Watching The Life Cycle of the Monarch Butterflies

It's mid September in Wisconsin.  The nights are cool and the days are warm.  I love this weather.  The air is so clean and fresh.  There is a feeling in the air that I can't describe.  Maybe it is something only Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota people can understand.  With the start of fall comes a lot of bees, grasshoppers and butterflies.  The flowers are getting to the end of their blooming life and these insects are eating all they can before the frost.  I look forward to seeing all of them but sometimes interesting things happen right under our noses.  All you have to do is look carefully for signs. 

This grasshopper is looking back at me.

Every year I see Monarch butterfly caterpillars or larva on the milkweed plants.  We let the milkweed grow wild in our flower gardens because that is the only food the Monarch butterflies eat.  I looked it up this year and read that it is a good idea to collect the caterpillars and raise them through the life stages.  The monarch populations are down and this protects them from danger.  I'm not sure if that is correct information because information from the internet can be sketchy at times.  I decided to put one in a jar with a few milkweed leaves and a stick for it to attach to.

We took it out to our daughter's house.  Her son loves nature.  He catches frogs and bugs all the time.  He observes them and lets them go.  He loved this caterpillar.  He loved it so much he named it Heart.  They fed Heart and watched it for a couple days and then one morning the caterpillar formed his chrysalis.  Some of the moth caterpillars spin a silken cocoon, but butterflies don't do this.  Their pupa stage is called a chrysalis. The previous stage can either be called a larva or caterpillar, but apparently it is not correct to call a butterfly pupa a cocoon, since it does not have a silken covering.  I never knew this and have been using the terms interchangeably forever.  She didn't attach to the stick, but attached to the jar lid.  The jar was a sprouting jar so it had a nice mesh cover that allowed air to circulate.

 I wrote about the times they raised Painted Lady butterflies in their butterfly habitat container.
 http://www.thecabincountess.com/2015/06/painted-lady-butterflies.html

They put the chrysalis in the butterfly habitat.  We read that it takes about ten days for the butterfly to emerge.  I found the caterpillar on August 29th, a couple days later she formed her chrysalis and then on September 13th the beautiful Monarch butterfly emerged.  After drying off and gaining strength the butterfly was ready to be released on September 14th.  It was so exciting for them.

During the same time our grandsons were raising their Monarch butterfly, I discovered a monarch chrysalis attached to our dining room window frame.  The chrysalis is light green and smooth.  They look like a leaf has been folded around the caterpillar.

The chrysalis is light green and shiny.

As the butterfly forms inside, you can see some darkening inside and a crack forming on the top.

When the light hit it just right on September 13th, I could see a fully formed butterfly.  I knew it wouldn't be long.

I wasn't as sure about the exact timing for this chrysalis.  I watched it everyday.  I didn't discover it until September 5th and ten days would be today.  However, yesterday on September 14th, I noticed it had turned black.  At first I thought it might be dead.  I had never seen this whole process in person before.  I'm sure it has happened here many times, but I never took the time to notice.

The chrysalis looks like it has turned black.

Then after some wiggling, out came the butterfly.  She seemed a bit small but as she hung there and dried out, she stretched out.  Every once in a while he wiggled and opened his wings slightly.

Here she is shortly after emerging.  As strange as it seems, you can see the chrysalis covering is transparent.

View from inside the house.  She decided to spend the night here. 

I went to bed at 11:00 pm and she was still hanging there.  I got up early to check and she remained in the same position.  I heard they like it to be 60 degrees and at 7:00 it was still only 52 degrees. As the temperature climbed, she became more active.

As the temperature approached 70 degrees, she opened her wings and broke free from the chrysalis casing.

It was hard for me to believe that the butterfly actually fit in such a small casing.  Very slowly she moved down to the side of the house.  I could tell it was a female when her wings were totally spread out.  The male Monarch has a small black dot on the lower wing.

First she moved to the side of the house.

Next she moved to the ground.

As I was waiting for our newly emerged butterfly to fly away, another one flew in.

After waiting for quite sometime, the Monarch flew off into the wild blue yonder.  I can't wait for next year to see if can observe this process again.  As I watched her, I wondered what she was thinking or if it is all instinct.  Whatever it is, it is truly amazing.

