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.

Jacob's buddy - Wiggles

These pictures say it all!

What a wonderful disposition he has.

Jacob is trying to catch up to Wiggles ~ That is why the "look" is on his face.

Wiggles left Jacob for a second to see where Bob was outside then came back to him and flopped down on his side in front of him so Jacob could pat his belly or... pull at his fur on his side (which is what Jacob did). This is a good match for Jacob. Wiggles is only slightly interested in Jacob's toys and he is not a puppy to go around giving a bunch of kisses or nibble on an ear. Wiggles seems to "know" and understand Jacob.

Dappled Chocolate what?

Well, I guess since our inside kitty, Princess, decided she would prefer to join the others and be an outside kitty that made room for an inside puppy. And Bob filled that void when he came home with a doxie pup last night after the Bakers Creek Fall Festival yesterday.



So, here he is:

Mr. Wiggles is a 5 to 6 month old red ~ dappled with chocolate long haired dachshund! Did you know that the doxie has the MOST colors and color combinations of any breed of dog! (I checked it out at the AKC website this morning!)
Just look at those eyes! He is soooo sweet!

The fluff on his ears and the length of his coat on his body tells us he is the long haired variety. OH SO SOFT!

Bob is going to have to keep the grass shorter so we don't loose him in it!Everyone had to come out and check out the new member. Soon after this Molly went into full herding mode and brought him up to the door for us. He has a quick sprinting action, but doesn't go very far before he stops again and looks for Bob. You can tell who he feels he belongs to. On the hour and a half long drive home he spent more than half of it in Bob's lap, the other half in Robert's.He is so cute when he stops for a drink or even to eat. He just plops his little bottom to the side onto the floor. What a little personality!

Flopsie, Mopsie, and Cotton Tail & "A dogs life"

Introducing:

Our new trio of English Angora Rabbits

Flopsy is our blue buck.

He and Cotton Tail are in need of a plucking and a brushing. I don't know how yet, but thier legs look a bit matted and I will somehow have to get them taken care of.

He was born 4-15-08

His dad is a Broken Blue and his mom is a Chesnut. There is some of the chestnut tone coming out at the nape of his neck and his one ear won't stay up unless he is really checking something out. He is an inquisitive little fella. I wonder what would happen if I paired him with our holland lop Jasmine? hmmmm? Angora lops? Now that would be adorable!

His pedigree paper have his name as Tinker.

Here is Mopsy.

She is a Chocolate Torte.

She was born on 1-28-08.

Her dad is a Lilac Tort

Her mom is a Sable

She has dark eyes... don't let that red-eye thing fool you. All three of them have a dark or brown eye.

Her pedigree papers have her name as Kisses. She is very sweet.

Last but not least is Cotton Tail

She was born on April 15, 2008 as well.

Her parents are Shawn a Lilac Tort buck

and Marlana

Just love her little face!

It's a dogs life!

Molly is getting big. Just look at those long legs!

It is HOT out there so, she and Nemo are spending a lot of time on the concrete in the garage/SAC area trying to stay cool.

Molly is a good pup, always trying to do what she thinks we want her to do.

This morning she herded our newest doggie member back into the house for us!

Wiggles just has it made!

Here he is taking a quick nap after a potty break outside.

Baker Creek Fall Garden Festival

This Sunday was a HOT one and we were all there. Miranda was lucky and found a vendor with a watering can that helped cool her down. First poring water on her feet then her head. She loved it. The little girl sitting with her played with her all day long. They are great friends. The two of them plan to write to each other and can't wait for the spring show when she will be back again.

We did something new this time around.

After many requests we decided to go ahead and cook.

We made a choice of a portabella wrap or plate. They have three grilled portabella topped with our organic sautee'd onions and sweet peppers, white Cabot ex-sharp cheddar cheesse, our lemon cucumbers, mayo, and our organic-heirloom tomatoes either wrapped up in a fajita size flour tortilla or stacked tall on a plate with a side of chips, bag of cookies, and a 12 oz water all for $5.

Bob grilled up a storm and sold off the table while I dressed up the plates and kept Jacob cool and happy with the help of a battery opperated fan and some cool breaks inside.

