Monarch Update

Well I never did get that picture of Monstro... He's already molted into his chrysallis. Now it will be 9-15 days for him to transform and emerge as a brand new Monarch butterfly.


These two were the next to make their chrysallis. This is what they look like before they make the chrysallis. They stay like this for less than a day.

Now there's just one more to feed. He was a bit smaller than the other guys, so I imagine he'll be ready to form his chrysallis in the next day or so.

Friday Library Storytime

On Fridays we love to go to the Elroy Public Library for storytime with Ms. Mary. Every year they have a different summer reading theme. This year's theme is "Paws, Claws, Scales, and Tales," so the Library has many visiting guests. This is Iggy the Iguana. He's very friendly and the kids get to pick dandelion flowers and greens for him to eat.


Ms. Mary always includes something hands on and educational in her story hour. The Elroy Fair has started, so Friday's story hour was about animals. Kyle is petting some sheep's wool that Ms. Mary brought in for the kids to feel.


The kids always have a fun time. Here they're participating in a hand puppet story.


Reeve's favorite is when Ms. Mary tells a felt board story. He's helping her take the story down.


Near the end of the story hour the kids get to pick out a pop-up nursery rhyme.
Kyle loves this part.

Local Wildlife

Normally we see these guys on the other side of the wire fence. This one just decided to go for a walk about on the road. This is on CtyHwyH on our way home from the Elroy Public Library. It's a really nice drive with no traffic other than the occasional bovine escapee.

The Garden

The garden is in desparate need of weeding. Despite the weeds it's keeping us well fed with lots of cilantro, salad mix, lettuce, spinach, beets, basil, and dill. The garlic in the raised bed is about ready to harvest. The early cabbage is ready too! We have lots of tomatoes, mostly plum variety.

The birds are very hungry. We just filled these feeders a couple of days ago and they're completely empty. You can't see him, but there is a beautiful purple finch on the feeder. We have lots of gold finches, rose breasted grossbeaks, indigo buntings, zebra woodpeckers, chick-a-dees, sparrows, downy woodpeckers, doves, and... well that's enough!

Hungry Monarch Catapillars

Here is a picture of one hungry catapillar. We pick fresh milkweed leaves for them everyday. This isn't the largest catapillar... Monsto was too busy eating. I can't take a good picture of him in the net house.

We are currently feeding 4 Monarch catapillars. I'll try to take pictures of them before they make their cocoons. Bear with me as I try to get this site organized and updated :-).

Anyway they befriended this friendly moth mistaking it for a Monarch.




Next week we start swimming lessons!

New Blog

Well I thought I'd start a blog for our family. We live so far from everyone that I thought I would use this place to post recent pictures of the boys and what we are doing with the house.

I thought it would be better than innundating everyone's email with a ton of pictures and this way you can check in when you want.