wonder of wonders...

...miracle of miracles!



When my 6yo (7 next month) collected ALL these caterpillars off the dill, I knew they wouldn't all make it. I'm sure she had visions of releasing a cloud of butterflies as one would release a bunch of balloons into the sky. After two thunderstorms and in spite of forgetful children we had five chrysalides (that's plural for chrysalis - I had to look it up). The net was pulled off the party tub we were keeping them in by 3yo hands one morning and two emerged and flew away before we knew it. This was the third butterfly and we hope to watch the fourth and/or fifth emerge. Without further ado...a close-up of the caterpillar (shame on me for not taking a better picture of one outside the jar). Do you know what it will be?


The chrysalis attached to silk on the side of the jar:

The butterfly!!!

It's a black swallowtail, right? Here's the detail of the underside of an empty chrysalis. I thought it was really cool:

and a close up of the butterfly's scales:

This is the first time I've EVER done this. I'm in awe.

spring round-up

I've been reading garden reports. Ours is pretty sad. It's been so rainy and muddy that we got it in late and some things didn't transplant well and some got overgrown with weeds and we just don't have as much planted as we'd planned...so I'll skip that for now and come back to it when things are looking brighter.

Juneberries aka serviceberries are almost cleaned off the tree. We had a plentiful and delicious crop this year! Mulberries are also huge and sweet and abundant. My husband wants to collect 25lbs to make wine. That's a LOT of mulberry. Our yellow raspberries are producing a lot, as well. I need to get some red and black raspberries planted! We have had a TON of rain to make them this way, but they're difficult to harvest because they are in areas that the mosquitoes like to hang out. They're bad this year and there are a lot more Tiger Mosquito, Aedes albopictus, than last year. This thing is like a "mosquito on steroids", as our friend, Jeremy, put it. I smacked this one after it had bitten my arm. A mosquito on steroids, indeed.

We butchered the 275- chickens June 12th. Well, technically "we" didn't. I was on the couch with the flu. I took a couple Ibuprofen and came out to bag and weigh and sell them towards the end, though. I was miserable - so were 3 of my 5 kids PLUS the baby was cutting her first tooth! Anyway, this was the set up:

Pallets everywhere to keep us out of the mud. Killing cones on the far right; moving to the left there is a homemade scalder (electric hot water heater tank) for three at a time; Featherman plucker; homemade tables with stainless steel tops set up in the shade; down at the end you can't see the old deep freezer or stock tank we filled with cold water and ice to cool them. There are 36 x 6-lb dressed broilers in our freezer and we sold the rest for just enough to pay for the chicks, feed and supplies, which makes our chickens "free" (we really can't call them free because we have our equipment costs to consider and all the work that went into getting them into the freezer but you know what I mean).

Despite double and triple checking the coop and yard, we had a Survivor. She is happily free-ranging all over the property, now, but goes back to her coop at night. She's on the smaller side but we're still surprised at how active she is for an 8-week old Cornish Cross. We had our share of chickens that would only stand up to eat and drink, but there were a lot more that willingly came out of the coop and foraged in the grass and weeds than last year. We were thinking of growing her out to 12 weeks, maybe longer. We're trying to find a little more info on how long they CAN live. Anyone? Anyone?

It's almost June?!

I've almost finished planting the garden. Yikes! I'm hoping for a really late frost.

We've scratched our first mosquito bites and saw our first lightning bugs tonight. I grew up on the East Coast and we called them lightning bugs. Out here in the Midwest they call them fireflies. It's like the soda - pop - cola - coke thing. (It's soda, by the way. Pop is another name for dad like in the book Hop on Pop; cola is a particular flavor of soda and coke is a particular brand of cola...if you're going to be drinking it).

