#39: "The little man is healthy, happy, and as loud as his daddy"

[HeidiHo]

Cotton, :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I'll just the mix the first time too, then. But I'd still like to make my own eventually. I just hope the hummingbirds will like it. The difficult way (notice I didn't say 'hard') is always fascinating to me. I also thought cloth vs disposable was a matter of choice.

Do it yourself - it's a piece of cake. It's not hard. I've heard people talking about boiling the water and you don't have to do that. Just use very hot tap water. Four parts water to one part sugar. Stir, put in the fridge for a bit and then serve to the birds. I've had lots and lots of hummers for years now - they really hang around if you slightly increase the amount of sugar compared to the water.

ETA: DO NOT add dye of any kind. It's not needed and may be bad for the birds. It doesn't need to be red, the birds will be attracted to the color on the feeder. And, living in a very hot climate, you will need to change the nectar every three or four days. It goes bad if out longer.

[Gibby]

Scarlett, here are some ideas for you, partly taken from online sites, and partly my suggestions:

Hummingbird Nectar

1 part sugar/4 parts water

Boil the water first, then measure and add sugar, at the rate of 1/4 cup of sugar to 1 cup of water.

Let cool and store excess in refrigerator until ready to use.

Do not add food coloring (damaging to the little hummers), honey (which ferments), or artificial sweetener, which has no nutritional value.

You will need to clean your feeder about once a week. According to the National Audubon Society, this should be done by rinsing with one part white vinegar to four parts water. If the feeder is dirty, try adding a few grains of dry rice to the vinegar solution to help scrub it clean. Follow the vinegar wash by rinsing three times with clear, warm water before refilling with sugar solution.

Some interesting facts about hummingbirds:

The wing beat rate of hummingbirds varies by species, with the common Ruby-Throated Hummingbird averaging a wing beat of about 53 per second, seen by the human eye as a blur. The wings move in a figure eight pattern to produce the gravity-defying hover effect for which hummers are famous. The energy needs of this little bird are amazing - they must feed every 10 to 15 minutes throughout the day, consuming up to two thirds of their body weight in food. An important part of the hummingbird diet is sugar, from flower nectar, tree sap and, of course, backyard feeders.

Hummingbirds cannot smell and depend on their eyesight to seek out flowers and food sources. Inexpensive hummingbird feeders are readily available and will attract the busy little birds without the need for coloring the food - the bright red container and easy food source will keep them coming throughout the day. Since hummingbirds are territorial, you may want to hang two feeders - one in the back yard and one in the front, to accomodate as many hummingbirds as you can. Hanging the feeders in a shady spot will discourage fermentation and spoilage of the nectar.

[Gibby]

Cotton, :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I'll just the mix the first time too, then. But I'd still like to make my own eventually. I just hope the hummingbirds will like it. The difficult way (notice I didn't say 'hard') is always fascinating to me. I also thought cloth vs disposable was a matter of choice.

Do it yourself - it's a piece of cake. It's not hard. I've heard people talking about boiling the water and you don't have to do that. Just use very hot tap water. Four parts water to one part sugar. Stir, put in the fridge for a bit and then serve to the birds. I've had lots and lots of hummers for years now - they really hang around if you slightly increase the amount of sugar compared to the water.

ETA: DO NOT add dye of any kind. It's not needed and may be bad for the birds. It doesn't need to be red, the birds will be attracted to the color on the feeder. And, living in a very hot climate, you will need to change the nectar every three or four days. It goes bad if out longer.

Hey, Heidi, it's interesting that you've never had problems with just using hot tap water. Since you've been using it for years, it must be okay. As with anything, there's controversy about how to make it. Here's some info from another site about boiling:

http://howtoenjoyhummingbirds.com/hummingb...0nectar%201.htm

You can easily make your own Hummingbird food using white sugar and water. There's no need to add red food coloring to the Humming bird food recipe to attract Hummingbirds. Your red feeder will be enough to attract them. There is also controversy about whether food coloring might be harmful to the Humming birds, so avoiding it altogether might be the best choice.

The Hummingbird food recipe consists of 1 part white sugar to 4 parts water. This 1 to 4 ratio will closely match that found in actual flower nectar.

Start by stirring the sugar into the water while bringing the mixture to a boil over low heat. Boiling the solution is important as it helps remove chlorine from the water and kills mold and yeast spores that might be in the sugar.

Boil the mixture for two minutes and let cool. Do not boil any longer than 2 minutes or you will boil away too much of the water and change the ratio of sugar to water. I have read that higher sugar concentration resulting from boiling too long, will be more attractive to insects.

Once the Hummingbird food is cool you can add it to your feeder and store any excess nectar in the refrigerator (for 7 - 8 days) for use at a later date.

