It’s time for another Non-Consumer photo essay, where you get a sneak-peek at the tidbits that make up my world.
My back porch has a tendency to become a catch-all for just about everything.
It may not qualify for an Apartment Therapy post, but this is my back porch after I tidied it up. Spent batteries went to be recycled, a paper bag of nasty sneakers are ready to go to the Nike store to be transformed into playground surfacing and the dried old leaves went into the compost.
I just moved my hummingbird feeder to a more visible spot on my front porch. No point in having one if I can't watch the birdies. I also mixed up a new 4:1 water/sugar solution with a wee droplet of red food coloring.
My experiment with making The Frugal Girl's strawberry freezer jam was delightfully drama-free. Plus, I was able to hand one over when my friend came over bearing . . .
Freshly caught salmon!
Which I immediately cut into steaks to put into our freezer. She, of course was happy to receive a still-warm jar of strawberry jam.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Please, no food coloring in the hummingbird feeder! Not needed and it can be dangerous to the birds.
That salmon looks SO GOOD!
What are you going to do with the tail?
I’ll bake it and pick out the meat.
Katy
My friend who is a hard core birder warned me that red food coloring gives hummingbirds cancer. Safer to attach a red bow or something to your feeder. It attracts them just the same.
Crap. I guess I’ll mix up a new batch of syrup.
Katy
Mmm. Fresh salmon. I bought some frozen stuff at the grocery store a while ago. Never again! It turns the color of chicken when you cook it. Your’s looks delicious though!
Katy, hummingbirds are attracted by anything red. That is why so many feeders have red on them. It seems the little feeding places on yours are red. Some people tie multiple long, red ribbons to a bush to initially attract hummingbirds. How do you keep ants out of your feeder? Mine always gets full of ants, large black ants that drown themselves in the sugar water and clog up the feeding holes. I have never managed to attract a hummingbird because of ants. Nothing works.
I have not had this be an issue, but ants aren’t a big problem in my neighborhood.
Anyone else?
Kayu
To keep away ants I put a little bit of vegetable oil on the hanger. Ants won’t walk through the oil. Every time I clean and refill the feeder I re-oil the hanger. No ants! Works like a charm.
That salmon is oddly morbid…in a LOL way. The jam sounds awesome!
Great pics! I love your photo essays.
They make several ant guards for hummingbird feeders; usually some kind of little water trap that you hang your feeder from. I don’t know how well they work though.