Recovery Saturday

In keeping with my blue tarp, car up on jacks high standards, when I decided to set up some kind of bird feeder, I immediately thought of using some of the many plastic 5 gallon buckets I had scavenged over the years. They could be found in small clusters in various parts of the back yard , in the shed, the basement, and garage. 

I love those buckets. I have used them for everything from growing pot to creating two bucket benches that I still park my butt on regularly.

It was an excellent idea to start off with them to see if feeding the birds was something I wanted to do again. Because after a childhood of dealing with bird feeders, if you are going to have one, you have to totally commit. The flying piglets will haunt you if you don't.

Growing up in many locations, one of the first things my father would do once we had settled into our new digs; he would set up a bird feeder. When I was old enough, its care was put on my allowance chore list. I forgot how much I enjoyed it. 

With a plan in hand, it took me longer to find lids for the buckets than it did to set them up. They are easy to use, portable and best of all they go with my early 70's trailer motif.

I will be setting up at least one store bought feeder for next winter. Who knows, maybe a few of them. My yard is and has long been a nesting yard for more than few birds. Cardinals, Pileated Woodpeckers, Cat Birds, Robins, and at least for a period, Baltimore Orioles. Guess it makes sense to offer them some grub.

What I had forgotten about bird feeders is they are like chum to a shark. The flying piglets will go into a feeding frenzy, especially if the ground they normally peck at is covered with 2 feet of snow. Add in the visiting gang of Pine Siskins and the feeder situation is total anarchy now. And to really spike up the tension, I spotted the Gray squirrel from across the road having his way with the bird food.

Then I spotted the little Pine Siskin above frantically trying to escape my almost completely open front porch. The birds often are confused by the one window, but in a minute or so they figure it out and escape. This little guy was still trying to find a way out after 10 minutes or so even though the exit was only a foot to his left. I took mercy on the little guy, scooped him up and booted his sorry little ass out of the front porch. Damn, Siskins are tiny. Chickadee tiny, maybe smaller.

As I said, I will be setting up at least one store bought bird feeder for next winter. It's just been too much fun watching them interact with themselves and other birds bigger than they are.

I am calling today a "Recovery Saturday". I am flat out spent from all the snow removal I participated in the last 2 days. I think I am going to eat some brownies, kick back and sleep through a couple of movies.

Later Gators ..................................

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I wasn't going to present another Coen Brothers soundtrack, but then I found this excellent studio cover of "Hotel California" recorded by The Gypsy Kings for "The Big Lebowski", the bowling alley scene. And just to double the fun, here is the bowling scene the song was supporting. 

Damn, that was a great movie.