It is not necessary to completely fill your feeder. Only put in as much Humming bird food as you need to feed the number of Hummingbirds you have using your feeder. When it comes time to change the Humming bird nectar you don't want to have a large amount left over to throw away.

Nothing is more fun, saves money and is better for your hummingbirds, than making your own Hummingbird food.

[Scarlett]

Thanks a bunch, Heidi and Gibby!

(I need a headbang icon because I just got back from HEB and forgot to get sugar because they had Ranier cherries & I got completely distracted. Between that and the ripe jackfruit & fresh lychees that I already had in the fridge, I'm in fruit heaven tonight!

Driving home was nice, though, because the full moon was just rising during my drive home. Did anyone else see it? It was huge!

[jmh123]

I saw it. It was beautiful--not all that big here though. Wonder if that's regional?

[HeidiHo]

Hey, Heidi, it's interesting that you've never had problems with just using hot tap water. Since you've been using it for years, it must be okay. As with anything, there's controversy about how to make it. Here's some info from another site about boiling:

I got my info online too - was it Hummingbirds.net? I don't remember, it's been too long. The little dudes seem to like it - in the past I've gotten to the point where I recognize the repeat visitors. This year I haven't been outside as much. I was outside today and often I would look up from my reading to find one hovering about 2 feet in front of me, looking at me. That happened quite a bit today. I've noticed they get really aggressive this time of year - labor day weekend is usually their peak time here in Nashville. Lots of birds and quite viscious. <g>

ETA: You know, different hot water heaters are set at different temps. My water gets so hot I can't put my hands under it - and I only use the hot, no cold. It might be better to boil if your hot water heater isn't set that hot, but I would boil the water, THEN put the sugar in, don't cook the two together.

[Cotton]

[playbiller]

Time travelerPax

Hummingbirds? - Fear gave me a hummingbird feeder - the squirrels really liked it. The swung it back and forth until it spilled out and ate the flowers underneath.

Beautiful fullmoon and starry night. I was walking at 11PM and there is no one to be seen.I think they are all asleep, there are cars around, but I don't see many lights or people. During the day the beach was pretty empty as well and the water was calm, warm, clean, jellyfish free and relatively fly free.

[merrieeee]

I am spending the weekend with my DD just down the road from keepingfaith. We went to Baybrook Mall on tax free weekend....big mistake!!! Talk about crowded!

She wants to come to NY with me when I go to see Clay in Spam!

Do you think it is safe to introduce her to the eHP? Or should it be in small doses?

Great pics of Clay.......keep 'em coming.

[Bookwhore]

For you hummingbird experts out there, I have a couple of questions:

- what part of the country do you live in? Are hummingbirds more plentiful in the south? What about the midwest?

- do the feeders attract wasps? I've always avoided hummingbird feeders because I'm terrified of wasps and bees.

I live in the midwest and have only seen two or three hummingbirds in my entire life, but they're fascinating.

[keepingfaith]

Baybrook is up the road from me, merrieeee. I avoid it like the plague as traffic/parking is impossible and Mall of the Mainland is closer to me, and is much less crowded even on tax free weekend. I think I went shopping on tax-free Saturday exactly once before, and waiting in line for 45 minutes to give somebody my money wasn't worth saving the tax to me. I get hot in crowded stores, especially trying on clothes. There's never enough ventilation in dressing rooms, in Houston, in August. Once I'm at a mall I can hang like a trooper, but I have a huge resistance to getting there in the first place. I have to need it pretty damned bad. Did I mention I loathe shopping? I've never been a gung-ho consumer, so my family is agog at my purchases of Clay merchandise. But Clay makes spending money on him so enjoyably easy ... and irresistible.

[Couch Tomato]

Clay makes spending money on him so enjoyably easy ... and irresistible.

word! and thread title?

I'm with you sister on the shopping. I HATE MALLS.

Speaking of spending money on Clay...anybody else buying the Korean olympics soundtrack? heee Mine is on the way. Free shipping over $35. heee And I hope it's better than the American soundtrack cuz not one of those songs they've been hyping has even pinged my interest.

[Lotus]

From Clay Aiken Pix.com:

ClayAikenPix.com Closing

Posted on August 12th, 2008 bymee2u2

It is with much regret that I must inform everyone that I have made the difficult decision to close down ClayAikenPix.com. RL has kept me very busy lately, and will only get more hectic as time goes on. I had wanted to keep this website going for Clay and his fans, especially since there aren't any other Hi res Clay galleries out there, but there's just no way to go about doing that with my current RL circumstances. However, I will continue to support Clay!

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of cap.com's Admins - ClayedinTexas, Karebear65, KSChristian4Clay, PinkCocoa, SmartyPantsSuz, and Spotlightlover. I wouldn't have been able to run this website without you guys! Thank you again.

