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Sunday, September 28, 2008

On the road again

We are on the road to New Mexico for the big Balloon Festival which starts the 4th. Tonight we are in Guthrie, OK. We decided to put the Monarch chrysalis out on our dogwood tree, so Ken tied the boards which they were attached to with dental floss to the lower branches. The neighbor was wondering what we were doing and she sounded excited to see what happens to them. We had one emerge at 8 am and we just tied it's stick to a branch too. Then just before we left this one emerged. There are 5 left, hope they make it. Here's Ken tying them up.
Unfortunately we hit about 20 on the drive out, we saw most in Kansas and the farther west we got the fewer we saw. So we figure we must be in their fly way back home.
The poor cats weren't very happy to be in their carriers and back in the RV. I could just read their explatives, but after alittle tuna tonight they feel somewhat better about it.

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Get together

We had lunch with Ken's brother Don, wife Ruby, granddaughter Andria, friend Doug and Noel Waterson, Julie Waterson hasn't been feeling well the last couple of days. Ken, Don and Noel all worked at Ford, so lots of Ford talk.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Something you don't see everyday!

Something you don't see everyday!
It's not Ken but what's below him, two mantis mating!
Fall is their mating season.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Surprises

We have had a couple of fun surprises in the last 24 hours. My god daughter called last night and announced her engagement to her long time boyfriend and today a business card in the door announcing that the Watersons are in town. Noel was in fact getting his car fixed so Ken went and picked him up and brought him by to visit for a while. They will be in town for more then a week doing their Dr's appointments, they are our full time RV friends.
We also had 4 Monarchs emerge, 3 male and 1 female, so 7 are left. We went for a short walk at Watkins and I got these photos of caterpillars. What does it mean when most of the Wooleys are black? The smooth caterpillar is the Giant Swallowtail in our garden and it's about 3" long now.
It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. Laura Igeles Wilder

Sunday, September 21, 2008

First Day of Fall

For man, autumn is a time of harvest,
of gathering together.
For nature, it is a time of sowing,
of scattering abroad.
Edwin Way Teale

Saturday, September 20, 2008

Plaza Art Fair

Another beautiful day, perfect to walk around the Plaza Art Fair. Lots of different art, music and food to enjoy. I tried my first mojito today and it was very good. We just brought home ideas and a couple of free tote bags. We came home and released 4 monarchs, all males today. We have 3 caterpillars left and they are roaming about looking for a spot to make their chrysalis. So we will have 12 monarchs left to release.

...it is always the simple that produces the marvelous. Amelia E Barr

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

A beautiful day!!

What a perfect day, light breeze and 80 degrees and sun shining!! We've been busy with this and that and spending a little time with the Carlow's. We picked them up from the airport Sunday, they had a really nice time on their cruise to Nova Scotia and now they are getting ready to drive to CA. These little guys were my rainy day projects, as well as the crocheted afghan (still working on). I have several pieces of mohair left for another rainy day, I forgot how much fun they were to make.
Today, with the help of Bob Carlow, Ken took the recliner out of the RV. I didn't think it would fit through the door but it did. Ken hated to move it out every time we wanted to sit in it and then move it back when we put the slide back in as it is heavy and awkward to move. The space it was in is perfect to keep the cats litter box in. We'll put in a small table chair and see how we like that.
Boo says we've should've have brought it in a long time ago! We've released 4 females and 2 male Monarchs so far. This poor Monarch was on our butterfly bush this afternoon, and she could still fly with that wing. The last couple of days we have been noticing all the Monarchs heading south, it would be fun to find one of their roosting trees around here.
By all these lovely tokens
September days are here
With summers best of weather
And autumn's best of cheer. Unknown

Saturday, September 13, 2008

Two more

We had two Monarchs emerge today, one early in the am and the other around noon. It stopped raining around noon today so we released the Monarch that emerged yesterday, and she just took off flying when I released her. Later, we released the early riser and she stayed for a few photos. The late comer is still in the aquarium till tomorrow. We found 5 more Monarch caterpillars in the garden so we brought those in.
Ken cleaned and refilled the hummingbird feeders and they really appreciated it by waiting patiently to take a Long drink. We see about 3 at a time, it won't be long and we will be taking the feeders in and the hummers will be south again. We plan on following!
The butterfly is the only creature that changes its DNA in the process of transformation...Consider the Butterfly by Carol Pearson

Friday, September 12, 2008

A new Monarch

This morning I looked at our chrysalis and saw it was time for a Monarch to emerge. You can see our chrysalis here and the dark one in the back. They look dark when it's time. It has been a chrysalis for 11 days. Here you can see the Monarch inside it's chrysalis. It emerged around 9:12 am.

