Monarch update

I released one male today...but when I cleaned out the butterfly house, I counted 38 Monarch caterpillars! Woohoo! Lots more butterflies to come. :-)

Also...the Swallowtail cats are still alive, though they aren't eating a whole lot. I think they're doing a starvation protest. :-(

Black Swallowtail update

Finally witnessed the Black Swallowtail butterfly laying eggs on my parsley. They look a little different from the Monarch's eggs. These are round and more creamy colored. Hope I can get a couple generations of raising in before winter. I don't have much parsley this year (heavy rainfall in the spring killed it down) so I was buying parsley at the store to feed the caterpillars that I found on my parsley. Then I wondered why they were dying off as soon as I brought them in. Duh.....pesticides! I admit I had to Google it, didn't think of it myself. Wonder what they do to us? Anyway, with the help of my mom today I was trying to brainstorm other sources of food for them. They eat plants in the carrot family...carrot tops, parsley, fennel, and wild carrot...anyone know what the other name for wild carrot is? Queen Anne's Lace! Yippee! I had my food source! So I picked some along the roadside today and transferred two little Swallowtail guinea pigs onto it. :-) I hope they will eat it and like it and grow! I will keep you updated!

Unique Monarch shot

This isn't crystal sharp, but it was hard to get a shot of these two up in the tree! This is a pair of Monarchs mating.
I think I've seen everything now...all the stages of a Monarchs life.
Mating, laying eggs, teeny tiny caterpillar, bigger cats, shedding skin, J-hooking, turning into a chrysalis, emerging as a butterfly...and flying away to do it all over again!
What a miracle!

A new kind of caterpillar!

I'm not going to go crazy with this one, but it was fun to see a new caterpillar and ID it. This one is the caterpillar of the Buckeye butterfly. I hope to catch a photo of the butterfly soon! In the meanwhile this cat is enjoying my snapdragons which is one of its host plants. Tonight it was on a nearby plant, so maybe it's ready to form a chrysalis. Who knows! Stay tuned!

Monarch update

Released two females and a male today.

Monarch update

Released two males and a female today.

Monarch update

Released two females and a male today.

Monarch update

Released 3 males today.

Monarch update

Released 2 males today.

Goofin' off with Daddy

What they do best! Daddy knows how to give them a good time!

Awesome clouds after the storm!

There was a weird yellow glow after the rain stopped, but there were some pretty awesome clouds! They dissipated soon after we went outside, so it was good timing to see them!

Monarch report

I currently have 17 chrysalises and 2 caterpillars J-hooking! It's the most I've had at one time so far. Tomorrow one should be coming out, but that will still be 18 left. They will be coming out in 3 or more batches.
Plus have a bunch of "baby" caterpillars, as the boys call them. Even got to take some home from a friend's milkweed plant tonight. :-)

Red, red rose!

What a beauty!

Magazine look-alike

If anyone has seen the latest Birds and Blooms magazine, this shot I took in my garden looks very much like the back cover! :-) Hmmm!

The story is: there is no story...I didn't send it in, though I guess I could've...they use that kind of stuff! :-) Just coincidence. :-)

Monarch in a rock...

...and evidently it wasn't a hard place, because it got out of there and flew off! The other day I had a Monarch come out of its chrysalis and later when I came back to release it, there were two butterflies in there flying around. I didn't know where it had come from and I didn't stop to find out, but it evidently came out of here, because the next day I checked the rock and the chrysalis was empty! I wish I could have seen how it came out...it was really scrunched in there...but I guess they're experts in getting out of scrunched spaces. :-)


Can you see the green chrysalis in there? The sun is lighting it up because there was another hole on the other side ...I guess a type of escape route! :-)

Monarch laying eggs

I was so excited to catch this with my camera!

There were two Monarchs flying around my milkweed, both laying eggs, so we will have a lot more caterpillars, that is for sure!

So here is one of them laying an egg. Arrow is there to show you where she deposits an egg from her body onto the underside of the leaf.

...and here she is flying off. I like this shot even though it's blurry...

...And here is the egg on the underside of the leaf. I circled it and put an arrow there because it's really hard to see otherwise. They're so tiny!

First day of 2nd grade!

It's school time! T had a good 1st day in 2nd grade. He likes his teacher and is excited about learning more math this year!

Waiting with brother on "the line!" (so they are not too close to the road)

Watching for the bus...it stops on the curve down the hill from our house, so it gives him time to get ready.

...And...back home again from a good day.


Showing Dad his fancy calculator he got for a prize for completing his summer homework assigned to him by his 1st grade teacher at the end of last school year.
Good job, Trevin! You did it!
1st day name tag :-)

Last day of summer vacation

After picking up L at preschool, we had a picnic lunch at a park by the lake and then enjoyed the playground. It was a gorgeous day...I hope we have said our final goodbye to that 100-degree weather! It was so nice to have cooler weather today!

Monarch report

Two more Monarchs released today...2 females. Lots of caterpillars crawling to the ceiling to J-hook.

First day of preschool

My little guy is growing up! Started preschool today...very excited and not at all worried about Mommy leaving. :-)

From the butterfly house...

Seven of the Monarch chrysalises came out today! 6 females and 1 male. It was quite the event! I took some video, too, which I will be posting later. Amazing! I never tire of watching them!

Here are 2 of them coming out all scrunched up. It's amazing they even fit in that chrysalis.

Got a little bit of everything going on here...butterflies coming out, caterpillars J-hooking, butterflies still drying...it was a busy morning!

I still have lots of caterpillars still eating, too, so more generations to come! I had to go make a milkweed run today, but found lots of good stuff on the roadside. One man's weed is another man's butterfly feed!

Here's 5 of them drying out. It was quite the sight. Wish we could've released them all together, too, but haven't figured out how to do that yet...

Here are the videos:

This one is of a butterfly coming out of his chrysalis:



And here is Logan releasing one.