Thieves & Thorns Update

As usual, I made suet this weekend. I put it out on the porch (in the cold) to harden. I set it right outside my kitchen window. While I was washing dishes, I saw a Titmouse flying onto the porch, which alerted me to what was going on ... a number of my feathered friends couldn't quite wait for it to get done and came in to help themselves. Here is one cardinal that helped himself to some lunch.

I took what the little beggers didn't eat out of the pan today and put it into the baking sheet that I use for the freezer. I left it on the porch railing (so I wouldn't forget to take it out to the shed freezer) ... much to the delight of my feathered friends, especially the cardinals. Pat and I enjoyed the show today as we sat at the dining room table eating our lunch.

I put the suet up this afternoon, before I left to run my weekly errands ... much to their dismay. They really congregated in the tree looking for the pan. If you look real close in the picture below (you might have to click on the picture to enlarge it), there are eight cardinals hanging around looking for the suet.

As for my suet feeders in the tree, one has again gone missing. I went out on Saturday morning to find it gone. It was freezing (literally) this weekend, so now I'm waiting for a little warmer weather to go hunting for it. This time they stole the one that usually hangs over the birdfeeder.

However, the mystery surrounding the thief (or, in this instance, thieves) has been solved.

I rarely walk by the sliding glass doors without looking outside ... night or day. As I walked by on Sunday night, I noticed that the birdfeeder was really swinging ... and I knew there wasn't that much of breeze. I headed for the back room to get Pat's big Black & Decker Spotlight (this thing is heavy and lights up the yard like it's daylight). I crept up to the sliding glass doors and positioned myself and turned the thing on. Not just one, but two raccoons turned to see where the light was coming from.

One raccoon was twice the size of the other. I'm not sure if it was a male with its mate or maybe a mother with an offspring from last year. He/she was so big that I'm going to refer to it as a male for the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say (God rest his soul).

The light startled them enough that they headed out ... by way of the hill behind the house! I went to the computer room to inform Pat that I now knew the identity of the suet thieves ... raccoons. A little later, I noticed the birdfeeder swinging again, so I once again got the spotlight. It seems that they were hungry enough to decide to ignore the blinding light hitting them in the face.

I watched those two little bandits for quite a while and they gave me more than one or two chuckles. The big one is the climber. He climbed up the tree and got right above the suet feeder that I have hanging on a chain. Hanging down from the limb with his hind feet, he pulled the chain like he was pulling a rope on a bucket up from a well, he pulled the feeder up link by link until he was able to get to the suet feeder. After he was done, he left me a right nice tangle of chain in the branches of the tree.

A little later he climbed down enough and reached over to grab the side of the bird feeder. Hanging onto the trunk of the tree with his back feet, he held the bird feeder with one paw and would reach out with the other to grab a pawful to eat. While he was at it, he dropped a bit down to his accomplice below.

I guess he decided that was a bit too uncomfortable a position, because he climbed up the tree and across the branch that the feeder was hanging on. He then climbed down the hook and rope (head first) until he got to the roof of the bird feeder. He then spread out his belly over the roof (that coon was so big he covered the whole thing) and would reach down to grab a seed to eat at his leisure.

I tried to get pictures, but wasn't quite able to maneuver the camera and spotlight ... not to mention get the settings to work in that kind of light. However, he may be related to this guy who came to eat the corn that we put out in the back clearing for the deer. The picture below was taken last year with Pat's Deer Cam. Oh well, I'm sure they will be back and this time I'll get Pat to help me try to get a picture of the bandits.

And finally, the thorn (Hughes) in my side. I'm not really surprised that we didn't get the modem today. Luckily we've babied the old one along and it's lasted the weekend. I was supposed to call them tonight, but I got busy doing a number of other chores and forgot to call until just a bit ago and I'm just too tired to fight with them tonight.

Thieving Critters

Pat has repeatedly warned me ... everything out in the country will bite you, stab you and/or kick you in the behind (or words something to that effect). I was reminded of his words this morning when I looked outside to see my suet feeders down again.

About 3 weeks ago, I decided that I might save money on suet cakes by making my own. After all, in these economic times, we really need to save as much as we can and I could make them using a lot of stuff that I had on hand or was going to be thrown away if it wasn't used.

As usual, I was wrong again. Oh, I'm sure they are cheaper to make than the store-bought ones, but the fact they are home-made seems to entice all the critters in the area to eat them as fast as I put them up ... hence I'm going through them a lot faster than one a week, like I was using with the store-bought ones.

Birds will literally line up on the branches for a turn at the suet. I've seen as many as 9 male cardinals (and their mates) sitting on the branches of the tree ... waiting somewhat impatiently for a chance at the suet. The titmouses (or is it titmice), sparrows, finches, bluejays and woodpeckers love it too. I will often see two and three birds on the suet feeder at one time (something I never saw with the store-bought ones).

