A big flock of starlings decimated the suet this morning, so I had to make a new batch right away. I made two sandwich containers of regular stuff, and then a special one for the trash pandas. I’d guess I put in a full teaspoon of ground, dried Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper in this one. Given how one tiny fleck burned my tongue, if the trash pandas have any taste buds at all, they won’t eat much of this. Hopefully, as smart as the little fuckers are, they’ll learn that suet feeders mean, “Holt shit, that’s HOT!” and just leave them alone. We’ll see…worth a shot, at least. I also got my tiny packets of Ghost, Moruga Scorpion, and Carolina Reaper seeds. I dunno–I’ve never attempted simple bell pepper before, and these supposedly take a long time to germinate–but it’s worth a shot!

Enjoy, you greedy little bastards. I hope you choke on it.

The article was about the walking trees of Ecuador, but this is actually what caught my attention.

From the article:

These cockroaches were nothing like the hideous critters lurking around your house; they were all different colours, many either luminescent, shining in the dark, or impossible to discriminate from their backgrounds due to their ability camouflage themselves by mimicking leafs.

‘Kay…but shouldn’t the cockroaches be blue and white? These are Leafs.

These are leaves.

The tree we actually got last Sunday, and put it up right away, but it was nearly dark and I wasn’t finished the laundry, so we decorated it last night. P has always made a fresh cut with a hand saw, but this year, I had the Pwrincess of Power saw, so I did it.

It ended up being 70F yesterday, and it’ll be in the mid-60s today. The Tornado Honeysuckle has a few blooms left on it in spite of the cold we’d had a few weeks ago. Not mistletoe, but I’ll take it!

My sole accomplishment yesterday was clearing the dead stuff out of the south flowerbed. It doesn’t look nice (of course not), so I didn’t take a photo, but I might after I get dressed…dunno. Heh. I sneaked around the corner in in jammies. Too bad if the neighbours noticed. Anyway, ugly, but hopefully pretty next spring!

I did accomplish one other thing…I dried and ground the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers that C gave me. I cut them up (wearing gloves) into thin strips, then dried them on a cookie sheet in the oven on “warm”…150F because that’s as low as our oven will go.

I was going to use the coffee grinder, but remembered I own a little mortar and pestle, and there wasn’t a lot to grind, so I used that.

C had warned me that these are HOT, but just for the hell of it, I picked up a tiny fleck the size of a black pepper grain, and touched it on my tongue. She was right! Even that tiny fleck burned! This will be my special present to the trash pandas…I’ll make them their own, yummy suet cake! Cayenne apparently didn’t faze them, but that’s 40-50,000 Scoville units when it’s freshly ground. Moruga scorpions are roughly 1.4 million. Enjoy, you fat little bastards!

In the evening, P got out the lights and decorations, and we did the tree. Nova Scotia balsam fir from Naugler’s, and it smells wonderful.

P also found something wonderful when he did his supply run…the strawberry cream cake that comes to Aldi straight from heaven!

OMNOMNOM! Pass me a fork!

Last night, I also found two things for which I’ve searched on and off for the last 20-plus years! The Turkey Song, and Dashing Through The Stores! Dale Baglo of Vancouver is responsible for both, but I hadn’t known that until I decided on a whim to search for, “I’ve been invited for Christmas, as a turkey I am blessed”. That one was on YT, but I ended up buying both of them on CD Baby. $1.98 well spent; MP3, MP3 at 320, and FLAC.

I cheated this time; I called the grocery store closest to our house, and asked whether they would grind beef fat for me. The very nice gentleman did just that, which saved me time and trouble, and he also said he removed as much meat as possible, and put it through the grinder twice.

I made three blocks right away.

Too bad this is bird food; it looks pretty good…kind of like a granola bar. If I didn’t know what was in it, I would probably at least taste it.

The trash pandas got a pretty good amount.

I set it on the table outside the door while I went to do something else. These are not trash pandas.

EDIT: Next day. I cut the cold tallow into bird biscuits. Kept a few in the fridge for the next batch, and put the rest in bags in the freezer so the little skim of agar-looking gel doesn’t go mouldy.

I sat on the back patio, swathed in pyjamas and two polar fleece bathrobes, fuzzy socks, and gardening clogs with my coffee, my feet heater, binoculars, my P&S Canon, and anti-starling air rifle. Saw lots of birds, scared off a flock of 35-40 starlings, and got a few photos. Only so-so because of the distance, lack of tripod, and dismal day, but better than none.

An RB-Dub, chowing down on cayenne-laced goor-met suet. We have a few, but they’re all called RB/RB-Dub/RBW.

