of the time. Lily remembered sledding from last year so she had a blast as well. Naiya decided to try sliding down on her belly sans sled like a penguin would. I was surprised how well it worked. So fun was had by all and was followed with hot cocoa and naps. After coq au vin for dinner and a glass of wine the little ones were off to bed and I was off to take some night time pictures of the pristine winter scene outside our door.

A view down our back alley

Needless to say I went to bed a happy mama.

This morning I took a couple more shots in the morning light before any ice had melted.

After Jude went down for his morning nap Lily and I went to check the snow conditions. It was a perfect packing snow. We never had a good packing snow last winter. As far as I'm concerned there is only a couple of things to do with a two, almost three year old when the snow is just right like that. I wasn't up for making a snow fort so instead we made Lily's first snowman.

She was very insistent that it had to have arms, and a hat, and a scarf, and a carrot nose. What can I say, the girl knows her snowmen.

After lunch it was in the 40's so I decided to take them for a walk in the park. I pulled them for a hour in their sled as they ran their hands along the ground scooping up snow and eating it.

It was peaceful and quiet with only the crunch of the snow under my feet and the sliding sound of the sled on the snow. Occasionally we could hear a chickadee singing.

They did not want to go home. But perhaps tomorrow we can do it again...

Snow Days

I love snow days. A cup of hot chocolate in my hands and snowflakes falling outside my window. One of my favorite comics when I was growing up was Calvin and Hobbes. Especially the ones where he built his snowman scenes. Here are some of my favorites, if you click on them it enlarges them so you can read the words...enjoy!

One of the things that I started to do when I lived in Maine was to "shovel" the driveway by making snowmen. I would line them up along the sides of the driveway like the Royal Guard. I think when you are dealing with silly amounts of snow it's important to have a little fun with the work part of it.

Every year now my Mom makes snow people at the end of her driveway. She gives them signs that she changes out with the changing weather. This year one of her snow-women is a little tilted, her name is Eileen.

Some people get into winter and sit around waiting for spring. I think they're living in the wrong area of the country. I adore the changing of the seasons and the different activities and foods that go with each of them. I plan on thoroughly enjoying winter this year.

Upon Feather Observation

My mockingbird is a jerk. He's the backyard bully. He has claimed the Christmas tree for himself and is keeping all the other birds at bay. Apparently he has decided that there is not enough food for all the birds so therefore he is the only one who is allowed to have access to the food that is available. I watch him perch in the tree and not even eat...just perch and guard it. He will also hang low in the trees around the area to keep a constant vigil. If any of the other birds even so much as looks at the Christmas tree he swooshes in and chases them to a further off tree.
Well I'm not a fan of bullys so I have come up with a defensive approach to the situation. I am making sure to keep the mockingbird's supply of popcorn balls full so he doesn't feel threatened with the possibility of having a slightly empty stomach. I also put up a second bird feeder back by the rhododendron bush and filled it with birdseed. I put it by the bush because that way the smaller birds have some cover while they aren't eating, so the mockingbird can't see them so well but they still have access to the feeder. Plus this way the mockingbird has too much territory to cover and has to relent a little bit.
So far it's working. And with the ample supply of popcorn balls he is also easing up on being so protective about the Christmas tree. As an added bonus the birds now have multiple locations to feed from and the word is spreading throughout the bird community about my little backyard buffet.
This morning was wonderful. I looked out the kitchen window to find a flock of juncos and a flock of sparrows happily flitting between the two eating spots. The cardinals were also there along with a some new visitors...mourning doves. In total I'd say there were between 20-30 birds on my little quarter acre. Beautiful and exciting :)

Mourning Dove

By the way if you want to make up your own birdseed mix, ornaments,or just buff up a store bought mix here are some suggestions of things the birds here on the east coast really enjoy in no particular order:

• popcorn
• peanut butter
• dried fruits (Larger dried fruits should be cut into smaller pieces for the birds)
• cornmeal
• wheat germ
• oatmeal
• lard
• suet
• bacon fat (unsalted of course)
• meal worms
• black oil sunflower seeds
• nyjer seed
• millet
• cracked corn
• peanuts (or other nuts)
• pepitas
• orange slices (these attract orioles)
• coconut
• saw grass
• safflower
• stale muffins and breads

Snacks for the Birds

Since the garlands and pine cone ornaments I have tried a few more ideas. Two of them were ones I had seen when I was searching the Internet and one I came up with on my own as a solution to the popcorn garland problem.
The first one I tried was basically an adaptation to the pine cone ornament. I suppose this would be good if you live in an area that doesn't have a lot of pine cones accessible to you.