I put a new cake out every morning. By evening most of it is gone, but enough remains to entice the coons to climb the tree during the night and raid what is left. Every morning I find the feeder on the ground with no suet left.

Yesterday I decided that I was going to fix that coon. I have a suet feeder with smaller mesh that would make it hard for him (or them) to get into. Not only that, I was going to hang it on a smaller branch, so they would have a harder time getting to the hanger.

I awoke this morning and looked out ... one suet feeder was down and the other was GONE. It seems that since the new suet feeder had smaller mesh, the coon decided to take it with him so he could eat at his leasure.

Here's what my feeders looked like yesterday (it's the one on the far right, with the tangerine, that got stolen):

From Simpli-Country

I looked all around the property after Pat left for work this afternoon and couldn't find it. If it is anywhere around, I'm sure Pat will find it for me (sigh). Although I'm great at finding most things, he seems to have a better knack at finding things that the critters haul off.

So I guess I'm down to one feeder once again. At least I'll find this one on the ground in the morning, instead of gone. Not that I really mind the coons eating the suet ... they have as much right as the birds and are just as cute. I just wish they would return the suet feeder ... so I can fill it for them again, LOL.

My Kitchen Window

From Simpli-Country

I actually wrote the following last week, but had nowhere to post until I created Simpli-Country:

I often ponder life as I wash dishes and look out my kitchen window. As I look out the window and watch the changes in my world around me today, I am reminded that the one thing that is constant in life is that it will change.

Washing dishes today, I watched the cardinals flying to the feeder and the snow melting because of our nice February thaw. A titmouse flies onto the porch to steal some of the suet that I made that I left sitting on the table. He is too impatient to wait for me to put it in the suet feeder. As I watched the titmouse, I noticed the breeze blowing the leaves of the magnolia tree. I could see that the breeze is coming from the south and realize that change is only a few short weeks away.

The breeze and the melting snow reminded me of life’s constant changes. I know that change is coming. In a few short weeks, we’ll be watching the crocus, daffodils and tulips that Pat & I planted last fall shoot up and grace us with their lovely blooms and the trees bursting into bloom.

I see the empty hanger where our hummingbird feeder resides in the summer. I know that it will be full of hummingbirds by May. Thinking of the hummingbirds reminds me that in only a few more months we’ll be planting and then watching our garden grow. By the end of summer and into the fall, our garden will be ripe with the fruits of our labor and beautiful fall colors will be decorating the mountains, which will be followed by leaves falling and snow falling down once again.

All this thinking about change reminded me that less than a year ago, I didn’t have a kitchen window. I lived in an apartment in the city. I was traveling every weekend to the country to see the man that I had fallen in love with … Pat. A year before that, I was in a deep depression over the slow painful death of another romantic relationship. After that relationship ended, I vowed to guard my heart from further pain, but, despite my vow, Pat managed to romance me and bulldoze his way straight to my heart. Due to his love, my life once again changed and my current happiness was born.

If I had resisted change in my life, I never would have found happiness again with Pat. If at any point in my 51 years of life, I had neglected my usual mantra of “This too shall pass” when times got rough, I would have not made it through to find my current happiness and satisfaction in life that I often thought was lost.

Yet, if there is an irony to my life now, it is that I am living a life that I once swore would never be mine … a housewife. The true irony of the situation is that at the age to 28, I repeatedly told my now ex-husband that if he wanted a “housewife” don’t marry me.

Being a housewife was never my intention when I moved here to be with Pat. I have sent out numerous resumes and I continue to pour over the job ads several times a week in hopes of finding a nice office job somewhere. Unfortunately, in this time of economic turmoil, I have not had any success.

My how times change … if I have learned anything in this life, it is that if we want to be happy, we learn to change and adapt. Perhaps one day the economy will change and I will find employment. In the meantime, I will savor being a housewife. It is no hardship at all. I have discovered a profound happiness and satisfaction in taking care of Pat, our dog Spike, our cat Brat, our yard and our home.

Pat often (somewhat reluctantly, I might add) offers to wash the dishes. I know he hates working in the kitchen and turn him down … not just for his sake, but for mine too. The kitchen window and warm flow of water over my hands gives me time to stand still, look outside (sometimes longingly) and reflect. I don’t think Pat has any idea (although he will now) what I am doing as I wash dishes and gaze out the kitchen window … I’m finding my inner peace and savoring life.

All these thoughts flit through my mind as I wash dishes and look out my kitchen window. Sometimes the view distracts me to the point that when the dishes are put in the drainer, I see a spot that I missed and have to start all over washing the dish. Not that I mind, it just means more time to look out my kitchen window and think.

Today as I look outside, I see the gazebo that Pat and I often sat to cool off after working in the garden last summer and also spent hours entertaining our family and friends … it is destroyed now due to an over abundance of snow last week. I’m sad to see it go, but I know that something just as good or better will spring up where it once stood. After all, life is full of changes and, with those changes, you often lose things you value to discover a different happiness and life that is even more precious.