Weather

[Logan]

Hi,

Thanks Logan. I have a Nectar card but gather few points on it.

Yes not only do we have a wire bird feeder I made two heavy duty feeders; one for us and one for our best friends as a gift; I used oak and stainless steel wire mesh. It fills from the top opening and both the birds and squirrels make full use of it; I also made a wooden tray which sits atop a large chimney pot placed in the garden; we place a pile of cat biscuits on this tray and birds enjoy the biscuits as much as the cats do; food is put out all year round for all our wildlife so they never go hungry and also dishes of clean water are supplied. The ice gets removed in winter so there is always water available.

Kind regards, Colin.

View attachment 28932

@Colin that's a great design, but if you re design so the birds can't get in it. Make a opening with a hinged door on the top so the squirrels can open it and it closes after they take head out,it would be better.

 

[Logan]

Morning all,a bit of drizzle and milder.3-12c
@marlingardener it doesn't matter how many supermarkets we have,we can't get what we want sometimes.

 

[alp]

Lovely box .. Beautiful craftsmanship, @Colin

I have various choices of supermarkets - 2 little ones including Aldi. But I prefer Lidl which has better ethics and pay workers minimum wage. Aldi is now everywhere and they have heavy duty long lorry trundling up and down my road and even the oil tankers travelling up and down, not a sight that I like. I also can drive for 8 minutes to two huge stores. I don't like the experience as they are too big and it would help if they provided skates to go round the isles for one item. Once I spent 10 minutes trying to find something. We do have to go round and round for our shopping. A small chicken at £2.35 at Lidl and Aldi and yet £3 if you're lucky with Tesco. Black tea in Sainsburys..

Yes, @marlingardener, I am green with envy at your harvest, especially eggs.. I am sure you don't inoculate your chicks with growth hormones..

It's very bright now and a bit breezy 5 to 15c, last time I saw.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Many thanks for your suggestion Logan. The design of our bird feeder is of the original bird feeder we bought many years ago and we couldn't find another of the same design hence I made two to the same design but larger. The birds either peck through the mesh or the little blue tits perch on the wire net top and pivot to select a nut; I watched one blue tit being very selective picking nut after nut and rejecting each in turn dropping the nuts onto the garden before it got just the right one; I'm not surprised we spend a fortune on nuts when birds are now being so selective. The squirrels too have absolutely no difficulty they simply put in a paw collect a nut then sit on the branch to scoff it; we love to watch the wildlife feeding; we have a woodpecker too that enjoys these nuts. Making one of these bird feeders isn't too difficult but then I have excellent workshop facilities; I bought the heavy gauge stainless steel mesh through eBay and the one piece was just big enough to make the two feeders; the oak and stainless screws I have kicking around so both feeders cost very little indeed.I've just seen a Wren hopping about in the honeysuckle.

Thanks alp. I too dislike big stores and seldom visit our local B&Q Warehouse; I always feel I should take a motorcycle in with me to get around and I dislike the way a small family can completely block an aisle with total disregard to other shoppers. Each time I visit our local Aldi I think cheap is cheap. I'd rather pay a bit extra and know when I get the goods home they can be used unlike many cheaper goods where they get thrown out.

Today we have 3C-10C but at last Gale has been replaced by the usual breeze up the valley; its bright for a change too and as yet Blackie is absent so no rain.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[MoonShadows]

Looks like we are in for a doozy later today into tomorrow.
High wind advisory: 20-30mph with gusts to 50
Flash Flood Advisory: up to 5" of rain.
Time to batten down the hatches!

 

[Colin]

Hi,

5" of rain; you're going to get wet MoonShadows.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[MoonShadows]

LOL...not if I stay inside. No chance of flooding where we are, and I have all the down spouts piped underground so the rain water goes down into our back field. I don't like the wind, though. There are no trees in the immediate vicinity of the house, but we have 4 out buildings that are within tree distance. With all the rain and wind, we could easily lose power. We're going to fire up the old generator to make sure it is OK, and just made a decision today to finally get a Generac Home Standby Gas generator installed before winter. We were going to do it this last Spring, but the funds weren't there, but we had a good season with our home biz, so I think we can swing it now.

 

[marlingardener]

It's chilly but sunny this morning. I'll likely get some yard work done this afternoon.
Alp, our hens get the best feed available and treats from the table (they adore pasta!) and the garden (love leaf lettuce but won't touch arugula). Inside coops secure and warm or cool as the weather dictates, and a secure outside coop for running about in the daytime. Their eggs are so delicious! When a hen gets older and doesn't lay as much, she just goes into retirement--we've never killed a hen and she just stays with the rest of the flock.

 

[Colin]

Hi,

Go for it MoonShadows and good luck. We are fortunate in that our electricity supply is underground although we can still have it cut off for other reasons without notice; high winds do cause us problems with our trees being damaged or brought down usually whilst the weather is at its worst or everything is covered in snow and ice. An inch of snow here in the UK the country grinds to an halt; it really is a joke because as a kid over 60 years ago we managed a lot better with deep snow but then we had all terrain legs which we used.

Bron is like you Marlingardener in that she too would never kill an hen or indeed anything and I'm also of the same nature.

http://www.examiner.co.uk/news/west-yorkshire-news/gallery/emley-moor-mast-collapsed-march-8874224

Above is a flashback to when Emley Moor transmitting mast came down. Bron and I live nearby and know it well; the views from the mast top are spectacular. It can get a bit bleak up here in winter.

Kind regards, Colin.

 

[alp]

Finally, I got my LIke registered. I look forward to the days when i can keep hens..

 

[alp]

4c to 11c Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

 

[alp]

4c to 11c Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

Apparently, there has been disastrous weather in the US east coast

Trees are downed, streets flooded and more than 130,000 people in Connecticut left without power as storm hits the East Coast

Please keep safe!

 

[alp]

4c to 11c Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

Apparently, there has been disastrous weather in the US east coast

Trees are downed, streets flooded and more than 130,000 people in Connecticut left without power as storm hits the East Coast

Please keep safe!

 

[alp]

I can't believe it. I typed and clicked Post Reply HALF AN HOUR TO 45 MINUTES AGO, it never got posted. Then I clicked again, 2 or them came up.. Sorry for the groundhog day experience.

 

[Logan]

4c to 11c Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr ...

Apparently, there has been disastrous weather in the US east coast

Trees are downed, streets flooded and more than 130,000 people in Connecticut left without power as storm hits the East Coast

Please keep safe!

Yes keep safe.