For The Times You Need a Temporary Fence

Zareba 48-Inch Step-In Fence Posts

Every so often, we find a need to put up some temporary fencing. It might be to keep our dogs out of muddy spots, it might be to seal a hole in the boundary fence from a wind-blown tree. Whenever it happens, though, we dig though the garden shed to find a handful of Zareba Step-In Fence Posts.

Each of these plastic posts is 48 inches long, plus the 5-inch steel spike at the end. It has a pedal molded into the plastic just above the spike, with a little fin on the bottom to make it harder for a post to twist in the soil. There are eight plastic clips spread out on one side. To use the posts, you pick a spot where you need a post and stomp the pointy ends into the dirt. You can run string, bare or insulated wire, or plastic tape between posts, sliding it into the clips to hold it in place. The eight clips let you run several strands or put up diagonals.

With a Heated Bird Bath, We're Getting Even More Birds

Allied Precision 14-Inch Heated Bird Bath #145

One of the quickest and easiest ways to get a little “nature fix” in the middle of our Midwestern winter has been to install a cluster of bird feeders in our back yard. We packed up the hummingbird feeders for next summer, and put up a couple of arrays of seed and suet feeders. The neighborhood finches, titmouses (titmice?), doves, juncos, woodpeckers, flickers and cardinals have been welcome visitors – the starlings less so – and we’ve also been gratified to see that a handful of bluebirds has begun visiting. Our home in central Indiana is, according to the bird books, near the northern limit of the bluebirds’ winter range, so we were a bit surprised to see them.

We've got Woodpeckers Galore Now!

Kettle Moraine Cedar Single Cake Tail Prop Suet Feeder 

Downy woodpecker at our feeder

The bird feeders that rim our deck attract a wide variety of birds, which we find to be fascinating and fun as we view the activity from our kitchen. Our back yard borders on and partially includes a small woodlot dotted with standing dead trees (damn you, emerald ash borers!), which supply a steady source of food for the local woodpeckers. The several feeders we put up back in fall have continue to attract three different woodpecker species – the hairy, downy, and red-bellied type – but didn’t pull in the majestic pileated woodpecker we occasionally saw (and heard) working on nearby trees. 

From our research and a friendly bird-watcher neighbor, we learned that larger species of bird don’t like those small suet cages, mostly because the birds have a difficult time maintaining their balance while feeding. The cages aren’t massive enough for a 10 to 12-ounce bird, plus the birds are accustomed to resting their tails on tree trunks while feeding in the wild. We researched feeders that meet these needs, and chose this Kettle Moraine Cedar Suet Feeder with a tail prop.