Spring is in the air!

Hi Folks,

Looks like temperatures are going to warm up a bit over the next several days. I can already smell spring in the air! While I wait, I’m keeping busy because as they say, “busy hands are happy hands”.

This weekend, my neighbor George needed to ship a beautiful porcelain vase to his sister. But, being the environmentalist that he is, ol’ George just hates to use Styrofoam packing peanuts. So instead, I told him to pack up the vase with real peanuts—shells and all. Peanuts make terrific packing material, and they’re edible, to boot!

Of course, there’s always plenty of time to feed the birds. But instead of the usual suet block, I decided to give my birds a treat by mixing together equal parts of chunky peanut butter and cornmeal until it was a thick dough. I molded this into a block, stuffed it in my suet feeder, and every woodpecker in town was flying on over for a taste within minutes!

After all that hard work packing up the vase and feeding the birds, my hands were feeling pretty ragged. So I helped myself to a little of my wife’s homemade skin cream. She makes this special Hand Softening Cream every winter to keep her skin soft and smooth, and it works like a charm. To try it yourself, steep 1 cup of dried chamomile in 1 cup of milk for a few hours. Then add 4 tbsp. of honey and 6 tbsp. of wheat germ to the mix. Blend it well, store it in the ‘fridge, and massage it into your hands as often as necessary to keep ‘em soft as a baby’s bottom.