The most popular choices are tubular bird feeders and platform feeders. Tubular feeders are built using a plastic or metal tube with various holes to allow the seed to come out. Many of these feeders have perches for birds to rest on while feeding. Look for a tubular bird feeder that has a solid hook or chain to hang it from a tree or pole, a large tube so you are not refilling everyday and a mesh or dome to protect your food from squirrels.

Platform feeders can be simply be a sheet of plywood raised off the ground and covered with seeds, fruit or other food. A platform feeder about one foot off the ground is perfect for attracting birds that feed on the ground such as sparrows, doves or juncos. You can also hang a platform feeder from a tree or mount on a pole to attract a vast array of different birds. Again remember to look for protection of squirrels and ensure any wooden surfaces have been protected from the weather.

Hopper feeders are a bit more expensive but are usually easier to look after and come in a variety of interesting styles, including a Victorian house! The main advantage is this type of feeder automatically restocks the feeder until the feed has been exhausted from the hopper – this means you don’t have to refill the feeder every day. Look for hopper bird feeders which hold a decent amount of seed and are easy to clean. You’ll attract many kinds of birds with these feeders including woodpeckers, cardinals and jays.

Window feeders attach to a pane of glass and allow you to see the birds while they are feeding from the comfort and warmth of your house. It may take slightly longer for the birds to feel comfortable feeding in this way but soon you’ll have a variety of birds feeding right next to your living room window!

The final types of bird feeders are the suet feeder and nectar bird feeders. Suet feeders are usually consist of a wire cake that suet cakes are attached to – suet feeders can be difficult to clean but do attract a variety of birds in winter and summer. Nectar bird feeders are diesgned to attract hummingbirds and Orioles. The birds ‘suck’ a sugary water from an inverted bottle or from a saucer that drips the liquid through the feeder.

As bird feeder technology has improved so have the design of bird feeders. You can now purchase bird feeders that are both functional and visually appealing. In fact many people are now making a feature of their bird feeders and birdhouses in their garden. You can even buy bird feeders and birdhouses in the style of log cabins, wagons and even a seaside cottage. Of course function is more important than style, however if you can combine both your garden will improve and the birds will be satisfied.

It’s often worth having a selection of bird feeders in your garden to attract different types of birds at different times of the year. If you buy bird feeders that have been built well, they should last for a number of years and bring you lots of pleasure.

About the Author

Tom White is the owner of BirdShopper.com. BirdShopper.com stock a wide selection of bird feeders, birdhouses and bird baths to suit a variety of budgets and have been selling online since 1994. On the website you’ll also find advice on choosing bird feeders and birdhouses as well as tips on attracting birds to your backyard.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Become a Siege Engineer

Building a catapult or a trebuchet is a fun project that has strong tie-ins to engineering. You can easily build a small siege engine in a single day and then you can take it outside to launch any number of things from tennis balls to watermelons.  There are lots of online resources for finding plans on how to make siege engines around three feet in size.  And this type of project lends itself very well to design improvements. It is very common for young siege engineers to be constantly improving their new catapult. You can build a mid-sized catapult with just a few basic woodworking tools and a few pieces of two by four lumber.

Rocketing into the sky

Model rockets have been a steadfast hobby for many decades. It is very inexpensive to get started and you get a double dose of fun with them because you can spend an hour or two making the rockets then you can take them out and launch them. There is a duality here that is hard to resist. If you don’t know anything about model rockets there are many beginner kits that are readily available. You can get everything you need to start this hobby including the launching pad and rocket engines around thirty or thirty five dollars.

Remote Controlled Fun

Remote controlled vehicles such as helicopters, airplanes, cars, and even boats can be a very rewarding pursuit in summer although the initial expense can be a bit high. There is also the added benefit of being able to make the projects before you take them out to fly or drive them. One of the best examples of this is remote controlled airplanes. Half the fun of the airplane comes in the making of it. And you can tailor the type of airplane to the age and skill level of your son or daughter. There are great beginner kits that can be assembled in a couple of hours and there are more advanced kits that take dozens of hours or more to make.

Make a Go Kart

This is a great project for teens because it is a bit more in-depth in both the making stage and the outdoor fun stage. You can spend several days making the go kart then it can be used all summer long. You also have the option of making a simple go kart that will roll down hills or getting elaborate and adding a motor to it. You can even start with the simple kart and later in the summer upgrade it by adding the motor.  There are many clubs that still engage in soapbox derby racing which adds a competitive dimension to this summer hobby.

