Friends, Science, Nature

To continue our life in the slow lane series...

Cole's school friend, Grant, came over yesterday.  In this photo they're watching a movie they made of themselves doing Star Wars stuff.  They thought they were hilarious on TV.

Grant was reluctant to use the pool. I thought that was strange because kids always love to get in there and splash around. When I gave him a ride home later I discovered why he was so underwhelmed with our little inflatable pool. His family has a full size inground pool.  We can hardly compete with that.

In the science and nature category, Cole and I found this little nest under the apple tree the other day. My best guess is that it's some sort of tree sparrow nest.  The shell fragments are very pale blue with brownish, greyish speckles. That's Cole's hand it's sitting on, so you can see that it's very small.

One of the pear trees is loaded!

I don't know if domestic animals count as science and nature, but just because she doesn't appear on the blog much, and because she certainly does fall into the "friend" category, a photo of our cuddly, purr-factory cat, Patches.

Below, Spike and his jaws of destruction.  We've had him for exactly one year now, and he's helped us get rid of many things around the house. He has managed to turn everything - bicycle helmets, rubber mud boots, stuffed animals, and fire wood to name a few - into itty bitty mulch. If you need something mulched up, and if you don't mind that it's strewn all over your house, driveway, and yard,  just call me up and I'll bring Spike right over.  Oh, and if you need big holes dug in your lawn, he's also an expert at that. Wes loves Spike a lot.

Seriously though, in a few years, when he finally calms down, he's going to be a great dog. He's really smart. His favorite game is "Find Wayne." It can also be called "Find Cole," or "Find Heather." Wayne invented this game after reading a book at school about a search and rescue dog. One of the kids will hide somewhere such as in the raspberry bushes, in the hay field, in a tree, etc. When they're ready I say to Spike, "SPIKE, FIND WAYNE!" or whoever. Spike will immediately drop whatever he's chewing up, stand at alert with ears pricked and do a visual search of the area, before taking off at a gallop, following an air scent to find his hiding playmate.  When he finds him, he circles him a couple of times and then sits there drinking up the praise he receives. I've tried to get a video of this, but when he's on a search he's too fast to follow with the camera.

Speaking of jaws of destruction, check out this little beauty.

 

We've been searching the milkweed plants for a few weeks now for a monarch caterpillar.  Joanie found this one for us while she was mowing her lawn. Talk about very hungry caterpillar, this guy (or gal) went through oodles of milkweed leaves. By the way, I love my camera.

Here he is getting ready to enter the pupa stage.

When we woke up this morning, this is what we found.  I love the colors of a Monarch chrysalis.  This picture doesn't even do it justice.

Until we saw this photo, we didn't even realize how many silk threads attatch the chrysalis so securely to it's perch.  I guess it has to be pretty tough to perservere through wind and rain.

We'll keep you posted on the Story of the Monarch.