After watching that slug of a squirrel sunbathing on our deck rails after prying out suet from the suet feeder, I got disgusted. Spent much too much yesterday on a new pole support for the bird feeder, and also bought a new, small squirrel-proof feeder.

James installed the new pole and hooks today, and we also put the old assembly back up, making it more stable. It's possible the latter may tip, however, if the squirrel tries to climb it, while the new assembly is quite sturdy.

Here the new pole is on the left, the old one on the right. The old one used to be mounted where the new one is now. The two suets have hot pepper in them, as birds are not affected by pepper. They have no taste buds for it.



A close-up of the squirrel-proof feeder. It is all metal on the outside and if anything heavier than a cardinal steps on the perch or if something pulls on the perch from below, the gap closes up.



When I have a little more money I will buy another feeder. Toying with buying a thistle feeder to see if we could lure some goldfinches here.

Labels: birds

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. . . . . Linda at 7:47:00 PM

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Haven't posted here for a while, but haven't done any more major improvements on the house (still want to get that light in the foyer changed, though).

Here on the table, on either side of the "pick-a-nick basket," as Yogi Bear used to say, are two of the prims I bought last weekend in The Maple's Tree in Gatlinburg, TN. (The "tablecloth" in the basket is a napkin folded up to look like a tablecloth tucked in for the picnic.)



China cabinet:



The little "Anne of Green Gables" type Liberty Angel with the Pilgrim salt-and-pepper pots from Publix, and the fall blessing:



The foyer table:



And the complete foyer:



Porch, from left-



-to right:



Now that it's actually the 4th, the patriotic banner has been traded out for the flag.

Porch detail: sheep and birdhouse:



Porch detail: Uncle Sam and "bell tree":



These two have nothing to do with the Fourth, but I wanted to show off these cuties. This "fall display" is actually four parts, as the two pumpkins and the leaf scarecrow at right (with the orange leaf predominant) as three separate parts:



And I bought "Kiss the Cook" for James and set it in front of our cow chef:



I bought two other of these little block items, one that says "I [heart] Dogs" with a little flop-eared mutt sitting on the DOGS blocks, and an I [heart] Cows" with a cow in a similar position.

Labels: decorating

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. . . . . Linda at 3:37:00 PM

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