A Testimonial: Droll Yankees

A couple years ago, I bought a rather expensive squirrel resistant bird feeder from a company called Droll Yankees. It's called a Yankee Dipper.

I'd already purchased several of their smaller feeders and loved them. They're well made, sturdy, and they come apart easily for cleaning (honestly, that was my favorite thing). The also came with a lifetime warranty which, having gone through dozens of feeders because the dang red squirrels chewed their way in, was attractive, despite the overall higher cost of their products.

Fast forward to this year. I put out my feeders after a year away (stupid bear) and noticed that three of the perches on the Yankee Dipper had been broken by the dang sqirrels -- the perches are spring loaded so they just wilt when something too heavy is on them. Apparently, after a certain amount of uses, they break. I found two of the perches below the feeder.

Saturday last, I emailed Droll Yankees' customer service with my problem and asked them to replace the perches on their Lifetime Warranty. Monday I had an email from them asking for my mailing address. Yesterday I had a new bird feeder base in my mail.

In less than a week, I had complete satisfaction. Now THAT is some serious customer service, folks, and it makes me thrilled I purchased my feeders from them. In fact, I was happy enough that I've been perusing the site for more feeders (I'm thinking I need an oriole feeder and a hummingbird feeder).

So -- if you love to feed the birds and are looking for an amazingly good product that's truly backed by a company who clearly believes in the product they make, I highly recommend Droll Yankees.

=================

You Are a Chicken

You are a naturally curious and inquisitive being. You are often poking your nose where it doesn't belong! Collecting nuggets of knowledge is important to you. You enjoy knowing everything you can. You are very independent and strong willed. You don't like to be bossed around, and you do as you please. You are quite determined and able to take on challenges. You will "peck away" at a problem until it's gone.

What Animal Are You?

ROFL... the description is actually quite accurate.

Lions and Tigers and Bears!

I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. ~Henry David Thoreau

Well, okay... only bears.

Yesterday morning, about 10 a.m., DD happens to look out her window to the woods out back -- a habit we both have because it's where I keep my bird feeders and we love to watch all the birdies. Only, it wasn't a bird she saw.

"MOM!! There's a bear taking your feeders!"

Because I have my priorities, I ran for the camera ... but he was too fast for me. DD was upstairs yelling and the dog was barking and it was all too much for the bear. Unfortunately, he didn't drop my suet feeder though (it was my good one!) but he took off into the woods, which are only about 20 feet back.

He wasn't a huge bear, but not tiny either. My guess? A juvenile maybe a couple years old... could be that his mama kicked him out on his own this spring and he's just not doing so well on a diet of unripe blueberries and chipmunks, so is looking for easier fare.

I waited a few minutes and then went out to bring in the rest of the feeders... sadly. One of my great joys is watching my birds, especially this time of year. One of the coolest things I get to see is the mama woodpeckers bringing their babies to the suet feeders and teaching them how to use it. Yesterday, I had to see mamas and babies come over, hang on the tree and "peep peep peep" looking around for the feeders that have been there for YEARS .... and see nothing. I wanted to cry. I did close my windows and sliding glass door on that side of the house so I couldn't hear them anymore, because it broke my heart.

Later in the day, I took a walk and bumped into a neighbor a couple houses down. I mentioned the bear and she said that just a week or two before, her DH opened the curtains to the deck (it was night and he'd heard a noise) to find a bear on the deck, on his back, drinking the sugar water in their hummingbird feeder. He ran for his camera, too (yes, we're all a little strange) but refused to open the screen so didn't get a good picture.

I'm thinking it's the same bear. And something got into my garbage a couple weeks ago, too. Dragged the garbage bag back into the woods a bit and tore it apart. It especially liked the empty container for my DH's "International Coffee" and the empty container for my chocolate soy milk -- so whatever it was, it had a sweet tooth.

In any case, the feeder are going to stay inside for now. Not only do I not want to lose any more feeders, but it's not fair to the bear. He's going to get used to stealing from people and it's going to get him in trouble. I don't want to contribute to that.

But still... this morning, when my birds were peeping from the trees around where my empty hooks are sitting, it was all I could do not to put out food. I'm terribly sad.

==================

Your PB and J Says You're Adventurous and Accepting

Your eating style is gluttonous. If you like something, you're going back for seconds... no matter how full you are! You have an average sweet tooth. While you enjoy desserts, they aren't exactly your downfall. Your taste in food tends to be pretty flexible. You may crave sushi one night, and your favorite childhood recipe the next. You are probably a fairly normal, upper middle class person. You don't rock the boat too often. You are a tough person who isn't afraid to live life fully. There isn't a lot that scares you. You are laid back and extremely easygoing. You never make a fuss, and you try to enjoy every moment.

What Does Your Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich Say About You?

Nope... that's almost completely wrong... lol... But I do love a good PB&J!!

