Sprouts (of all sorts)

It is the last day of March.  But, I'm seeing no signs of the proverbial lamb hanging around outside. 

Inside, we are toasty warm.  The peppers that I seeded last week are sprouting up a storm.

For a number of years now, we've been starting our seeds in soil blocks.  We use a soil mix that I mix up basically according to Eliot Coleman's potting soil recipe found in his Four Season Harvest.  Making the blocks is rather a simple process using this tool for the small seed starting, and then this tool for up-potting.  Last year, we got the 4-inch blocker second hand.  Now it's easier to start melons and squashes who don't like to have their roots disturbed in any way.

I like the blockers a LOT.  It completely cuts down on the plastic pots that one must use when starting their seeds.  The roots are allowed to naturally air prune, thus making the transplanting process way less stressful for the plants.  And, in the long run saves not only resources, but money as well. 

We start most seeds in the little 1/2 inch cubes in plastic trays that I save from our seitan consumption.  I wash these and use them year after year, as long as we have not had any damping off problems.  If we do, I recycle those trays and start with fresh ones.  Some brands of tofu also come in those containers.  When the majority of the seed in a tray have sprouted, I up-pot them using the 2-inch blocker.  When I up-pot, I give the seedlings a little boost by mixing a little kelp extract in with their water.

It's always exciting for me to see the first of the seedlings emerge.  Kinda feels like me - emerging from a long, dark winter with all kinds of hopes for a wonderful spring.

As these sprouts continue to grow, my other sprouts are growing strong too.

Sweetpea is learning how to actually knead pizza dough alongside her father.  (What a funny site to behold!)

Boy is learning how to use a knife.  Yike! 

And Munch is well on her way to learning to knit, and managing her own homeschooling time. 

Yes...  All my sprouts are growing strong.  And I love it.  What a way to wake up from a long winter's nap!

A Boy and His (Neighbor's) Dog

These pictures aren't the best quality, but the story they relate is priceless. 

What happens when you put a boy and his neighbor's puppy together on a crisp fall day???

This...

Whew!!!

Summer's Simple Things (a couple days late) - Kissing Summer Goodbye

Summer is drawing to a close.  The fall weather has arrived.  Sweaters are coming out of the drawers.  Sneakers are being chosen over sandals.  The first cold of the season is circulating our home.

We've had great fun with the monarchs again this year (read more about them here), although this was a slower year for them, or maybe just us.  Tuesday, after dance classes, we kissed the last of our lovely butterflies goodbye.

They will soon begin their long journey to a warmer climate for the winter.  Summer will go along with them. 

Fall is a time to prepare for winter.  We have begun this process already, but there is much, much left to do.  I'd like to log our winter preparations here on Tuesdays, as a sort of fall-ish continuation of Summer's Simple Things.  Not sure what to call it yet...

We will continue to enjoy the simple things of each season.  Taking it one day at a time.  And trying our best to enjoy each day as much as possible.

Let's give a big, huge thank you to Kim, over at The Inadvertent Farmer for her Summer's Simple Things series!!  We had a blast with it!!!  Thanks, Kim!!!!

Many Monarchs

Over the last few years, we have raised many many monarch butterflies from egg to butterfly.  Monarch butterflies are one of the most interesting butterflies.  Their life cycle is so very interesting!

A single monarch butterfly will go through four stages during their life - egg, larvae or caterpillar, pupa or chrysalis, and adult butterfly. They start out as a wee itty bitty egg that is about the size of a pinhead.  Female monarchs only lay their eggs on the milkweed plant.

After they hatch from the egg, they enjoy their first meal - the egg shell.

Then they feast on their favorite (and only) food - the milkweed plant.

Monarch caterpillars grow at an alarming rate!  They molt, or shed their skin 4 or 5 times during their caterpillar stage.  Each time, they emerge bigger.

It takes about 2 weeks for the caterpillar to reach it's full size, which is about 2 inches.  When it's ready, it will attach itself to the underside of a leaf.  If it's in captivity, it will attach itself to anything sturdy it can find...

like the shelf of our hutch.

They hang in this "J" formation until they are ready to form their chrysalis.

If you are lucky enough to actually catch them in the act of forming the chrysalis, you should watch it!!!  It is fascinating!  Don't bother trying to run for your camera, you will never make it back in time.  It's better to just watch and enjoy.  This is what the chrysalis looks like right after the caterpillar has wriggled off it's skin, but before the chrysalis has had a chance to harden into it's beautiful jeweled loveliness.

Now after it has hardened.

You can just make out the jeweled parts of the chrysalis in this photo.  It does not do it justice at all. 

After about 2 weeks, the chrysalis starts to change.

It's thinning out and becoming transparent.  You can just see the butterflies wing.  It gets more and more translucent as time goes by.

Until it starts to split down the side.

Until... woosh!

The butterfly pumps it's wings full of the fluid it's been storing until they are fully expanded.  It takes several hours for the wings to completely harden.  After a couple hours, the butterfly will not mind being gently held.  This is a good time to let your children (if they are careful) hold the butterfly.  We have just as much fun releasing the butterfly as we do watching the life cycle changes.

They will sit for a long time out on a flower before they are capable of flying away. 

Here is a picture of a female monarch.

And, here is one of a male.  Notice the 2 dark spots on the backs of each wing.  These are glands that only the males have.

Raising monarchs has been such an enjoyable task for us and for our children.  If you have the opportunity, I highly recommend it.  You need a constant fresh supply of milkweed plants at your disposal.  And you will want a nice safe place for them to munch and grow.  Here's our basic setup - a large couple gallon glass container with a screen fitted on top.  Inside we have a jar with water where we put fresh milkweed leaves.

