Free Bikes 4 Kidz
Otten Bros. has been working with G-Force Cycling Club of Minneapolis for the past two years to provide free quality bikes to kids who don't have bikes. 

G-Force did all the bike work...Otten Bros. was the collection site.  In 2008, we helped collect 350 bikes - G-Force was able to rehab 250 of them.  Just think -250 kids, waking up to a shiny bike parked under the Christmas tree!  250 kids, from families who can't afford the luxury of what many deem a childhood necessity, got bikes!   That is just cool.   

The next year, 2009, was even better for Free Bikes 4 Kidz (FB4K).  750 bikes collected, 450 were given away. 

It's now 2010 and the goal has grown! FB4K wants to collect 1500 bikes and give them ALL away. 

Go, now to your garages!   Have you or your child out grown your bikes?  Load them up!  Bring your good quality bikes to Otten Bros. Garden Center or one of the Bachman's Flower & Garden Centers throughout the cities.  FB4K will even take NEW bikes and much needed financial donations.

The bikes, along with a NEW HELMET will be given away through several youth organizations and a public give away December 11^th & 12^th.  See the Free Bikes 4 Kidz website for more details on where, when and how.  

Make a difference this Christmas.  Join the G-Force roadies, Otten Bros. Garden Center & Landscaping, Bachman's Flower & Garden Centers, Nice Ride MN, Free Wheel Bikes, and Allina in proclaiming 2010 to be the season of...

"Good wheel to all, and to all a good bike."

November Bird of the Month

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Yesterday, looking out my kitchen window was a small, very active, short necked bird with a cinnamon colored chest that behaved similar to its cousin the White-breasted Nuthatch. His blue back, pointed beak and black mask gave his identity away as the Red-breasted Nuthatch.

Common to our northern forests, the Red-breasted Nuthatch raises its brood in cavities hollowed out in trees by both adults. This behavior is common to woodpeckers, but not other cavity nesters.

You will typically see it moving downward on a tree, in a zigzag fashion.  They depend on the long claw of their backward pointing toe for grip as they search for insects and cached seeds.

Spring and summer their diet consists of insects; primarily spiders, ants, caterpillars, beetles and spruce budworms during outbreak years. Fall and winter they switch over to conifer nuts and our feeding stations.

The Red-breasted Nuthatch enjoys my tube and platform feeders: dining on its favorites of peanuts and sunflowers. Moving quickly to a nearby tree, they take the biggest peanut, jam it into a crevice and hammer it into bite size pieces. It also has a fondness, like many birds in the fall and winter, for suet feeders.

Keep a sharp eye out for this dapper looking bird as they, like our other avian friends, will provide you with hours of family enjoyment.

Happy Birding!

Kevin Manley