A Challenge For The Hummingbirds

Early in May we always look forward to seeing the Hummingbirds return to our area.  They show up about the same time as the Baltimore Orioles.  I have seen videos showing hundreds of hummers attacking feeders with great enthusiasm.  We don't have that happen.  It would be an amazing sight to see.  Our hummingbirds seem to be very territorial.  They don't like each other very much.  We also have difficulties with our feeders.  The problem is raccoons and bees.  We have to position the feeders carefully or they get knocked to the ground.  Pieces get broken off and all the sugar water drains out or the raccoon drinks it.  If we put the feeders where the raccoons can't reach it, the bees take over.  The hummingbirds try but the bees usually win.  The bees either chase the hummers while drinking the sugar water, or they crawl into the feeder holes and drown contaminating the water.  When they die, they plug the holes of the feeders and need to be cleaned out almost everyday.  I refer to these flying insects as bees, but they are actually wasps or hornets.  I believe they are called Bald-faced hornets. They are not a true hornet, but they are part of the wasp family.   I believe these are the hornets/wasps responsible for making the beautiful paper nests we have on our property.  I wrote about the nests two years ago.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/09/beautiful-paper-wasp-nests.html

At this time of year, I usually give up on feeders.  Fortunately we have a lot of flowers that the hummingbirds love.  Since there are more choices for the birds, they don't fight as much.  Right now the birds are bulking up for their long trek south. Soon they will leave for the winter, but next May we will be excited to see them again.  I did get a suggestion from a blog reader.  He suggested I attach a brown lunch bag to the feeder.  The bag mimics a paper wasp nest and the wasps think they are in a territory already being occupied.  I tried this for the short time left in this hummingbird season.  It has somewhat worked.  I have a lot less wasps and the hummers have been feeding.  It may be that the weather is cooler and the wasps are less active, but I will definitely be trying this method next Spring. 

Stages of Life

The past few days I have been noticing the Monarch butterfly flying around and the caterpillars eating the milkweed plant.  Every year I am fascinated with the life cycle of this butterfly.  They fly around, lay some eggs, the eggs hatch into caterpillars,  the caterpillars spin a cocoon or chrysalis and then a new butterfly is born. I wrote about this before so I won't do that again. 

  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/07/monarch-butterfly.html 

Watching this 30 day life cycle that happens every year, made me think of the human life cycle.  If we are fortunate enough to experience the whole process, there is an interesting thing about getting old.  Rather than live in the present or the future, the mind tends to recall things from the past.  I noticed this with my parents and now with myself.  It seems we have no control over where our mind wanders to.   Sometimes I can't remember the name of the person who does the local news (which I watch almost every day), but something from fifth grade pops into my head.  Today, I was trying to think of the name of an actress in a commercial I was watching, when suddenly I remembered doing a report on Aluminum when I was ten years old.  From that thought I remembered once a week we listened to a radio program called "Let's Sing".  Through the Wisconsin School of the Air on WHA, we had an introduction to music.  I guess we didn't have a music teacher.  We would get sheets of music printed out on a mimeograph machine.  I can still remember the smell of the ink.  Out of the blue, I started singing this song.  I wonder how many from my fifth grade class remembers this radio show and this song.

I love the day of Purim so!
For then to synagogue I go,
And hear them read the story old,
Of Esther brave and Haman bold.   
O Purim O Purim O Purim full of joy
For every, for every Jewish girl and boy.
Have a party, sing a song, turn the grogger loud and long
Sha-lach Ma-not give and take,
Eat your Hamantashen cake!
O Purim O Purim O Purim full of joy
For every, for every Jewish girl and boy.

Maybe this song was an attempt to introduce us to other cultures.  This was well before the politically correct curriculum became the norm, so perhaps not.

Like it was yesterday, I can remember the poems I learned in seventh grade, but I'd be hard pressed to remember what I made for dinner last night.  I wrote about some of these poems a few years ago.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/02/adventure-bound.html

These unexplained thoughts also come forth in nighttime dreaming although the night dreams usually are a combination of many life stories and thoughts.  Most of them make no sense at all.  Dreaming really confuses me.  Last night I dreamt that someone from my past was having a heart attack but when I went to do CPR, he had someone else's face.  I suddenly woke up and my husband was talking in his sleep and making guttural sounds just like the dying person.  I went back to sleep and had another ridiculous dream that stressed me out.  It put me in a bad mood for hours.

