The Aspects Berry Feeders have been discontinued for a while, and we're down to the last bit of remaining stock. (I personally took the last quick clean big tube, since that's always been my favorite.) Anyways if you like the color, this is going to be your last shot at them.
431 Medium QC Mesh Nyjer Feeder - 5 available
442 Small QC Seed Tube - 4 available
447 Large QC Nyjer Tube - 3 available
444 Large QC Seed Tube - 2 available
446 Medium QC Nyjer Tube - 2 available
445 Smal QC Nyjer Tube - 1 available
443 Medium QC Seed Tube -1 available
-Adam
]]>RideAtaxia Chicago was a great success. Team Eleanor raised over $7,000 for Friedreich's Ataxia Research, and the event total was over $120,000. We're going to keep riding until we have a cure. Thanks to everyone who donated, I don't really have the words to tell you how much it means to all of us. If you missed out and would like to donate to FARA, I'm going to ride 50 Miles on October 15th.
]]>Last year we started getting concerned that our oldest daughter Eleanor, who's now 8 years old, seemed to be showing signs of neurological problems. At school her teachers noticed her handwriting wasn't improving and that she seemed to be falling and bumping into things a lot more than the other kids. She had trouble staying stable on her bicycle, and couldn't stop without falling over. Our neurologist did an MRI, and there were no signs of cancer, the next step was to go through family history and see if there was anything that stuck out. My wife Kathleen has cousins in Irleand that have Friedreichs Ataxia, so we had her tested.
FA is a debilitating, life shortening neuromuscular disease. It causes progressive damage to the nervous system. It's a rare disease affecting roughly 1 in 50,000.
On August 19th last year, we received confirmation that Eleanor has FA.
We were crushed...
We were in shock, it was like a death in the family, I was grieving. Grieving for her "normal" "happy" "uncomplicated" childhood. The world turned into a swirling soup of medical terms... "frataxin", "hypertrophic cardiomyopathy", "GAA triplet repeat", "dorsal root ganglia"..
About a week after we received the diagnosis, is when I found out about Kyle Bryant and Sean Baumstark. I was laying in bed, and I found a trailer for the documentary film The Ataxian. You can watch it below go ahead, I'll wait.
The Ataxian Trailer from Redwood Creek Entertainment on Vimeo.
I must've watched that trailer 3 or 4 times in a row.
For the first time since she was given the diagnosis, I had.... hope.
It was a great reminder that the your reaction to the adversities of life is more than half the battle.
Since the diagnosis, Eleanor received a grant from the Challenged Athletes Foundation that we used to purchase a Catrike Pocket. She rides 3-5 miles on an average of 3 times a week. We're working hard to keep her strong.
Next week, on July 23rd we'll be riding with Kyle at RideAtaxia Chicago in Channahon IL. If you'd like to make a donation to FARA (Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance), and support Team Eleanor you can Donate Here every little bit helps. FARA is great organization, and we are so grateful for all of their hard work.
Thanks for reading,
- Adam & Kathleen and the whole Nottawa Wild Bird Supply Family
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The Aspects Quick Clean Big Tube is the largest tube feeder made by Aspects, and it's one of our best selling feeders. We always get a lot of questions about them, so I though it might be nice take a look at some of the details that make this such a popular feeder.
]]>The Aspects Quick Clean Big Tube is the largest tube feeder made by Aspects, and it's one of our best selling feeders. We always get a lot of questions about them, so I though it might be nice take a look at some of the details that make this such a popular feeder.
The perches, top and base chassis are all powder coated die cast metal. They're available in 3 different finishes.
As you can see the Berry has a gloss finish and the spruce has a more textured look. Though I'm personally kind of partial to the Berry, Spruce is the top seller, and Antique Brass is a close second.
As I mentioned with a 3.5 quart capacity, and 4" diameter, it's the largest feeder that Aspects makes. The large size means you won't have to be out there filling it daily, and the large diameter makes it very easy to fill with whatever scoop or funnel you have available. Like all quality tube bird feeders the tube is UV stabilized polycarbonate. (That just means it won't turn yellow and brittle and fall to pieces after one season.)
The Aspects "Cardinal" Perch
The perches on the QC Big Tube have been ornithologically designed with cardinals in mind. You can't argue with that statement, I get plenty of visits from cardinals, and they definitely use this feeder more than my "Classic Big Tube" with the straight perches and smaller ports.
