I feed the birds all year sort of. They start with cleaning off the sunflowers that they plant the previous fall and continue to clean off the grasses, berries, and corn that I sometimes grow just for them. Of course I have water out all the time for them and a heated dish in the winter. I feed the big birds cat food with bread or cereal in it. They get any left overs when I cook a turkey or ham. I make my own concoction of peanut butter, prunes, hulled sunflower seeds, rolled oats, millet, black oil sunflower and a few other things they like to pick at. I buy millet, black oil sunflower and striped sunflower by the sack and keep it in large bins in the hall along with peanuts,hulled sunflower seeds, oats and rabbit pellets. Once in a while I will give them a treat of meal worms from the petstore or cut up fruit. And sometimes I will get a seed bell or spray millet just to watch them. I also ground up dry catfood last year and put it in the feeder. The little birds get much needed fat and protein to keep warm that way. I have the usual black and white feather dusters, the blue jays, lots of chickadees (black capped and boreal), nuthatches (red and white breasted), woodpeckers, northern flickers, juncos, finches, sparrows, the odd grosbeaks, waxwings, and redpolls and I even had a kestral last spring. Not many crows unless it is a really warm winter. My computer is in the corner of the front bedroom where there are the old corner windows. I feed the birds from about 5 feeders and baskets hanging from the big white spruce about 2 feet from the corner of the house here. I feed the rabbits under the tree and the dish feeders on the fence from big heavy ceramic dishes. It is such a routine for me to feed the birds after I feed the dogs on winter mornings. My neighbours are used to the crazy lady in her fleece pjs out feeding the birds every morning and the dogs go out and wait by the fence for the maggies to drop food for them. Quite the scene to watch! The maggies are very comical and they literally talk to me. I can't stand to see anything go hungry or be cold and the little birds seem to like to feast under the protective branches of this 50 foot spruce. My neighbour across the street says she likes to sit with her coffee in the morning and watch the bunnies and birds eating. And that reminds me: Must find a bale of hay for the bunnies. Last year I fed a cat all winter but coudln't catch her. She left me mice most mornings under the kennel....... I hope we have a mild winter or at least get some snow. It is bitterly cold without a little insulation. Ginny

I have 2 rhode Island reds and 3 red star sexlinks. Sweet girls. I have a chicken tractor my hubby made me. Here is some pics of chicken tractors. www.thecitychicken.com. It is easy and with a chicken tractor, when the floor is dirty and the grass is ate, we move them. We have them get into their coop, shut the door and move the tractor. We don't move them when they are in the run so they don't get hurt feet. Protects them and allows them to be free range eating fresh grass, taking dirt baths (which they love) and They eat the weeds, seeds, grass and fertilize the lawn. Poop in the coop goes in my compost. My chicken tractor is bigger than alot of those on the website. It is really fun and healthier since they are free range. We put ours on organic chicken food pellets. It is double the price, but i am assured there is no pesticides in their feed which will make me more comfortable about eating their eggs. My property has no pesticides or chemicals. Cheryl Here is a link that might be useful: The city chicken

Ya wanna know why there's no snow up there? It's all those Canadian beer fridges causing global warming. Don't believe me? Hey, check out the scientific report at the link. (Climate scientists would never say anything less than scrupulously honest, would they?) Yeah, I always knew there was something sinister about those Molson-swilling, 'eh'-saying, hockey loving people... (This is, of course, totally tongue in cheek...some of the greatest times in my life have been in Canada, and I wish all countries in the world got along with each other as well as Canada and its sometimes rambunctious southern neighbor...) Here is a link that might be useful: global warming and Canadian beer fridges

Also should add, the Colorado elk generally didn't like my irises. Baby roses-heck yeah. Garden veges-obliterated. Irises and day lilies-untouched. Not a hard and fast rule but that's my experience. It might be worth putting a bit of a fence or a cage over them for the first year, so that some nosy four-by-four doesn't come up and pull one up to try and spit it out and let the roots get all dried out, but once they get established they should be good. They didn't need a ton of water for me either, which would be handy for your situation. And another flower that didn't get eaten much was the columbines. They are super stinking hardy, and contrary to garden blogs on pinterest they don't die off after four years and have to be replaced. I had some that were forty years old and still going strong. They can grow in sun or in shade, and when you dead head them just shake the seed pods upside down in the next place you want them to grow and you'll have hundreds and thousands of little seedlings next year.