enjoying the simple things of life

we enjoy feeding the birds at our house, and have several feeding stations for the birds and squirrels right where we can watch them from the window. it's a pleasant breakfast time routine that we enjoy, and we've seen many different kinds of birds from our kitchen window, including wrens, chickadees, cardinals, blue jays, woodpeckers, tufted titmouse as well as our squirrel and chipmunk friends.

this tufted titmouse is enjoying some home made suet that A and i made together. the green mesh bag is actually a bath scrubby puffy thingy. i cut the string that was holding it together, and then cut the long mesh tube into 12-14"pieces. . i tied a knot in one end, spooned in the suet, and tied the other end shut. i also tied a string into the knot so we could easily hang them outside. there are 7 more suet balls in the freezer.

here's the recipe that we used:

1 cup EACH- crunchy peanut butter

lard (i used Crisco)

flour

birdseed

2 cups EACH-quick cooking oats

corn meal (we used the corn we feed the chickens)

Mix together, (we used the kitchen aid, and that worked very nicely) and put into your bags, or whatever you will be using. hang, and enjoy!

we also have some other birds that regularly come to our feeder, but they are not in our Peterson's guide to north American birds book. they are a very large, buff colored bird with red markings on the head. their sound is a soothing "cluck cluck". they seem to be domesticated, as well. if you can help us identify them, just e-mail me at countrybumpkin@clueless.com thanks!

for more great tips, click on over to Works For Me Wednesday hosted by Shannon!