Well, caterpillar season is over, and butterfly season is over too. Yesterday we sent our last butterflies off to St. George and they all arrived safely. I got a text this morning with a few photos that they took when they released them this morning. This one was my favorite.
Our neighbors arrived late last night in St. George, so they decided to wait until this morning to let them go. It was a success except for one which "seemed sick" and did not fly away, which I think was my male that emerged yesterday that got stuck and that I had to put in time out. That is the one in the picture above. The rest all flew happily away.
They left the non-flyer on some flowers and I'm content to know if he dies, it won't be from freezing. There are still two non-flyers here. My fellow butterfly foster mom, Terry, is already taking care of one non flier she named her Mademoiselle Papillon. MP is four months old tomorrow. In that same French theme, I named our non-flyer butterfly that I found on Monday Antoinette (Toni for short), and I let Terry take Toni yesterday.
I was going to try and keep and take care of her and maybe have Terry come by and take her on walks, (cause I didn't see myself getting outside to do that) but then as we tried a walk yesterday, Toni like died on the grass, and I was nursing Katharine and Sophi came up to tell me Toni was dead! What?!? What happened? She was fine 5 minutes ago! I figured they were outside and one of the kids accidentally hit her with a basketball, but Terry said they were just in the sun and Toni keeled over and they thought she was dead, but then, after they brought her in to show me, she resurrected and was still alive. Ok, well, at that moment we figured she was a fragile life and Mademoiselle Papillon was on her last legs too, so we figured we'd let them live out the rest of their lives together. Plus Terry would be a better care taker than me cause she's all set up with food, she does not have any children in her home, and it would be good for the butterflies to enjoy each other's company. Antoinette and she looks happier now. Her antennea perked up over at Terry's. MP on the left, Toni in front
So I have now sat down with my calendar and looked through all my past months of butterfly stats and the official numbers are in. This past summer, we have... (drumroll)...
- Released 108 butterflies! 🦋
- I released 86 🦋
- 22 releases from those that I gave to others 🦋(1 to Megan, 4 to Bliss, 2 to Stacey, 5 to Nancy & Girls, 6 to sisters in the ward, 1 to Steph, 3 to Mel)
- I collected 223 eggs (92 were duds plus other fatalities along the way)
- Had 4 Pets - Jerry, Maria, Bonnie and Toni 🦋
Terry and I mused that it's kinda sad that they only get a name if they are disabled. But yeah, WOW!!! What a summer! I am all set up with everything for next year and I'll be ready and will know what I'm getting myself into next time. I even got some official stuff - floral tubes, a real netted cage, etc. I trust that the monarch population will continue to make a comeback and next year will be amazing as this year.
Other news - Our landlords wanted to keep the wood deck and had a guy who could fix it, so our friend Chuck has come and worked on our deck every now and then. It's almost done.
One of Sophi's glasses that we ordered on Monday are already here! We picked them up today and I was glad to see Sophi wearing them with a smile on her face.
She took a selfie to send to her friends.
And tonight at scriptures, Abi and Wes were doting on Katharine and Peter.
Wesley said "I won't judge you if you love Peter and Katharine more than me"
No comments:
Post a Comment