Chimes and Birds wants to wish all Moms out there a Happy Mother’s Day. This is your special day so do what you want & enjoy it!

After we mow the lawn I let the clippings dry out and then rake them up to mulch around trees. When I place the clippings around the trees I leave a space away from the bark of the tree trunks. This allows air circulation for the tree to breathe.

The benefit to this mulch is it puts nutrients like nitrogen & potassium right at the trees roots. Also over time, it will block out the weeds so trimming will not be needed. This will help protect the tree trunk from the “ouch” of a weed whip hitting it.

Some people don’t agree with the use of grass clippings as mulch because of disease or moister problems. Some also claim it attracts grubs. If you let the clippings dry some before placing them you should be good. I really have never had any issues when I use this method of mulching. Our trees are strong and healthy.

Grass clippings decompose quickly so you’ll need to “top off” every time you mow. If you do not like to use the clippings around your trees, please consider a compost pile rather then the landfill.

Leaving the clippings on the lawn is also beneficial. Just make sure you are mowing more often so the clippings are about 1” long. Large wet clumps of clippings are not good for the lawn.

Chimes and Birds hopes this tip will help you, please share your thoughts below.

Until next time, enjoy your yard!

In honor of Earth day, April 22nd, we would like to share just a few ideas of items that we recycle with you. Earth day started in 1970 and was a movement to help bring attention to all the wrongs we do to the planet. Back then cars used leaded gasoline. Factories just unloaded pollutants into the air and water. We put anything and everything into landfills without a second thought. Well things have changed, and for the good of the planet and future lives on it.

Along with normal recycling habits we do some extra things that may not seem like a lot, but we feel every little bit helps. We try to re-use or recycle as much as we can. Here are just a couple of ideas that might work for your home also.

Glass – Not many places are currently accepting glass for recycling. This I find hard to believe because many items are still packaged in glass and not plastic. We how ever did find a source to recycle our clear glass. A local artist has a shop for blown glass. He melts the glass down and makes beautiful vase, bowls and so forth. Maybe there is some group or artist in your neighborhood that could use you glass for crafts or projects.

Plastic pails – We use 5 gallon plastic pickle pails for tons of things. These pails are great to retrieve water from our rain barrels. Use to catch the water for monthly fish tank water changes. Carry them to gather rubble from yard. Get the lids with them and store bird seed and much more in them. Pickle pails can be found at most business that sell sandwiches & burgers, for free or a couple of bucks. We also use the ice cream pails to store flour, sugar and more in. Kids always find a use for pails!

Yogurt and cottage cheese containers – Great for staring seeds for your garden and flowerbeds. Pack leftovers in them for freezing and lunches.

Metal – We recycle our metal at my husbands’ work place instead of the normal recycling station. They use the money they get for scrap metal to have BBQ’s or buy items for their workplace, like a new grill and so forth. Maybe there is some type of fund raising that you could give scrap metal to. Every home has some metal, soup and vegetable cans count!

Egg cartons – All our egg cartons go to local farmers that raise chickens and sell eggs.

Newspaper – We use a lot of our newspaper (non shiny) for landscape weed block. Works awesome and will decompose over the years.

Don’t forget yard sales and donations! You could make some extra money or get a tax deduction. One mans trash is another mans treasure!

All the little things will add up, we just have to think about how we could help. Put your mind to work and see what you could recycle.

Get out and enjoy this beautiful planet! Your comments welcome.
Chimes and Birds
One stop shop for birdhouses and feeders

Chimes and Birds would like to wish all our friends, family, prior & new customers a very safe and blessed Easter. This is a sure sign of spring and time to spruce up the yard or deck with a new wind chime, hummingbird feeder or wood birdhouse! Check our all our awesome garden accessories at our on-line store! http://www.ChimesAndBirds.net

With warmer temperatures, trees are budding and bulbs pushing through the soil or even blooming. Not to mention the lawns getting greener. The wood ticks have returned!

The female wood tick has white on it and the male is mainly brown. Both the male and female feed on blood. The female could lay eggs right after feeding. Ticks take several days to complete feeding.

Wood ticks are commonly found in grass or shrubby areas. Fields of tall grass is a great place to have them attach to you or your dog. Walking or working in the woods is another common place. They attach themselves to humans and animals for a host. Ticks appear as soon as warm temperatures arrive. Most wood ticks will last all summer until a good frost.

The life cycle of a tick is one to three years. While in a lava stage they feed on rodents. As adults they target cattle, deer, dogs & people. When ticks attach you need to take care to remove them completely, they need to be removed in one piece. Grab the tick close to the skin with sanitized tweezers and pull SLOWLY. Let it help by backing itself out. If it the tick doesn’t back out, try adding some rubbing alcohol, cooking oil or petroleum jell to the surface of the skin. This will drown the tick and make it back out of the skin. Note this could take up to 5 minutes so be patient, remember you want the whole tick removed to avoid an infection. Once removed destroy it. Remember they have a very tuff shell. A little soak in rubbing alcohol does a nice job. A toss in the toilet or in a fire also has great results & satisfaction!

Ticks of all types carry disease, Lyme disease the most common one found mainly from deer ticks. The key is to protect yourself & pets. Keeping grass mowed, walking on trails while out hiking. Use a repellant on you & you pets. Deet for people works great & Frontline on pets is awesome! Where light clothes and inspect you, family members and pets when done with outside activities.

With simple common sense you can enjoy summer and the great outdoors tick free. If you at any time think you might have an infection related to a tick bite, seek medical attention. Common signs are a rash that looks like a bull’s-eye. Any rash after a tick bite or a fever with unexplained illness after a tick bite needs medical attention.

