This good deed is for the birds...

So the boys and I made some homemade "suet" treats for the birds, since we're having this really cold weather (insert jokes about southerners who don't really know about COLD here).  These are a mixture of peanut butter, bacon grease, crisco, bird seed, oats, dried cranberries and breadcrumbs.  We put some on a pine cone, and the rest went into the muffin tins to be hung, or put in the suet feeders.  Definitely NOT suitable for anything but this cold weather, as they'd melt easily, but they work well for now, and the birds seem to be enjoying them.  They were all over them about 5 minutes after we hung them up!  I looked out the bedroom window this morning and the suet feeder there had 3 little birds right on it - 2 tufted titmouses (titmice?) and a chickadee. 

We're enjoying the snow.  We went down to the lodge and the labyrinth today to check out the snow, and eventually made it down to lake, but we didn't stay out since it was about 12 degrees here.  Daisy really enjoyed the romp in the cold, though.  While we were trudging along all bundled in sweaters and coats, she pranced and ran and went "crazy dog" all around us.  The boys got really tickled at her.  And me?

I got really tickled, too, because I got to spend some time with my handsome camp guy, my amazing kids and my darling dog in a beautiful setting on a snow day!

Life in the Hundred Acre Wood

As, I think I've mentioned before, we live at a camp.  DH is the camp guy, and the boys and I get the added benefit of being able to live at camp!  We (and by we, I mean the camp, who leases it from the Corp of Engineers) have a hundred acres of mostly woods, with cabins, pool, lodge and more.  And we're surrounded by a lake and by more Army Corp of Engineers property which is also mostly woods, so we see lots of deer, wild turkeys, snakes, birds, the occasional fox, and various and sundry other wild things.  This is something for which I count us extremely lucky.

Most of our encounters are viewings from afar, but sometimes we get a bit closer, like the time Jack (the cat) brought me a small, but still quite feisty rattlesnake!  Or the disappearance of the other Jack, whom we suspect was taken by the coyotes.  Not all of these "up close and personal" encounters are dangerous, though.

Outside our bedroom window, there is a large bush that houses a pair of cardinals and their nest.  It's lovely to look out the window and see those flashes of his brilliant red and her more muted, but still beautiful brown and red.  Lately, though, he has discovered his reflection in the window, and has gone to war with that stubborn bird who refuses to leave his territory!  All hours of the morning, noon and early evening we hear, "thunk, thunk, thunk!" on that window...  We've put the blinds up and down and different times, thinking that might help, but to no avail.  I'm not sure what else to try, but I'm starting to worry about him!  Can birds get brain damage from repeatedly pecking at the window?  And how do I convince the female that it's in her (and her future babies) best interest to convince him to stop being such a bully to the handsome bird in the window?  Or will he eventually decide that it's not a good nesting spot and move?  I'd love to hear any thoughts or suggestions you may have!

J

Tonight we're gonna party like it's...

um...2009?  Here's to a new year full of promise and new beginnings for those who need them and for continued happiness for those who need that.  Best wishes to y'all for 2010.  Love ya'!

j