Crafty Fun Bird Feeders....recycled TP rolls

My Grandmother used to always feed her birds and we would just watch them for hours at the kitchen table through the window.  She taught me so many birds by the way they looked and or the sweet sounds they make.  I have grown up and have my own little girl and have passed this love of birds and God's majestic nature to her.  

We love feeding our birds and watching them enjoy their meals.  The fun thing is different ways of feeding them besides the regular feeders and just throwing it on the ground.  Winter here in Texas is off and on with temperature fluctuations but even with that the natural bug selection Thank God is scarce!

With that said I like to give the birds a little something extra to help fatten them up and supply much needed warmth.  In a magazine I have seen about peanut butter etc., but also the less expensive route in which we are using this winter is:  LARD!  I have to laugh, I don't cook with it but actually buy it for the protein for the birds!   Here is what we have on our tree branches/sticks now:

This is so easy here is what you need to complete this cheap, quick, easy, fun craft 

Bird Seed     a small tub of LARD     something to smear it on with, my $ store silicone brushes and TP empty rolls.   I absolutely love these little recycled things they make many cheap, fun crafts!

Next, get a roll, get some Lard on your brush of choice and paint/smear away!

Now for the FUN part!  When completely covered put it into the birdseed.

Just move it around and push it in a little with each turn

OK, now it should look like this! 

Now just decide where you want to put them and enjoy watching the birds have fun!  Our 6 rolls were ready to be replaced in less than a week once discovered!

Sure hope to inspire you to have a little craft fun and at the same time enjoy some of God's wonderful creatures!

Snow and Propane, God Has My Back

Well, today was a wonderful day, we woke up to Snow, beautiful white flakes & with heat and hot water!  You see when we woke up yesterday there was no hot water, no heater and it was 59 degrees in our house! 

Yes, it was cold!  We have lived in our house for 12 years and in all this time we have always had natural gas that ran from the Spindle Top Gas well on our property.  My Papaw/Grandfather set it up this way when he built this house back in 1982.   In November, there was a day we also woke to no hot water and no heat; our 1st official cold spell.  I called the people that run the well and the sweet man who has always helped us said, "Oh, they were supposed to let you know 30 days ago that your well has collapsed!  They will not be fixing it at this time and you will need to convert to propane or electric for your heat and hot hot water!"  

You can only imagine my shock, surprise and our conversation as I struggled being a single income family on a tight budget exactly what was next!  Thank God I called the propane place in town and they were able to convert our hot water tank and heater for propane and fill the tank 1/2 full.  This was only able to happen because this land is an estate and so that covered it for us at that time.

Imagine my surprise when all the sudden only 2 months had gone by and we had run out.  I in my wildest dreams never thought I'd run out of gas in my house.  When I was in High School, in my car, well that's another story and yes, it happened on more than one occasion!  Through God's grace I contacted the propane place and explained that we had no propane and thought there was a leak.  I told them it was freezing inside and I was baking banana bread just to heat the kitchen a little and that we were wearing our coats inside.  Here's my 11 year old sitting on the couch trying to type!

The sweet lady asked me, "why do you think you have a leak?" I explained that Thursday 4 days ago it started smelling like egg salad really strong by the hot water heater.  I then learned that when you get the "stink" your propane tank needs to be refilled!  Charlie Brown said it best:  Good Grief!  

It sure would have been nice to know this before!  So here we are in 30 degree nights and my husband doesn't get paid until this Friday, the 18th!   The propane company is compassionate but at the same time we had to spend 250$ just to get them out here for the 100 gallons which doesn't even get us 1/2 full!  

Thank God through his grace they came, re-lit the pilots, made sure the heater was working and let me post date my check till our payday for the extra 150$ November past due that the estate didn't cover!  That is God's grace for sure into today's world I know!  I took them a loaf of banana bread today as my way of blessing them for helping us.  The owner of the company I love like my own Papaw, he is a kind, gentle man.  He hugged us and then gave us a lesson in propane :)  He remembers Kendall being 2 feet shorter and me from 2009 when we used to fill our little tanks for the grill.  He always asks " how is your Mother?" and remembers her story that I will share another time, he shows my daughter and I God's love of a Father/Grandfather that I no longer have and that is how I know God has my back and His Angels are all around.... I thank Him for letting me see....

So now we are nice and toasty, know what to look and smell for and yes, are truly aware it can run out!  So if you run propane and smell eggs BeWaRe your running low! 

Well as the summer days get hotter it is so nice to have rain showers blow in!  We went from 99 to 80 within a few minutes today.  The gusts of wind were incredible and knocked over our shade umbrella and blew sand around to look like dirt tornado's blowing around.  As we went out today to get some Olive Oil and 4 spray bottles to complete all my Pintrest pins or something else requiring a spray bottle I had to stay in my care through our gate from grasshopper fear.....

We live in a rural area; we are on acreage and unfortunately do not have a tractor to keep the wild brush down.  After 10 years hear I have to admire my husband tremendously for the amount of work he puts into keeping my daughter and I out of a jungle forest of Mesquite trees and every large prairie grass, weed or cactus you can imagine!  Let me see if I can explain a little.  Here is some of my back yard.....  as you can see we do have neighbors but we only see them from a distance.

This photo was taken right before we got some much needed rain.  The sky is always so beautiful and amazing I photograph it a lot.  I am amazed at God's beauty all around.  The weeds are not tall in this photo I will have to take one of what we have now to share what we see now.


I pinned on my Pintrest Board under Gardening or Helpful Solutions the recipes for the 4 spray bottles I desire to make and use/try.  Please forgive me if I do not link them right as I don't know how.  I am trying and learning as I go and very new to this whole thing.  I do keep the original pins and refer back to them for correct credit.  


I look forward to showing the up-grown area we now live in and God bless my husband for keeping our fenced in yard mowed with his push mower.  He spends around 3 hours a weekend doing just that on top of working over 40 hours plus his 2nd part time job!  Thank God he loves what he does and the people he works with!  I agree, they are wonderful and he is happy.