Several times per year, I make bird bread. I’m lazy, so I don’t do it as often as I should. Even though, its really easy to do.

You don’t follow any specific recipe. You take cornbread mix, and a nice base – either pumpkin, or sweet potato. Then you toss in whatever you have handy, bake it, and serve. This last batch that I made was very sparse, ingredient wise, compared to what I normally do.

Organic corn bread mix.
Organic sweet potato puree
Cooked Brown rice
Asparagus
Turnip greens
Bright red hot peppers
Carrot/Orange juice mix

And that, was it. Normally I include a goodly bit more ingredients, but I was economizing. You toss all that into a blender, turn it into gunk, toss it into bake pans, and bake. Freeze most of it, and then break it out to feed on whatever time basis you want. Hermit crabs also love it – dogs, not so much.

Notice the amount of brightly colored foods I have in there. Sweet potato, red peppers, and carrot/orange juice. I know that Hermit Crabs really benefit from a lot of beta carotene, and I believe parrot feathers also benefit. I know that all of my birds have unusually bright, iridescent feathers for their breeds. Even Kermit the Blue Crowned Conure, and Kiwi the Red Lored Amazon, who are mostly green birds.

Speaking of which, Kermit was my self appointed helper for mixing the ingredients. She isn’t comfortable flying, so she didn’t fly down to the counter to get closer to the food. Instead she hung down the front of my shirt, claws gripping my collar. That way I could lift food up to her, for her to sample.

Every so often, I try to broaden my horizons. Its not an ongoing process for me. I’m lazy. Of the seven deadly sins, I firmly embrace sloth. I deeply enjoy doing nothing. So – I tend to get a bit stagnant, skill wise. Right now I’ve got two projects in the works to pick up some new skills.

One project is career related. Its not obvious from this blog that I’m a computer geek by trade. I’m really enjoying Windows 7. Its not going to dethrone OS X (Macintosh) as my platform of choice, but its worlds better than anything Microsoft has had in a long time. Its not Windows Vista tweaked – its Windows Vista done right. So, I’m going to pick up my first new Microsoft certifications in years. I haven’t been certified since Windows 95. There have been a lot of changes in the past few years. Studying is rather fun – I’ve learned a lot.

The second is much smaller in scope, but more important. I’m going to take a Red Cross one day class – Standard First Aid with CPR-Adult, Child and Infant. I’ve scheduled it for March 6th. I’m more interested in the first aid aspect. Living with a large, sometimes aggressive macaw has me very interested in basic first aid. Being a fat bastard has me somewhat interested in CPR, and knowing the signs for a heart attack. Besides which, if you know basic CPR/First Aid, and you are around an accident, or catastrophe of some sort, you are an asset. When I was a child (below 10), my mother was burned. I had seen on TV that in case of a burn, to wet a towel, and wring it out, then lay it over the burn. I got her a damp towel, which she put over her arm on the way to the doctor. She was told that prevented a lot of damage. So – an asset. Also, the class is only 80 bucks, and gets me out of the house for a full Saturday.

Kristin is learning first aid for pets. She is becoming a professional pet sitter. I’m going to take the first aid for pets at some point too. That too is a good skill set to have. Though I already know one very important thing when working on any animal – cover its eyes. When I was young, a small dog of ours got caught in a trap. She was very snappy. I took off my shirt, covered her, and undid the trap. I’ve used the trick a time or two since.