progress

[celticdragonfly]

The second broadripple sock (Laura's size large Trippple Rippple version) is DONE as of last night. First sock took me about 10 days, I busted my butt working on the 2nd one and managed to get it done in ... 8 days. No, speed knitting is not happening. Now I need to get a photo of them completed so I'm eligible for the knitalong raffle. One of the prizes is for the best picture of them - anybody got any brilliant ideas for how to set up a picture?

Now working on a pair of clover eyelet rib socks for Maggie, in the leftover rainbow yarn from Brendan's VeryUnSad Rainbow socks. I think there's enough. This is the pattern I'm using

Posting on LJ (or email, or most anything else) is becoming much more challenging as Jamie has reached the age of reaching out and whacking the keyboard at random.

In other news, we put a birdfeeder up in the backyard. Mostly the birds don't seem to know it's there yet. But we did get a brief visit from a redwinged blackbird this morning.

Comments

[technomom]

Put out fresh water, too - that brings more birds :-)

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

Izzat how it works? Okay, see, I'm learning all this domestic home stuff finally, late in life. Does one actually need a birdbath, or is there some cheaper way to accomplish this? (And how does one avoid it just being a breeding ground for mosquitos?)

[technomom]

I didn't know about the water 'til I read it in the last year or so :-) My parents had bird feeders out for years, 'til Daddy got tired of the squirrel wars. They never put out water, though. So our small attempts, with water, attracted more birds right away.

I just put out a shallow dish intended for a dish garden, and clean it every day or two. No skeeters that way.

[selenite.livejournal.com]

That'd work well. Might want to make the rinse and refill one of Brendan's chores, he does pretty well with the cats.

[archangelbeth]

Here is my .sig from when da minx was being particularly wiggly.

--Beth, typing w/a uncoopertive baby (iolanthe) causing typos.
arcangel is nursing a trout with ARMS! ARMS that reach out and try to pound the keyboard!
You say "And teeth. Ow."

[celticdragonfly.livejournal.com]

He's working on the teeth.

Maggie, of course, seriously tries to get into things on the computer. But I'm used to that. Jamie used to be just a baby bundle on my lap, but now he's starting to seriously flail.

[kk1raven.livejournal.com]

The sound of water attracts a lot of birds that won't normally come to bird feeders, plus depending on the weather and local conditions, the birds often need water at least as much as they need food.

Instructions for making birdbaths and drippers can be found at
http://abc.net.au/creaturefeatures/make/bath.htm
and http://birding.about.com/library/weekly/aa042400a.htm .

The best drippers that I've seen have been made by taking a plastic bucket, making a small hole in the bottom and running a piece of string though the hole with a little weight on the end. The sting should just about fill the hole and should hang down several inches, with the weight being something like a fairly heavy bead - small, but enough weight to keep the string hanging straitght. Hang this several feet above the bird bath. The water seeps down the string, collects on the bead and drip into whatever you put beneath it.

You can also buy all sorts of fancy drippers, but apart from maybe not having to fill them yourself, they mostly don't actually attract birds any better then good homemade drippers. They tend to look nicer though.

I also found some sites for you with instructions for bird feeders that kids can make.
http://www.northern.edu/natsource/DAKOTA1/Birdfe1.htm
http://www.care2.com/channels/solutions/outdoors/599