=========================

Making Time

Sometimes I feel that life is passing me by, not slowly either, but with ropes of steam and spark-spattered wheels and a hoarse roar of power or terror. It's passing, yet I'm the one who's doing all the moving. ~ Martin Amis

Yesterday I made time...okay, not exactly, but despite the fact that I'm still (and always) buried in LASR/WC/Goddess Fish work, I decided I would make time to do some other things.

So... I wrote.

Only it wasn't as successful as I may have liked, since the story is coming out like a bunch of dog excrement. It's frustrating: I know the characters, I have the plot loosely outlined, I have a pile of scenes I can see CLEARLY in my mind, but when I write them??? They are horrible. Stilted. Dull.

Should I push through and get it down on paper? Or do I stop and try to figure out why this book, which should be quite fun and sexy, is coming out dry and boring?

I also spent some time with DD.

We played Battleship for an interminable amount of time. Then we were going to put the rest of her jewelry up on Artfire, but got sidetracked. We received an email from another artisan telling us that DD's items were lovely, but that we weren't pricing them high enough -- that the low prices were indicating to possible buyers that we didn't value our work and made them hesitant to buy.

And I sat and wondered if that were true.

And I agonized... because we price them to make a profit, but not a huge one. And we're not trying to rip anyone off. But, OTOH, are we making it look as though her work is cheap? Not worth anything?

I'm still not certain ... and we surfed both Artfire and Etsy to see what other people charge, and we are lower than most.

So, what do we do?

For now -- we put a about a quarter of the items on DistinctivelyDD on sale to clear out the older items for the new stuff she's making (LOTS of earrings for $1.99/each!) and will contemplated the prices. You should go look. *G*

Frustrating. What do YOU think?

==========================

I forgot to bring in my birdfeeders last night... and just now, as the sun was rising, my heart was in my throat. Had the bear gotten them? I didn't want to lose my stupidly expensive, squirrel resistant Droll Yankee Dipper.

:::Peeking out through my fingers:::

PHEW! Still there. I'm so lucky!

===========================

You Are a Verb

You are an active and proactive person. Verbs are doing words, and you are a doing creature. You're always up to something. Inaction drives you crazy. You get bored and restless easily. And even when you take time to sit still, you don't quiet your mind. You are in a different state every few minutes. Whether you're thinking, working, playing, loving, wondering, reading, or simply smiling - you are a verb all the way.

What Part of Speech Are You?

Yep, yep, yep....

=========================

Sunshine...

In June, as many as a dozen species may burst their buds on a single day. No man can heed all of these anniversaries; no man can ignore all of them. ~Aldo Leopold

Dear heavens... it's SUNNY. It wasn't supposed to be, and even the weather websites say it's cloudy here, but they LIE. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm in heaven.

Sadly, I had to take back the Yankee Flipper yesterday. After I opened it and read the instructions, I found it doesn't work with red squirrels or chipmunks. That's pretty much all I have on my feeders, so it wasn't appropriate. Apparently the one they recommend for those particular rodents is the Yankee Dipper -- not as amusing, but hopefully will save my seed. Agway ordered it for me. Have I mentioned how much I love them?

Speaking of Agway, they have all their baby chicks in and we visited with them a little bit yesterday. Dakota kept sticking her nose into the cracks, and the chicks would peck her and she'd jerk away and then do it all over again. Dork dog.

So, today, I may play hookey at least a little bit. The weeds in my gardens are going to need baling soon if I don't get them pulled. Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy again -- which will put a bit of a damper on our Father's Day barbecue, but I'll make the most of the moment.

Have a great day!

=============================

You Are a Natural Beauty!

You're the kind of beauty that every guy dreams about... One that looks good in the morning - without a stitch of makeup That's doesn't mean you're a total hippie chic though You have style, but for you, style is effortless

What Type of Beauty Are You?

If that means I seldom wear make-up, then YES, they are right. *G*

=======================

For Hours of Entertainment...

Those little nimble musicians of the air, that warble forth their curious ditties, with which nature hath furnished them to the shame of art. ~Izaak Walton

I've been having squirrel problems at the bird feeders... more squirrels than I've ever had before. I have chipmunks, too, but they don't eat as much AND they typically eat what falls on the ground, which is fine with me. But the SQUIRRELS. DH is always saying he could "take care of them" for me... yes, a loosely disguised offer to kill them.

I'm a big believer in letting things live if they aren't a threat to my safety, or my plants safety (I say this, because I am pretty mean to the red lily leaf beetles, Japanese beetles, wireworms, tomato worms and the great number of other insect pests that strip my plants -- those assassinate without pity and without mercy), so I'm not going to entice the little rodents to my feeders and then kill them. That's just wrong.

Instead... I splurged and bought a new bird feeder: The Yankee Flipper.

Aside from (hopefully) keeping the squirrels off my feeder, I have great hope that it will provide hours of entertainment. Here's a YouTube video I found (keep the volume down unless you like the song "You Spin Me Round" by Dead or Alive:



And, my lovely local Agway (I really, really love them) assured me I can bring it back if it doesn't work. They're the best people ever -- I can even bring back OPENED pet food, or used bug spray or whatever if it doesn't work or I'm dissatisfied in any way. They're such great folks...