Monarchs are special because they migrate each winter.  The species goes through 4 different generations each year.  The first, born in March and April, are the offspring of the fourth.  The second generation butterflies are born in May and June, and the third in July and August.  Each of these generations lives only as long as it takes to lay eggs - 2 to 6 weeks.  The fourth generation, born in September and October, will migrate to the warm climates of Mexico or California.  They will live for 6 to 8 months, and begin their journey back to the place of their forefathers.

You can learn more about monarch butterflies at these sites:
http://monarchwatch.org/
http://www.monarch-butterfly.com/index.html
http://www.learner.org/jnorth/monarch/
http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm
http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/butterflies/monarch/

Raising Monarchs

Every year we scour our milkweed plants for little tiny monarch butterfly eggs.  These beautiful and well known butterflies only lay their eggs on the milkweed plant.  Every year we bring in lots of monarch eggs, set up a nursery habitat, and watch them grow into butterflies.  Here's what our habitat looks like.  We supply them with fresh milkweed stems often.  As they grow, they will eat more and more (sound familiar?), so a constant fresh supply of milkweed is a must for this project.  Often, in one jar, we have all the various stages of monarch from egg to chrysalis.

When the monarchs emerge from their chrysalis, their wings are very soft and wet and rumpled.  It's a good idea to give them a couple of hours to begin the drying process before handling them.  But, when you are ready to re-introduce them to the vast outdoors, they are docile enough to hold for a bit.  We take full advantage of this time.

Sometimes they are feisty and fly away immediately.  But more often than not, we can hold them for a good long while before we deposit them onto one of the flowers in our front yard.  Usually, but the next morning, they are off and wandering on their own.  We sure do have a great time learning and loving them while they are in our care!!

It's about time to start looking for their eggs.  The milkweed is getting tall!

Flip Out!!!

Last spring, a waitress at a small local restaurant (where my kids have breakfast with my father-in-law each Tuesday morning) gave us 6 tadpoles from the cover of her swimming pool.  We learned all we could about raising tadpoles, put them all in a little tank, and watched them swim around and grow legs.  The whole process was surprisingly quick (as all of us with little ones of our own know well), and before we knew it, the first frog had back legs and escaped the tank through a little hole we meant to close up.  Yikes!  We looked and looked and looked for him.  But he was only this big:

So we didn't find him.  (This is one of his brothers.  Or sisters.  We didn't learn that much about them...)  Feeling like horrible frog parents, we patched the hole, and waited for the other ones to grow up.  One by one they did.  As they grew, we found out they were Gray Tree Frogs (there's a link on that site where you can listen to their call).  And realized that there were Gray Tree Frogs already living in the pond across the street.

One by one, we released them in the pond across the street.

Unfortunately, we only successfully released 3 of the 6.  Despite our efforts, two of the little guys did not make it to get their back legs.  This was all last June.  Every once in a while through the summer and fall, the kids would scour the house looking for the little lost froggy.  But he remained unfound.

That is, until one day in January.  I was in our library.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something move on the floor.  I looked.  But I was right in front of the craft shelf - which has a way of spontaneously spilling out onto the floor in front of it.  I looked and saw nothing but craft supplies all over the floor.  So, I went back to what I was doing.  Again, I saw something move out of the corner of my eye.  Thinking that I was going crazy seeing crafty type things moving across the floor by themselves, I had a closer look.  And I realized it was a frog!!!  Our little frog that escaped it's makeshift temporary home back in June, six whole months before.  Only he was no longer little!  A frog!  In my house!  On the floor.  Loose... 

With the help of Munch, we quickly caught him and put him in the container he had escaped from until we had time to make him a more proper home.  You see, it was the middle of January in Northeast Ohio.  There was snow on the ground.  Totally inappropriate weather for a frog.  We fashioned him a new little home out of an old and cracked fish tank, some coir fiber I was planning to use to make my own seed starting mix, some logs, a plant, a little dish with water, a little light on top to generate some heat, and his very own fruit fly factory.  Yeah, we set up a little fruit fly breeding ground - a little cup with a rotten banana and a lid only partly covering it.  Yup.  We bred fruit flies for our little frog.  We spend 11 out of the 12 months setting vinegar traps to get rid of the buggers, and we actually set something up to BREED them!  But, I digress...

See how much bigger he got!?!  We apparently have enough itty bitty creatures in our house to support at least one amphibian for at least 6 months. 

We planned on releasing him to join his brothers and sisters in the pond across the street when the weather warmed up sufficiently.  We just needed to keep him happy until then.  That meant feeding him.  Something more than fruit flies.  Flip, as we took to calling him, ate crickets and fruit flies (and probably anything else that wandered into his den).  After a while, he started calling to us (only the males make noises).  Sometimes when I ran the water.  Sometimes in answer to the phone ringing.  Sometimes just out of the blue.  We grew to love him.  Every one of us did. 

So cute.

Spring came.  The windows were open more and more.  The sounds of the evening carried through them, and Flip heard his frog family outside.  One day, he tried to answer back, ever so very tentatively...  "Uuhhh, h-h-hello?"  It was time to release him.

We were all both sad and excited.

Everyone (almost) tried to hold him to say goodbye.

But, Flip was ready to be on his way.

We took him to the pond.  And set him down.  And let him go.

Can you spot him?

There he is!

Flip is out.  And sometimes, I like to imagine that it is his little voice I can hear singing along with all the rest.  I hope you're doing alright out there little guy!!!!