Speaking of the ports, not only are they wider, but they also have a bit of a brow over the top to help divert water around the port, that seems to work pretty well. The ports can be easily removed with a Phillips head screwdriver, but it's only something you might do annually.
What you will do regularly is take the base off to clean out crud buildup in the bottom of the feeder. It's a very simple design, basically you pinch the two spring loaded tabs on the bottom of the base, and that action retracts the pins that are holding the base on the tube.
If you have any questions or comments you can leave them below, use the contact page, or hit us up on twitter or facebook.
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Continuing with our theme of plugs and logs from last week here's a little life hack for you. I know it doesn't take a genius to figure this one out but if you're not afraid to get a little bit messy, you can take a reguar old suet cake and cut it up and pack it into your favorite log feeder. Simple as that.
]]>Why would I do this? Maybe you don't want to pay more for plugs... Maybe you really like the formula of the suet cake you already use, and there isn't a plug version of it available. Maybe you just want to try something different..
What you need:
Today I'm chopping up some C&S Woodpecker Treat
Use a good sized knife that's got some weight to it. The woodpecker treat has some larger nut pieces in it so I like to use a fairly sharp chefs knife.
Now we have four roughly plug sized chunks. I'm using a piece of slate we have on our deck for a cutting board. If you don't want to get suet everywhere, use a scrap piece of cardboard.. That'll help keep things tidy.
I'm using a Nature's Select Recycled log feeder today, since it's a smaller diameter log, I snapped one of my cake chunks in half. You just have to eyeball it. You can roll it in you palms to round off the corners a bit, that'll help it fit in the hole.
Give it a push.
Last week I talked about using a piece of cling wrap to keep your hands clean, that would still work in this situation, but gloves are definitely better in this situation. I have some 6 MIL nitrile gloves that I use for food prep when I'm doing BBQ brisket, & pulled pork, they work really well.
Remove the excess, usually I'll put whatever's left into the next hole, and then if I have a few chunks left over I'll put them in a suet cage feeder.
As you can see it's a bit more messy than using plugs. Part of it is that the plug formula is a bit firmer than a cake, and part of it is just fitting a square peg in a round hole.
]]>A plug feeder is what you'd call a selective feeder, not every bird will be able to use it. A log feeder is made for clingers, birds that cling to trees and typically move up and down the vertical surfaces of trees vs just hanging out in the branches. If you have a regular suet feeder that has a lot of traffic, or is frequented by larger birds a plug feeder can give nuthatches and downy woodpeckers their own little space in your yard.
The number one question/comment we get about the log feeder is about the hole size. It goes normally something like "Hey I bought this feeder from you, and the plugs from, you and they don't fit. They just fall right out." What's up with that??
A Suet Plus Insects & Nuts Plug in a Small Stovall Log Feeder
It mostly has to do with flexibility, from the standpoint of the guys making the feeder it's always better to have a hole that's too big vs too small. Especially since there can be a big difference in plug sizes and shapes. Which leads us to...
How do you keep the suet in the log, just give it a squeeze. What I usually do is center the plug in the log, then take a piece of cling wrap and wrap it around one side just enough to cover the plugs, like so..(you could also just wear gloves)
Then I take it with both hands and give it a good squeeze.
Imagine both hands in that picture, I didn't have (anyone to take the photo for me... ) When you're done you've got something that looks like this.
And to further my point about plugs and hole size, here's a Pine Tree Farms log jammer plug. They come in three to a package, and are basically made just like a suet cake. The only difference, is that the tray is the mold for the plugs, so they're flat on one side which gives them a sort of D shaped profile.
The easy way to get them out of the tray is to give it a fold..
Since it's not completely round it will take a slight bit of effort to get it in the hole.
(Hey that's my foot.. ) Anyways, give it a push and you end up with this...
As you can see a bit of the sharp corners on the D shape scrape off.. No big deal, if some of it actually falls off I'll usually just stuff it in the hole, and then go about doing the same thing we did above.
Center the Plug in the log
Wrap it...
Squeeze it, and you're done.
To sum it all up, you're always better off to have a feeder with too big of a hole vs too small. Packing the suet in the log takes a pretty minimal effort. If I wasn't chasing a 19 month old around the yard while trying to take pictures this whole thing would've literally taken 2 minutes, vs the 35-ish it took me. I know I didn't cover everything here, but hopefully it's enough to cover the basics. If you have any questions you can use the contact form, ask us on twitter or facebook.
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