Chimes and Birds hopes this information was helpful to you so you can enjoy you summer! Remember wild birds will also eat ticks so bird feeders in your yard could help to lesson the amount of ticks you see. We have a great selection of seed feeders at our on-line store, stop by and check them out! http://www.ChimesAndBirds.net

Until next time, enjoy nature! Share your thoughts below.

I started wondering about this little guy and why our wood pile. What was he eating was my first question. Weasels eat a wide variety of food. Wild ones are carnivores and are very skilled hunters. Depending on the food source available where the live is what they’ll eat. Yes survival of the fittest comes into play here. All weasels eat other small animals like rabbits, chipmunks, rats and even frogs! Farmers who have chickens and rabbits have experienced a weasel raid now and then. This would explain the dead rabbit in our wood pile with missing body parts. YUCK! On a nicer note they tend to keep the mice population down.

Weasels are long and slender. They turn white in the winter and keep the tip of their tail black. Come summer they will be brown with a white underside. The male is much larger then the female. They have many family members built the same way like the ferret, mink, and the marten to name a few. They are a nocturnal animal so dusk and dawn are the best times to try to get a look at them.

These little guys like to make home near water. To find them in ditches is not uncommon. The do make dens, live in hollow trees or even take over an old mole run or gopher burrow. Sound a bit lazy to me!

For the most part weasels are an asset because of the ability to keep the mice population down. But keep in mind they have killed chickens on farms also.
Hope you enjoyed or experience with a weasel.

Enjoy nature! Comments always welcome!
Chimes and Birds

Spring will soon be here so it’s time to get ready for the return of our feathered friends! All bird feeders need and should get a healthy scrubbing. Through the winter our bird feeder cleaning a might take the back seat due the weather. Now is the perfect time to clean all bird products we have.

Bring feeders in the home to warm up. Remove all “pasty stuck” seeds from the feeders. Run a warm solution of 10% bleach water through the feeders. Dry completely before refilling with fresh seed.

If the feeder needs a touch up to the finish such as paint, do it now. With so much to do outside when the weather breaks you’ll be glad you did.

Make sure all birdhouses have been cleaned out of last years nesters. A bleach solution works well here also.

Bird baths that have been put into storage for the winter also need to be cleaned. Use a soft cloth with a bleach solution to wipe out the bowl.

Make sure all bird items cleaned with bleach solutions are rinsed completely! The more rinsing the better!

If this is too much for you to tackle… now it the time to buy new bird feeders & birdhouses. They will arrive in time to welcome your entire little feathered friend!

At Chimes and Birds we have a large selection of bird & garden accessories to choose from. Stop by the on-line store and check them out!

Until we can enjoy our summer birds, enjoy them winter ones!

Thanks for stopping by, your feedback is always welcome!

Chimes and Birds

This is a male Pine Grosbeak. We’ve had the pleasure of him hanging out at our seed bird feeding station for a week or so now. The bright red color is just awesome with our snowy back ground. The male has black and white wings which just set off the red color and make it burst!

Immature grosbeaks have similar color as females. As they grow they change from a pinkish to the bright red of a male adult.

This bird is the largest of Washington finches, about the size of an American Robin.

The female Pine Grosbeak is not as colorful. They have no red coloring. These little ladies have bodies of grey with heads and necks of orange or rust color. Their wings and tails are dark brown with white bars.

Nests are made of twigs, moss, grass, lichens and fur. The nest itself is a bulky cup shape. The female typically lays about 4 pale blue-green blotched eggs each year. Eggs take 13-15 days to incubate. Dad helps with the chores by bringing mom and babies’ food. Pine Grosbeaks breed in sub-arctic and conifer forest. Generally they breed in wet areas or other open areas near a tree line. Their non-breeding habitat is determined by available food.

This birdies like to dine on buds, fruits, berries & seeds. In the summer about 15% of their diet is made up of insects. Most forging is in trees but they will eat seeds off the ground.

We hope you have the pleasure to view these wonderful birds up close. Visit our on-line store a grab a new seed feeder for your yard to help welcome the Pine Grosbeak!

Until next time, Enjoy them birds!

Chimes and Birds

Even though it’s winter and cold out, seed bird feeders still need cleaning maintenance on a regular basis. With wind blowing snow into the tray area seed will freeze and thaw as the sun and temperatures rise and fall. This will cause seed to get moldy and rancid. A bad food source will make birds sick or even kill them.

Simple cleaning will prevent seed from going bad in feeders. Time between cleanings has many variables, weather is the main one. If you see moldy seed in the feeder, you must disinfect the feeder. Use a solution of 10 parts water to 1 part bleach. Soak the feeder for a couple of minutes if possible. Otherwise just keep pouring the solution through the feeder. A small soft brush can be used to remove any mold stuck inside. It is VERY important to rise the feeder thoroughly! Let the feeder air dry so fresh seed will not absorb the moisture. You can also use an air hose to speed up the drying time. Our goal is to never see moldy seed in a feeder.

Cleaning your feeders will keep them looking good for years to come. Different bird feeders require different cleaning and maintenance. Check requirements on the package of all new feeders.

Fill bird feeders with fresh seed. To help keep feed safe for birds store in a location that rodents can get at. Rodents can carry diseases to birds that don’t effect them. Never put rancid seed back into a feeder.

If we want to welcome and enjoy birds in our yard we need to make it a safe environment for them. Don’t over crowd them, more bird feeders is better then less. Clean fresh food and water is a must. If we can”t live up to these simple rules, then we shouldn’t invite birds to our yard.

Visit Chimes and Birds for many styles of seed feeders for year round use.

Enjoy them birds! Share your cleaning tips!