feeding the birds

It's cold, so very cold.  I think that may be a consitent theme with me during January and February. I was born and raised on the Canadian prairie and it never ceases to amaze (and disturb) me just how cold it can get.  Brrr.    Maybe I'm not such a hearty girl after all?  

The next two months are pretty challenging for me as a homeschooling parent.   The constant barrage of cold (temperatures plus wind chills leave us in the -30's (celsius) on most days) keep us indoors for extended periods of time.  When we do go outside it is a an exercise in patience as we layer ourselves in pants, sweatshirts, snow pants, jackets, mitts, scarves and good old Canadian Sorels to keep those tender tootsies warm.   By the time I've assisted with all the dressing I'm pretty tuckered out myself until I realize I still have to get my own gear on.  On those days when the adventure of going outside eludes us we stay in, put a log on the fire and make the most of our housebound existence with reading, baking & of course crafts.  It's especially nice when you can combine all three as an opportunity for learning, after all isn't learning supposed to be fun?

Lately we've been captivated by birds, birds and more birds.  It probably started back with the water fowl when we moved to the duckyhouse and now it has escalated to include other species.  Fictional reads, costumes & educational materials have kept our interests growing and now that the cold has set in we find ourselves thinking about the birds that are non-migratory, such as black-capped chickadees, brown creepers, and woodpeckers to name a few.   They stick around to brave the ridiculous temperatures by growing heavier feathers, shivering or burrowing themselves in the snow; for food you can often find them somewhere near a bird feeder.  When I went out to shovel the snow the other day, I noticed my neighbor's bushy everygreen tree was host to about 15 birds fluttering about the feeder.  At our last house we had a couple of feeders, but one broke during the move and the other has not yet surfaced.   Such is life I guess when you move but that shouldn't stop us from feeding the birds.

So the wheels turn...feed the birds, feed the birds.  We rented a library book once that talked about pine cone feeders and it just so happened that there was a bag of pine cones sitting by my front door from one of our fall walks back in October.  I can't tell you how many times my hubby has asked me what that bag of pine cones was for and I kept telling him I wasn't sure yet, procrastination paid off once again.  After a quick stop at the grocery store for supplies, umm no I don't usually have suet in my freezer, we were all set up for making our pine cone feeders.

I've put together a "how to" in pdf. format for downloading Pine Cone Feeders
.  It's my first pdf. so be gentle with me ;)  I'll add it to my side bar shortly.  

The kids had a lot of fun making these feeders and even more fun hanging them up.  After we finished making these we realized that bird feeders could be made with other items through out the house with a little effort and some time.  I'll be back to share some photos of our recycled bird feeders with you next week.  Happy Weekend, xoxo.