What kind of reinforcement are you planning? If you are hammering rebar steel down in the ground first, then yes it should hold up. In areas with good loose soil keeping a heavy one (top heavy) standing straight may be difficult. If you are drilling holes through each piece of glass and threading them on a pipe, then being heavy should not be an issue. I've only used the marbles, which do add weight, on the totems that sit flat on the ground or upon a stone pedestal. So I do not know by experience. I use a stake for my teacup (light weight) bird feeder totems. The plates catching water is good for butterflies, wasps, bees (and mosquitoes if left standing too long). In dry weather it could be used as a bird seed tray. So the owner of the totem will have to pull it up out of the ground and spill the water out. After gluing the piece together I like to put my totems on a lazy susan. I twirl the totem around and smooth the glue with my finger to make it as airtight as possible. Sometimes I will glue marble blobs over the seams to hide the glue. susie

Hi all, Well, the leaf curling started to happen when they were in a south facing kitchen window which gets really good sun for most of the day. The other advantage of that window is the humidity of the kitchen, which keeps off red spider mite. I certainly do know how hard it is to look after them indoors, which is why I started them off in my south facing bathroom window, which also gets great light and humidity. I moved them because I thought the leaf curling might be an objection to the fluctuating heat you get in both locations, and also because they were doing so well that they outgrew the window sills. Now the bathroom window is full of courgette and green bean seedlings and the kitchen is loaded up with tomatoes:-) In case you're wondering, sadly a greenhouse is not an option - but I do have some south facing patio doors, so I think I'll move them there. As for putting them outside, they will of course go out there as soon as possible. Karyn, we get plenty of sunny days here in London (although not this last week) but in March it's often only warm in the middle of the day so there's a lot of shifting in and out of doors to do. I've got to do that anyway, though, and it occurs to me that moving them to the patio doors would make that hardening off much easier, so I'll definitely go for that. As for outgrowing their pots, Tom, I mentioned before that I potted them on only a few weeks ago and I check their roots and water levels every day. They're certainly not drying out between waterings, but it's possible that the compost I potted them into is not free draining enough. I know they don't like to have waterlogged roots. I'm also a bit suspicious of that compost because the leaves started curling around the same time that they went into it. I don't think there's much I can do about that right now that wouldn't be even more stressful, though. If that's the problem then they're just going to have to tough it out for the moment - at least until it's time to pot them on again. I certainly hope you're both right, not least because if you are then they'll grow out of it and also because the alternative is looking like broad mite. I'm not entirely convinced of that though, because although the leaves are curling they're not discoloured or dropping off wood> - yet! Oops! I may have just jinxed myself. Thanks so much for your help, I'll let you know how things go. Sara

Hi Lydia, I would certainly contact the company and see whether they will send you a new base free of charge. I have read many sad stories and seen horrific pictures of dead hummers stuck at those very feeders. The safer we can make it for our little guys & gals, the better. As for the orioles, I have had them try to sip out of the hummer feeders but the holes are just too small. I hung an oriole feeder and now I have at least 4 or 5 of them coming every day. It's sooooooooo cool!!!!

give it a try, pay attention, adapt your approach as necessary .... the best plan is to fab up a cheap, simple container, fill it with wet bedding and chuck in some worms, feed closer to the surface the longer you have it and the worms will be toward the top when you want to harvest, scoop off the top half, steal the bottom half, replace the top part and start over .... don't worry about the ending before you get off the line! you'll never get "100% pure" castings under any circumstances, worms don't work by your rules, and there'll always be at least a few stragglers satisfied with working over the castings forever, as well as lots of cocoons, which may/will hatch out at any time the temp and moisture level is agreeable there's no reason at all to wax anything, raw wood is beneficial to wick moisture away and allow air in, and plain wood bins should last longer than you're likely to be fussy about it ... also 1/2" ply is way overkill, 1/8" doorskin material would suffice on a box that small and shallow .... and that's pretty small bins for ENC's, who tend to be surface feeders anyway, using deep tunnels to hide out during the day - not the most desireable composting worm for my money Bill