We were located just across from the grist mill where they were also serving a wrap made of a vegetarian alternative to chicken. We had a lot of people that got done eating that and saw ours as others were eating and orderd one of them as well! They Loved all the extra goodies they got on thier plate.

Here is one of our happy customers enjoying a little rest in our "restaurant".

As usual we all had a lot of fun despite the heat.

I didn't get a picture of it, but Robert is learning how to Yodel with one of the stars of Bakers Creek - Betty Dill, and was on stage with her!
He and Bob went back again on Monday and he got to do it again. Maybe he will be onstage on his own some day?!

At any rate ~ I won't miss the great picture next month!!!

A quick aside:

The day before we went to the Bakers Creek show Miranda was trying to get her tooth out. She tried tieing it to the door as she had done the other front tooth and chickend out, but the day after the show she was quite brave and we tied it to the glider/rocker and she pushed it forward with me and her tooth popped right out! This morning the Tooth Fairy left her some great things for being so brave: $1, a pink pair of tights, and a mini tootsie roll! What a LUCKY girl!

I wonder if she will be singing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth..."?

Look at that space! Isn't it amazing! Oh! And she is wearing the new clip on earings her friend got her at the festival on Sunday!

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!

Sheep Arrive

Thursday morning began as every other day...

Take care of the dogs, cats, chickens, and guineas

Rush back into the house to get out of the humidity and heat

But with one acception...

We also had to get everyone ready for a 3 hour one way trip up to Humansville to pick up our wee sheep

Well, things didn't quite go as planned and we left an hour after I had wanted to leave and then we had to make 3 stops: one to deliver shrooms, another to fill up the tank, and another for lunch about an hour into the trip. Basically we left the farm at 10:15 am (had planned on leaving at 9 am), arrived in Humansville at 2:30 (I had wanted to be there by noon), then departed at about 4:30 pm. Not exactly on schedule.

We arrived at the farm in Humansville to pick up the sheep and get a few lessons on sheep catching and loading as well as hoof trimming and giving shots. I think I'm ready... it really isn't all that different from grooming a BIG dog and giving them shots... right?

I think the saddest moment for me was when we took Lucy out of the fenced area and Stinky, this years lamb, had to stay behind as I had chosen instead to go with an unrelated ram whom we named Thomas. Stinky started calling for his mom and Lucy called back to him. It is sad that we couldn't let them know somehow what was going to happen so we could prepare them.

Getting them each onto the "Yankee Cattle Trailer", as Bob lovingly called the borrowed trailer with a cattle panel covered with scrap fence and a tarp using zip ties and orange bale twine... interesting... we had a lot of gauckers on the drive home. Not sure if they thought our trailer was interesting or our passangers.

When we finally arrived at their new home we had to take the dog kenned apart from where we had been using it as part of the fence and doorway to the front garden and move it to the backyard where the first paddock is yet unfinished... that is another story.
The boys quickly reassembled it as I tried to unroll a piece of woven wire fence to put up in its place at the garden so Bambie wouldn't get in there and eat up what is left of it after the locusts and grasshoppers have had their fill.
The sheep were getting a little antsie and wanted to be off and on the grass.
So, we abliged them.
Here is Clare to the front and Thomas to the right - Lucy is behind Clare... she still isn't sure about all the goings on at this point.
And frankly...
This is what Thomas thought of us and his new digs at first.
Though on Friday when we fed them some corn chips they all warmed up to us happily.
Clare is a sweetie and just loves all the petting and scratching we can give her.
Thomas will stay back and watch until invited to take grain or a chip.
Lucy is coming around quickly and likes to be scratched as well.






Here they are just before nightfall that first night. A very hungry and thirsty trio that during the night ate all the grass to the ground and drank 3 to 4 gallons of water.

In the morning we let them out into the extended run area and later in the day moved the entire thing so they could get more fresh grass. In all the run and kennel were moved three times yesterday and we gave them the grass that I had pulled out of one of the front flower beds that had been terribly neglected due to my broken arm. There is plenty more to pull from several other beds and though it is humid it is slightly overcast today... guess we will be doing more of the same.