I won't try to figure out why my mind jumps around the way it does.  I think it is because it can.  When you are young and either raising children or working in a job to make a living, you don't have room or time for your brain to jump from thought to thought.   Now it's actually kind of nice at times.  As long as the mind is active, you aren't dead.  In fact, I have a theory.  I believe this is another stage of life.  First you live in the moment and try to survive, then you move to a stage when you try to make the most out of life, third you think of times gone by and and relax about the little irritants but still get annoyed,  pretty soon you realize you aren't going to change people and they have to learn their own lessons, lastly comes pure calm, contentment and acceptance.  It is all good.  Hopefully I have a ways to go since I am in the times gone by stage.  When you notice I am in the calm, content and acceptance stage, I will be in the final phase.  Until then "Let's Sing".

Disclaimer:  These are only my personal ideas and feelings.  They are not based on any scientific research or fact.  I'm sure everyone makes their own journey and some people can be jerks up until their dying day and others have always been cool, calm and collected.  

A Summer Day With Nana and Papa

I just realized it has been almost two weeks since I have written a blog.  It isn't that time stands still, it's just that history repeats itself, and I have already written about most of the topics in previous blogs. I see the same birds, I make the same food and although I am getting older my world remains very similar year to year.

Speaking of history repeating itself, we usually have our grandchildren for the day some time during the summer.  With school starting in less than two weeks, we thought today would be a good day.  About 8:30 this morning all five of them arrived.  We have a granddaughter who will be 16 in two months, a grandson who will be 15 in two days, a grandson who is 12, a grandson who is 8 and our youngest grandson who is 6.  A lot of different ages and a variety of personalities.

I tried to get a picture of all of them together but it reminded me of wack-a-mole.  I never got them gathered in one place all day long. 

Here is how Melissa spent most of her day.  She watched TV,  she had her ipod in one hand and her iphone in the other and she drank her large bottle of Starbuck coffee drink.  She is the only girl and playing hide and seek and running through the woods wasn't her thing.  I am just honored she wanted to come spend the day again. 

The two oldest grandsons, Dylan and Sam, played outside with the younger boys.  They did come in for a while to play an electronic game.  It was pretty hot outside and they came in to cool off.

The two youngest grandsons Jack and Ewan wanted to do a project.  So after lunch Papa took them out to the workshop, but first I spoiled them all.  I had a short order kitchen going for a while.  I made fried potatoes for Melissa, dumplings for Sam, a ham and cheese sandwich on a homemade hamburger bun for Dylan, hotdogs and a cinnamon roll for Jack and chicken soup for Ewan.  I said they all are unique personalities and obviously like different foods.

I wasn't sure what the project plan was but I followed them out to the garage with the camera.  They were making something interesting.

With safety glasses on they began sawing wood.

Jack didn't like the screeching of the table saw so he found ear protection.

Ewan learning about the drill press.

Jack drilling his board.

The "project" is being assembled.

After using the nailer, the projects came together.  This is what they each made.  It is a Candy Dispenser.  We had to make a little trip to the store to buy some M & M's to see if it worked.  Jack wanted regular M & M's for his Dispenser while Ewan wanted peanut butter ones for his. 

Hopefully they don't get too sugared up tonight, but they were both proud of their project with Papa.

Before it was time to go home, Ewan had one more thing to do.  He counted eight squirrels in the yard and was determined to eliminate a few.

I spotted  this serious hunter with a shovel on the trail camera.

The trick is to be sneaky.

Alas, the squirrels won again. 

After a very nice day, it is again quiet in our house.   Who knows how many years we will be able to make this happen.  Soon the older kids will be off to college and starting their own lives, but for now we will appreciate days like this.

A Healthy Homemade Version of Chocolate Syrup

Every other Tuesday this summer, we have had two of our grandboys for the day.  It broke up the summer a little for them and gave us a chance to see them.  Yesterday our granddaughter came along.  She will be 16 in a couple months so I think her day was quite boring, but it was very nice to have her here.

The boys like chocolate milk, but I didn't have any.  I had some Trader Joe's organic chocolate syrup, but it was almost gone.  We eeked out enough for one glass, and I promised to get some before next time.

I dropped the kids off late in the afternoon and had to stop at the grocery store on the way home.  I looked at the Hershey syrup and another brand.  I was shocked to see the first ingredient was High Fructose Corn Syrup.  They still put that junk in products.  Needless to say, I didn't buy any.