And lastly, thank you to all the Clay fans who've visited cap.com. I will keep this site and the Gallery open until the end of August.

[luckiest1]

We have a connection! My co-worker, who went to the TO JBT with me (and loved every minute of it), is a diehard Rod Stewart fan who will be at the concert tonight. She's going with two others, who each paid $600 Cdn for second row centre broker seats. They didn't care what it would cost because they feel that at 63 Rod may not be doing that many big tours again. Needless to say, she completely understands our fandom, but has "only" seen Rod 20 times since the 70's. Boy, the stuff I could tell her about multiples - concerts, that is - hee!

Hope you have a blast at the Rod Stewart concert. He was in RI last week and DH had bought tickets last April--floor seats--vera, vera expensive. I couldn't go--had surgery and took longer than expected to heal. So, he brought a good friend and they LOVED it!!!! I got such a kick out of the fact that he kept calling me so I could hear the songs. Made me wonder if Rod's fans have cellcerts like we do. Wondered if somewhere folks were typing in red on message boards.

Hee, thanks for the well wishes ladies. We sat way up on the lawn because, although I agreed to go, I would not spend the big bucks to do so. As it turned out, my friend, who is not a big concert goer at this stage in her life, was in absolutely no rush to get there. She didn't care about trying to get a good spot or being there in time, so we stayed at the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition, kind of like a state fair) to watch the bagpipe bands until about 30 minutes prior to concert time. It went against my nature, even though it was only Rod Stewart, but can you imagine? Anyways, we got there just before 8 pm, found a spot on the lawn towards the back and to the side, and discovered that the entire lawn was just a gross pile of muck, probably with a lot of geese droppings mixed in. There was no way we could sit down. So I held the spot and she went in search of lawn chairs to rent. Turns out they were all out, but she managed to snag 2 plastic bags from the vendor instead, which is what we ended up sitting on. The crowd was a mix of people but tended towards older folks. The whole thing was kind of comical, because neither of us has seen Rod in concert since the early 80s, and we had no idea what to expect. I have to say, the most exciting part for me was the Spamalot ads on the screens before it started and between the opening act and the main act (it's coming to Toronto in September)! Not sure, but it looked like Broadway footage. Either way, I had fun pretending it was Clay in the Sir Robin costume.

Rod opens the show with a video on the big screens, and it was just OTT. "Rod the Modinator" or something like that, made me laugh out loud (while everyone else was cheering). Something about "sexual energy". OMFG. Then he came on, and did a lot of his old songs (which is good, that's all I know!) and a few covers. I never really thought he could sing very well, and that hasn't changed, but he hasn't gotten worse, either. He has quite the band - two drummers, two guitarists, and then about 5 or 6 young, sexy women wearing short dresses, either singing back up, dancing, or playing an instrument. It was......interesting, in a skeevy sort of way. His 3 back up singers (who he called "The Laptops" I kid you not) were v.v. good. I was pleasantly surprised to see him feature them numerous times in the show, even giving them a joint solo on "Love Shack" while he changed outfits. The show was quite short, not even an hour and a half. He sang Maggie May to close, and we had hoped for "Stay With Me" as an encore (like he used to perform) but instead, he came out and started singing "Do Ya Think I'm Sexy" which CMSU. We left during that number, because it was just cheesy (sorry Rod). Passed some 20 somethings who were seriously into it, though!

Anyways, Clay content.....we eventually got on the topic of the JBT, and I expressed that I still haven't forgiven my friend for refusing to come with me. She was flabbergasted, hardly remembered the incident (I offered her a free ticket, begged her to come) and finally she said to me "but I was not interested. I don't like his music, and I don't know his music." This after me gifting her with MOAM way back when, and also MCWL I believe. I gave up by ATDW. I know that I had explained to her that the JBT was oldies that she would not only know, she would love, but she wouldn't budge. Anyways, I jsut find it so incredibly frustrating when someone who has always agreed with your musical tastes won't even give Clay the time of freaking day! I know, I know, just give it up, not everyone is going to like him, let alone love him, but man! If she would just come ONCE to a live concert, I'm sure she'd at least have to agree about his talent. Grrrrrrrrrrr......I need to let it go. But it burns my butt. As I texted to cindilu2 during the concert last night, Clay has more talent in his little finger than Rod does in his entire body. And someone needs to tell Rod he's not sexy. Heh. Sorry Rod fans.

So the London cluncheon people haven't checked in yet? Hope they had a great day! Today, I am off to a local skating competition (meeting another old friend) and later, weather permitting, I will make my way home to attend my son's baseball championships. Sometimes, I go to work for a rest.