One of the Bloos. They’d been eating peanuts all morning; he was just checking out the food I’d put down for my white-throated sparrows and juncos.

The Eastern Towhee was actually the reason I went in to get the camera. I’ve seen him a couple of times, but only briefly. This time, I had mixed seed scattered in that area, so he hung around. The White-throated Sparrow boy was a bonus; I didn’t even realise he was in the shot until I unloaded the camera. I must’ve been so focused on trying to hold the camera still at 60x zoom to get a shot of the towhee that would be recognisable as a bird. Anyway, a crap shot is less crappy when it’s a twofer!

I actually made the bracket yesterday, but had to allow the JB Weld to cure, then I was lazy today and just got it put up now. I will never give up my lighted 5x makeup mirror, but neither will I give up the little vanity I’ve had for 14 years, but never could use for its intended purpose because 544 was too small. That said, there’s not a lot of surface space on that table, and the mirror takes up quite a bit. So does the crapton of makeup I own. Solution: use scraps of 1/8″ aluminum and an inexpensive wall mount meant for small TVs! Since it was raining and crappy yesterday  (also today), I built the bracket in the gradge. Took a little creative pounding to bend it where I wanted, and I was glad for my mini grinder because the little screws are now effectively rivets.

Painted it matte black to match the wall mount. (Shiny because it was still wet.)

It was a little awkward, trying not to smear the JB Weld everywhere while I was getting it in the clamp, but I did okay.

All installed. I might move it up an inch or so; not sure yet because I haven’t actually used it to put on makeup. We’ll see on Monday. So far, the JB is holding to the plastic, but if it lets go, I have cyanoacrylate glue gel, which should bond epoxy to plastic just fine, especially since there are no air gaps. Anyway, lots more space, and my makeup isn’t in teetering towers anymore.

There.

Bad photo, but it was dark. Anyway, this is a trash panda/warshing bear, escaping up the tree after having eaten an entire block of suet, and all he (or they) could reach from the log feeders.

Now, we’ll see how the fat bastards like mama’s special recipe for bird cookies. Lots of fatty goodness in the form of tallow, lard, peanut butter, and just a little bacon fat. Lots of seeds, peanuts, and a little dried fruit. Also about three tablespoons of ground cayenne pepper. Birds can’t taste it, and mixed into fat, the powder can’t sting their eyes, but animals with salivary glands can taste it, and I hope it burns. If this works–some say it does, and others say it doesn’t–I’ll buy cayenne by the pound.

EDIT: Ha! I found ghost pepper powder on Amazon. It’s expensive, but at nearly a million Scoville units, I shouldn’t need much.

ANOTHER EDIT: My big accomplishment today was to drag up another piece of the crabapple and make a couple of log feeders. My bit took a beating on the osage-orange, though…getting rather dull. Birds don’t mind; if it holds goor-met suet, they like it. I stuffed these with my special recipe suet; we’ll see how it goes. Otherwise, all I managed to do on an unseasonably warm (if windy) and mostly sunny day was to skim the pond and pick the leaves out of the bird pool. Well, that, and stuff my face with turkey and gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and corn. If I can waddle to the kitchen, I might have some pumpkin pie, and then a NAP!

P.S. It just occurred to me that the trash panda showed me something useful. If my feeder easily held that fat bastard, lying on top to feed his face, then at least I know it’s sturdy!

It was crappy and cold, raining, and windy on Saturday, so I didn’t do much except a little coding for D&T’s menu, and I made one upside down suet block feeder. That’s basically it, except for sitting outside, all bundled up with my feet heater on, watching my birds at the feeders and pond, and shooting at a few invading starlings. Anyway, the first to inspect and use the new feeder was, of course, the nosiest bird alive…a Carolina Wren. I love those little guys, and they’re almost always the first to check out anything new and different.

I made the feeder from roost hoce leftovers and a piece of 2×4, and just put it up with nails; it was too cold and windy to get out a drill, and there’s no jamming even a deck screw into the living rock that is osage-orange. Especially not a 3″ long one!

The last two roost hoces are up!

P put his woodpecker hoce up himself.

I put my last one up. Much easier with ladder wrangling help!

We actually saw a little Carolina Wren, checking out each of the houses on the trees. I hope he found one he liked! I opened up Wren Manor, but still couldn’t tell for sure if anyone is using it. I think I saw a little path in the shavings, and a bird poop, but I’m not positive and didn’t want to ransack his home if he’s living there.

I also straightened up the sandstone pieces, and moved the osage-orange over. Very hard work, but looks a bit better.

I switched out one of the pieces by the pond; now I have a chair and a table.

