Archive for the ‘strategies for winter’ Category
squirrel-proof
As a result of our focus on feeding the birds this week, my head is full of birds and squirrels and deer. Hence, a poem…..
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squirrel-proof
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plan for success
buy a feeder, smarter
than any squirrel
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fill the feeder
laughing
all the way
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drive into town
to buy more birdseed
confident, smug
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left turn
into the driveway
shadow
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white tail
brown thighs vanish
around the corner
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feeder empty
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Photos are from years past. We don’t have much snow here in southern New Brunswick!!!!!
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All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
drear November: feeding the birds… and other wildlife!
Every winter, we feed the birds. I have records going back to 2011 and I have photos of birds visiting the feeder for many years before. I notice that I get chickadees, nuthatches and bluejays when I feed with only sunflower seeds. I also get finches, grosbeaks, sparrows and juncos when I feed with a mixed seed variety. Both grey and red squirrels visit our feeder. And a white-tailed deer.
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Last week we bought a new feeder, so I could have both sunflower seeds and the mixed seeds at the same time. I filled both feeders when we arrived home, later in the afternoon. The next morning, not a seed in either feeder. By the tracks all around, I know a deer cleaned out both.
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I don’t mind feeding a bit to the squirrel and deer. But not the whole lot! So this morning, I altered my tactics. I put the mixed seed feeder on a hook off our deck, so high the deer can’t reach it. The sunflower seed feeder can stay in its place, but after this I will only put a quarter of the usual feed there. That way, the birds can get feed during the day and the deer can nibble on left-overs without ruining my budget. The squirrel will be able to reach the feeder on the deck, but I will lure him away with peanuts.
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Do you feed the birds, and do you have any strategies for making certain the squirrels and deer don’t get there first?
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All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
drear November: Project #1 – emergency supplies
In November, one of my projects has been to establish an equipped emergency shelf for our home. We always keep supplies on hand in case of a power outage, but I want to bring those things together so a last minute scramble is not needed.
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Canada’s ‘get prepared kit’ recommends the following items:(https://www.getprepared.gc.ca/cnt/rsrcs/pblctns/yprprdnssgd/index-en.aspx )
- Water — two litres of water per person per day (include small bottles)
- Food such as canned food, energy bars and dried foods (replace once a year)
- Manual can opener
- Wind-up or battery-powered flashlight (and extra batteries)
- Wind-up or battery-powered radio (and extra batteries)
- First aid kit
- Extra keys for your car and house
- Cash, travellers’ cheques and change
- Important family documents such as identification, insurance and bank records
- An emergency plan – include a copy in your kit as well as contact information
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I recently purchased our safety shelf for another purpose, but when I brought it home, I knew it was perfect for our emergency supplies. On the safety shelf we have:
- bottles of water, for washing and other uses; we always have water for drinking on hand
- candles ( I have so many candles, having light during a power outage is never an issue)
- matches (to light candles and the wood stove)
- a ‘go-bag’ – packed with flagging tape, compasses (I have eight compasses of various types due to my work life in the woods), more candles and matches, a flashlight, paper and pencils, a small first aid kit, extra keys, and a manual can opener
- a box of extra food: canned beans, trail mix, energy bars, raisins, canned fruit, canned soup
- a fire retardant blanket for putting out small fires quickly
- an emergency plan
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Our ‘go-bag’ has been around many years and began as a safe-in-the-woods kit for our son. We spent many hours at our home and cabin in or near the woods, and the ‘go-bag’ includes instructions for my son if he was ever lost in the woods. All these years later, it is a precious keep-sake, but still useful in its wisdom.
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Our emergency plan is simple:
- our address
- our home and cell phone numbers
- a list of phone numbers for other family members
- the location of our shelf of emergency supplies (!)
- a place designated as a meeting place if there is ever a fire
- the duty to check and replenish supplies once per year in November!
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We have personal experience with emergencies, most memorably in the guise of Hurricane Aurthur, in 2014. We have a small generator that kept our refrigerator and television going. The storm put the power out for seven days and our biggest help was from the Oromocto Fire Department. The firefighters supplied us with water for our containers and cases of drinking water. I will be grateful to them forever.
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Now that our emergency shelf is prepared, my main fear, of having to scramble and find our various supplies, is over.
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Do you have the needed supplies in case of an emergency? And are they organized in a way you can find them quickly?
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All my best!
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
autumn red
We visited our camp yesterday and found a bush of hawthorn, sharp with thorns and red with berries. On the way home, we saw mountain ash, laden with clusters of red berries. And in our driveway are red rose hips and the dark red of the fruit in our crab apple tree. There is a drab side to the fall months, but these bits of colour make me happy.