Materials:

• Paper towel or toilet paper rolls cut into 2 inch rounds
• Yarn
• Peanut butter
• Birdseed

These are easy to do. Just take the paper towel/toilet paper roll section and tie the yarn around it so you can hang it in the tree.

Then cover the cardboard part in peanut butter and roll it in birdseed. Done. Did I mention this one was easy?

These disappeared rather quickly which I blame entirely on the squirrels. I'll need to make some more to see how they fare with the birds. I'm assuming that any of the ground feeding birds would have taken an interest in them.

The second idea was one that my grandmother used to do. It's also really easy to do as long as you have something small to use a a mold.

Materials:

• A small mold (I used a mini bunt pan that my daughters play with in their play kitchen)
• Bacon grease
• Birdseed

For this ornament I poured the birdseed into a small metal mini bunt pan from my daughters play kitchen. If you don't have one of those I would suggest trying to find something with a hole in the middle as it will make it easier to put a piece of yarn on it to hang it on the tree.

 Birdseed in mini bundt pan

 Bacon grease added

After you pour in the grease you just put it in your freezer to harden. In a couple of hours you just run the back of the mold under some warm water and the ornament will slide right out. Once removed from the mold you just tie a piece of yarn to it and hang it on the tree.



There are a couple of things I saw about making this type of ornament that I feel it is important to pass along. It is suggested that when making this type of bird feeder that you only use shelled sunflower seeds. The reason for this is because the birds will spend time cracking open the sunflower seeds to get at the meat inside. When they do this they will get bacon grease all over their faces. Mites are attracted to the grease and as a result the birds can get mites which is both annoying to the birds but can also be fatal. So be kind to your birds and only use shelled sunflower seeds. You can substitute lard or suet for the bacon grease. Just NEVER use vegetable shortening!!! The birds can't digest that stuff. Apparently suet is preferred by bluebirds so you can keep that in mind if you are trying to attract them. From what I have read lard is the easiest for birds to digest. Which is why I used it in the following recipe that I made up.

The last thing I have done out on the tree is to come up with a solution for the popcorn garland problem. The problem being that the mockingbird which frequents the tree loves them and has demolished them in a matter of days, but they take HOURS to make. So I knew I wanted to use the popcorn but in an easier different kind of way. I thought I'd try out a new idea...popcorn balls.

Materials:

• Cupcake pan
• Cupcake liners
• Yarn
• 3/4 cup lard
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 2 tsp. cold water
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/2 cup birdseed
• 5 quarts popcorn

I adapted this as far as ratio amounts are concerned from a popcorn recipe for people. But when I made it I halved it and still got over 20 popcorn balls. You can freeze any of the balls that you aren't ready to hang on the tree.

Directions:

1. Place cupcake liners in cupcake pan. This is a change I made after the fact because I had a heck of a time coaxing those little suckers out of the cupcake pans. My husband suggested the liners and I think it's a brilliant time saving idea. Thanks Babe :)
2. Pop the popcorn. Remember, don't use any microwave popcorn. The birds don't metabolize salt well so have mercy on their tiny little kidneys and pop your own without using salt. Once popcorn is popped place it in a large bowl, toss it with the raisins and birdseed and set to the side. You can use any combination of things here. I threw in some pepitas I had lying around, as well as a small handful of sunflower seed hearts leftover from some granola I had made instead of using birdseed.
3. In a small saucepan combine the lard, peanut butter, and water. Bring mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and pour mixture over popcorn.
4. Stir to combine well. You really want to make sure that the popcorn has soaked up as much of the lard mixture as possible.
5. Once popcorn is well coated put it in the cupcake liners. Then pack it down with your hands. I mean really smoosh it. You want to make sure that when the lard mixture hardens that it has something next to it to harden onto.
6. Once your liners are filled place the cupcake pan in the freezer of refrigerator.
7. Wait a few hours.
8. Remove the popcorn balls from the liners, tie yarn around them, and hang them on your tree.

The popcorn/lard mixture

 In the cupcake pans

Finished and on the tree!

These were much easier to make compared to the garlands. Also I got to add in some extras that the mockingbird wasn't getting before. The mockingbird also loves them, which is a plus. I have made sure to place them towards the top of the tree since that is where the mockingbird prefers to feed. I've learned that it isn't about making the tree look all pretty how an indoor tree would look, but rather catering to the feeding habits of the birds that are visiting. These ornaments are also really inexpensive to make. And now that I have lard in the refrigerator I'm thinking it's time to pull out some of those frozen blackberries from the summer for a nice blackberry pie. I've heard that lard makes the best pie crust.