Found a fuzzy friend.

A non-fuzzy green friend (Sulphur, maybe?)

I think these penstemon are Pikes Peak Purple. Apparently, they think it’s spring.

Radio Red has bloomed steadily since I planted it this spring. Hope it survives winter–lovely plants!

These are the annual salvia I bought for the MLBs early in spring. Hope they reseed…they’ve bloomed steadily, too.

Surprise lilies I moved when C and I dug them up decided not to stay dormant.

Found another friend; a pretty Lady.

I may end up with tomatoes next spring. Mexico Midget is still producing, though cold makes them unfit to eat (taste funny, I guess).

I typed this post once, but then I hit Select All > Paste instead of Select All > copy, and wiped out the whole damned thing, so here I am at my computer where I can type a whole lot faster.

Only two more roost hoces left to put up; one of mine, and P’s woodpecker hoce. I stalled and cleaned the pond, and picked leaves out of the Babbling Brook, but eventually had to wrangle that ladder and get up in the trees. I tried to tighten the screws on the one I’d put up when I first got the ladder, but they wouldn’t budge, so I gave up. I moved the one that had been too low, and put up three more. That ladder is a lot for me to handle on my own, and I’ll be surprised if I don’t have some kind of sore muscles tomorrow, but they needed to go up this weekend because it’s supposed to rain next week, and November rain isn’t a warm, summer shower. I don’t know whether the birds will use them or not, but I’d much rather have them sit unused than think that there are birds out there, looking for shelter from the cold, wind and rain, but finding none. We have lots of cavity nesting birds that will use roost houses, and now I know that if they want shelter, they’ll find it. Some have insulation and burlap on the floors, a couple have crabapple shavings, and the last one I put up has pine shavings that P generously donated. One has no perches, and the rest have somewhere between two and five perches. They’re all weatherproofed and sealed, but have drainage and allow sufficient ventilation to maintain air quality, and they’re all facing perpendicular to the direction the wind usually blows. They’re all in locations where the sun will be on them during the day, assuming there is sun. Once the other two are up, that’ll be one wren hoce on the gradge, six roost hoces in the trees, and one woodpecker hoce, also in a tree.

Three here.

Two more here, and no, the one on the right isn’t crooked; that’s just where I had to stand to get both in the shot.

Long way up. Also a long way down!

I actually got these last night, but it was dark and the picture sucked, so I took another today. I was outside, blowing leaves off the patio when D came over and asked whether I still wanted the osage-orange because he’d called one last time to ask whether the people that had spoken for them still wanted them, but he didn’t get a response, and he was sick of having them in his yard. He said that the kid who lives with him would be happy to bring them over for me. Obviously, I paid him; I rolled a few over, but the kid carried the ones that were shaped wrong to roll, and those are big chunks of wood! I now have two by the pond so I can sit there, two more making steps to the tray bird feeder, and a pile that will be…something. I’m not sure what, yet, but they’re big chunks of solid wood that will probably decompose long after I have, and they’re going to be something cool!

I rolled one over and left it on the patio just…because. Onje found it…I hope it’s not going to end up like my decorative patio straw!

The mums I moved out of the patio flowerbed when I reclaimed my 32 square feet of patio space did not fare well over the dry summer, but one little stem survived, and made a single, perfect flower. Cute!

I believe I mentioned that I’d skimmed/scooped leaves out of the pond, and picked leaves out of the Bird Pool and the Babbling Brook. I did that because I was stalling; I didn’t want to wrangle the ladder and climb up those trees. I also did it because I wanted the pool clear for the Goldisox. Oh my GAWD, those little birds love that pool. I read that goldfinches drink a lot of water, and given how many I see out there in the pool, I have no trouble believing that. I watch the water sometimes, and I see the attraction. They don’t see the ugly, unfinished places where the liner is exposed and the waterfall hose is visible; all they see is sparkling water that’s unchlorinated, but clean enough for frogs to live in it, and so close to their feeders that they have only to fly a few feet, and raised enough that they could see predators coming and fly away. I don’t know how long the moving water will keep the pool from freezing, but even after it does, I’ll put a heater in to keep a spot clear so the birds will always have water to drink and bathe, even when it’s freezing cold. Building the pond damned near killed me, and that leak drove me crazy (and will again, I’m sure), and it cost a lot more than I really had to spend, but seeing the Goldisox and other little birds drinking there makes me very glad P suggested it and I stuck the shovel into the rock hard, dry ground.

EDIT: I had got some silicone tubing with (I think) 38mm ID, which should fit my feeders, so I cut it up (not easy) and stuffed it with suet mix. Also made two more blocks.