====================

I wrote -- not yesterday, unfortunately, but I did write the day before! Just over 1000 words on a short romantic comedy based on the short I did for Womans World that was rejected some months ago. It's so much fun to write -- because they are getting into one predicament after another. Do you think they're cursed? LOL.... Anyway, I don't know how long it will be (I'm aiming for at least 12k words), or where I'll send it (I'm torn between Samhain or a particular publisher that is looking for short stories for a print anthology... I'd sure like to see it in print), but I love it and I know how it ends, so should actually be able to GET THERE.

I also worked some more on Stiller Creek... this one is harder since I have to go back and add in a character and make it look seamless, as though he'd been there from the beginning. But, it's giving me a chance to work on some things I didn't love, and I might go ahead and resubmit it to Samhain once it's done (since she did offer to look at it again). We'll see...

======================

Rain is expected for most of the weekend, so fun will be had by all here... NOT. DH and DD can't go boating, Dd will be cooped up... ugh. Please, please let the sun come out tomorrow... and, wow, that was an inadvertant earworm, for which I apologize profusely.

Any plans for the weekend?

========================

Lions and Tigers and BEARS!

My favorite weather is bird-chirping weather. ~Loire Hartwould

Okay... only bears. But then the title wouldn't be so catchy.

Yesterday morning I awoke to a scene of carnage...



Apparently hibernation season is over... a little early. I don't typically start pulling my feeders in at night until DD's birthday, a couple weeks from now. But, it's been warmer, the snow is pretty much melted and apparently the bears are awake.

Thankfully, it only completely destroyed one feeder:



Though it took a big bite out of my finch feeder:



It very thoughtfully OPENED the suet baskets and took out the suet. The last couple of times the bear has gotten to my suet, s/he's destroyed the baskets. This time, they're still functional. So, that was nice.

In any case, now I know. Last year, I made it through the entire year without losing any feeders, so this is not an auspicious beginning to my season.

==============================

You Are Rosemary

You are stable and grounded. You may take a slow, steady approach to live, but you're a survivor. You are an intellectual and very rational. You can see things from a logical, detached viewpoint. You are successful but not particularly ambitious. You have a way of letting success come to you. You tend to be a bit understated and modest. You let your accomplishments speak for themselves.

What Herb Are You?

Mostly.. though I would say I'm ambitious but not particularly successful! LOL...

======================

A Few Snow Day Pictures

A good snapshot stops a moment from running away. ~Eudora Welty

Monday, Dakota wanted to go out and play -- but she kept charging the bird feeders and actually found our first wildbird casualty of the year (a little goldfinch, poor critter) and made a game of tag out of our trying to catch her before she swallowed its corpse. So, she had to sit inside:



And watch DD play:


And learn how to occupy herself:




And then Tuesday came. And the sun came out (yay!), and I discovered my birdies were out of food (I'd refilled the feeders on Sunday before the storm), so I ventured into the wilderness to feed them.

I had to dig a path -- On Sunday, this was just an inch or so of ice -- so you can see how much it snowed:



And I filled the feeders and laughed at the squirrel prints:


And looked at my two front flower gardens that were completely melted (and sprouting bulbs and seedum) on Sunday:




And wondered if Spring would ever come...

===============================

Your Daisies Say You're Very Resilient

You have a spirit of pure optimism. Your view of the world is eternally cheerful. You are bold and vibrant. Incredibly striking, you always stand out in a crowd. You are adaptable and flexible. You can thrive in almost any situation. You are often under estimated. Your critics and enemies are in for a surprise.

What Do The Flowers You Pick Say About You?

HAHAHAHA... no

=================

A Visitor to the Feeder

“I have never been in a natural place and felt that was a waste of time. I never have. And it's a relief. If I'm walking around a desert or whatever, every second is worthwhile.” - Viggo Mortensen

Look who visited our bird feeders a day or two ago (sorry I couldn't get closer, but I had to take the picture through the kitchen window):



He was so healthy looking, fat with a fluffy tail as big as his middle! Amazing. He just sat there and ate birdseed off the ground for a good ten minutes until something startled him (he did the same "vulture" look that Dakota does when she sees something she doesn't like... it was funny) and he trotted off into the woods.

Because we are so close to a massive amount of woods (conservation area behind us), we get lots of action out back. I've seen a fisher cat, a bear, a hawk (this one amused me to no end, because there were squirrels on my feeder when he flew over. They ran up the tree that he landed in. One was directly above him and one immediately behind him around the tree and I swear I could hear them thinking, "You don't see me... you don't see me..."), lots of deer and chippies and TONS of birds. It's amazing how many birds I get to my few feeders. I wish I could afford to put out more! I've had a domestic cat back there a few times, which makes me angry -- my birds aren't a cat buffet and I sure wish folks would keep them inside for the birds' sake AND for the cat's sake.

======================

A couple gratuitous Christmas photos.

Santa 'Kota:



I think DD likes the afghan Gram made for her:



And Dakota likes the one Gram made for me her:



============================