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All my best,
Jane (a.k.a. Alexandra)
making November warm #5
I can watch birds any time of year of course. But, to me, November seems made for bird watching. Just seeing those tiny birds gobble up the various types of seed, makes me realize how lucky I am to be sheltered and warm on the bitterest of days.
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I do not feed the birds until November. In part, this is to reduce the chance of spreading the various viruses that plague the wild birds. This year, I discarded all my old feeders and found feeders that did not feature sitting surfaces. I think it is better for the birds to land and leave. Flat platforms gather moisture and breed pathogens. The new sunflower feeder has narrow wire perches and no way to sit among the seeds. I also feed with nyjer seed and that feeder also has no perches, just small holes where the birds can pull fresh seeds from the tube.
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We have a variety of birds at our feeders. I love the chickadees. They are greedy feeders, preferring the sunflower seed. They seem timid, landing only long enough to grab and go. But they often squabble with their own and other species.
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I also like the little nuthatches. This year we have both red-breasted and white-breasted nuthatches. They feed happily together. The red-breasted nuthatches will store seed in tree crevices. I have seen them poke seeds under the shingles of our house!
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We also have a small group of blue jays who love sunflower seeds and various types of finches who go after the nyjer seed. I do not see the diversity of birds I saw thirty years ago when we first fed the birds here. I think some of that is due to the large number of bird feeders in our area.
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The birds I would love to see at our feeders are the Canada jays. Forty years ago when I was working on the draft of my thesis up in our attic rooms, the grey jays, also called whiskey jacks, would come and say hello and eat scraps from my hand. The other bird I have never seen at our feeders (or anywhere) is the cardinal. My husband has seen them in our grey woods, but I have yet to add a cardinal to my Life List.
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All my best.
Stay warm!
Jane
making November warm #4
Warm inside – warm all over!
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Various times in my life I have attended conferences or eaten in hotels where they have a tea caddy. Opening it is like opening a treasure chest. Perhaps you will find Earl Grey, or Orange Pekoe, or Camomile or Red Zinger. Happiness and warmth in a tea-bag!
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When I designed my kitchen, it was one of the first things I made for myself – a wooden box that opened to a wide selection of teas.
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I love coffee, but as a rule, when I am at home, it is a cup of tea I crave. I like a tea that is mild, a little sweet, with a nutty flavour. I love the fragrance of tea as it steeps and that tea occupies at least 2 of the senses, taste and smell. I also love the feeling of warmth from the inside-out. Tea is the perfect drink for November.
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There are rituals for making the perfect cup of tea, but my approach is simple. I start with cold water from our well, bring it to a boil, pour it into one of my favourite cups and then add the tea bag. I let it steep for 2 minutes and then remove the bag and add milk. No sugar in my tea.
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I use a special cup for my tea, one of those given to me by a friend over the years. She may recognize the cups she has gifted me and know who she is.
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So, if I am chilly this November, a cup of tea will make me warm.
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All my best!
I hope you’ll join me in drinking a cup of tea!
Jane
making November warm #3
One way to keep warm is to expend energy.
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The cold days are perfect for housekeeping projects. I am a collector and my house is overflowing. I am trying to downsize, make my world a little easier to navigate. During November, I want to attend to my kitchen, to return it to the beautiful space it was meant to be.
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A few years ago, we decided to open the wall of a closet to make a throughway between our bedroom and bathroom. To do this, the closet had to be emptied and all of the closet contents ended up in the kitchen!
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Our kitchen is quite large, 14′ by 14′. It has white cupboards with green knobs, faux-granite countertops and a grey faux-stone floor. As I did with other rooms in the house, I decorated the kitchen according to a theme. Strawberries! A thin decorative border of strawberries, leaves and berries, runs around the room about a foot from the ceiling.
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The curtains are white with tiny red dots. I have a ceramic cookie jar shaped like a strawberry and a set of vintage cans with the same motif.
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On the wall is a strawberry cross-stitch started by my grandmother and finished by me.
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The wooden top to my dish-washing machine is painted with strawberries and my dishes are mostly (you guessed it) strawberry themed.
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Sounds nice, right? Not so much. There are so many things crammed into the kitchen, you would be hard-pressed to name the theme!
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So part of my ‘keeping warm’ in November is to empty my kitchen of non-kitchen things.
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My process is:
Make a plan for the next day: identify the item to be removed;
Dust and clean the item;
Decide if it is to be kept, discarded or given to a second-hand charity;
Move it to the appropriate place.
