B brought my ladder over after work, and although I didn’t get the screws all the way in because it was dark by the time I got up there, and I’m nervous on a ladder more than six feet up even in broad daylight with someone holding the bottom of the ladder, so I couldn’t make myself lean, especially toward the rock-bordered pond. If I’m going to break something important, I’m damned well not going to do it on the third hoce of eight that need to be put up! Anyway, it’s about 16′ up, which is plenty, and that ladder kicks ass! It was pretty expensive, but it’s got 23′ of useable length, and it’s rated for 300 lbs, which I’m pretty sure will hold me and a bird house. With that much height, I might be able to get to a suitable location for a bat house so Herb, Fran, and Anthony can have a place to sleep this spring. Anyway, I’ll have more daylight tomorrow, so if I can muster the ‘nads, I’ll finish installing this one, and move the first one up higher. For now, though, it’s holding, and I won’t have to carry it up the ladder tomorrow.

I’m not positive, but I think Wren Manor had either a guest or a potential guest this morning. I heard a little noise and looked up to see a small, brown bird go “doot!” onto the edge of the roof, then take flight. I’m outside now, but don’t hear any tiny snores coming from that direction. Maybe he’s reading an ebook on his Kindle Fire. I hope someone really is using it, or will.

In non-bird and acrophobia news, life finds a way, even if it’s the seed of a full sun flower, growing in the shade. This is one of last year’s tithonia  (2014, not this summer), growing where I dumped the stems last fall.

Pretty, and since it’s protected by the trees that shaded it so it didn’t grow very tall, or bloom until now, the frost we had last night didn’t damage the flower.

I was also right about the pond leak; I left the waterfall off until today so the silicone could (hopefully–it’s not warm) cure, and the water didn’t drop at all. We’ll see whether I got the leak, though. God, I hope I did; my birds love that pond!

I got a few things done today. Still working on the laundry, but I did more important things! I didn’t take pictures of leaf blowing, or figuring out why the pond was losing water, but I did that stuff, too.

Drilled a drainage hole in Wren Manor, stuffed in some crabapple shavings, and mounted it on the gradge. Now, when they try to get in the vent and can’t, they’ll have another option.

I found a piece of osage-orange the right size for a longer feeder, so bigger birds like RBW won’t feel cramped. I stuffed it with the suet I made last night. Two holes all the way through holds about half a block.

Osage-orange is a bitch; it’s hard and also hard on tools used to cut it. Does make cool bright yellow shavings, though.

I got a coat of primer and one coat of stone texture paint on Poor Palmzilla’s cachepot. I ran out of paint, but Amazon has it.

Now, stuff I didn’t directly do.

My microscopic grass is growing well.

Creeping phlox thinks it’s spring.

Borage thinks it’s summer.

Gaillardia in Sarah-Flah’s garden won’t get to bloom because it’s getting too close to freezing at night, but it still tried its best. I hope it survives the winter.

Add that dude to my bird list. I hadn’t seen one in a while, but just had one at a suet feeder on a tree. Funny little things go round and round the tree trunk in a spiral.

I made the wren hoce today; I had plenty of scrap left from the vertical bird hoces. Since I decided to make the side open instead of the front, I needed to support the long perch.

It took some ripping, and a few re-cuts because the angle was different,  but I finished it. I decided that since this one goes on the gradge, I’d install a perch. If I notice any bully birds trying to use it, I’ll cut it off and sand it down. In the meantime, the wrens may appreciate it.

I forgot to take a photo after I’d finished the crabapple plug feeder, but this is spade bit shavings that I’ll use for bird hoce bedding. Smells nice!

After I got up from my nap, I made goor-met suet cakes. I mostly followed the recipe this time, but once I see how well they’re received, I may make adjustments.

Dry ingredients. Large flake oatmeal, cornmeal, organic whole wheat flour, and fancy no-waste bird seed.

Oils. All-natural peanut butter, lard from the butcher shop, and tallow that I rendered last night.

Everything mixed. Looks pretty good!

Recipe said four cakes, but they would’ve been cheap-ass cakes, so I did three and put the rest into little condiment cups; I’ll sneak them into regular feeders so the cardinals get suet. Hopefully, starlings won’t notice.

Looks almost like I should be eating it myself. Hope they like them!

I actually did this last night, but didn’t do the pictures until this morning because I was too tired.

I forgot to take pictures until I had to stop and clean collagen (etc.) out of the grinder. Messy, greasy, but kind of fun, in a way.

I dumped the ground up result into a pot and melted the fat. Smelled like cooking cheap hamburger, so not too bad.

I got roughly 3 cups of tallow from a pretty good-sized tray of suet, which the butcher gave me at a $6 discount. He didn’t say exactly why, but I’d imagine it was because he doesn’t get a whole lot of people asking to buy something they probably just throw away. Anyway, a recipe for 4 blocks of suet cake calls for half a cup of suet (in my case, tallow because it keeps longer), so I’ll get somewhere around 24 cakes out of this.

The leftovers. bits of meat and connective tissue. I’m just going to put it in the woods; I’m sure the trash pandas will eat it, and if they don’t, I’m absolutely sure something else will!

