It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time

One day back in the early spring I found some super adorable tadpoles swimming around in one of the water tubs I keep next to the Wool House to collect rain water off the roof and rinse water from washing wool. 

All together now... "Awwwww..."

I love frogs.  I really love tadpoles.  This will be So Much Fun watching them grow up!

You are pretty cute.

Of course as the summer blazed on I had to provide some super attractive shade from the afternoon sun and, so they'd have enough to eat, I scooped up some plants from the actual Frog Pond, where they should have been living.

And after that, all I've been able to see is adult frogs staring at me from the top of the green.  Occasionally I pull some weeds back so I can see all the taddies below, but mostly I just see frog eyes.  

And as they have been so happy here, they've multiplied into all three tubs, so now I have to put buckets under the downspout of the barn to collect rainwater to water my plants and gardens.  That's pretty special looking, too.

If you'd like to watch it all unfold on Instagram...

View this post on Instagram

Look! A new frog pond/pool 😀. 🐸 🐸🐸😀🐸🐸🐸

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 5, 2020 at 7:46am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Good morning from Tadpole Camp 😍. 🐸🐸🐸❤️🐸🐸🐸 I scooped up some plants from the Frog Pond yesterday because I can’t imagine there’s enough algae in that rain tub to feed very many tadpoles 😬.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 6, 2020 at 5:08am PDT

View this post on Instagram

Pool filter, tadpole edition. The tadpoles are living in a rain water catch tub off the side of the Wool House. I also use these tubs to recycle rinse water when I’m washing wool. We had a storm blow through this afternoon and I didn’t want the tub to overflow and wash away the babies, but I did want to take advantage of some fresh water for them. I put some of Maisie’s angel costume tulle over the top of a drink jug and pulled out a couple gallons of old water. The tulle is to keep from sucking in taddies while filling. The rain water refilled the tub and I will use the “dirty” water to water some plants 😀. Once again, no duct tape 👍.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jun 10, 2020 at 2:18pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

Our little garden shed friend chatting it up with a garden friend. 🐸 ❤️🐸

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jul 23, 2020 at 7:35pm PDT

Pro-tip:  When you hear two frogs talking like that...you're going to find a bunch of new frog eggs in the morning.  Sigh...

View this post on Instagram

So much for using these tubs for soaking wool this summer. I now have tadpoles in all three 🙄.

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Jul 7, 2020 at 8:38am PDT

I haven't figured out what I'm going to do this fall.  I guess I'll scoop everyone out and release them back at the ponds.  It's been "kinda" fun, but I "kinda" hope they don't move back in next spring.

Sneaking Up On Frogs

I am loving my little frog pond.  Do you see three frogs?  You have to sneak up on them.  They're a bit jumpy hahahaha ;-D.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - The Butterflies

Now that it appears I may have safely lived through one of my worst summers (worst summers so FAR - insert hysterical, as in she's lost her mind, "laughter" :-o), I am going to try to catch the blog up with at least some of the actually good parts from the past few months.  

I hate that I let the blog slip so far away.  I did keep the Instagram feed running all summer and I'm extremely thankful for that, but I'd much rather have the higher quality photographs from the "big girl camera" and more stories.  Even sad stories deserved to be told.

That being said, these next few posts may be more letting the pictures tell the stories, just in an effort to get them posted, but hopefully, as I get back into the routine of blogging, the rest will come back as well.  

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - The Butterflies

I think it was around mid July when I first heard about looking for and bringing in monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars and raising them in a secure location away from mowers, chemical sprays, even predatory birds and other insects. 

It took some practice to spot them, but as the summer progressed, I got pretty good at it and ended up setting up a pretty big butterfly nursery on the back porch.  I lost track of how many I helped hatch, but there are a ton of pictures of the nursery and hatching butterflies on my Instagram feed.  

Watching eggs hatch into teeny tiny caterpillars who then grew and grew into big caterpillars who then transformed into the most beautiful green and gold chrysalises and finally hatched into beautiful butterflies never got old.  

The first to hatch here were actually brought in when Robin and Julie came to visit in August.  Three hatched the first morning they were here.  We gave them several hours to dry off and gather strength and then released them out by the Frog Pond.

This is a female.  You can tell by the two thick black diagonal lines and the clean lines on the lower wing patterning.

This is a male.  The diagonal lines are not as thick and there are two dots on the lower wing patterning.

The very next day, my first butterfly hatched :-).

It was very excited to get out and immediately flew up into a tree.

Is this a male or a female?

This is one of my favorite videos from the butterfly posts.  See, it wasn't all bad, Sara :-).

View this post on Instagram

An early morning hatch ready for release at the Frog Pond. #monarch #monarchbutterfly #butterflyrelease #frogpond #nativeplants #ironweed

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 25, 2018 at 8:40am PDT