Enough rants, let's get down to brass tacks. Every day we generate a lot of waste. What should we do with it? Composting is one way, but there are more. When my kids come by, and we're cooking, they always have to ask me "where does this go?" Everything has a place: the egg shells, the corks, and now, the seeds that come out when you open a squash to make soup.

It turns out that mallerengues (great tits) love squash seeds. Why buy bird food if you can use what you have? You scrape them out of the squash, take out the stringy orange bits, leave them on a plate and stir them a couple of times a day so that they dry out and don't get moldy, and then you give them to the birds.

I have a very simple feeder: a flower pot tray attached to the balcony railing. I drilled a few holes in it so that the water can drain if it rains. And that's it. Seeds used, happy birds.