New Duck Feeder.

[hippywife]

I mentioned that I was going to stop and buy a new, bigger feeder for the ducks. So, the husband says not to because he'll make me one. I think it turned out great! The ducks don't know what to think of it yet but they'll warm up to it once they get good and hungry, I'm sure.

[whistle]

1. Put some sushi in there and I'd even eat from it...very nice!

[hippywife]

6. LOL

I was thinking it resembled a salad bar with a sneeze guard. I really do like it. Should help to keep the food a little dryer when it rains. The ducks get it wet enough all on their own. They take a bite of food and then stick their bills in the water and slosh it around. The water bowl ends up with an inch of food sludge in the bottom of it by the end of the day.

[Wickerman]

2. nice, I like it

Wish we had some water and subsequent ducks - I'd copy his design.

[Lasher]

3. We don't have water but the mallards fly in anyway.

They eat the cracked corn I put out for the deer and whoever else wants to eat it.

[Wickerman]

4. Interesting mallards would be nice to attract

We are in the flight path of Canadian Geese. I suppose I could attract those, but not sure I want to do that.

What I do want to do, and what might be more practical, is build a bat house. I'd like to attract some bats to the area.

[hippywife]

5. Husband built a bathouse

a couple of years ago or so, but so far I've yet to see even one. It would be nice to have them around.

[Wickerman]

8. I've read that bats are really finicky

And that they can attract to a location very slowly. Somewhere on the web there is a guy who for about a decade has kept blog of his efforts to attract bats. From his description one would think it would've worked out for him, but his luck hasn't been gangbusters. Over time, though, as I recall, he was able to attract some.

His site is cool, he used meters and probes to measure temperature and posted temp charts. Very informative and entertaining.

Oh, I found the link:

http://www.batbox.org/
http://www.batbox.org/bat_house_updates.html

[hippywife]

9. Cool.

I'll check it out. Would love to do without a few thousand mosquitoes in the summer, ya know?

[Lasher]

18. But once bats get established they are highly reluctant to leave.

I had to seal every little tiny hole in my FIL's house so they couldn't get back into the attic. If you have to do that make sure the pups have taken wing. Don't want to seal those little guys up in there.

[uppityperson]

21. We have bats under the tarpapper on your porch where we haven't shingled yet.

When we shingle we need to tap on the paper to get them out, or else go out the night before (after they are out flying) and tape the edges down. It was pretty funny the first time 1 showed up as we were working. We are putting up other small places for them to go into at night.

I found one gasping on a porch once after I started a bbq. Turned out there was a little gap between the porch and the house and bats had been sleeping there until I lit the fire and the charcoal lighter fluid gassed out. Poor little bat. Put it in a jar and took it out to the woods where it skittered around a tree.

[patrice]

7. Congratulations on being the Change we need!

I'm still smarting from mean remarks, made on this board, about the '60s. Whether you're from the '60s generation or not, the spirit lives on in this kind of self-sustaining initiative.

:applause:

[hippywife]

10. Hi, Patrice.

We're trying everything we can. It's been a really fun adventure. I love the challenge of it. :hi:

[patrice]

11. I know it's been done before, but have you considered writing about it, to tell

the rest of us a few things about HOW . . . ?

One of my biggest issues is: HOW, short of getting one of those big dumpsters and adding to the waste stream BIG TIME, do I get rid of a house full of stuff that I no longer want nor need? Giving it to charity isn't as easy as you might think. I've noticed on the coasts second-hand commercial enterprises have become fully developed. Here in the Mid-west, that's still very under-developed. With all of us Boomers headed into assisted living, you'd think someone would give Wal-Mart a run for their money, re-retailing lots of perfectly good stuff.

Oh well, I'm going to ignore this problem for yet another day and go knock on doors for Obama instead.

Talk to you later, hippywife. :hi:

[Wickerman]

12. In my part of the midwest personal property auctions are big

Pretty much any weekend there is a personal property auction going on within 20 minutes of where I live. It's often a couple downsizing that offers up their stuff, though more often it's the property of someone deceased or who has gone into a nursing home. A personal property auction tends to be collection of everything a person owned, sans the items in the refrigerator and clothing.

Consignment thrift or resell stores are growing here, and of course there are always yard, garage, rummage or tag, if prefer, sales going on in the warmer months.

I try to buy little brand new. It can take some time, but I'd rather spend the time to seek out something pre-owned that doesn't contribute to the excess of our society as it already has spent it's waste credits in it's production years before.

Regrettably, I'm not much into thinning out my own collection of stuff quite yet. My auction "finds" will one day, no doubt, enrich my own personal private property auction.

[patrice]

15. I will take my Summer vacation to get started on this year.

I will post my progress here (to keep the pressure on myself to do this).

[Grey]

13. This may not work for you but.....

I take all my extra stuff to the local women's shelter. The 'Chubby Hubby' complains that they have more of our stuff than we do.
I can't think of anyone who needs it more. I even collect stuff from friends and neighbours to take over there.

[hippywife]

16. That's a fabulous thing to do, Grey.

Thank you for being so generous to those who so desperately need it. :hi:

[patrice]

17. Thanks for the tip. I will do this and report back to DU. nt

[hippywife]

14. I don't know that

I'm either capable or qualified to write about it myself. I just read and learn from the experiences of others, too.

There's always craigslist or even freecycle. We try to get stuff there when we need it so things end up getting reused.

See you do something I cannot. I did do it for Dennis in the last election. I worked hard on issues for about three years or so but found I'm not really a political animal; I don't have the temperament and quick thought processes that are so important to possess in that arena. So we do what we can within our own lifestyle to make a difference.

Stay cool out there knocking on doors. Have a good one! :hi:

[LWolf]

19. That looks a lot like a bird feeder I just made with my grandson.

We're going to paint it this weekend; I'll try to remember to post a pic when we're done.

Same general idea, except that it has a hanger and a couple of rods for perches.

All made out of scrap wood.

He had a great time banging away with his kid-weight hammer.

[hippywife]

20. I bet he had a great time!

And was probably so proud of the end result. Ours is out of scraps, too. Plenty of those to be had around here and there's always a use for them. All I really wanted was something they couldn't step and poop in. This should do it! LOL

I would love to see yours when it's painted. :hi: