You know cats. Change any little thing in their environment, and they pounce on the change in an instant! Well, there was change here today, and Andy wants to know what it’s all about.
Andy watches from the table…
“What is that…!?”
Dougy prefers to wait it out in his favorite new box.
Nothing much to show just yet. I mounted a window bird feeder on the window Andy likes to look out.
It will take a time before the birds find it and I’m feeding cracked safflower seed and niger seed, both of which attract specific birds to the exclusion of others. I expect American goldfinches and pine siskins mostly.
I’ll take photos when that happens!
Hi this is Tiffany from Liberty Orchards, we recieved your adorable pic of Dougy in our box. Alot of us in the office have cats and we are always talking about our furry kids.
We hope the box is holding up! Sorry it took so long for a reply. We are just about winding down in the Mail Order dept and it’s a little on the slow side. I had every intention of posting something the day we recieved it in the mail, but then we got incredibly busy.
I actually have your letter posted up behind my computer, so I can see a cute kitty all day!
I have my own Ms.Kitty, she is 19 and acts like a much younger cat.
Thank you again Doug, your letter brought many smiles and laughs!
Best Wishes, Happy Holiday’s, Happy New Year, and Happy Christmas too! Think I got them all in there.,
Tiffany ( and fellow co-workers), CSR in Mail Order Dept at Liberty Orchards!
Actually, I had an enlargement made of Dougy in the box since it is his favorite one. It hangs proudly on the wall in my living room, along with another enlargement of his brother Andy in an Amazon box. The boys love their boxes, and the house is a mess of boxes the cats won’t let me toss….! Anyway. The Liberty Orchards box still is intact and in use by Dougy. I wouldn’t dare toss it!
Ali says she wants a feeder in the window now.
Oh-oh! What have I done?!
Great idea Doug, but those suction cups probably won’t work. We had a bed that was suppose to attach to the window but would slide down whenever we tried standing on it so we gave up. Mom, well actually dad put up a feeder last Jan. but the birds didn’t come. When dad moved the feeder from the pea stake to the arbor, the birds couldn’t get there fast enough. There were little lines of birds fighting to get on the feeder.
Shoko
I don’t have a good spot for a feeder. My neighbor across the lane had one set up next to the lane that was just about perfect for birds and cats who watched them through the window. As noted, this new one hasn’t inspired much confidence so far…! As for birds using it, they have places they can easily fly to if frightened, and that makes a difference in their confidence it is safe to come in.
Hopefully, this winter we will have much better reception on our Bird TV…last year was all snowy and no birds.
Shoko
The boys manage to see a few every day, thanks to a wonderful fir that is perfect shelter for small creatures.
Did you ask before
Did you get permission
You bad person you
Nope! Just did it, come hell or high water! (Of course, it’s fallen off once already, so I don’t know how long it will stay up.)
The last picture = new favorite picture!!
I have to agree! Dougy really looks cute in that box. It is just right for him, and he loves, loves it. He actually spends more time in it than he does his old favorite, the grey plastic tub.
If your bird feeder is anything like ours, your first ‘guest’ will be a squirrel or maybe a tree frog.
It won’t support a squirrel. In theory, it is unattractive to squirrels, but I’ve never seen a “squirrel-proof” or “squirrel-resistant” feeder that stumped a squirrel for more than a moment!
Squirrels are clever acrobats. The only thing I’ve ever seen keep squirrels out of the feeder was ground/powdered habanero — one bite and 15 seconds later, the squirrel would stagger away – never to return. Habanero killed parasites in the birds, so they get very colorful.
That’s one I never tried!
I discovered it by accident. Had always known hot peppers were healthy for birds, and had a lot of extra powdered habanero one year, so liberally sprinkled it in the bird feeder. To this day, I wish I’d had the camera handy for the squirrel that staggered away.
The only squirrel in history thwarted at the bird feeder…! LOL!
Don’t know if that is fact or not, but it’s the only squirrel I can attest to — never saw a squirrel in that feeder, again.
He/she passed the word! I wish I’d tried that trick when I was a heavy bird feeder in the 1980s! I think I must have mostly fed squirrels.
We’re not fond of squirrels. In fact, yesterday, my husband cut down one papaya tree because squirrels were using it as a route to the roof…. Papayas are fast growing, so we know it will be back in a year – the papaya – that squirrel will be back any minute.
I couldn’t get past the fact that you not only had one papaya tree to cut down, you apparently have two! I’m drooling at the thought of it! If I were a neighbor, squirrels wouldn’t be your only problem, until I got a papaya to grow in my yard, anyway!
More like two dozen… if you were a neighbor, you’d find all sorts of strange things on your doorstep… we also have Asian pears, Oriental persimmons, two types of mangoes, avocados, all sorts of citrus, bananas, pineapples…. um, lots more – we obviously live in a tropical area and have ‘edible landscaping’.
[drool….!]
Papayas grow quickly from seed – have you tried growing one in a pot? You can grow the top of your pineapple into a plant and get fruit off it in a couple years, too… ditto for carrots, etc.
I’ve tried the pineapple top business, but failed to get a result. I don’t think I properly prepared the start or maybe I over or under watered it. I’ve grown aoacados from seeds several times, I started baobabs from seed, catalpa trees from seed, and others, so I surely could start a papaya or mango! Of course, I’d have a problem once it/ they got any size to them since they’d have to spend most of the year inside here. There is a fellow where I live who grows lemons and other tropical fruits in a geothermal-heated greenhouse. He helped the local high school set up a similar greenhouse for the students. It is possible to =grow such things here, with a lot of money and effort!.
When we lived in SC, we had a lemon tree that spent the winter in our greenhouse … evil, thorny thing that I called ‘the tiger’. Papayas can reach 10-12 feet in a year, and when they’re cut back, to 2-3 feet, they come back, so if you have a balcony or someplace to put the pot in the summer, you could shorten it when bringing it inside for the winter.
As per pineapple, it is best to leave about 1″ of pineapple ‘core’ under the green top, but clean off the edible part, as that will rot.
I think you answered all of my questions in one comment, Jeanne! I know I didn’t clean off the edible part of the pineapple or leave a long enough part, and i did rot. I didn’t realize lemon trees had thorns. Do orange trees and grapefruit trees, too?
To the best of my knowledge, all citrus have thorns … so do pomegranates, so the munchkins frequently have scratches that are obviously not from the furries.
This is totally unexpected news to me! Of course, if I produced such tasty fruit, I’d grow thorns, too, were I a tree! LOL!
Unfortunately, the squirrels seem to be capable of circumnavigating the thorns.
You’d pretty much expect that!
You’re trying to drive the boys crazy!!
By the way, Doug – have a great weekend!
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It may be me who goes crazy! It’s fallen off the window once already. It’s just three suction cups holding it onto the window. I hope I resolved that issue because I will leave it down it it continues to fall off. I’m not too impressed with this set up.
Happy Halloween to you, too!