Nature: Behind the Scenes*

Stunning!

Bugs!

There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me. ~Thomas Jefferson

Okay ... many of you (especially gardeners!) expressed some, shall we say, surprise at the fact that we're raising tomato hornworms.

The main reason I'm doing so is because of the amazing moth it becomes. Beautiful and incredible to watch, I give you -- the Hummingbird Moth:





Yesterday, inside one of the jars, I found the tiniest little mama crab spider carrying the tiniest little bitty egg sac (if not for her egg sac, I probably wouldn't have seen her at all). She couldn't stay there, so I scooped her out and put her and her eggs outside. She was SUCH a good mama... she held the sac with her to hindmost legs, and once as she was trying to get away, the sac came loose. You could tell she wanted to run (she probably thought I was going to eat her!) but she scurried back for her eggs anyway, picked them up and moved away.

I know, I know you're all thinking: spider? But nature is incredibly amazing (if brutal) and if you take time to just WATCH sometimes I think you'd be swept away by its beauty.

Most of my day, however, was spent deep cleaning. Why? Because Sunday night I found a cockroach! UGH!! We generally don't see them up here, though they can live here, and we've NEVER seen them in our house. It was an American Cockroach and after some research we found that the German Cockroach is what usually lives here. Our assumption is that it hitchhicked in on some imported (from California or Florida) produce).

My house is pretty dang clean, but it can always be cleaner. So I pulled out the appliances and scrubbed the floors, emptied the pantry and scrubbed, emptied my cupboards and scrubbed. Then I deployed more than a dozen roach bait traps.

Despite my love for nature, I do draw the line at cockroaches (mostly because they try to live in my house... :::shudders:::).

I wasn't online but an hour or two yesterday, and today is my Mom's birthday, so my online time will be reduced as well. Hopefully, tomorrow things will mostly be back to normal.

Have a great day!

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You Are Dominant

You take on huge projects and see them through. You lead the way when it comes to success. You are a leader and a good one too. You are as fair as you can be. You have a defiant streak. If someone tells you that you can't do something, it makes you that more determined. You are impulsive when the occasion calls for it. You make decisions on the fly.

The Circle Doodle Test

About 75% right

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Snake and Toad

Life's not always fair. Sometimes you can get a splinter even sliding down a rainbow. ~Terri Guillemets

Can you believe it got down into the 40s last night? It's FREEZING this morning. ::::shivers:::

I swear, the weather this year is totally nuts.

My DH did a good deed yesterday (well, good for the toad, anyway ... I'm pretty sure the snake isn't happy). I was inside when he came in, got these huge BBQ-ing tongs and started out. I knew he wasn't cooking, so asked if he was using them to pick up something dead (eww). He told me to go look outside at the walkway.

I did.

There was a garter snake (not really that big ... maybe a foot long and as big around as my index finger) with a toad in its mouth (the toad was about the size of my palm). DH (who is quite snake phobic, so I give him credit) picked up the snake with the tongs (as an aside, when snakes are threatened they will regurgitate a recent meal to make for a fast getaway, so the moment the snake was touched, he let go of the toad). While DH and the snake headed for the woods, I checked out the toad.

The top of his head was covered in snake spit and he just sat there, crying. Really. He kept making this little high-pitched mewl over and over. Saddest thing I've ever heard (who knew toads could sound like that?). We washed him off and then DD kept watch to make sure he started behaving like a toad again. Once he started acting a little more lively, we put him in our veggie garden.

I wish the snakes would just eat the grasshoppers. We have millions of those.

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You Are a Green Light

You take life at a fast pace. You act quickly and decisively. You have good instincts and trust your gut. You're confident and brave. You are determined and ambitious. You don't allow yourself to waste time. It's no surprise that you get a lot done. You are efficient and productive.

What Color Traffic Light Are You?

Hmmm... yep.

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Observing Nature

Drinking nature is an unquenchable thirst. ~ Berri Clove

I'm sitting her with monarch pillar, Xi, watching him munch. It's truly amazing they eat as much as they do -- he's about two-thirds grown, and is going through two HUGE milkweed leaves a day.

We found eight more monarch eggs yesterday -- I don't have enough containers, though, so need to go out and get some more Gladware-type containers. Lots of people raise monarchs in one huge box, but I find that it's easier to put them each in their own so the chrysalis isn't disturbed. I also prefer a plastic container so the milkweed leaves stay fresh and moist (I also put a bit of floral foam at the tip of each stem to help keep the leaves fresh -- yes, I spoil the pillars).

I'm encouraged by the number of eggs we're finding this year. And, once we can get back to the library (if it's ever not 90+ degrees outside), I suspect I'll see even more.

Here's a picture or two of Xi I took this morning... isn't he gorgeous?




And a photo of one of the five swallowtail butterflies we released a couple days ago (it's on my DD's swimsuit):



We have the coolest spider outside on one of the milkweed plants ... it's a female goldenrod crab spider: pure white with a little splash of red. She's fascinating to watch.

In fact, IMHO, nature is fascinating. Sometimes I think people just don't bother to notice, but I've found that my DH is starting to get into the groove. This morning, he watched Xi eat for several minutes, and then later as he was getting his boat ready, he noticed a small green spider spinning a web on on of the metal fixtures and stared, then commented on how perfect its web was. I had to wreck the web to move it, but I was still tickled that DH had stopped long enough to observe and be interested.

Have you taken the time to watch nature lately? It's pretty amazing.

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In other news, they're predicting a LOT of rain to hit us tomorrow. Yay! The only problem is, there may be flash floods in some areas. Still, it's going to be a HUGE help. Unfortunately, the hot weather will return after the rain.

