Squirrels and Food

OK, the war on the squirrels is going well.  After the squirrels ate one of our bird feeders, S got online right away and ordered two bird feeders - brand name: Squirrel Buster.  The little buggers are really smart and persistent, so there is no guarantee that any squirrel-proof bird feeder will really stop them, but it was worth a try.

The first encouraging sign we saw was that there were actually birds on the feeder sometimes.  Not all that many, but more than we had seen before.  Tufted titmouse, chickadee, house sparrow, cardinal.

We suffered a setback when I happened to catch a squirrel in the act of eating out of one of the new feeders.  He couldn't get much out of it at a time, and the precarious way he was holding on to the pole the feeders are hanging from didn't allow him to get much out of it before he lost his grip and jumped down.  However, as you may imagine, this was not enough to deter Mister Squirrel.  He seemed willing to do a lot of work to get at the birdseed.  Mister Squirrel did suffer a setback himself while I was watching.  He suddenly jumped down and ran off as a blue jay dive bombed him and came to settle on the feeder he had just been stealing from.  Ha!  Go blue jay!  [And as an aside I have to say that although blue jays are very common birds, they really are strikingly beautiful when you get a good look at them.]

I was determined not to give up so I went to the drugstore and bought some petroleum jelly, which S smeared all over the pole from which the feeders hang.  If the squirrel could not get a good grip on the pole, his current tactics would be unsuccessful.

So far, we have not seen a single squirrel on the bird feeders.  There's no guarantee that they have given up, or that they are not eating out of it while we're not home to catch them, but it's a good sign and a great improvement over our first attempts, on which we and the cats were openly taunted by the squirrels as they gorged themselves on seed right outside our front window.

As for my own eating and cooking habits, I think I'm improving, but am nowhere near where I'd like to be.  The best thing I'm doing is actually cooking a few times a week, much better than the zero times a week that I've been doing for the last I don't know how long.  I've decided to establish a habit of using the crock pot for our Thursday dinner.  We get home from work at 5:30, sometimes later, and every Thursday evening I have to leave the house for a handbell rehearsal between 6:15 and 6:30, which really doesn't leave enough time to cook and eat dinner in time to head downtown.  This week I forgot to chop everything up for beef stew on Wednesday night, but (wonder of wonders!) I got up early enough Thursday morning to do it before I left for work.

Next week I get my first box of vegetables from the organic produce buying club.  I'm not sure what I'll do with some of the vegetables that I've never eaten before (chard, for one), but supposedly the club gives you recipes when you pick up your box.  This is a big experiment.  Wish me luck!

My goal of healthy eating is really not extreme.  I have not become a vegan or a vegetarian.  I have not sworn off everything but organic food.  I basically just want to avoid eating a ton of artificial stuff.  This is much easier now that I've started shopping at non-mainstream grocery stores.  My HFCS intake is limited to what is present in the food I eat at restaurants and out of vending machines.  I've been on a Dr. Pepper kick lately, and sadly it is readily available to me at work.  However, it seems that treating myself to Mexican Coca-Cola (made with real sugar) has made regular Coke seem kind of nasty, so I've cut down on that.  I tried to drink a Cherry Coke, usually one of my favorites, the other day at work and I couldn't finish it because it just plain tasted bad.  If I can get my hands on some Mexican Dr. Pepper, maybe I can cut out my soda machine habits completely!  ;-)

Success!

My attempts at cooking from scratch have had indifferent results.  I'm not a bad cook, but I am not that good at it.  My problems so far have been 1) not making enough food and 2) making food that's too bland.  I didn't make anything bad last week, though, and I consider this a learning experience.

Tonight, however, I took a step forward.  I went to Earth Fare with no idea what I was going to cook.  I had seen the other day that they had some really nice looking boneless skinless chicken breasts, so I got out my iPhone and started the allrecipes.com dinner spinner app.  I entered three things.  Dinner.  Chicken.  45 minutes or less.  The first thing I got was a recipe titled "Chicken with Mushrooms."  Very promising, so I opened it up.  Chicken, mushrooms, and mozzarella cheese were the main ingredients and it wasn't a complicated meal, so I decided to make it.  This decision took approximately 20 seconds, and the meal turned out great!  If you're interested, the recipe is here.  I will tweak it every time I make it, but I'll definitely be making it again.

I also joined Annie's Buying Club today.  I'll be picking up my first box of organic produce on March 29.  This is pretty experimental, but I'll never know if it will work for us without giving it a try.  I have committed to ordering the smallest share available and I can add more if I need it.  I ate my first organic banana at lunch today and it was sooooo good.  It was so much sweeter than regular bananas.  Yum.

On another front, S and I are at war with squirrels.  We bought a couple of bird feeders recently and the squirrels are not only eating our birdseed, they are also taunting Mr. Spock, driving away the birds, and today actually chewed a hole in one of the feeders (the $6 one, fortunately) while we were at work.  So far they are winning, but we have not given up yet.

Habits

It's hard to break a bad habit and sometimes even harder to establish a good one.  I've set some goals for myself that involve both breaking and establishing habits.  My motivation for starting this blog is to document my progress and keep myself accountable.  Hopefully I will also write something entertaining along the way.

My most recently set goals include:
1.  Eating healthier, buying natural and organic foods when possible
2.  Cooking more, so my husband gets a break from the kitchen from time to time
3.  Improving my sadly lacking housekeeping habits

My progress includes buying most of my groceries last week from natural, non-mainstream grocery stores, and cooking at least 4 meals in a 7 day period.  Next I'm going to join a produce buying club and see if it's something that could work out for my husband and me on a regular basis.