Adding obstacles

The squirrels really appreciate that I put out dried ears of corn, but they go through one ear in a day. I added an obstacle, so they have to work harder for the corn by tying knots in a 1/2” hemp rope and adding a screw eye. The corn is twisted onto the screw and hangs in the middle of the rope.

Photo description: Rope tied from the bird feeder stand to to railing with an ear of dried corn hanging from the middle

The squirrels have figured out how to get one kernel at a time off, but prefer the birdseed. We have a four squirrel family, so maybe one will figure this out while the others are gorging on seed.

I will twine

What to do at the lake when you’re waiting for the fish to bite and there are downed reeds at your feet? Twine! It was a beautiful day, but the fish weren’t frenetic and my worm duties were low, so I stripped down a reed that had washed up on shore. After removing the inner soft material from the strong outer casing and tearing it into even strips, I started to twine. I had a new technique from Sally Pointer (on YouTube) that I wanted to try. Instead of adding strands end to end, she adds the new strand in the middle, so each side gets new material. Nice!

Photo description: five wraps of green twine made from reed with the lake and blue skies in the background. This is about an hour’s worth of twine.

This twine was quite strong; I couldn’t break it with my hands. Next time I might see how fine I can twine.