All in all, it was kind of fun, and given the yield, I may or may not bother to go to the actual meat market and get suet already ground. I think I’ll always render it, though; I don’t want any birds getting sick. I also thought I might make some in a muffin tin with cupcake papers. Then, I could sneak them into the tray feeders (maybe? Might be too messy…dunno) so that the non-cling-capable birds would be able to get some suet. Cardinals like to hang out under the woodpeckers’ feeders and pick up bits that have dropped, and I’m sure they’d appreciate easier access, especially when it’s cold!

I noticed there weren’t many when I first came out, but it’s chilly and I was early. Anyway, last week, I added Eastern Towhee to my list of usual suspects, and this week, a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk. A few weeks ago, a Grey Catbird. The usual fall/winter suspects…

Northern Cardinal (lots!)
American Goldfinch  (up to 50)
House Finch (lots)
Black-capped Chickadee (lots)
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren
White-throated Sparrow  (beloved)
Mourning Dove (my stupid chickens)
House Sparrow (a few tolerated)
European Starling (always shot at)
Blue Jay (beloved)
White-breasted Nuthatch
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker  (grandkids)

I have stuff to do, including the manufacture of a wren hoce for my little Carolinas, and yet I’m here in pyjamas with my feet heater, coffee, phone, binoculars, and air rifle, watching and reading about my little fevvered freeloaders.

The poor thing was starting to get yellow fronds because I couldn’t water it much, and it couldn’t hold water because it was all roots. I’ve had the soil for ages, but kept putting off the repotting. I wish I hadn’t, and I hope Palmzilla forgives me. It looked so healthy after spring and summer outside. 🙁

Anyway, it definitely needed repotting.

I had to literally cut the pot off because there was no pulling it out. The white bits are where it reached down into the cachepot outside.

No soil left!

I was going to put it into its cachepot, but it wasn’t big enough. Since I almost never throw any pots out, I still had the huge ones from the arborvitae we bought the first year we were at 544, and that was big enough. I also had the sage green pots I bought for the arborvitae before I put them in the ground, and once I paint it (faded from the sun on one side) one of those will be Palmzilla’s cachepot. I didn’t take a picture because Palmzilla looks yellow and sad, but hopefully, it’s not too late.

Bulkadoo was busy today, keeping my river oats seeds safe from hungry mice.

My new feeder wasn’t rejected; someone(s) sampled from two holes.

I also bought a 24′ fiberglass extension ladder this morning. Wasn’t any more expensive than it would’ve been at Lowe’s, and shipping was free.

I went out at lunch and got a 1-1/4″ spade bit to drill holes in the chunk of crabapple I cut on Sunday. The bit was almost long enough to go all the way through, and since I had the guide hole because the point did go through, I fudged it with a hole saw and a chisel. Worked fine. I couldn’t find the hooks like the one P used to hang the other plug feeder, so I just moved a shepherd’s hook and stuck it on there. P got heavy duty screw eyes, so there’s no danger of it being broken off or falling out unless a trailer hitch and lots of horsepower is involved. Again, it was dark, but…

I also tried to move the hoce I hung yesterday up a bit, but the tree had a curve as high as I could reach, so I ended up putting it back where it was. God, I hate heights. My feet are happiest on solid ground!

I had an hour less daylight today, and I had to haul more leaves back to the creek (most will be winter mulch, some will be compost), so it was nearly dark when I started, but I did get one hoce up in a tree. I don’t think it’s high enough, but it was as far as I could reach without a longer ladder, so it’ll do for now, at least.

I forgot these from the weekend.

Tornado Honeysuckle has a couple of blooms. No MLBs here to care, but I do.

These cosmos seeded themselves at the same time I moved the scarlet pumpernickel out of the too-small pot. I didn’t think they’d have time to bloom, but they did after all. It’s always sad to see flowers killed by frost, so I take pictures right up until they’re gone for another year.

Friday after work, I used the 1/2″ drill I’d borrowed from B to drill out some aluminum that C had let me get from the scrap bin. Would’ve been easier with a drill press, but I managed. They were free, and nothing is going to peck or chew through them, so they’re perfect.

I also got some screws that made cute door handles. C gave them to me.

Saturday, I cut the pieces for the last hoce, and assembled that, and the two I cut on Thursday. Saturday night, P and I had a metal shop/paint shop/barber shop in the gradge. He helped me drill the entry holes out of the 1/8″ aluminum, I drilled the screw holes, then painted them, and then I cut his hair.

Not much bird hoce stuff today; I put door handles on the last three, and installed the entry guards we made last night. Then I cleaned leaves out of the pond, cut a piece of the crabapple tree I had removed (it’s going to be a suet feeder), shot at some starlings, and then B brought a load of leaves, which I started shredding for compost and mulching around the pond. I’m still trying to finish the laundry because it was lovely outside today, and I didn’t feel like being indoors. I wanted to hang some hoces today, but after wrangling the leaf blower/shredder, and the fact that time went back last night, I was just too tired.