So now I've caught you up to where we are with our little Christmas tree. I have a few more ideas that I will be trying out and then letting you know how they worked. We're excited to see if any new visitors show up as the weather changes.

Winter Birds Outside the Kitchen Window

Well Lily and Jude have become avid birdwatchers this January. Every morning after breakfast they are propped up on stools with their pudgy little faces glued to the window watching all our feathered friends enjoy their little treats. I've decided to keep a log of the different birds we see each month. I'm hoping that as the weather changes and more of our bird population returns from their winter vacations that we will get different species visiting our little tree. In the meantime I thought I would share the different birds and animals we have had so far.
First I must tell you that I am not a professional bird watcher. With that said I have spent a lot of time pouring over my bird watchers book with Lily identifying the different species that we have had. When in doubt I turned to the Internet for more detailed pictures to help me pin down some of the bids that have different varieties within their species.
The first two visitors we had were the American Crow and the Grey Squirrel. While they did some damage to the food supply I had provided, I knew that other birds watch crows and squirrels to find food in the winter. I was correct and the next day we had some other types of birds as well.

 American Crow

Grey Squirrel

Both the crows and the squirrels preferred the pine cone ornaments. The squirrels would climb the tree and rip them off and try to make a getaway while the crows followed in hot pursuit. The interesting part has been that while every time we put out more pine cone ornaments the squirrels come back the crows haven't returned since that first day.

The second morning we had two more species arrive. There was a Northern Mockingbird and a smaller bird called the Dark Eyed 'Slate colored' Junco. They came briefly the first morning but the second day they stayed longer and even longer the third day. Now the Juncos are there almost all day.

 Northern Mockingbird

The mockingbird seems to prefer to feed off of the top of the tree. I assume it's easier because they are larger birds, about robin sized. It prefers the popcorn garlands and the raisins on the popcorn garlands. I was not very happy about that because those garlands are seriously time consuming to make and the mockingbird tore through them in about two days. I came up with another solution that was easier though which will be in my next post.

Dark-Eyed 'Slate Colored' Junco

These little birds are beautiful. They come in small flocks and prefer to peck along the ground both around and under the tree. They visit almost all day long now. They seem to prefer the birdseed that has dropped from the pine cone ornaments. So now when I go to hang things on the tree I also take a small bowl of birdseed and dump it on top of the tree so that it sprinkles down inbetween the branches and onto the ground below.

Next we got three different types of birds. First to come was a pair of Northern Cardinals. Lily was particularly thrilled to see them since the male is such a gorgeous red. His girlfriend clearly knows a looker when she sees one. We also got a couple of Carolina Chickadees, and a few Chipping Sparrows.

Northern Cardinal

The cardinals liked the birdseed pine cones, as well as pecking along on the ground. They seem to only come by around breakfast time which is perfect for the kids. I also remembered that I had some small metal balls that held birdseed so I filled them and hung them on the tree as well. The cardinals enjoy eating from them too.

 Carolina Chickadee

Chipping Sparrow

Both the chickadee and the sparrow I had trouble identifying. I knew what type of bird they were when I saw them but when I looked in the bird book I had all of a sudden I realized that there are several different types within this species that live in our area. The differences are slight so I had to use the Internet for better pictures to pin down exactly which species I had visiting.

Both the sparrow and the chickadee prefer to feed around the base of the tree but they will also feed from the metal ball feeders I hung as well as the pine cone ornaments.

Finally the other day we had a new bird come. It was a House finch. There was only one that I saw that day and it was the only day I saw it, but I do hope it comes back because it was very pretty with it's little red head.

House Finch

 The finch also hopped around the bottom and fed from one of the metal ball feeders. I am mentioning who ate from where because I think that if you really want the birds to feed you need to adapt where you hang your ornaments on the tree to their preferred eating places. The mockingbird comes everyday and so I make sure that I put that food at the top. The metal balls with birdseed in them and the pine cone ornaments I hang lower down so that all of the ground feeding birds have access to them. There is a learning curve for me here but we are really enjoying this so far and Lily hasn't tired one bit of helping make the different types of ornaments. It's a shame that the cheerios garlands seem to be a bust since she had so much fun making those. Perhaps if she's in the mood to make one I'll just let her make it into a necklace for something to snack on.

I have come up with three other ornaments which I will post about next. I just thought it might be nice to give a little update as to how things are going in our little corner of the world.

