We celebrated a big milestone this past week! ONE YEAR SEIZURE FREE for Will! We were so excited. Honestly, these past 8 years I never imagined this day would ever come. He still has to go another year before they'll take him off meds, but to hit the one year mark is quite exciting.
I made a bunch of apple sauce. I only made about 8 quarts but I hope to do more soon. We just love homemade sauce and it's nice to store it for the winter.
Anna sent the boys a thing called Treasure X. They have to carve through a block of plaster (I think) and dig for the parts of a toy figure. Its kind of fun and kept them busy for a loooong time. I had never heard of them but apparently Anna's kids love them. She always knows the fun things. :)
The real excitement around here happened about a week and a half ago when I was wandering in the garden and spotted MONARCH CATERPILLARS on my one milkweed plant (the only thing they eat.) I started jumping up and down in excitement. Lee happened to be running on the street and dashed over to me, thinking something was drastically wrong. He looked less than enthusiastic when I exclaimed "It's caterpillars!!!!"
I immediately went to the nursery and bought 2 more milkweed plants. I was afraid someone in the school pickup line as from a short distance it looks like another type of plant. :)
Then I bought a little bug box type thing and after the kids got home we carefully removed them from the milkweed and tucked them safe in the box (with milkweed added.) It's a good thing I bought 2 more plants and the one they had been feasting on was stripped and these cuties would have starved.
Aside from this excitement, the real fun began. Because so many were already in their final caterpillar stage, they started to go into J after a few days and then create their chrysalis.
To say this thing is cool to watch would be putting it lightly. The hang upside down in "J" and then their skin splits from the bottom (which is their head) as they wiggle and smoosh their skin to the tail (which is at the top.) We lost this guy but you can kind of tell how they split open from the bottom.
Then they wiggle and wiggle like crazy trying to knock their skin off. They start to calm down a bit and in a short time their chrysalis will smooth out and harden.
Lee said it looks like ceramic. And check out the gold line and spots. It's pure beauty, I tell ya.
Mom said this picture was a little deceptive as it makes it look bigger than it actually is. I just wanted to show all the gold details. They are really no taller than a quarter.
In 7-20 days (it depends on weather) we should see some butterflies emerge! We are on day 7 right now and you can just start to see the markings of the wings. The camera wouldn't capture it, but as soon as those minute details can be shown, I'll take more pictures.
For now, here is the only video I got of one of these guys "Hanging J" and then going into his chrysalis. (A cocoon is something a caterpillar spins around itself- like a moth. A chrysalis is something that emerges from within.)
We collected about 20 caterpillars. We have lost 2 to tachnid fly- a fly that lays its eggs inside the caterpillar. Once it goes into the chrysalis it emerges from their skin, killing the caterpillar.
We lost a few more to general "who knows." One got stuck while molting to his next phase and some just curled up and died. We are ok with that because, well, it's nature. It's nothing that "we" did, it's just things that happen.
But we currently have 8 chrysalids. We are pretty excited about it and I go check on them every day. We still have one caterpillar that was itty bitty when we found him. He's grown a ton and should go into J in the next few days. He "may" have tachnid fly as the other he was with had it, but we won't know for sure until the next stage.
I have to admit, this has been the most fun science lesson. Next year I want to plant more milkweed and hopefully have more and more! It's so fun!
I honestly have never even seen a monarch in our yard but one had to have come or we wouldn't have had the babies.
We currently have a lot of fritillary butterflies though, and that's been fun. I can't wait to plant more butterfly attracting plants next year!
Guys from the electric department were trimming trees near the lines this week. Mom came up for a surprise visit earlier in the week. We had fun sitting around but while she was here she said, "you should go ask them what they are going to do with the mulch." I said something about how they use it around the county but the next day I thought, "Hmmm.... wouldn't hurt to ask...." Which is how I ended up with two HUGE piles, think truckloads, of FREE mulch.
While mom and I were basking in the excitement of several hundred dollars of free mulch, my hubby was less enthused. I think his exact reaction, via text (I didn't dare tell him ahead of time and wasn't home when he first saw it) was "I am very unhappy about this." haha. Oops, sorry Lee! He came around though and while it is a bit of an eye sore, once it cools down a bit I can start moving it all around the yard. I have to admit, 2 loads IS a bit much, but, hey, it was FREE!!! (I sound like my father!)
So that's it for now. Monarchs is pretty much the excitement around here!
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