Whatevs, more like 30.00 a bag. I can’t help but ask myself
is it worth it? Every three days or so either Lynn or I fill our bird feeders;
and not just with regular old seed, but wild bird mix, cardinal mix, and suet
(up here they pronounce that as though it were one syllable). Lynn is the consummate
caretaker of all things. She is impressive in that she strives to make all the
creatures in her life as comfortable as possible. You would think living with
someone like that would be awesome. Note the fact that I used the word
creatures and not humans.
Every day is filled with extra-time chores that involve the
comfort of all of them. It is not enough to just put some seed in a feeder. There
are different feeders: the tall thin feeder that sprays seed everywhere when
you fill it; the Chinese lantern style feeder (presumably for cardinals of
which we have one) that is virtually impossible to fill without an engineering
degree; and the little house type feeder that must be scraped of ice by me so
the little ones can get to it easier and constantly restocked with suet at 5$ a
pop because our red squirrels have taken a liking to it.
And so I trek out to the barn on a snow/ice laden path,
empty feeders in hand, fighting for some sort of footing with every step. Grateful to arrive at the door without
incident. The fun part begins. The bird seed bags. Ugh. Now the wild mix is in
a bin already. Easy peasy. Fill the tall
thin thing and let it leak out, who cares. Oh but the top is frozen. Twist with great
force, remaining seed flies about like a funnel cloud all over the floor. Fill,
swear, done. The cardinal food is still in the dreaded bag. Have you ever
poured bird seed from a bag? It is akin to trying to carry 30 lbs. of live fish
in a sack. Oh great, there are two
holes. That would have been great info about 1 minute ago. Sweep,scoop,swear. Repeat until clean. Exit
barn and cross the tundra with less care about personal safety. It is about
hanging these damn feeders now. It’s personal. I approach the feeder stands and
am greeted by our growing flock of adorable black-capped chickadees, and "by
greeted" I mean swooped at and chided for having taken the feeders to begin
with. Seriously? Et tu Brutus?
So again, I can’t help but ask myself is it worth it? 
Dammit! Yes.
Sincerely, the humble bird servant
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