Exploring the Sciences Outdoors

The Natural Sciences – All it takes is a field manual (that you can check out of the library) and a little time outdoors and you can do some discovering of how nature works. A few suggestions would be to study rock formations and geology, or to study botany and plant life. In both of these activities you can build a collection of plants, leaves, or rocks and minerals.  Half the fun is in collecting then identifying the specimens you collected. It is an easy task to find one of the sciences that might interest you and other family members. A good example is entomology where you can collect insects and display them in a case.

The sciences offer many opportunities in many different fields but my favorite is astronomy. This is a pursuit that can be started without spending any money. All you have to do is download and print a few star maps and you are ready to begin finding and identifying constellations and other heavenly bodies like planets. If you have a pair of binoculars it will add a whole new level of enjoyment to your star gazing.

 If you are looking for something spectacular in astronomy you can consult with charts of meteor showers. There are several different meteor showers that occur during the summer months and some of them have a frequency of up to as many as sixty falling stars per hour. And if you are bitten by the astronomy bug the sky is virtually the limit in this hobby because you can upgrade and improve your viewing by buying a telescope or even making your own.

When it comes to the summer months there are lots of fun and traditional activities you can do like going to the beach or an amusement park but with a little thought and creativity you can take on some hobbies and projects that add whole new dimensions such as making things and learning about the world around us.

About the Author

Looking for fun and creative projects? I have plans and guidelines for all these projects along with lots of other projects on my website at : StormTheCastle.com

Article Source: Content for Reprint

While Pennsylvania Station in New York City was without question this country’s most famous railroad station and arguably the most beautiful (along with the New York Central’s Grand Central Terminal), those which served the smaller towns and cities across the country were much more than just buildings to load and unload passengers. For many years, until the automobile became a reliable means of transportation the railroad depot was the center of life for these towns and cities as it was the only means to and from the outside world for almost everyone (unless you would rather take the journey by horseback, which would not only take much longer but also was very grueling and tiresome). Because the depot was the focal point of small towns the phrase “down by the depot” became commonplace.

Not only was the depot used to board and de-board your train wherever it may be taking you, but it also nearly always delivered the goods you purchased. For instance, if you had a small business such as a farm and needed a few items shipped that were either sold or up for sale you would simply stop by the depot and talk with the station agent who would set you up with a price (which was determined by weight) and give you a receipt known as a waybill.

And, the same can be said if you had an item(s) waiting at the depot to be picked up. When you believed it had arrived (much like postal mail) you simply stopped down at the depot and asked the station agent about items you were awaiting.

In many ways, what railroads did back then (before automobiles became reliable and efficient) is much the same thing that trucking companies and deliverers like UPS and FedEx do today by shipping small, mostly lightweight, items. Of course, what made the idea profitable for railroads back then (by shipping merchandise of any kind, large and small) was the fact that they were the most reliable and quickest means of transportation (they had a near monopoly on the market, which is a major reason why they were regulated so heavily by the government and in turn caused the catastrophic industry collapse in the 1970s).

It was this waiting for something to arrive, shipping your goods, and catching the train that fostered a community gathering at the depot and many folks went down simply to mingle and talk about the latest things going on in the area with their neighbors. Because, remember, back during the latter half of the 19th and early 20th centuries most folks did not live in the large cities being scattered about in small towns and communities (and most of those were in the country). So, with no other means of transportation other than either on foot or horseback traveling was often long (compared to today) and not that comfortable which made for fewer trips to town and usually only when necessary.

However, the local (and often small) hometown depot was not the only type of railroad station constructed and as the railroad industry progressed and grew, so did its stations which became more and more ornate and grand, ultimately culminating in this country’s (and perhaps to even some extent the world’s) greatest and most stunning station to ever be built, New York City’s grand Pennsylvania Station (better known as Penn Station) constructed by the mighty Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) and opened in 1910. These large and grand stations, however, worked on essentially the same principal as their smaller siblings with folks mingling and coming together. The one difference, of course, is that these larger stations moved many more people and often included additional features such as restaurants, shops, and other amenities. One other difference is that large stations typically did not take small, local, freight shipments to either be loaded of offloaded as this work was handled at a specialized freight depot designed simply for that purpose (to load and offload freight shipments).