Christmas Tree Leftovers

So Christmas is over and I've made it through the holidays, intact even. My husband was asking me what my first blog of the year was going to be on, and I honestly wasn't sure. I've been thinking things, which is a good starting place. So I decided to go with the most time relevant one: turning your Christmas tree into an outdoor bird feeder. Besides it felt like a good day for some mid-morning crafting with Lily.
Perhaps you have already taken down your Christmas tree, some years I'm more motivated then others. The main thing I always found motivating me was the needle:carpet ratio. If you have, and it has already been removed by your friendly garbage man then you might have to wait until next year to try this. Or you can do what I did. For the past couple of years we have not had a real tree in the house due to the rugrats running around here. I won't risk the safety of my heirloom ornaments to their dirty, sticky hands, so to compromise we have been using a small artificial tree placed way out of their reach. So for this project I simply waited for a neighbor to throw out their tree, and then I shuffled over in the morning and dragged it to my back yard. But if you still have your tree then all you have to do is move it outside. I chose to place my newly acquired tree to the center of my herb garden.

This is a good spot because we can see it from the kitchen window but it is far enough away from the house to keep animals from looking at my abode as the new club med. Didn't my neighbors have a nice tree this year??
I've been searching around online for some good recipes and trying to remember some that I used years ago when I taught pre-schoolers. I knew I wanted to start with garlands and pine cone ornaments which I'll cover in a minute, but I also found a couple of other ideas. One idea was to use toilet paper rolls and cover them in peanut butter and roll them in birdseed. The other one was to cut the top third of an orange off, scoop out the middle, and fill it with birdseed. They suggested hanging it on the tree by poking three holes in it and tying string through it. I'll try both of these ideas soon and let you know how they came out. I can leave this tree up til the end of March so there is lots of time to play around.
The main thing that birds need to survive the winter is fat and carbohydrates...I mean really isn't that what we all need to survive the winter? For birds though these are best served in the form of peanut butter, black oil sunflower seeds, suet mixed seed, cracked corn, and fruit. Just something to keep in mind if you are going to try this.

We started with the garlands. I used what I had on hand which was cheerios, raisins, and popcorn. I popped the popcorn in my whirlypop using only vegetable oil, NO SALT. Birds can't handle sodium like we can so please avoid the microwave stuff.

I used a sharp needle so I could thread the raisins and popcorn. Lily and I did this one together so she could get the hang of what I was talking about. Then I pulled out my darning needle and let her do her own one with just cheerios.

 Here she is making her garland. It's a great cognitive skill development craft too as she had to learn how to put the cheerios on the needle.

Her first finished garland.

I had read that it helps to smear peanut butter on them but I figured this time we would try putting up the garlands plain. If they don't get eaten we'll try it like that next time. Make sure if you are doing this with little ones that you don't do it before any meal you expect them to eat. I let this be a prolonged munching activity that made for a very small lunch. She learned "one for the birds, one for me". It also helps to have a cleanup crew of dogs around for all of the bits that fall on the floor. This is not a clean activity so be fore-warned.

The garlands are time consuming. I'll have a few more days of work with her and Naiya (if she's into it) to get the whole tree covered with garlands. But they do look very nice on there.
Next we did the pine cone ornaments. These were a lot faster, so if your kids are...um...easily distracted this is a good one to grab their interest. You'll need pine cones (we took a walk to the park and collected a bag of them), peanut butter, and some sort of seed/fruit mixture. I used some leftover birdseed from the summer. About 1 cup made seven pine cone ornaments.

All I did was tie a string around the top of the pine cone, smear peanut butter all over the sides of the cone, and then Lily rolled the pine cones in the birdseed. Voila! In a half hour we had seven ornaments to hang on the tree.

 Most kids adore a good messy project and Lily is no exception. Plus she loves animals and she was really excited because "The birds are hungry too". Make sure you have a wet cloth around for wiping them up as well as the surrounding areas.

 The finished ornaments

I love how they turned out. The tree looks really pretty. I honestly think it looks nicer then an indoor tree. It will take probably the rest of the weekend to get it all filled up but Lily is reved up and ready to go. We sat together for almost two hours working on the garlands and the ornaments and I think she would have gone longer if it hadn't been time for lunch. When my husband got home she dragged him outside and pointed out every pine cone ornament on the tree. And now she waits by the window for the birds to come.

When we are all done I'm going to spread some peanut butter on some of the branches too. I'm also going to pull out my bird identification books for her and I to find all our visitors in. If she doesn't tire of this I will probably turn this into a post-Christmas tradition. It's a great activity for those cold winter days when you can't play outside.