Making Bird Suet

Ever since a couple weeks ago when Bode and I visited the Cascades Raptor Center and I put up bird identification posters in his room, Bode has been noticing birds that he sees each day and commenting on them: "I just saw a robin", "That's a crow", and "the male ducks are the ones that look like UO football players" (he's talking about the mallard ducks with their iridescent green heads).
Before he was born, I used to have various bird feeders hanging outside my kitchen and bedroom windows — in the backyard — and I always took pleasure in seeing the birds come and feed. Since then, I moved elsewhere for a brief time, but eventually returned back here to the same house, sans the bird feeders. Such is the nature of moving, things somehow always get lost in the shuffle.
Bode's recent fascination provided me with the impetus to amp up the backyard again with feeders for our feathered friends. I never before had made suet and thought that now was the perfect time.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup peanut butter
• 1 cup Crisco shortening
• 2.5 cups cornmeal
• .5 cup millet
• 1 cup oats
• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• .5 cup raisins 

Over a low flame, we melted down the peanut butter and Crisco in a saucepan until they were completely liquid. Bode and I then added the rest of the ingredients incrementally, stirring each time until they were mixed in well. Other kinds of edible grains, seeds or berries can be substituted also (although be smart about it and make sure they are nontoxic to birds! See a list of 10 foods to avoid giving birds here).

After all the ingredients are incorporated, pour mixture into a mold that when ready will fit into a suet cage. I found that a square rubbermade container worked perfectly.

I ended up with more mixture than I intended. Fortunately,  I remembered that I had a collection of pinecones in storage. I found a large-sized one and I tied twine to the top, placed it in a bowl and then coated it with the mixture, using a rubber spatula. I pushed the mix as far down into the cone as I could. I then put the pine cone in the refrigerator to set, along with the suet mixture in the mold.

An hour later, they were solid. I popped the suet out of the mold and placed it in the cage, and hung it up, alongside the pinecone.

That was 3 days ago. Each day Bode has been anxiously checking hoping the birds have discovered them, but apparently they haven't at this point. I'm giving it a week — I think I am equally as anxious as my son. I miss the birds outside my window! I already have my sights set on a few birdfeeders (including hummingbird feeders) from our local feed store to add to the mix!
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Treasure Hunt and Suncatcher Craft: Part one

For the past couple years I always felt a twinge of envy when seeing this suncatcher craft posted around the internet (here, and here). I wanted to do this craft with my son! But with the mild winters we have where we live, I didn't even consider it. What would be the point? I thought, the ice would melt entirely too fast! I envisioned these icy ornaments decorating the yards of their crafters all winter long. Lucky people!

It wasn't until the other day in the midst of a cold snap that I realized the flaw in my thinking. It's cold right now! Temperatures were predicted to dip into freezing level all week long. I realized that this was the time to do it. So what if we only had a few days to enjoy our craft before it disintegrated? The important part was that we had those days to enjoy it. Besides it's all about the process anyway, right?

Once I got this idea planted my head, my son and I were off and running on our quest to gather the material to use. We headed for my favorite wooded trail in our local park system and proceeded to collect items from the forest floor. I prefer to call this part "hunting for treasure."

Treasure Hunt 

Running for treasure

Showing me lichen

Filling up his treasure bag

Close up of treasure bag. Tutorial can be found in Amanda Soule's Book The Handmade Home.

Collecting berries

Toting along his treasure bag, Bode eagerly started filling it with all sorts of natural objects: pinecones, pine needles, oak leaves, lichen, moss, branches, and berries. I took advantage of teaching opportunities when I saw them:

• "Pinecones house the seeds of pine trees."
• "Why do you think they call this lichen "Old Man's Beard"?"
• "Why do you think they call this fern "sword fern"?"
• "Why do you think the trees grow so tall?" 

His interest was piqued about the wonders of this majestic forest and he came up with some of his own questions as well, such as: "How can trees breathe in the bad stuff and breathe out the good stuff if they don't have any mouths, how is that even possible?"
I tried to explain the best I could in his terms that the trees were able to absorb the carbon dioxide in the air through teeny holes in the surface of their leaves. It is this way too that they release the oxygen.

After the hunt was over we headed home to craft!

Read the next post here to hear how our adventure continued!

Treasure Hunt and Suncatcher Craft: Part two

Making our icy suncatchers (Please see here for Part one)

Assessing our treasure

Assembling suncatcher

All ready to go into the freezer!

So when we got home we sorted through and arranged the objects in pie tins.  When adding water, most of the things floated to the surface so we realized that putting any time in the arrangement of the objects was kind of futile. Bode had the good idea of adding food coloring. I added a little bit to my suncatcher, and, Bode, well, let's just say I turned around for a moment and when I turned back all the food coloring bottles were empty. LOL. Oh well, It gave me the opportunity to talk about the words "tranlucency" and "opacity". I placed a looped piece of twine that tied at one end and submerged it halfway in the water. I then put the pie tins in the freezer overnight. My pie tin ended up leaking so I transferred it to a baking dish. We also ended up making a mini one with leftover materials.

The end product! Very nice I think!

The next morning we hung them up and I was really pleased. The term suncatcher is really appropriate as the ice intensified the brightness of the light shining through them (well, on mine and the little one). Bode's was densely colored, but still it was beautiful in it's own right. We had fun. And I am happy to say after 3 days, 2 still remain hanging!

Snowman craft

I love my job as a preschool teacher. My most favorite part is coming up with craft projects that the children actually can do themselves. Nothing bugs me more than seeing preschool crafts where it is obvious the teacher did the entire thing his- or herself. Believe me, I'm all about helping the kids out, but I make them do what they can on their own. This snowman project was inspired by a Christmas card that I helped my son make for his grandparents. The preschoolers (ranging in age from 2-6 years old) had the fine motor skills necessary to do most of the project with little assistance and see it through to completion.

Materials required:

• white, black, red and orange construction paper
• small hole punch
• circle punch (I used Martha Stewart 1 inch wide punch) or scissors and circle template
• light colored pencil 

Before beginning an adult cuts out black construction paper into a quarter sheet for background. Cut out orange carrot nose, and red hat and scarf.

Step 1: Tear a white strip of paper for the ground. Most of the children needed hand-over-hand assistance with this part.

Step 2: Glue the torn paper onto the bottom of the black paper. Trim the white paper that extends over the edge of the black paper so that they are the same width.

Step 3: Punch out 3 circles from white paper for snowman's body.

Step 4: Punch out 5 black dots with hole punch for eyes and buttons.

Step 5: Glue circles one on top of the other to make the snowman's body. Glue on snowman's eyes, and buttons. Glue on carrot nose, hat and scarf .

Step 6: Punch out white dots with hole punch. Glue the white dots onto black paper to make it look like snow is falling.

Step 7: Draw on stick arms with light colored pencil. Masking tape or brown colored art tape cut in thin strips can be used also.

Step 8: Glue on moon if you want. Moon is made by placing cut out circle in circle punch part way and punching it out.

Finished! Hang up on wall and enjoy!