I picked my first squash yesterday. My cucumbers are getting huge. So ... while this heat has been drying things out tremendously, it's also causing things to grow (we won't talk about the weeds ... it's just been too hot to get outside and weed, so things are a little crazy).

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In writing news, this story is going really well. It's been fairly easy to write, which must mean it's the one I'm supposed to be working on. Setting the timer for 20 - 30 mins each day has been helping, too. It keeps me focused AND gives me a goal to strive for.

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You Are Egg Sushi

You aren't the most adventurous person in the world, but you're trying to step out of your comfort zone. New things tend to freak you out a bit, especially if they are very different from what you're used to. You prefer to take baby steps whenever you undertake something challenging. Too much at once can overwhelm you. You tend to be cautious and disciplined. You think through every action you take, even if evaluating your options slows you down a bit.

What Type of Sushi Are You?

That's about right...

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Nature and More Pillar Place

Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars... and if you have eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers - for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. ~Osho

I was a bit behind in my blog-hopping, so have been spending this morning trying to visit (haven't been to many blogs, but am doing my best to catch up), and I discovered something... I'm oddly intimidated by blogs that have LOTS of comments. If I get there and there are already 20+ comments, I don't want to leave one. I don't know if I feel like I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said, or if I feel invisible, or what, exactly.

:::scratches head:::

Maybe I need to see a shrink.

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It was an icky day yesterday. Kept *threatening* rain but did nothing until well after dinnertime. I planted some green bean seeds (finally) and DD planted her carrots, in the anticipation of nature giving them a thorough watering. By afternoon, we gave up and watered them ourselves...

I was chatting with Alpha (our black swallowtail caterpillar) about the fact he was all alone. Told him we were trying to find him some buddies, but hadn't yet. He's getting quite large, actually -- probably about an inch long now. I should take some pictures.

In any case, right before dinner, it was all black and icky again, so DD went out to take the cover off our composter so it could get watered, too. And on the way in, she checked the rue plants.

She made a haul of pillars. She must have eagle eyes to have found the ones she did, because I'm pretty certain that they had JUST hatched. I mean, literally were coming out of their egg as she found them. They were as small as I've ever seen and some were looking a little damp.

I'll admit, one she found on a different bunch of plants, and s/he was probably a couple days old -- still black, but fairly big (yanno, like 1/4" long).

But the others? They're *maybe* 1/8" long and the width of a straight pin.

We've opted to stick with the Greek alphabet in naming them, so we now have:

Alpha (Whom you've already "met")
Beta
Gamma
Delta
Epsilon
Zeta
Eta
Theta
Iota (this is the somewhat larger one)

I'm concerned that all the newbies may not make it. They were still alive and kicking last night, so here's hoping.

In monarch news ... I was watching "Life" yesterday -- one I'd TiVo'd on Insects and I saw the saddest thing: the monarch pillars will frequently drown in the milkweed sap. Apparently, if they bite the vein when they are first born, the amount of sticky, milky sap that comes out can overwhelm them, trap them and kill them. It's the plant's defense. They stated that only 1/3 of monarch babies survive this. Considering that monarchs are already endangered, it broke my heart.

The good news is that when we break off the leaf and bring in the egg, it stops sap production, so this will never happen to those pillars who are hand-raised.

Still, the problem we are having is that fewer butterflies are getting up here to lay eggs. Last year, we only successfully raised ONE monarch. How sad is that?

Nature can be very cruel.

It can also be very beautiful. Look what we saw over the top of our trees last night:




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Yesterday, more than one of you asked what DD thought of the picture. Ever since she looked at my wedding photos and said, "Mommy, you used to be beautiful!" I haven't asked her opinion...

Just saying.

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You Are What

You are a very smart person, and you are happiest when you're learning something new. You're interested in so many things, and you feel like there's always more to discover. You're very curious. You believe that knowledge is empowerment. You do your best not to be ignorant about anything. You are well read and continually adding to your database of information. You never stop learning.

Are You Who, What, Where, or Why?

Mostly right.

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The Garden

Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. ~Albert Einstein

I got my garden tilled yesterday. That probably doesn't sound like much of a feat, unless you realize that I do it by hand -- using a pitchfork. My DH thinks I'm a little nuts for not using a regular tiller, but the fact is--I encourage beneficial wildlife to live in my garden, and don't choose to chop them up once a year. I actually bought earthworms from a place called Biocontrol Network a few years ago (and those bubbas are HUGE now) and don't want to to make the garden into a worm food processor.

My concerns were very much proven yesterday as I carefully turned the earth. I found four toads that were still hibernating in the earth (what a rude awakening for them!), several wolf spiders carrying egg sacs (I know, most of you are probably a little squicked out by spideys, but they are good bugs and we encourage their survival), and lots of earthworms (both young and old... some were so tiny it's a miracle we saw them... I'm glad the mamas are having babies). Unfortunately, we had our share of bad bugs, too: wireworms, cutworms and grubs.

We also got a bit of a brutal biology lesson: I turned a rock to pull some grass out from beneath it and woke an ant hill. Unfortunately for a wireworm that was also living there, the ants attacked it. WOW were they vicious!! Thank goodness ants are small or we wouldn't any of us be able to survive them (and, yes, that just made my writer's brain go, "Hmmmm....").

I didn't get anything planted, I was just too tired by the time I finished the job (some three hours after I started). We'll plant today.

Did you do anything fun or productive this weekend?

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Your Spicy Score: Medium

You enjoy letting loose and having fun, but you don't go overboard. You know that a little spice can go a long way. You keep yourself in check. When things are too boring, you really know how to bump up the temperature. When things are getting hot and completely out of control, you know how to pull back.

How Spicy Are You?

Okay... lol..

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