This morning as I was putting the empty syrup container into the recycle bin, I remembered a recipe I had seen a few months ago.  http://www.theprairiehomestead.com/?s=chocolate+syrup

Jill from the Prairie Homestead has a lot of great information and recipes.  I had all the ingredients and in less than five minutes, I made chocolate syrup.  This isn't as tasty as the recipe we all have made with real butter and cream, but it will work fine for making chocolate milk.  I put the finished syrup in the Trader Joe's container and the boys won't know the difference.  They are very visual and if the food or the container looks a little different from what they are used to, they balk.

Here is the recipe from the Prairie Homestead:

Homemade Chocolate Milk Syrup

Ingredients:

• 1 cup cocoa powder (I would cut this amount to taste)
• 1/2 cup real maple syrup
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon real vanilla extract
•  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/01/make-your-own-vanilla.html
  

Directions:

1. On low, in a medium saucepan, mix together the maple syrup and water. Bring to a simmer.
2. Whisk in the cocoa powder. Remove from heat.
3. Add vanilla extract and let cool (syrup will thicken).
4. Simply add your desired amount to a glass of milk and enjoy. Keep in the fridge for up to three weeks.

It seemed that 1 cup of cocoa powder was a lot, so I used 3/4 cup.  It still had a very strong chocolate flavor.  This also doesn't seem as sweet as the high fructose product but it is so much better for everyone. 

I didn't want to throw my sample away so I embellished it.  I added some vanilla protein powder and some instant coffee.  Yum, there may not be any chocolate syrup left for the boys when they come next time.  I will have to make more.

Start Your Campfire With These Little Fire Starters

Sundays are always long boring days for me.  I don't know why, but it has always been that way.  My house is clean enough and the laundry is caught up.  My husband is working on a big project so there is no hope of going anywhere or doing anything fun.  I had to occupy myself.  I grabbed some iced tea and went outside to start a campfire.  It was a beautiful day to just sit and relax.  As I was starting the fire, I noticed I was down to my last two fire starters.  I decided I could multi task.  I could sit by the fire and make more fire starters.  Quite a while ago I wrote about giving away egg cartons.  http://www.thecabincountess.com/2013/02/egg-cartons-and-berry-baskets-to-give.html  It has gotten to the point where I can't find anyone who wants them.  You would think with the popularity of raising chickens, I would easily be able to give away cardboard egg cartons.  Since I have a bunch, I didn't feel bad about re-purposing a couple.

I make these fire starters with old candle wax, sawdust and egg cartons.  Since I discovered essential oil diffusers,  I don't burn that many candles anymore.  I have kept a few of the jar candles that have the wick burned up but still have wax in the jar.  It sounds like I'm a hoarder, but I don't think I am.  I just keep things I know I can re-purpose.

When making this type fire starter, the first thing you do is melt some wax.  Whether it is a block of paraffin or used candle wax, it really doesn't matter.  I tried a new approach today to melt the wax.  I filled an old kettle we had in our Goodwill donation box with water and placed it on the campfire grate.  In the water, I placed a used jar candle.  My husband thought melting the wax outdoors was also a lot safer.  It worked great.  If I spilled, it was no big deal.

I sat and relaxed while the hot water melted the wax.  Then I went to my husbands workshop and gathered some sawdust off the floor.  While working on his project, he made a pile of sawdust that hadn't been swept up yet.  I filled a box with sawdust even though my project will only take a small amount.

This box of sawdust will last for a very long time.

I gathered an old metal coffee can and cut the tops off the egg cartons.  I just threw the tops in the fire.

At this point I filled the coffee can about half full with saw dust.  I took the saucepan off the fire and let it cool off a little bit.  The wax will stay melted for a long time.  I found a stirring stick and poured the melted wax into the sawdust.  I mixed it completely so all the sawdust was moistened with wax.  Then I took an old cookie scoop and placed a scoop of mixture into the egg cartons and pressed them down firmly.

That is all there is to it.  I intended to fill three egg cartons, but I miscalculated and half a coffee can only makes two dozen starters.  Using two egg cartons won't put a dent in my stash of cartons, so I will still have to find a home for them.

To use these fire starters, just cut them apart after the wax has hardened.  When you want to start a campfire, just place two starters in the fire pit with some kindling.  Light the cardboard carton and the wax will begin to burn.  There is no need for lighter fluid or a lot of paper.

I just store the starters in a covered container and grab what we need whenever we have a campfire.