The Suet Wars

Naughty Raccoon Raiding Suet Feeder

 

 

 

 

Baby Squirrel on the Suet Feeder

This is getting to be expensive.  Every night the raccoon takes $1.75 worth of suet from the feeder.  Every day, the blackbirds eat a whole cake, amid much chasing by moi.  Another $1.25.  That's three dollars a day times 30--eek!  This is becoming expensive. 

We will try the suet cakes with hot pepper to determine if the mammals don't like it.  For the blackbirds, we may stop using the suet cakes with seed and just use plain old suet.  Last night something took down two suet feeders.  One with suet , one empty.  The poor baby woodpeckers are having a hard time.  A bluejay tried to chase the baby red squirrel, whom I do not really begrudge his portion.  I begrudge the big squirrels, raccoons and blackbirds big time.

Why doesn't one of those damn bigs hawks carry off a squirrel of a jay?  Every year it's a battle.  In the meantime, the American Goldfinches are draining the thistle seed.  That's O.K.  There are territorial battles and the males don't get along at all.  As usual, the women and children do. 

The garden is water-logged from all the rain and the thyme looks sad.  Too much agua. 

I prepared a fine dinner tonight--broccoli quiche, homemade herb bread, grapefruit and avocado salad, and now the guests blew a tire and will be late, late, late.  Yeast bread waits for no man.  Oh yes, there's also fresh blueberry bread and berries for dessert.  We'll eat it whenever.  And enjoy it.  Just like those #*!!*% raccoons. 

Bird Watching 101

Thisbe watching birds.  A cat's most cherished activity.  Annie enjoys the same pursuit.  The birds seem oblivious to the presence of a cat just a few feet away.

I haven't been posting, alas and alack.  I've been writing.  I did yet another rewrite of Promiscuous Mode, and it is now (whole MS) with an agent, but no great hope.  I've done some more on In Flight and am almost 5000 words into a crime short story.  Sent another story into a contest.  So the writing goes apace.

Also cooking up a storm.  Big Valentine's Day menu which we ate on for days.  Then S.O.'s birthday dinner of stuffed cabbage.  Finished it last night.  Mega-yum.

I've also been working on a writing group's web site, dieting, working out, working on finances, yada yada.  The diet is just a calorie count diet, which means I have to enter every bite into this web site which helps figure out the calories.  It took a long time at first, but I'm kind of into the hang of it now.  Total loss:  3.5 pounds, but hey, that's something added to the 3.5 pounds I lost before the formal diet.

The thing about a simple calorie count is that no food is forbidden.  A lot of diets say that but weight watchers will penalize you a gazillion points for a tablespoon of butter, but you can eat a whole can of beans.  The more something is portrayed as forbidden, i.e., foodstuffs, the hungrier I get for it.

So I take my lumps with 1/4 cup peanuts and the St. Andre cheese and  eat less of something else.  I haven't been hungry, by the way, in spite of the fact that I'm trying to stay around 1200 calories on days when I don't work out.  Turns out I wasn't eating THAT MUCH to begin with. 

I made my mother's recipe of lemon squares to take to a friend's house.  They are so good I will post them here soon.  And I also made crepes with a sweetened cream cheese filling and a strawberry sauce to go on top.  This gave us dessert for  4 nights, 2 crepes each.  A lot of bang for the buck and also cheap.

Tomorrow I'm baking a chocolate/walnut pound cake to take to another event.  I would rather take a salad but it has to be something easily transportable.   Doesn't sound like a diet, does it?  Small portions are the key.

Tonight, we're back to chicken breast, and I'm doing the Boston Globe Saturday/Sunday recipe with  one main dish and then another made from the leftovers.  Not high cal and very tasty looking.  First Spanish, then Mexican. Spanish Style Chicken

Then you make the Mexican Recipe with the leftovers:
Chicken Chilaquiles

 Off to work on my short story.  It's a lot of fun, and I'm visiting Mattapoisett today for research.

