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.