I've identified Northern Flicker, Brown Thrasher, Brown-Headed Cowbirds, and Red-winged Blackbirds by their song. We've also got Orchard Orioles - hopefully building a nest. We haven't seen hummingbirds migrating through this year, though we HAVE seen a white-striped sphinx hummingbird moth. It freaked my almost 8-yo daughter out. She thought it was some kind of humongous bee that was going to impale her. My 6-yo daughter thought it was beautiful.

ladybug, ladybug, fly away home

It's that time of year again. If your house has never been invaded by lady beetles , you don't know what you're missing out on! We have had a few warm, sunny days and this lovely species, Harmonia axyridis, swarms to cover every outdoor surface of our house. Can you see them all up there on the front porch ceiling...and the siding...and the windows? (Click on the picture to see it larger if you can't).

Many have made their way inside. They have been finding their way in around the doors, which are the least weather proof areas, and I've sucked up hundreds of them in the Shop-Vac. Once they get in, vacumming is really the only way to get them out, but it is not advisable to use a vacuum cleaner that has a bag unless you are ready to change the bag. Once they get in there, they really stink and you will definitely notice it if you try to use your vacuum again in an hour or two to suck up more of these biting bugs.

Fortunately, this is not a year when the boxelder bugs, Boisea trivittatus, are abundant too. We've got a few here and there but we've had them swarm before, giving me the heebie jeebies for weeks.

winter squash

I have always planted acorn squash. I grew up eating acorn squash served with butter, brown sugar and maple syrup. My husband grew up eating butternut squash served with butter, salt, and pepper. Last year my husband told me he does not like acorn squash. So, this year, I planted butternut squash (left) and something new to both of us: buttercup squash (right).



After doing a little research on how to prepare it, (cut side up or down? water in the pan or not? covered or uncovered?) We compromised on the method and are both happy with the result:

Roast squash cut side down UNCOVERED at 400 for 40-50 minutes with NO water in the pan. I buttered the pan so the squash wouldn't stick. It peeled easily, and came out fully cooked.

We were pleased with the flavor of both kinds of squash and were surprised by the smooth texture of the buttercup squash - it will make great baby food! This was the first squash I've ever been able to eat without brown sugar and/or maple syrup...just a little butter and salt: DELICIOUS! Also, since buttercup squash is a true winter squash, it will keep well all winter. The butternut squash will only keep for about 3 months.

NOTE: We are learning about controlling squash bugs...we have a lot. I've also noticed damage from cucumber beetles as we've been bringing in the harvest and preparing it for long-term storage.

remember this guy?

Last fall we saw a few Chinese Mantis on our property. This spring we found several of those marshmallow-looking egg sacs (called ootheca) on trees in our windbreak.

We haven't seen any evidence all summer that they'd hatched, until today, when we found a Chinese Mantis near our climbing roses.

planthopper

I found another little bug that I'd never seen before in my house. This one doesn't bite (people), though. It looks like a Citrus Flatid Planthopper (Metcalfa Pruinosa) I like the Supermacro function on our camera to get pictures of itty bitty things like this. I just need to figure out exactly how to use it - so the focus is on the bug rather than my skin...

velvet ant

Have you ever been bitten by a velvet ant? It is actually a flightless wasp and is called a cow killer for a reason - it hurts. One of my boys has now been bitten twice. The first was on a camping trip where he tried to pick up a fuzzy red bug that was crawling along the ground. I don't have a picture, but remember it looking like this one (Dasymutilla occidentalis):



When my 4yo came screaming out of the piano room, where he was playing with his blocks, I thought he'd pinched his skin between some LEGOs or his little brother had hit him with a wooden block. After calming down, he told us, something bit him. It was the black bug on the block. I went searching and found this:



It took me a while to realize this was another kind of velvet ant: Timulla vagans . Now, what was he doing in my house?

Chinese Mantis

I saw a pair of these in the yard a few weeks ago (but my camera batteries were dead). When my dad was visiting over a month ago he pointed one out, but I didn't take its picture. So, when I opened the door and saw this one sitting on the porch, I finally grabbed my camera and looked up mantids.

I was surprised to read about how many different kinds of mantids there are. This one is a Chinese Mantis. I'll have to keep my eye out for their marshmallow-looking egg masses.