Yeah!!!! Theo, welcome home and I've missed you. Me, not at the party? LOL. I'm like a bad penny. Jo, that is sort of what happened at my house. It seems like the things I share with my hubby, or teach him at, he usually excels in and surpasses me. He did that with embroidery first. I taught him how to do counted cross stitch and it turned into a decade long hobby with work more intricate than I'd ever dream of touching. Likewise the bird watching. He is very astute at noticing those minute markings one usually overlooks when describing common-looking species like sparrows. Because of this diligence, we have been able to document and photograph some rare sightings when ten years ago, alls we would have known was they were sparrows. We do counts daily and keep logs on them. I do the transcribing, but he does the bones of the work, keeps the feeders filled, and like your husband is very specific about what goes in them. It is correct the suet preference can change because the species change who prefer suet and some lean toward nuts and some toward fruit and it's a time and season sensitive thing.

It has been my experience that eating the little B*****s scares them, and some of them leave the property.

Wow, this thread has really grown with some fantastic goodies since I was last here! Prill, Allison, Pinch and Firsthouse, you can start packing up your Flow Blue, wooden boxes and tablecloths, and Jessica Martin painting because UPS will be arriving shortly to pick them up for me. Thanks! Speaking of thanks, here's a big one to all of you who had some kind words for my coffee lady! Like most other choices in my kitchen, this one was a matter of love at first sight and so your "I like her too!" affirmations are making me feel like Sally Fields. lol. That said, I'm hoping this thread continues with others of you posting more of your own loves as well.

Jim, I have plenty of plants that don't do as well when I fuss, too. LOL. I've learned over the years to just ignore the hell out of my house plants because every time I leave for a week, they grow. When I'm home, they do not LOL! It also becomes glaringly clear when I come back and nothing outside died--in fact, some thrive if nothing is happening to them, including water. It's helped me cut down on pepper watering a LOT though I'm sure I still give them more than they need. But what I can't stand is ugly. Bring inherently lazy and hating the heat, I look at my overgrown mess and plan for DAYS just to go out and prune, tie and otherwise clean them up. It just annoys me. I may very well be slowing them down due to cutting off so many leaves but it is what it is. I have never had one die and short of this year when I got such a late, late start--I usually am sick of tomatoes in general by September. Of course, come January, I plant seeds again anyway, Walnut trees... All I can say is don't do it, The two black walnuts I had were massive, each being over 30 years old at the time, at least. The amount of shade they provide is ridiculous, but that's not the problem. It's the juglone that exists in every part of their being that kills off everything nearby....even my containers would suffer and in-ground was impossible. Other than the heavy canopy, the roots...omg, these roots would run through the lawn, under the house and basically everywhere. Because I had two on opposite sides of the property, everything in between the 100 feet or so in the middle was the dead zone. Therefore, all the way around the perimeter of the house was a small plot of land where I could plant. I suspect nothing had been planted there since the dark ages. Since I discovered this juglone issu late that first year, I bought two seedlings and planted them. This was back in....1998 or so, long before I knew any tomato is not just a tomato. I forget the variety...Big Something...but be it on account of the juglone or the location or something I did, those tomatoes were nasty. NASTY. LOL And forget about eating walnuts. You'll wage war on squirrels...and you will lose LOL. I have seen squirrels sitting on my fence eating walnuts and over time, probably because they knew I was terrified of them, they'd sit there and chuck walnut shells at me! Nasty, vile creatures. To this day, I just flat out hate squirrels. Hate. Needless to say, I do not miss that house. I shelled out over $100K on remodeling that house and my 3 month project took 15 months because of the worst contractor in history, during which time I washed dishes in the bathtub and cooked on ranges in the garage for my family of four. During the open house, the roof caved from the rain because the foundation on the new side of the kitchen/house started sinking. The squirrels still sat outside and laughed. I called an arborist once to cut down the trees and he tells me they're worth over $10K each, go figure, but that I could pull them both out and redo the entire lawn but the juglone would remain for at least a few years. Wretched trees, I tell you, Jim.