Lowes and Home Depot carry a material called water blocking mix or hydraulic water block(or something to that effect)that is sold in the same area in the store where they sell quickcrete, portland cement, sand, etc. and that is made by the Quickcrete people. In my stores the material is sold in yellow tubs with a black lid if memory serves me correctly. This stuff is suppose to be used to stop water penetration through concrete block walls. The material mixes up as a black thick pastey material and it sets up very fast (personal experience talking). Perhaps this could be applied to the bottom of your bird bath to prevent the water from leaking through the structure. Applying it on the outside would prevent having to worry if it was leaching material into the water in the birdbath. Just a thought that I mentioned previously last year but never got around to trying.

Thanks so much, everyone. Sorry I didn't get to answer before. I wish I had more time to get on here. Summer is hectic with the Monarchs, the garden, the lawn, and any other project that I want to do and not be outside freezing while I'm doing it. The information all of you gave was very helpful. I did run into a problem and that is that somehow half of my cats disappeared. 7 out of 12 are among the missing and I don't think they're coming back because they've been missing for I don't know how many days now. Maybe I should have kept them separated. Do the big ones eat the little ones? I never had problems with that with the Monarchs. So now I'm down to 5. I hope I get eggs here yet, but it is getting kind of late. I did find an egg on my parsley and one of my rue. I just can't imagine getting dozens of eggs like others on here do. This female BST flies around like she's on a mission, looking for something, and I assume it's a place to lay eggs. She goes near the plants sometimes but doesn't land. Other time she lands but doesn't do anything. I don't know what her problem is, and I don't know why she waited until now to start laying eggs. Isn't it late for them to be laying in PA. Gosh, we'll get our first frost in another month. Oh, these will probably overwinter. I forgot. lol So I imagine they can lay awhile yet, right? How big do that cats get before they pupate? These two biggest ones I have are wandering around so much but don't seem to be getting anything done. I don't know if they're just out taking a stroll or what. I have them in a big plastic storage container (about 18" x 24") and put in bamboo sticks in case they want to pupate on those. Cathy

Thanks for the comments everyone! Happy, yes the glass was a lot of work! Some of the pieces were so tiny that by the time I got them wrapped with copper foil you could barely see the glass so I would have to use an exacto knife and trim the copper. I'm happy with how it turned out though. Lynne, are you asking about the plants the butterflies are on? If so, the Gulf Frit is on pink penta "Starburst" and there are dune sunflowers in the background. The zebra longwing is on purple porterweed. ~Betsy

Lucky you for watermelons. I started mine from seeds indoors back in April. It took until the end of June to start growng. I have 12 plants, half of which are seedless. Because I used to get animals (mostly possums) who would chew into the sides of melons, especially cantaloupe, I decided to make a contraption. This device uses a motion sensing flood light array which also turns on a low ultrasonic niose that most animals hate be near. Its worked very well so far, and I occaisonally move it to confuse them. As to canatloupe and musk, you can freeze cubes of it, but they will not be as firm as fresh. Suggest that when you cube them, that you also dip in acorbic acid to help prevent darkening. Watermelon isn't going to hold up to freezing however. Ever pickle watermelon rinds? The watremelon will last unopened in the fridge a couple of weeks. To determine when they are ripe and ready to pick look at the stems on either side of the melon stem and see if these show up as a tan color. Musks will release easily from their stems. For squash storage (usually hard skin), a dip in a mild bleach and water solution will kill of surface mold, and reduce early spoilage. Even though these have hard skins, they still bruise easily. You can also freeze squash. Now, what do I do with 4 bushels of apples, that are all ready to pick.