[aikim]

Good Morning Everyone,

33 Days until "Spam, Wonderful, Spam"!

41 Days until Clay is Partying with Paula!

62 Days until The BAF Gala! :

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[ldyjocelyn]

Good morning everyone!

[merryclay]

I thought this was a cute blog----check it out-- It's called Jaymes is a girl and has a great picture of her.

http://baldfacetruth.blogspot.com/

[HeidiHo]

For you hummingbird experts out there, I have a couple of questions:

- what part of the country do you live in? Are hummingbirds more plentiful in the south? What about the midwest?

- do the feeders attract wasps? I've always avoided hummingbird feeders because I'm terrified of wasps and bees.

I live in the midwest and have only seen two or three hummingbirds in my entire life, but they're fascinating.

They are fascinating. Hard to stop watching them. I live in Nashville, TN and they are very plentiful here. My mom lives in NW Ohio and she only has one regular visitor to her feeder, however, she lives in a relatively new complex where the trees aren’t big and you don’t see a lot of flowers yet – that could be why. If you plant a lot of flowers around where your feeders are, you’ll attract more.

Yes, the feeders do attract wasps and I don’t really know how you can avoid that, because any bug spray could hurt the hummers. I do have these ant traps made specially for hummer feeders and those work great.

I thought this was a cute blog----check it out-- It's called Jaymes is a girl and has a great picture of her.

http://baldfacetruth.blogspot.com/

That WAS cute – and it had a couple pictures I hadn’t seen before.

I have to say that one of Clay and Jaymes from behind with their hands on each others backs with David in front of them – well, it kinda looks like two people who just got busted by her dad. <g>

[djs111]

Miss Heidi said:

I have to say that one of Clay and Jaymes from behind with their hands on each others backs with David in front of them – well, it kinda looks like two people who just got busted by her dad. <g>

My thought exactly! :-)

It does look like there are prolly lots more pictures out there that show Clay and Jaymes together, and we just have not seen them for one reason or another. There is an easy familiarity to them.

That "same page" quote is becoming more and more open to different interpretation now, just IMO etc.

When I lived out in the country, near Durham NC, I kept three hummingbird feeders outside. The squirrels, wasps, and ants were annoying, though. I have not bothered with them down here in Florida because of the insects, no point in attracting even more of them!

And here is my belated Clay is not on the fucking Truman Show! (tm heidiHo) Heeee..not only do we only get glimpses of his life (Thank Goodness!), but Ed Harris is not a fan writing a script.

[claytonic]

I thought this was a cute blog----check it out-- It's called Jaymes is a girl and has a great picture of her.

http://baldfacetruth.blogspot.com/

Thanks Merryclay!! Love the blog and love that pic of Jaymes.

[merryclay]

HeidiHo Quote

I have to say that one of Clay and Jaymes from behind with their hands on each others backs with David in front of them – well, it kinda looks like two people who just got busted by her dad. <g>

-------------------------------------------------

David kinda has a WTF look on his face, doesn't he?

[annabear]

Good morning everyone!

Good morning! With that pic in mind? Absolutely!

Waxing schmoopie for a moment here... that pic brings out that ICG for me and I get this image of Clay smiling like that while looking down at Parker, finally asleep! I bet Clay (and Jaymes, poor Jaymes - she's kinda... Invisible... *g*), even though I'm sure exhausted, are walking around with IPG's - Involuntary Parker Grins.

[cha cha trusty]

Checking in late, but.... :bday: TimetravelerPax!

sorry I missed i!!!

:00003653: TimetravelerPax!

[keepingfaith]

Here's more about Jaymes' professional biography than I've ever read before, and it's a couple of years old:

http://clayaikenruminations.blogspot.com/2...mes-foster.html

[liney23]

KEWL!

Here at work we just gave a staff person a grand sendoff. He and his long time partner (of 17 years) and their daughter just left to go 'get married'! Now that same-sex marriage is legal in California, they decided to do it up on paper. The two men are incredibly gorgeous---we call them the GQ Couple---and their daughter had on a beautiful pink dress and sparkly pink slingback shoes! (She's 10)...So we all lined up and threw rice at them as they left the office!

:laola0:

muski... I am thrilled to hear this. Making same-sex marriage legal is one of the reasons I'm proud to be a Californian. It's about time gays have the right to the same divorce rate as straights... LOL

Welcome Peyton

Let me tell you, if CLAY were going to be buck naked in that play instead of Daniel R., I'd MOVE to NYC and be in line every day--fighting off all the other women!

Peyton... WELCOME!!!

wanda... I would predict riots of the highest order at every performance... and a lot of credit card bankruptcies!!!

merryclay... I LOVE that picture of the two of them with their hands on each other's back. To me that epitomizes their relationship! Close!