Country Lore Water Wonder
Steve Anderson builds a copper waterer for a bird bath; Erika Jensen uses her salad spinner for more than lettuce; Grace Brockway freezes soup stock in flat discs; build a cardboard-box oven like Marla McPherson; Rhonda Featheringill's milk, egg white and honey facial; Nathaniel Nelson builds a wood and PVC firewood rack; Richard Gambier uses thinned saplings for a privacy screen; credit cards make great pan scrapers according to Charles Swisher; Anna Victoria Reich's ironing board potting bench; Jeanette Hanberry makes liquid soap; hot water is a great dirt remover according to Heidi Douglass; Marcella White makes quilting patterns from the side of plastic milk cartons.
Water Wonder
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Moving water makes a great addition to any bird feeding
station, often attracting birds that do not eat the various
seeds normally offered. Even a small drip of water will
attract many birds. You can make this dripper device for
about $20, using the materials listed below.
Build your tower of couplings from large to small. Wrap the
threads with Teflon tape and then snug them up tight for a
leakproof set of reducing couplings that connects the end
of your garden hose to the inch copper tubing.
Next, choose how you want to shape your tubing. The unit
pictured has a spiral twist, first bent around a big tin
can, then a smaller one and then an even smaller one for
smooth curves. Don't bend your tubing too close to the
compression fitting, as this can cause cracking.
Position the dripper just above any broad, shallow dish
that will hold water. Ours is a concrete birdbath, placed
on a log that fits right into our naturalized setting.
A large screw eye, carefully pried open and then closed
around your reducing couplings and screwed into a stake
will anchor the system. The "Y" connector attaches to the
faucet so other hoses can be used. In order to conserve
water, we don't run the dripper all the time.
We do fill the birdbath once a day to keep it fresh. When
we have company or on days off, we let it trickle so we can
enjoy the extra activity it brings to the bird area.
Robins, hummingbirds, catbirds, thrushes and even a grouse
or two, usually not attracted by seed feeders, are drawn to
this water in our backyard garden.
STEVE ANDERSON
Burnham, Maine
MATERIALS LIST
3 feet of 1/4-inch copper tubing
Double (Y) hose connector
3 brass reducing bushings
1/4-inch compression fitting
Swivel hose connector
Large screw eye
Teflon tape
Salad Spinner
As an avid gardener and salad eater, I have always loved my
salad spinner. Now I use it for all kinds of things besides
salad. For example, I use it to spin-dry herbs after I've
washed them. I find my pesto tastes better if the basil
leaves are dry before I process them with olive oil. This
summer I used the spinner when I froze surplus vegetables
from the garden. After blanching, vegetables are usually
soaked in ice water to cool then down quickly, then patted
dry with paper towels or dish towels, and finally packed
into plastic storage bags. When I process vegetables, I use
my salad spinner to spin the vegetables dry. This cuts down
on paper towel use (expensive, wastes trees.) Plus, it's
much faster!
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