Cicada

"Purple"

A Cicada Story

Robert and Miranda found a cicada just climbing up a tree to molt today. (8-9-08)

Once it had come out of the shell Miranda brought it inside to "dry off".

The pictures and movies that follow are of what happened once she brought it inside.

It took a lot longer than I thought it would.

Of course Miranda named it "Purple" because she says it has purple eyes.

10:48 am
After watching outside patiently, for over a half an hour, Miranda brought Purple inside to complete its metamorphosis. Which turned out to be a much slower process than I would have thought.
Miranda also brought in the "shell".

10:59 am

The wings started to unfold one at a time.

It's body is about 2" long and an inch wide.

11:05 am

The wings are very damp and will take a long time to dry up. They tended to "stick" to the table as the fluid was pumped through them.

11:06 am

11:20 am

See the bulb of fluid building up in the right wing?

11:22 am

Purples body is starting to harden and gain darker coloring.

11:28 am

See the inky fluid on the table? That is what came out of the wings. Seems to have acted as a dye and hardener through the veins of the wings and turned the veins and wings black.

11:48 am

It's wings and body are turning darker with the fluid pumping through them.

1:57 pm

It's wings were stiffening and folding. It started beating its wings at this point and trying to find something to climb on to help the fluid get to where it needed to go.

2:40 pm

It started moving around more so we decided to move it outside. We put it on a plant we have on the porch where we could continue to watch it develop.

6:27pm

Purples body has changed almost completely from that bright green to black and its wings are formed nicely.

6:27 pm

Miranda can make it flap its wings by touching its back - as seen in the movie below.

This was the last we saw of Purple. It flew off during dinner.

Creepie crawlies

On July 30th at just before 10 pm I noticed something a little different climbing up our sliding door.

Yes, we have Tarantulas in the Ozarks. Thou this is not the typical time of the year to see them migrating to find mates.

That is usually in the spring time and early summer. But, Bob has had females laying eggs in his compost pile before or in the fall trying to keep warm at night. He thinks they are neat.... Personally ~ I never would have been able to take these pictures had that sheet of glass not been between us!

Here Baguierra is watching it crawl around. At least 4 of our black kitties were interested in this happening and watching very closely. We have witnessed them playing with and then eating these spiders in the past, but for some reason they just watched this one. Which made us wonder what was up?

We think that mystery was solved the next morning when we found it on our door mat like this. We believe it was a male that had mated recently with a female and she had mortally wounded him. So, somehow the cats knew that and really didn't want anything to do with a spider that was dieing. Smart Cats.

At the same time we saw the spider we had this little tree frog sound off really loud to let us know of his existence... Guess he didn't want to be one up-ed by the Tarantula?

The leaves you see are of my spider plant I have on a plant stand just outside the sliding door. That shows you just how tiny this little thing was. It is amazing how loud they are! The kids also have a tadpole pool set up. They are quiet right now and growing well... can't wait for them to mature and make all kinds of noise. Bet the kids won't like them so much when they are climbing on their windows at night singing up a storm!

The Massacre

This is a beautiful sight!

We are inendated with grasshoppers (along with the squeeters). They are eating everything! Including our butterfly bushes. They have to go. And the children love to catch them.

So, they went on assingment today.

Caution: Continue at your own risk.

For those who are a little squeemish you may not want to view the following video.

... just take a look at the pictures that follow.

This video is for:

A) Those who have had Guineas in the past ~ as it may bring back some nastalgic memories.

B) Those who have never had the pleasure of watching Guinea Keets tear apart grasshoppers and Locusts, but wish they had.

The Capture

"Is that for us?"

"What do you have for us?"

"Yum!!!" ~ Keets Gone Mad!

They scurry everywhere to catch the critters and then try to keep someone else from getting them as everyone is trying to steal goodies from each other.

Trying to escape certain death

The Nature of Nature, a roo that 'comes', and Miles of Smiles

The Nature of Nature












Let me at it! This little black and white bantam
is just full of it! Can anyone tell me what kind
of chickens these are? They came in a mixed box.

OK, I know about mosquitoes, but this is CRAZY!!!

They just about carried me away!

I can't step a foot outside without being attacked. I love taking care of our wee critters and after feeding the chicks I enjoy sitting and watching them peep as they scurry around catching bugs and eating grass & weeds. Today, however, I just can't spend any time out there. Granted I am wearing my 3-tier skirt, a sleeveless top, and sandals. So, I am going to invest in some light colored long sleeved blouses that I can throw on to garden and take care of Jacob's friends. I am also seriously considering getting a bee keeper hat with netting to keep them off my head, neck and face.




