A good friend and neighbor, Clayton Webb, recently celebrated his 91st birthday and I think it was on one of the coldest days we’ve had, but, nevertheless, wife Charlene cooked him a special dinner, which was followed by the birthday cake, also made in his honor. Friends from Patten, Laura (Shaw) and Hank, and Mr. and Mrs. Almon Townsend of Houlton, were there to help in the celebration and all enjoyed a fun-filled evening.
I recently heard from another neighbor and good friend, Clayton Varney, who now lives in Texas, and he informed me that the temperature there was in the seventies and he is liking it more all the time, as he had been so used to the cold winter days here in The County, and is now basking in much nicer climate.
Sure have been busy feeding all my feathered friends during this wicked cold. Have seen a few of them pecking away at the suet that I had hung on a branch but they still seem to prefer the mixture that I make with peanut butter and lard and it disappears very fast, especially in the morning.
I watched a small red squirrel attempting to leap from the tree branch into an open feeder across from him and, by golly, he made it, and sat there swinging back and forth while he ate to his heart’s content. One time, when I was watching him do this, he missed the feeder and fell with a thump, but then he tried it again, and this time made it.
The gray squirrel is the one who hangs from his hind feet on the branch and gets his nose into the feeder and usually knocks some of the seeds out in the process, but there are always a few left for the little birds, and I refill them all quickly to keep them all happy.
The four deer are still coming to eat up the bread and apple slices, but they are now coming after dark so I miss out on seeing them. Later, in the spring, I will see them all in my back yard eating all the new growth.
