September 23, 2008 – 10:42 am
We now have eleven chrysalises in our butterfly tank and the first butterfly emerged today.
I’m posting this photo in a large size so you can see the amazing beauty and detail of the wing scales. Isn’t God’s gift of creation amazing?
Buttercup is fascinated!
We put some butterfly bush blossoms and a couple of purple coneflower blossoms in the tank to provide nectar. When she gets home from school, DD will release the butterfly in the back yard.
We’re hoping to watch a butterfly as it emerges. If we do, I’ll post some pictures.
~~Rhonda
September 22, 2008 – 10:32 pm
Sunday evening, the mission team that went to West Virginia this summer gave their report to the church. Bethany, who was on the team and is now in the Philippines, joined us via Skype which John set up. DH especially liked John’s high tech bucket. 🙂
After the report, while we had snacks, everyone got to talk to Bethany, and she was introduced to Margaret who was born after Bethany left. 🙂
It was great to see Bethany “face to face” and to have her input in the mission report. We all miss her a great deal!
~~Rhonda
September 21, 2008 – 8:42 pm
We’re raising caterpillars we found on the parsley in the garden. We did the same two years ago. It’s fascinating to watch them grow and change, molting as they get larger.
We use a large fish tank to house them, and a piece of window screen with an elastic band to top the tank. To keep their parsley fresh, we use a small plastic container with holes in the lid. We filled the container with potting soil, soaked with water.
The parsley is pushed into the holes in the container lid. The water keeps it fresh and the dirt helps to hold it upright.
All the holes are filled with parsley. It’s amazing how quickly the caterpillars will eat everything put out for them.
In the tank, there is also a small vase with parsley. This is the “nursery” where we keep eggs and newly hatched caterpillars as they are too small to put with the larger ones. The larger caterpillars are becoming so voracious they might eat the parsley right out from under the tiny ones.
If you look closely, you will also see the sticks we put into the tank for chrysalis formation.
Newspaper lining the bottom makes cleanup easy. The caterpillars are eating and pooping machines. The only other things they do are rest and molt. 🙂 Here’s a video I took of one of our caterpillars eating a parsley leaf. In real time. I didn’t speed it up! Click here.
We now have ten chrysalises and another caterpillar will be a chrysalis by tomorrow. Two others have failed to develop properly. DH brought more parsley in this AM and found two newly hatched caterpillars on one stem. They are so tiny! We put them in the nursery vase and will keep an eye on them.
Because it is late in the season, the butterflies may not emerge until next April or May. We shall see!
~~Rhonda
September 20, 2008 – 9:54 pm
We’ve had a lot of trouble with the old refrigerator. It finally died on Wednesday, and we ordered a new one. DH picked it up today. I didn’t even clean up the mess before taking a picture.
~~Rhonda 🙂
September 18, 2008 – 8:11 pm
A few pictures from our garden this evening…
The cedar trees are making berries. I wish they’d stay on the tree through Christmas, but they are usually gone by then. They’d be so pretty in Christmas garlands and wreaths.
Of course, the goldenrod is in full bloom.
The dogwood leaves are beginning to turn. The trees are loaded with blossoms for next year. This spring there were not many blossoms at all…not sure why. But next year, there should be a bountiful crop.
The coneflowers keep putting out blossoms. And the goldfinches are eagerly eating all the coneflower seeds they can find.
This little brown moth didn’t mind at having his picture taken.
Most of the daisies are done blooming, but there are one or two pretty blossoms in each clump.
All over the yard there are single blossoms on flowers that were blooming prolifically not so long ago. As though they are putting out one last effort before winter arrives.
~~Rhonda
September 17, 2008 – 9:08 pm
The only problem with our grands is that they live too far away.
Cute, aren’t they?? ~~Rhonda 🙂
September 16, 2008 – 9:13 pm
Today was mostly taken up with stripping wall paper in the hall and the laundry room. I did about 15 minutes of mowing, just to get outside for a few minutes right before supper. The weather was beautiful.
We have eight chrysalises so far. Three of them are brown. The rest are green.
DD made these yummy hamburger buns for supper, using the recipe for 40 minute hamburger buns. We had chicken sandwiches on the warm buns. Yummy!
The ‘Autumn Joy’ sedum is beautiful right now. There’s a bucket of them in the kitchen waiting to be made into a bouquet.
I’m hoping I can finish stripping the wallpaper in the laundry room tomorrow, though we need to take time to shop for a new refrigerator. Ours bit the dust. That should be the big adventure for Wednesday.
~~Rhonda
September 15, 2008 – 3:05 pm
I watched this little guy for forty minutes early Friday morning, waiting for him to molt from a caterpillar into a chrysalis. I had my camera on the tripod, ready to take a video of the quick transformation. I waited and waited and waited…
Then I turned my back for ten minutes, while I checked email on my laptop…turned around and what did I see?
::sigh:: We are up to six chrysalises now. There are eight caterpillars to go, so I am hoping to catch the molt on video with another candidate. We shall see!
~~Rhonda
