God's Glorious Creatures

Last year about this time, my father screened in my back porch. We finally got a door for it, but it turned out to be much cheaper that we thought. So, my dad took the door with him to work on it. Now the patio is open and all kinds of creatures find their way in there, especially insects. In the past few days we have found some interesting ones. I took pictures so we could share. This year we will be studying insects for the last part of Zoo I, so this is very timely.

This one is definately a Sphinx moth or Hawk moth. They are so large and probably one of my favorite moths. He was already dead when we found him. They are unique because they pupate underground. It is related to the tomato/tobacco hornworm. (those big green worms that eat your tomato plants.)

This one is another favorite. Many confuse this one with a bumble bee. The size is about the same, but it is definately a moth; a Clear-winged sphinx moth. You can tell it is a moth when it is flying by looking at its clubbed antenna. When first born, the moth has black scales all over its wings, but as it flies most of them fall off leaving the wings clear.

Here's another view of him.

This one is a moth also, but I am not sure what kind. Look at his body, especially his tail. He was on the screen and looked like a leaf instead of an insect.

Here he is from another angle.

This is a black swallowtail. She was fiesty and I had a hard time getting her out of the patio. I usually try to scoop them into a box and then let them go. She wasn't going in the box, so I ended up gently using my hands.

We have also had a host of wasps and bees and the Arkansas state bird, the mosquito, camping out back there. As I was eating lunch on Sunday after church I looked out to see a hummingbird caught back there. I knew it would happen; I just didn't know when. I so wanted to be able to hold it, but it didn't seem very sure of me. Hummers are smart. It spotted the door and left on its own. We have lots of hummers at our house. We usually read our science or history on the porch so we can watch them feed and fight. One we have named Curious because she will fly up to the screen and look at us as we are reading. She is a cutie. She is tough to. She defends "her" feeder very well. They also feed from the other flowers in the garden underneath the feeder. We like to put rotting bananas out there to attract small insects for them to eat. Hummers love insects.

I'll keep you posted on what else we find that is interesting. I think we may have a door up some time next week.

Rosemary Stripey Hatched

Oh wow!!! She hatched, finally!!! Who? Rosemary Stripey our Black Swallowtail Caterpiller chrysalis. You can read about her here: http://ghomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/09/gods-glorious-creation.html and here: http://ghomeschool.blogspot.com/2008/09/as-of-tuesday-we-have-new-caterpillar.html

She came to us last fall on September 9th. A lady in our homeschool group found a bunch of the caterpillars eating her parsley and decided to give them away. It didn't take Rosemary Stripey (RS) to turn into a chrysalis, about 2 days. That was way back in September. That is over 10 months ago!! We carried her to vacation in Orlando for a week and since she has been sitting atop our fridge. I had given up on her. 10 months? Something must be wrong. I decided to put the box outside on the porch as a last resort. Maybe the house is too cool for her. We keep it on 78 degrees most of the time. The next day, yesterday, Bobbi came in and was telling me about a box on the back porch. It took me a while to understand which box. "Mom, it has a butterfly in it. It is on its back, and I think it's dead." All my hopes sank. What have I done? We rushed out to see. There she was on her back on the bottom of the box, but she was wiggling. Yeah. She's alive! I opened the box and helped her up onto a stick that Tyler brought me.

This is how she came out of her chrysalis.Tyler is the stick man at our house. LOL. She must have just hatched because she was still small and shrivled. She was still draining and drying. Oh, we were excited. She stayed there all afternoon and night. Our porch is screened in, so we felt lucky that she could fly around when she was ready, but we would still be able to see her when she left us. She is a beautiful butterfly. One of God's awesome creations. New life right before our eyes. I checked on her, frequently, all morning. She was flapping her wings a bit, but still draining early on. Then, after class, we were going to read our history on the porch with her. That's when I noticed she was gone. She had flown down to the floor by the door and was fluttering on the ground. I thought she might be having problems, but she was ready to fly. I helped her out and off she went. You can tell in the video I was excited.

They've Grown

It has been a while since we let our baby frogs go. They were so cute. Today I was turning on the water for my garden and looked down. Guess what I saw? It was one of our baby frogs. Apparantly he likes it in the butterfly garden because he is still there. I ran to get the kids and of course Tyler had to pick him up.

When we went to put him back we found his brother (or sister). They have grown so I guess they are finding lots of food. If they like ants, they can have a feast.

I hope they stick around a long time. We will make sure there is water there for them and maybe they will. I'll keep you posted.

All Grown Up

Well, 6 of our tadpoles are tadpoles no more. They are frogs. I have decided that tonight we will set them free. I think they might starve if we don't. I'm not much of a mother frog. I catch bugs, but I'm not sure they eat them. The are just so cute!! I love to watch them.

