Helping our furry locals make it through Winter

After messing around on the Internet one day, I stumbled on someone selling a squirrel feeder that looked like a saloon out of the old West. Super clever and it made me laugh, so why not try to build my own version?

First I mocked it up with some scrap cedar wood I had laying around. A pretty basic design with a “bar” and a pair of “stools”. I used a pair of electrical conduit connectors I had doing nothing, for the stool bases and spray painted them black. For the top I found an old black hinge that I had salvaged off something else and had laying around.

I then used my finish nailer and Gorilla wood glue to put it all together. After letting it dry overnight, I took my propane torch to it, to give it some old West charm. Once I had it sufficiently burned without turning it into a pile of ash on my shop floor, I sprayed some clear lacquer over it to protect it a bit, but more for looks.

And here’s the end result. Not bad for costing me exactly nothing, especially when some of these were going for $60-$100 online. I hung it from the tree outside my home office window and filled it with some “Wild animal mix” from our local Tractor Supply store that seemed to have a good mix of corn and different nuts.

Not long after hanging it and filling it up, we had our first happy customer. So far I’ve only seen this squirrel gorging himself, but there’s also a chipmunk running around eating what falls on the ground, so win, win!

Have some scrap wood laying around? Don’t buy something you see on the Internet, make it yourself!

Until next time,

Joel