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.

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