Go Watch Birds

The winter is kicking in here in Arizona. The southwest has had some very cold weather over the past few weeks.  It is supposed to warm up by the end of the week. My kids having grown up in Phoenix and still being young, four and two years old, have not really experienced cold yet. We have some friends that have just built a home in Flagstaff and we decided to go for a day trip to visit and let the kids know what cold is really like.

We decided to bring them a new bird feeder to put in their newly decorated garden. The kids picked out a nice tube bird feeder from gzbirdsupply.com. I suggested they pick a model with either a squirrel cage or squirrel baffle, as the squirrel population in Flagstaff is notorious for devouring all your bird seed and suet cakes.

As I said earlier, our friends have just recently remodeled their garden,  They included a new garden shed to store their supplies for working in the backyard. I had just recently purchased a wooden shed to accent and unused area of my garden. I recommended they do the same and I was looking forward to seeing the results.

So after a two hour drive and a 30 degree drop in temperature we were in Flagstaff. There was not much snow but that did not matter as neither of our kids had ever seen any snow. We took some sleds and did some sleigh riding in their backyard. This was plenty for the kids as they have no frame of reference. We are planing a trip east to the white mountains for some skiing later this year and I would guess that their standards will change after that. Our friends were very happy with the new bird feeder and we really enjoyed spending time in their new garden.

After a nice leisure lunch in town we were off for our drive back to Phoenix. It was a good trip and some good exposure to truly cold temperatures. The kind of temperatures my wife from Illinois and me from New York are both used to!

Filed under: Backyard Decorating, Squirrel Proof on December 15th, 2009