Fun project..and good things to learn

 Decided to get adventurous and take our nature learning to a new level. Kaya was super excited to mix up the homemade suet and I was surprised at not only how easy it was but what a good environmental lesson it was for Kaya.  We do alot of "green" things around here. We compost all vegetables (and will soon be composting shredded paper), we recycle cans, we do our own veggies, we recycle cardboard etc, we up use as much stuff as possible, we go easy on the lights (and use energy reducing lights), watch water usage, try to drive sensibly (make stops all in one trip rather than doing two then home to just run back to town etc),we butcher so the meat has no additives, we either make our own bread or follow the kosher list of bread to watch certain ingredients, Steve follows a decent vitamin regimen that we read that was good for MS, we created a water system that we can water one row of transplant veggies and it waters the low below it, and we use the compost bin to grow vine plants etc. We try to run the dryer in the evening when power usage is lower as well as it creates less heat in the house in the summer, we insulated our windows and put stop leaks on our garage doors, etc. We keep a close eye on alot of things going on in the world and we try hard to not become one of those that could care less about the world around them. Some of our friends like to tease us that we are not right lol or that we are hippies (which believe me we are NOT! LOL) but I think every family should do what feels right for them..and in turn think about another family down the line. We may be blessed with water but if we allow it to be polluted or used up insanely by us..it may not be there when Kaya is an adult.    To say we take the quote "We don't inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children" seriously.  So while cleaning up from supper the other night it hit me we had our entire meal...homemade bread, fresh vegetables frozen from the garden, potato peelings that went in compost...either from scratch or reusable. But here was a decent amount of fat that I had trimmed off our boiling roast and since we don't feed Bella table food it would just go in the trash. So Kaya and I googled a few things and got to work :)   We cooked down the fat till it was a liquid (I didn't let Kaya do this step). Then we tossed the stuff that didn't melt (edging of fat). Into the liquid fat we stirred a cup or so of bird seed and 1 tablespoon of peanut butter. We poured a thin layer into the bottom of a container (I used one that I had bought ham salad from the store), put a layer of wax paper, then another layer of suet mix and repeated till done. Since it was only a small amount we had 3 good size suet cakes. Covered with wax paper on top and into the freezer for the night.    Next morning we pryed the cakes off the wax paper (not too hard using a butterknife) and into the feeders it went. The birds are in Heaven lol   Kaya is very much into nature, composting, science etc so this was right up her ally. She wants to do it again soon and I'm glad. She loves the birds and the woodpeckers are making quite the appearance to our feeders :)