Calling All Feathered Friends

We actually managed to do a leisurely unplugged project this week. Often times I realize late into the weekend (or even early in the week) that we haven't done the great idea I had planned for our unplugged project. We even occasionally do them and don't manage to get them posted before the week is well on its way, so I forgo posting about them. Not so this week. We'd been thinking about it since the TREE theme was posted and for some reason this is what came to me right from the start. I'd told Cori and Cassi to try and think of something but they never mentioned anything.

This afternoon I asked them if they'd like to make bird feeders. Cali was really excited. Cori was on her way out the door to spend the night with Alli so she didn't care much and Cassi kind of went along because Cali really wanted her to.

Once we got started it was really fun. I gave Cali a really long piece of yarn and a bowl of cheerios and let her string to her hearts content.

I gave her a little plastic needle as it made it much easier. In the picture below you can see the trees where we hope to host our new friends.



Every now and then she'd pass the string to me or Cassi and we'd string many at one time.

In fact once Cali figured out how we were doing it, she started doing the same.



I envisioned hanging our homemade bird feeders ( I wasn't originally sure how many different kinds we'd do) out by the koi pond and since we can see it well from the window, we stuck to that plan. We have two trees there about 8 feet apart. Now, I am not certain if the birds can cling to the yarn but in an effort to make it easier I pulled it very taut between the trees.

Because our string was so long, it took a little while but Cali stuck with it fairly well as long as Cassi or I took turns with her occasionally.

We had so much fun making these we decided to also make some peanut butter and birdseed covered pine cones.

Cassi was gone this time so Cori worked with Cali.

It was a little gooey but that just made it more fun.

We smeared peanut butter all over the pine cones. Grandma sent a huge box of these several years ago and we have just a small handful left. Once they were thoroughly covered we rolled them in birdseed. Then we tied a ribbon around the tops and hung them through out the two trees.



Cali was adamant about helping me hang them but after seeing the photos I think she really just wanted her picture taken.



We are looking forward to seeing some feathered friends arrive. I may pull the screen out of the window for the next couple days in hopes we can catch one with the telephoto lens.



For the record, I wouldn't usually hang anything like this with bears still on the prowl however we haven't seen any around this year, nor have we noticed any tracks. Also these are hanging on the side of the yard, right near the neighbor which isn't really where we see the tracks. If they come, they show up on the other side, nearer to the woods. If I notice tracks I will take it down but hopefully that won't happen.
It's a wonderful (Alaska) life!