Here it has emerged, it comes out fast and it's wings are small.

Then in the next 15 min. or so it grows and becomes the Monarch we all love. (My photo of it full size didn't turn out will try again.)


It will hang for several hours and since the weather is bad out it will hang even longer, I'm hoping for 36 hours. We had rain all day and storms are coming in this evening and more rain predicted for tomorrow. Monarchs just hang somewhere in a tree for safety in this weather and new Monarchs don't feed their first day anyway.



We also had another Monarch caterpillar turn into a chrysalis today.




If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender. Vladimer Nabokov
Our prayers and our thoughts for all those in the path of Ike.





Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A flat

We had a flat tire on our RV. Good thing we weren't on the road. Ken called the Good Sam Club and they referred us to TCI. They were out here within 2hrs!! Had the tire fixed in an hour and the cost was $112, which we thought wasn't bad .

This is the culprit, a screw. We now have peace of mind that out inner tires have the right inflation now, he was nice enough to check and fill them too.
Looks like a few days of rain here. We have 19 babies now, 3 tiny ones, four which are just munching and munching away and 12 chrysalis.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

A Sunday Walk

A beautiful day for a walk and we found several types of caterpillars and several butterflies. Ken didn't take his camera and he should have!
This is the little guy on our Roe, which I believe is a Giant Swallowtail caterpillar.

Here is a Monarch caterpillar on our balloon milkweed.
We now have 17 Monarch babies in our nursery and 4 Black swallowtail babies.
All the seasons run their race..
in this quiet resting place. Austin Dobson

Friday, September 5, 2008

One Year Anniversary

I can't believe I've been blogging for a year. I've learned a lot this year but I have so much more to learn about the Internet and it changes everyday. I have enjoyed a few of the other blogs out there, occasionally will mention them here. I have learned a little about what is out there in this Internet world and I have visited other countries which I think is really cool. There is a couple things I could add to my own blog but I haven't taken the time to learn about them.
I started this as a way for friends and family to see what we are doing especially when we are on the road. I have really enjoyed doing it.
To another year of blogging, may I learn a little bit more.
It is necessary now and then for a man to go away by himself and experience loneliness; to sit on a rock in the forest and to ask of himself. 'Who am I, and where have I been, and where am I goin?' Carl Sandburg
We may not go alone and we would like to share where we are going with anyone who would like to join us via my blog.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

As promised

Here are a few photos from the past years from our Monarch nursery. We have 3 chrysalis now. Yesterday, I went to lunch in Smithville with the Red Hats. This is just one half of our group yesterday. We had a good lunch and a good time.
We are enjoying a lite rain today and some cool temps. We needed the rain and the cool temps feel nice but we almost need a lite jacket.
Enjoy your day :)

Monday, September 1, 2008

Nursery report

This morning I watched as one of the Monarch cats morphed into a chrysalis, I tried get a photo of it but a point and shoot just doesn't work. It doesn't take but a minute or so for it to shed off it's stripped skin and turn into an alien looking bright green blob. Then it shortens up and hardens into the chrysalis we know. ( I will look for photos from past years and make a collage and post later.) This evening we brought in 4 more caterpillars for a total of 11 monarch babies. We have an aquarium set up for them. The monarchs favorite plant this year seems to be the balloon milkweed, a new plant for us. I was hoping to see the seed pods but we may not have much of a plant left.
Also in our garden we have 4 black swallowtail caterpillars (3 on parsley and 1 on fennel) and 2 giant swallowtail caterpillars which are on our Roe, also a new plant for us this year. These little cats seem to be very slow growing, right now they are too small for my point and shoot.
Perhaps if we could penetrate nature's secrets,
we should find that what we call weeds are more
essential to well being of the world than the
most precious fruit or grain. - N. Hawthorne