Remember what the looked like just a couple of weeks ago? See his tail. It is all gone and he can breathe on land now.

The little guy on the rock is our newest convert. See how tiny he is and how almost transparent his little arms are. Compare his size with the one on the right.

Here's the whole family. There are 6 total. One is hiding at the top of the rock.

Only 2 or 3 are left that aren't complet frogs yet. This guy is close. He has arms and legs, but he still has a pretty long tail. It won't be long before he comes out of the water.

I have loved raising these tadpoles to become frogs. We fed them algae wafers and flake fish food as tadpoles. We then fed the frogs bugs and bloodworms. They had to be tiny bugs because they are tiny frogs. Actually, they are toads. To catch bugs, took my small fish net and a jar with some water in it to the tall grass in our yard. I made sure the water was dechlorinated just like the water in their tank. Then I set the jar down with the lid loose. I would pull the net through the grass and on to the jar after quickly removing the lid. The back on goes the lid just as quickly. Swirl goes the water in the jar to get their wings wet. That keeps them from flying away. Now I can pour them into the tank. Supper time. We also have ant in our house from time to time. Now is one of those times. We would gently squish the ants and put them in the frog water. I am tired of catching bugs, so tonight we set them free.

More Self-sufficient?

Recently, I have felt that I should learn to be more self-sufficient. Times are tough and we are always called by God to be good stewards of all He gives us. This year my garden is doing so much better. I am learning little by little how to grow things successfully. I harvested my first green beans and my first pea pod yesterday. My tomatoes have gone wild and I should have tons of ripe ones within the week. My children and I went on a bike ride today and decided to drive the truck back to a house that had cut down 2 trees. I wanted to cut some of the smaller branches to use as support for my beans and peas. It worked well and it was free.

Another idea my husband and I have been working on for a while is saving rain water to use in the garden during the summer. We have had the containers to catch the water for a while, but that was as far as it went. Well this weekend we decided it was time. We bought the stuff and I finished them today. I am so proud. Now it won't rain. We will have drought waiting to use our new rain barrels. LOL

This is our big barrel. I just cut off the downspout with a hacksaw and attached a plastic diverter to it with screws. Then I put the plastic diverter into the hole on the top. This one comes with an spigot. I just have to figure out how to attach a garden hose to it.This one is actually 2 plastic barrels attached with a pvc pipe. I used a hole saw to cut a hole in the top of both barrels and insert the pvc pipe. I then caulked around both for a good seal.The water will come down the downspout, into the plastic diverter and into the first barrel. When that barrel is full it will overflow into the second barrel. When the second barrel is full it will overflow into the yard. We will be elevating both barrels so gravity will help empty them easier.I also used a paddel bit to drill a hole for the spigots in the barrels. Teflon tape will create a seal around those to keep the water in. All I have to do is attach the hose and turn on the spigot. Free water.Finally, I finished my swing. It is not in its final spot in the yard, but it is finished. The next thing is to figure out where to put it. Then we will buy a section of cattle fencing and create an arch over it. On that we will grow some sort of vine. It will be awesome when it is done. I'll keep you posted.

Fun in the Mud

Something or somebody has been walking in my garden!!!!!

Ok, it was really my kiddos. We have had a lot of rain this weekend. I mean A LOT. Since Friday, we have had 3.5 inches according to our rain guage. That is a lot for us. Most of it fell this morning around 7AM. Our back yard was a lake. Friday afternoon we were having tornado warnings at around 5PM. We are tired of rain.

So today, after church, I went out to survey the damage to my garden. All of my corn was blown over. I set out to put it back up by straightening and packing it with mud. Then I tied them with rope for extra stability until it all dries out. My corn is planted 3 -5 stalks per hill with peas or beans and squash planted around them. That is called the "Three Sisters" garden. It was done by the Native Americans, so I thought I'd try it. Now it is very humid outside and I am wading mud and water up past my ankles trying not to fall over. My kids, on the other hand, are out there in the unplanted part having a ball. Then they went over into the "lake" part of the yard and waded the water. They had a blast!

This is the last third of my garden that I haven't gotten planted yet. I don't think this qualifies as tilling. LOL

Of course, he had to fall down in it.

We Have Lungs!!!

This morning we awoke to this: a frog sitting on a rock. That means he now has lungs. He sat there for a while. I have to clean the tank and wipe down the walls today so I can get better side view pictures. It is so exciting to see God's handiwork changing right before my eyes just as He designed it to. Awesome.

We Have Arms!!!!!!

Tonight I found a tadpole that has arms. This is so exciting!!!! He looks like a real frog doesn't he. One down, about 15 more to go. Click to make the pix larger.