When I was down in San Diego, I had lots of flowers that hummingbirds liked. I abandoned the nectar feeders and went native. But up here, in the PNW, I am a bit unsure about the plants and the seasons. Nectar freezes in deep winter. Hummers have migrated south. Exactly when is it time to put out the feeders again? So I started in late march. I heard a hummer buzz me and knew they were around. This property doesn't have lots of flowers, so feeders needed to happen. I bought 2 at the local Lowes and went home to research nectar recipes.
The basis nectar recipe is 1 cup sugar, 4 cups water, heated or boiled or not. My birds were completely uninterested. 2 weeks went by with almost no noticeable reduction in the liquid level. I decided to adjust the mix to 1 cup sugar and 3 cups water. All of a sudden, I had the most wonderful displays of hummers. They love this mix. They are sucking it up so fast, I am making more every 4 days. (I make a quart at a time). Noisy, colorful, suspicious, and beautiful, I have a full selection of the available birds. It is keeping me busy cleaning and filling feeders, and of course just sitting and watching the action. I don't have another post or feeder, but I am considering putting out more.
So why is this mix better than the other one?
Information on the internet is full of holes. There is missing information. I think what has happened is that this recipe has been repeated on every site yet is lacking a specific fact. Nectar mixes from a store are super fine sugar so that it will dissolve quickly. Home sugar is not super fine. So when you measure by Cup instead of weight, you don't get as much sugar as the commercial products. Ease of the recipe may actually up the water to make it easy to remember. Instead of 3 1/2 cups it is 4.
For the products to be easy for humans doesn't necessarily make them good for the hummers.
YOU MAY HAVE TO ADJUST YOUR RECIPE to please the birds.
I have found that 3 1/2 cups water to 1 cup sugar keeps them pretty happy. 4 cups and they ignore it. 3 cups and they are ecstatic.
The Birds will tell you by their actions what they want- usually more sugar.
Friday, May 24, 2019
Saturday, February 9, 2019
Surprise extra stuff
When I first got into my new digs in Pacific Northwest, I decided that I wanted to fill my freezer with beef. I planned to buy 1/2 a grass fed steer. I ended up buying 1/2 steer and a whole veal. This totally filled the freezer and will probably last over one year.
When I picked up my order, I also received about 50 pounds of fat trimmings. That is a lot of fat. And now I had to figure out what to do with it. The freezer was full of meat.
This is what I did. I thawed the fat and ran it through the meat grinder to make ground fat. I then simmered most of it to extract the oil to use in cooking. The remaining suet (connective tissues, meat, and skin) was packaged into zip bags and scattered in nooks and crannies in the freezer. I had about 12 jars of fat for cooking and about 12 bags of ground suet. As winter approached, I realized that this ground suet would make perfect bird food for my jays, robins, flickers, thrushes, and juncos. We sprinkle it on the ground under the bird feeder and enjoy the show.
It was a lot of work to get everything packaged up. But the butcher tossed in the 50 pounds for free. That means my birds are getting fed for free. That is a good deal for everyone. We are more than 1/2 way through the winter and I still have food for them. I have started mixing some seed in with the fat, just in case some of the smaller birds return, but the meat and fat are for birds who normally eat bugs.
There are other birds who would benefit from additional meat/fat in their winter diet- chickens, guinea hens, turkeys, etc. And we have had an occasional cat. I have not noticed any rodent activity. The feeder is far enough from the house that there is no real way for rodents to get comfortable (think owls and hawks). But it might not work out well for a close patio or condo.
I would like to get one of the wire cages and shape the suet so that I can hang it, but most of the birds are ground feeders here, now. Maybe in the spring, when they still need extra food, I will have some left over to try the suet cage.
When I picked up my order, I also received about 50 pounds of fat trimmings. That is a lot of fat. And now I had to figure out what to do with it. The freezer was full of meat.
This is what I did. I thawed the fat and ran it through the meat grinder to make ground fat. I then simmered most of it to extract the oil to use in cooking. The remaining suet (connective tissues, meat, and skin) was packaged into zip bags and scattered in nooks and crannies in the freezer. I had about 12 jars of fat for cooking and about 12 bags of ground suet. As winter approached, I realized that this ground suet would make perfect bird food for my jays, robins, flickers, thrushes, and juncos. We sprinkle it on the ground under the bird feeder and enjoy the show.
It was a lot of work to get everything packaged up. But the butcher tossed in the 50 pounds for free. That means my birds are getting fed for free. That is a good deal for everyone. We are more than 1/2 way through the winter and I still have food for them. I have started mixing some seed in with the fat, just in case some of the smaller birds return, but the meat and fat are for birds who normally eat bugs.
There are other birds who would benefit from additional meat/fat in their winter diet- chickens, guinea hens, turkeys, etc. And we have had an occasional cat. I have not noticed any rodent activity. The feeder is far enough from the house that there is no real way for rodents to get comfortable (think owls and hawks). But it might not work out well for a close patio or condo.
