Saturday, January 7, 2012

For the Birds


Well.....
I finally finished my last project for the "bird trees".
You remember the edible ornaments Addie and I made on Wednesday.
This is the other project I mentioned in that post.
I wanted to make my own suet balls to hang on the tree.
There a lots and lots of recipes out there , but this is the one I settled on.

1 cup lard
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup corn meal
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup mixed bird seed

I liked the fact it was all equal measurements.
Easy to remember.

The recipe said to melt the lard over a low heat.
I'm not that patient.
I used a glass bowl in the microwave.
The main reason they wanted you to melt over low heat was for safety.
Please be safe if you do this.
I covered the bowl with a paper towel because of splattering.

and took it out every minute  to stir.
Here I had added the peanut butter.


Of course , I felt the need to make a double batch .
Not real bright considering I hadn't made these before.
And had no idea if they would turn out.

Next I added the dry ingredients.
Guess I didn't get a picture of that mess.
( It really wasn't that bad)
After it had cooled ( actually I ran out of time , so I did this the next day )
I formed them into balls.
I had made loops out of jute a head of time.
Good thing too, cause my hands were such a sticky mess I wouldn't have been able to do it as I went.
This is also why there are no pictures of this step!
Anyway....
I formed the balls around the loops of jute,
then rolled them in more bird seed.

Kinda cute huh?

A double batch made 1 dozen.

Then into the freezer they went for 2 hours.
Actually longer, I was distracted taking down the Christmas decorations outside.
We've been having absolutely beautiful weather !
Mid 40's in January is VERY rare in my neck of the woods!

Anyway....
Here are my trees.
On my back deck ( which was free by the way, YAH! )


You don't think this kitty will scare the birds away do you ?



Am I happy this project is out of my head ?
YES!
Did it turn out how I had it pictured in my head?
Not entirely.
Will I make these again?
That remains to be seen.
This wasn't a hard project, just messy.
And not quite as "pretty" as I wanted.
However, if it attracts more birds to the back yard, I just might.

Have you ever had one of those projects?
That looked better in your head than it did in reality?
Oh well.... at least my birdies won't starve.

Happy as a bird #quote

Bird
































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