It has got to be all the rain we have had here this year. The lake, just below us, has gone down quite a bit now. We can see about half the outhouse at the Tecumseh Bridge / Park area. The fishermen are still launching their boats from the road that leads down to the park - a good block uphill from the normal launch site. It'll be a while yet before it can recede to normal levels, but it is about half way there.


"Just dare me" ~ This Buff Orpington (pullet?)
and silver duckwing unknown are just ready
to go at it again. The Black Sumatra is coming
up to be 'referee'

We have had other signs of too much rain here. Our tomatoes are turning brown from the ground up sooner than we have seen before and the squash has been a problem for many growers. A lot of people have given up and just taken the plants out completely. Bob got into our 'jungle' and pruned back a lot of leaves and then put a fan on them in an effort to dry them up faster. Between that and the fact that the front garden is on a slant, so that the water drains away faster, we have a great crop of zucchini, crookneck, and yellow scalloped squash as well as cucumbers with very few losses due to molding, etc.


Turk ~ our Turken Roo to be. He is so sweet.

Since I took this picture (just a couple days ago)

his comb and wattles have grown and started

turning red along with some red growing just

below his eyes. He is going to look like a vulture

before long.

I pray we get a good solid freeze here this winter to put an end to this cycle of biting.

I'm still itching!

Guess I need to call my sister-in-law, Shirley, and get some 'Skin-so-Soft'. ___________________________________________

A Roo that 'Comes'

What a comical site Red makes as I go to feed the cats he comes running with them. Then I got him some scratch this morning, he doesn't always get it in the morning, I started clicking and calling to him and he came running down to the hill toward me. You could tell by the way he was running, almost dancing, that he was a very happy bird.

Robert and Miranda put a lacy apron on Red.

Red is normally a calm protective roo. By calm I mean ~ the children can catch him pretty easily as he puts up a token resistance ~ and fairly enjoys being held, carried around, petted on the head, and scratched under the wings. By protective, I mean of us. He guards the sliding door from the cats and pecks them out of the way so that he gets his spot of choice - the rug. He is generally the 'top dog' around here.

So, now we have Molly... hmmmm. It seems she likes rooster tails. Now, this could be a problem since she is supposed to be learning to protect them not mouth them. Well, Red was not thrilled by her attempts, to say the least and he went to raising his feathers, pulling his wings up and out, and dancing on his toes... reared back and up and then down onto Molly... beak and claws ~ just as if he were fighting another cock. But Molls doesn't give up and frankly, I wasn't so sure I wanted to get in the middle of it. Red has some pretty impressive spurs on those legs of his and I like to stay on his good side. After several attempts of trying to get Molly to stop with verbal commands and taking her a few feet away she finally gave in and left poor ol' Red alone. I hope she learned her lesson as he got her good a few times and he didn't loose a feather.

_________________________________________________

Miles of Smiles

OK.... so, she is outside most of the time. Willow really just feels at home here. When you open the door she RUNS right in and raids Princess' food bowl. She is ravenous. It doesn't matter how much food she gets in her bowl. She still wants more. Guess that proves that she was left behind and couldn't fend for herself out in the wilds of the Mark Twain National Forest.




Bethany, Jacob's PT, is working with him in his Up 'n Go.

We were quite excited about this... see him holding and playing with his favorite stuffed critters, blue bear and brown bunny. Well, if you look really close you can also see that he is standing on his own!

The harness is loose around him and he has all his own weight on his legs and feet while holding onto only one of his bars!!!



Here's more weight bearing! This was Wednesday morning. He really wasn't in the mood for therapy, and pretty much let everyone know he didn't want to practice sit to stand (he whined and made general complaints as well as just wouldn't work) or the Creepster Crawler (just let his head drag and went limp), or the Walkable where he grudgingly accepted defeat as he has no other option but to walk as we are moving his legs for him.



He complained briefly about being put into yet another harness system when Bethany was setting him up with the Up 'n Go harness, but once he got into the walker he was all happy with it ~ giving us little smirks. You could tell he was quite proud of himself. As he should be.


Future Mushroom Grower

The other day she and Bob went walking through the growing rooms. While in there she said, "Dad, you are the mushrooms guy! And I want to be the mushroom girl!"

Well, at least she is on her way to being HACCP approved with that hair net on.

Miranda is showing off her VERY loose tooth. It still hasn't come out yet. Both front teeth are loose. We have a feeling she will be singing: "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth...." before long.

Tootsies at rest ~ not for long...

Miranda, Jacob, and Mommy

Last nights Giggle - a - Thon...

Giggling Tootsies

Tootsies at rest