During the Arctic Blast, we ended up receiving 28" of snow! I had covered my herb plants in the front brick planter that's attached to the house with lots of dry hay.Then I noticed many birds trying to find food, so since I had a bag of birdseed in the garage, I took some cut of flats from cardboard boxes, my husband filled them with the birdfood, and set a couple of them on top of the hay, which is well protected from the huge amounts of snow we got. So we were able to sit in our family room, and look out the big windows to watch the little birds having a great time with their protected area and all that yummy food. It was an opportunity for me to step onto my front porch and get a few nice photos of these feathered friends.