I feed em and bathe em. Took a while to find the right place for the feeder. I hang mine off a tall skinny metal pole and there is a horizontal 5 foot piece of skinny bamboo that is stuck on there for a landing perch. You want a place where they can sneak up on the feeder through branches and cover and where such branches and cover are so thick down low that it makes it nearly impossible for a cat to get at them. And you want a place where any fallen seed cannot germinate. Seeds fall onto shaded ground with lots of overhead competition. A bath you can put anywhere. My favorite is just a 12 inch plant saucer that sits on a bench and is visible from the TV room. You can watch them fly down and jump in and out, especially when it gets hot outside. Pool party!

Cool Lisa! It took almost a year for me to see a Red Belly on the suet log. Now Mr. Red belly visits the suet log almost every day. He is a noisy guy, and makes a big fuss when he's around. It seems like he's telling all the other birds to stay out of his way and they usually do. There was a Red-belly earlier in the summer that would rap on the gutter when the suet log was empty. It was quite deliberate and somewhat annoying! :) Just signed up for the PFW this morning. I did a bird count yesterday afternoon and this morning. I don't get the packet for a couple weeks, but they said it was okay to enter the data when it comes. It's fun! Had a pair of Red breasted Nuthatches this morning, and yesterday afternoon there were dozens of Juncos! At least 30 in the feeding station area and nearby grass and leaves. Along with 8 or more White throat sparrows, all pecking and scratching and rustling leaves. The ground looked like it was alive.

I'm a bad bird Mom. I got up this morning to 29F and went outside to check feeders, found the sugar solution liquid (my experience has been it takes about 2F colder before it begins to get slushy), came back in and started my morning. About 7:45, I noticed birds were landing, not eating, flying off so put on shoes again and went back out. Last evenings rain, then freeze, had formed ice blocks in the feeding ports and the birds couldn't access the food. A mad scramble followed with the first kitchen utensil I could find that would penetrate the ports on three saucer style feeders, followed by my blow dryer for good measure. Boy, did I ever feel guilty for not paying closer attention :( These little birds are DH's project. He isn't working this week and slept in this morning.

Hardwood throughout my entire first floor, including the kitchen and all entry areas. Residents don't wear shoes in the house. Human residents, nor furry ones. :) Visitors are not given any rules upon arrival. :) Most people see you walking around in bare feet, or socks, or slippers, and immediately move to take off their shoes. Depending upon who they are and why they are there, I often tell them don't bother. For instance, if it's the HVAC guy and he's going to work in the cellar, I couldn't care less if he keeps his shoes on. As someone noted upthread, the nice thing about hardwood is that it does clean up very easily. I prefer the residents keep shoes off the floor b/c it does keep the floors cleaner, but there is no way I would ever make a guest remove their shoes. As far as damage - most of the damage to my floor comes from the toenails of the 20 pound furry lunatics who share my home. Yes I keep them short - no lectures on appropriate dog nail procedures please! They are young and love to run and play - nails dig in on cornering no matter how short they are. :) However there has been some damage from people in shoes who had rocks stuck in the treads. Most of it from the early days when the house was under construction because sadly my GC was an inconsiderate moron regarding things like this. TL:DR. It's hardwood. It dents. I do what I can to keep the dents to a minimum but don't stay up at night about it either.