Railroad stations built during the 19th and early 20th century also were true works of art, many with designs which reflected the Victorian or Roman eras as well as being constructed many times from the very same materials such as marble and crystal, which is a big reason why many are preserved and so coveted today (especially after the loss of Penn Station which used countless tons of many different types of marble in its construction). Even the stations and depots from that same time period built from wood and/or brick also were constructed with beautiful designs in mind (many of these are from the Victorian era), which is why those smaller towns and cities who have preserved their stations and depots take such pride in them and realize their beauty is unmatched (and many times these buildings are the centerpiece efforts in revitalizing their downtown areas, whether the tracks still remain in place and used or not).

As the automobile came of age, however, and our highway infrastructure became much more reliable the local railroad station fell from importance and no longer was the most essential building in towns. As the 1950s came so went the local depot in most smaller towns where the car or truck was much more accessible and reliable for the short to medium travels folks in those areas made (it was also a huge financial drain on the railroads to maintain these smaller depots where the little passenger traffic there quickly dried up after World War II, so they were very happy to discontinue these trains and shutdown the depots if possible). And, by the 1960s even the larger and more prominent railroad stations were not immune to closure or demolition, as was the case with Penn Station.

Penn Station in many ways would be the spinning image of the rise and fall of the railroad industry itself through the 1970s, as the PRR was desperate for cash during the 1960s and ordered its demolition to sell off the property and air rights. While many other railroad stations would meet a similar fate between the 1950s and 1970s, the loss of Penn Station signaled a change in this country’s attitude towards its historic structures as the outrage in the aftermath of its loss triggered a movement to preserve these buildings (the result of which thwarted later efforts to demolish the New York Central’s beautiful and breathtaking Grand Central Terminal, also located in New York City).

While Penn Station is no longer with us and the local depot’s use for both freight and passengers has long since disappeared in favor of more efficient and faster means of transportation, the grand station’s loss was a wakeup call to this country, and aside from Grand Central Terminal a number of other large, and small, stations and depots across the country have since been saved and preserved for use as both hometown community buildings to their original intent, as a place for passengers to catch their train to wherever their journeys may be taking them.

About the Author

Adam Burns has studied railroading and its history for much of his life. His website, American-Rails.com, covers the industry in great detail highlighting topics from steam and diesel locomotives to museums and excursion trains.

Article Source: Content for Reprint

Trying to do a good housecleaning job with tools and equipment that is in poor condition is probably one of the worst things that a person can do! A good and simple rule of thumb is that if it is broken, replace it as soon as possible. Dont try to still use the broom with the handle that busted that you have to bend over to the floor to clean with! Spend the eight bucks and get a new one. The problem is this: it is hard enough to clean with proper cleaning supplies and equipment, but when you have tools to work with that make it even harder, the chances of you doing a good job are pretty slim, and you dont want to waste your time when you clean you always want to be as time efficient as possible.

A word of caution that has to do with cleaning solutions and chemicals: there might be times that you only have a little bit of a solution left in the bottle, but you dont need to use it right now and you also dont want to throw it away. Never, ever combine chemicals to save space or for any other reason! This is very dangerous, and can even prove to be deadly. A chemical cleaning solution by itself can have fumes that are pretty dangerous to breathe in. When you combine two or more chemicals, though, those fumes can become far more than irritating very quickly. If you cannot use the little bit that you have left in your bottle, it is probably best to just grin and bear it and keep the bottle until you need it again.

A lot of people like to store their cleaning products in places that are convenient for them to grab. The problem is that if it is easy for you to grab, it is more than likely pretty easy for a young child to grab it, too. Make sure that if you keep chemicals somewhere that is reachable by toddlers and kids you have the cabinet locked. If you opt to store them somewhere on a shelf, be sure that they are always out of reach for children. The places that you choose to store these cleaning supplies in should also be out of the reach of pets.

If you own a home that has more than one floor, experts agree that the easiest place to store them that is a safe place is great on EACH floor. If you have two floors they recommend having two sets of cleaning supplies so that you dont have to run all over creation looking for the things you need. Designate a special area for your cleaning equipment, and stick to that on each of your floors.

Finally, whether we are talking about machines, tools, or solutions, be sure to follow all guidelines on the labels and know how to properly take care of your things. Youll save a lot of money in the long run when you have supplies that are in good condition and perform the way they are supposed to perform as they help you to clean your home.

About the Author

For more information on office cleaning in Chicago, please visit our website.

Article Source: Content for Reprint