I would like to get one of the wire cages and shape the suet so that I can hang it, but most of the birds are ground feeders here, now. Maybe in the spring, when they still need extra food, I will have some left over to try the suet cage.
Sunday, February 3, 2019
Confessions
In 2008, I went to BSG (Black Sheep Gathering) for my first time. I bought some fleece. As I remember, there were two and some alpaca stuff.
The following year, Eduard went with me to BSG. Then I missed a year. Then I went with some friends. It is now 2012. After that I went every year and it seems that each time I bought a fleece. I had brown, morrit, gray, and white. I stopped going in 2016 because I had many other pressing things happening. But in that year, 2016, I bought 1/2 of three fleeces- Cool and the gang.
I had sent some of the fleeces to be commercially washed and combed. Some fleece I do myself. But over the years I have built a rather large "stash" of washed fleece and yarn.
I am just now finishing spinning the 2009 and 2010 white fleeces. I did the dark brown and morrit fleeces awhile back. And I have partially spun the Cool n the gang group.
I have been spinning about 1 pound of fleece per month for 6 months. I have made a dent in the fleece pile. At the rate of 1 pound per month I will possibly complete all the spinning in my lifetime. But there is also the cotton, the luxury fibers and the weaving. And Sewing.
What was I thinking...infinite time and energy? Like a teenager?
So I have set completion goals. When I am done spinning this bag of white wool, I will start weaving it. I have enough for several blankets. When I am done weaving the blankets, I can spin again. I will finish up spinning Cool n the gang and make a blanket of that one too.
As much as I love buying fleece and spinning it up, I just can't do it without making something from the yarn.
The confession is that I am addicted to fleece. I love it raw. I love it washed. I love combing and spinning. I love fondling the yarns. I just love wool. And I love cotton also. I still have about a year's worth of home grown cotton to spin. I don't knit fast enough to make much with the yarn. I have numerous projects started and not finished yet.
So I am going to use my blog space to keep track of my progress on spinning and weaving. It will keep me honest.
Current knitting project- socks, teal, commercial yarn, gift from friend. I need to finish the rib cuffs, about 4 inches.
Swirl shawl- commercial yarn, green, has cashmere in it. Slow project with lots of little ends. Could finish in about a month if I tried.
Hex blanket using left over yarn- intended to last forever on the needles. Eventually it will be too large to continue.
Cashmere shawl in beige- need to rip it and start over.
Sewing- finish the Christmas table runner (part 2), reindeer quilt, dresden quilt, and two baby quilts.
Weaving- blue rug, silk placemats, first white blanket.
There are more, but we will start with these.
The following year, Eduard went with me to BSG. Then I missed a year. Then I went with some friends. It is now 2012. After that I went every year and it seems that each time I bought a fleece. I had brown, morrit, gray, and white. I stopped going in 2016 because I had many other pressing things happening. But in that year, 2016, I bought 1/2 of three fleeces- Cool and the gang.
I had sent some of the fleeces to be commercially washed and combed. Some fleece I do myself. But over the years I have built a rather large "stash" of washed fleece and yarn.
I am just now finishing spinning the 2009 and 2010 white fleeces. I did the dark brown and morrit fleeces awhile back. And I have partially spun the Cool n the gang group.
I have been spinning about 1 pound of fleece per month for 6 months. I have made a dent in the fleece pile. At the rate of 1 pound per month I will possibly complete all the spinning in my lifetime. But there is also the cotton, the luxury fibers and the weaving. And Sewing.
What was I thinking...infinite time and energy? Like a teenager?
So I have set completion goals. When I am done spinning this bag of white wool, I will start weaving it. I have enough for several blankets. When I am done weaving the blankets, I can spin again. I will finish up spinning Cool n the gang and make a blanket of that one too.
As much as I love buying fleece and spinning it up, I just can't do it without making something from the yarn.
The confession is that I am addicted to fleece. I love it raw. I love it washed. I love combing and spinning. I love fondling the yarns. I just love wool. And I love cotton also. I still have about a year's worth of home grown cotton to spin. I don't knit fast enough to make much with the yarn. I have numerous projects started and not finished yet.
So I am going to use my blog space to keep track of my progress on spinning and weaving. It will keep me honest.
Current knitting project- socks, teal, commercial yarn, gift from friend. I need to finish the rib cuffs, about 4 inches.
Swirl shawl- commercial yarn, green, has cashmere in it. Slow project with lots of little ends. Could finish in about a month if I tried.
Hex blanket using left over yarn- intended to last forever on the needles. Eventually it will be too large to continue.
Cashmere shawl in beige- need to rip it and start over.
Sewing- finish the Christmas table runner (part 2), reindeer quilt, dresden quilt, and two baby quilts.
Weaving- blue rug, silk placemats, first white blanket.
There are more, but we will start with these.
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