Ta Ta

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Nature Notes from All Over the Yard

We have a young red squirrel who can leap from the front porch railing to the bird feeder, an unbelievable feat for such a little guy. He joins house finches, chicadees, sparrows (many varieties) baby cardinals, baby bluejays, mourning doves and other assorted birds who hang out at the feeder.

In the backyard, we have the not-seen-lately hummingbird, blackbirds, woodpeckers (3 kinds) and many of the same birds from the front yard as well as the suet robbing squirrels and chipmunks and the odd hawk on the lookout for prey (small birds and mammals). A visit to the yard by the hawk results in the birds going into hiding for as much as a week.

In the slough, the bullfrogs croak and there may be ducks, but we don't see or hear them. No otters, alas, this year.

The local deer have spared us, as has the bad rabbit who has perhaps fallen victim to the local fox or the occasional coyote. I have never seen the coyote, but the man around the corner swears that the neighbor keeping chickens leaves them out deliberately so the coyote will come into his yard and eat his grandchildren. Well, I don't think so, but into the wildlife mix you always have to throw a nutty neighbor. My mother used to say, "nutty as a peach orchard boar." Cool expression, yes?

What I love is to sit on the deck overlooking the slough and the wetlands with a drink of premium rum on ice and enjoy a late summer afternoon. Listen to the birds and the frog and the occasional drone of an airplane. The sunlight is just so, and the neighbor comes out to multitask: smoke, drink, talk on the phone and check his garden. We exchange waves and all is well with the world.

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Death Comes from On High

Ye gods, we pulled into the driveway a little after five this aftenoon, and a big hawk took off. He had obviously been scoping out our front porch feeder where the cute little guys hang out. A few weeks ago I saw a falcon in the woods. Every creature wants to eat my little birdies, the chicadees, titmice, and today a red-headed house finch. This will never do!

Chipmunks, doves, cardinals and squirrels eat the spilled seed on the ground. Last year we saw something (a raptor, obviously) carry off a full-sized blue jay.

And the dry carcass of the dumb chipmunk got who himself locked in the garage this summer has been discovered.

We have lots of "nature" here, up close and personal.

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Nature News from All Over

A week ago, coming home from my writing group, a fox ran across the road and into the bushes just a few hundred yards from where we live. Very cool indeed. I lectured the cats on the topic of the fox and why it is inadvisable to sneak out at night, but they just looked at me. Maybe they know that they are each about the size of a fox these days, and would give the fox pause. Third fox I've seen in these parts.

Then two nights ago, a weird bark came from the slough. Didn't exactly sound like a dog. A fox? A coyote? Went to the open door and listened. More like a dog, but coming from a spot where NO DOG ever barked. Listened again. Most like a dog. Then the barking stopped. When the barking first started, a bull frog joined in the chorus.

In the front feeder, we have messy baby sparrows, baby finches, blues jays, cardinals, titmice, chicadees, and mourning doves. Everyone eats on the ground from the mess the sparrows make. Somewhat of a bird seed/poop mess on the porch, too.

Keeping all the feeders full and seed in the house, along with the cat food, catnip and litter is a fair amount of work. I should take some seed to the spot where we saw the wild turkeys.

Somewhere in New York State, we saw a flock with lots of baby turkeys. Very nice. Ohio has an interesting device for letting motorists know that a large animal is on the highway. Something to do with a camera and lights. Couldn't figure it out, but it must be a godsend if lots of deer are present.

A good corn crop this year. I noticed it before the newspaper. A farm girl, I never was, but I always lived in farm communities, and I don't know, it must get into the blood what good crops look like, because after all these years I can still eyeball wheat, corn and evern soybeans and tell you if the yield will be good or not. A useless talent, for sure.

Tonight we are having Spanish rice, which I usually just make, but today I'll look up a recipe to see if I can add some extra ooomph.

One of your fellow critters,

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