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So far, I have tackled a large Coleman cooler, my suitcase collection and a tote filled with swimming pool supplies. It is hard for me to let go of things. The Coleman cooler was easy to give away: we have another, newer cooler. The suitcases were harder; they included a set my husband gave me when I traveled so much in the 1980s. In the end, I decided to let them go; I have a smaller, newer suitcase. The pool supplies were harder. We don’t have a pool, but they include a beautiful inflatable palm tree. Every woman needs a beautiful inflatable palm tree. The tote remains in the corner of the kitchen.
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Next I need to remove several items under the kitchen table. They include: the above-mentioned strawberry canister set; a tote of items collected for use at our camp; a set of plastic fruit that once belonged to my Mom. Any guesses which of these may be kept, discarded or given away????
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Cleaning the kitchen will work in two ways to warm November:
1. the activity will be warming as I expend energy
2. making the decisions about keeping, discarding or giving away will take so much thought,
I will forget all about being cold.
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All my best!
Stay warm!
Jane
working on a poetry manuscript
This week, I am assembling a new poetry book in the ‘a glimpse of…’ series. The first two books, a glimpse of water fall and a glimpse of dragon gave readers a peek at some of the beautiful waterfalls in New Brunswick and the bits of magic in all our lives. A glimpse of sickle moon will explore the seasons in New Brunswick. The manuscript won Third Place in the 2020 New Brunswick Writers’ Federation Competition for the Alfred G. Bailey Prize.
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The poetry book presents fifteen years of seasons, each presented as four poems about spring, summer, winter and fall. The poems about spring talk about floodwaters, under-story flowers and waking from hibernation. Summer poems tell about hurricanes, picking raspberries and sheep in the morning meadows. Fall poems explore first frost, wasp nests, fading flowers and ripening blackberries. And in winter–ice caves, snow drifts, walks in the falling snow and feeding birds.
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I have struggled with how to present these poems. I thought of making each suite of four represent a year in my own life and entitling the section 1978, 1980, 1996, 2012 and so on. I thought about titling each section as a special year–‘The Year of the Path,’ ‘The Year of the Groundhog,’ and so on. I have finally settled on a title drawn from a common theme in the four poems presented–‘paths through tangled woods,’ ‘where shadows meet,’ and ‘a sliver from full.’
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For the cover, I will create a painting of the crescent moon, seen through the branches of birch trees. The image below is a facsimile.
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All my best as you work on your own project.
Jane
Counting the days
I have a special Advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas. Each day during Advent, I hang one ‘ornament.’ The ornaments are made from plain cardstock, ribbon and various bits of decor — buttons, tiny baskets, brooches, earrings. We count down the days from the first Sunday in Advent (this year, November 28, 2021).
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To make these, I selected a shape I liked from the internet, used a fancy font to add the number of days (written out, but you could also use a number), printed and cut out the shape. Then, with a glue gun, I attached a bit of decor and used a hole punch to add ribbon for hanging.
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The ornaments can be hung from a small tree or branch, or from a dowel suspended from the ceiling. I hang our ornaments from an old fashioned clothes dryer I have attached to the wall.
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Enjoy the days leading up to Christmas. They can be hectic, but take the time to sit and think about the good things in your life.
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Take care in this time of pandemic.
Jane
a storm of birds
We are expecting major snowfall/freezing rain in the next couple of days. I think the birds must sense this because there is a veritable storm of birds at the feeders this morning.
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We have evening grosbeaks, a downy woodpecker, chickadees, nuthatches and mourning doves. By far the largest numbers are the redpolls and goldfinches. We also have red and grey squirrels, but they didn’t show up this morning.
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The birds fly in from our surrounding trees and feed for a while, coming and going. Then a dog barks or a car goes by and the whole flock leaves at once. Only a few brave grosbeaks cling to the feeder. Eventually, all the birds return and begin to feed.
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We keep the feeders full during the cold weather and feed with nyjer (thistle) seed and black-oil sunflower seeds.
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Watching the birds is lots of fun. Each species seems to have its own feeding-personality:
- the chickadees land, grab and leave as quickly as possible;
- the woodpeckers cling to the feeder and only leave when they’ve had their fill;
- the finches (redpolls and goldfinches) arrive as a flock and stay, to feed mostly on the fallen seed under the feeders;
- the grosbeaks, much bigger than the finches, mingle with them and hang on to the feeders even after other birds have been frightened away.
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Bird watching is a great way to spend time during these days of pandemic lockdown. Still haven’t seen my first cardinal! And this year I haven’t yet seen a purple finch, so common in previous years.
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All my best,
Jane
nichepoetryandprose 