My hatchery is actully a base cabinate my husband bought from Lowes. He lined it with plastic and placed a small computer fan if the back wall and an exhaust fan that is controlled by a thermostat set to pull an extra batch of fresh air in when the inside temp goes above 80 degrees. Both fans have gaurds on them so the butterflys can't get out or hurt by the fan blades while the fans are running. He put a top shelf that holds three LED flood grow lights set on an adjustable timer. The lights are really cool. The can burn all day long and are still cool to the touch and use less electricity than a 20 watt regular light bulb. He orginally made it for displaying some of our smaller orchid plants in orchid shows we go to. It got too heavy to haul around so he converted it for cats when I first started hatching out BST's. We used a glue gun to glue two key rings to each side wall and we streach the pupated cats on the string by using a small piece of paper with a tiny hole in the middle of it then a dab of hot glue on the suspension string the cats used to mount themselves on the plants with. It keeps the preditors away from eating them while they are pupated. Turned 12 monarchs loose today. There were two that managed to tear their wings when they exclosed. Can't save them all I guess. Stil have 19 more on the string, some I expect will eclose tonight. Still have four more on the outdoor plants two them have started pupating today. I leave them set for a full day after they pupate so it makes them easier to handle for the mounting process. Most of the ones I turned loose today stayed in the area all day. What a beautifull sight!

Yeah yeah YEAH! Another week in heaven! Grillin' stuffs, sitting on my duff, drinking a couple sips, scratching dog ears, and petting cats. I expected this week off but it was not offical until a few minutes ago. So far it is mostly good. Not doing so good on my chores... the truck is still dirty. Down to my last two gallons of apple/blueberry wine. Homemade with no sulfides so it is drinking down fine without the pickled tummy feeling. A trip to the city to visit a friend that was struck blind this year. So glad I had time to go visit. A bit frightening to see FoMoCo report such devestating losses. Part of me wants to laugh because the auto industry worships incompetence and part of me is worried about the loss of such a large customer. I made a couple extra years of wages working overtime building Ford parts so it would be sad if they failed. Just turned down a day shift job leading a new Ford truck product line. It should have been a prize line but current economic conditions just don't look good for it. My garden is not doing so well. Deer raided most of the veggies. A young doe with three fawns hanging out in the front yard. Don't know if she adopted some or actually had triplets... twins are common. Cross your fingers Jessy and we might have some tenderloin for you this year. It was so dry last month. I watered but it is not the same as a good rain storm like we had this last week. What is left is growing strong... lots of cayenne, habenera, and serreno peppers. Some yellow tomatoes and the Romas are growing strong. Biggest plant and most interesting is a volunteer squash plant. Looks like acorn squash but I'm not certain yet. It seems to have sprouted on its own but may be a prank from the teenage girls next door. Last year they went around my fields planting sunflowers... their mom narked them out. Real joke is I'd probably pay them to go out and plant birdfood. I don't get the humor but I'm very pleased anyway. Off to make some kombucha tea. Never tried it before so it will be a new toy. : ) lyra

Got up this morning and went to a local flooring store to pick up some carpet samples for Lauren for school. When I took them to her at school she said she was feeling bad, sore throat and all over not feeling well. I took her home, had to cancel my workout with a personal trainer. My first workout with her too. Rescheduled it for later next week. So, then stopped by Wendys on the way home and got a taco salad. When I'm done eating I have to run to Wal-Mart and Kroger to pick up some groceries and a new blade for my power saw/trimmer. It's warm and breezy so I'm going to spend the entire afternoon working in the yard. The neighbor finished mowing my front yard this morning. I started it but was so tired last night after pulling weeds and trying to cut down a vine/ground cover that I didn't do more than mow down some weeds around the edges of the lawn where the bushes are. One of these days I'm just going to have someone come and landscape the front and back. So, after I fix my hand-trimming of bushes out front I'm going to work on pulling and digging up weeds out back. It's a mess back there already from all the rain we've gotten.

Lazy day. I was supposed to go to a bridal shower at work today but stayed up till 4 am watching a movie last night. Slept in again. I'm going to be paying for it when I have to get up bright and early tomorrow. Still in my jammies, made breakfast for me and Alex, washed a load of dishes and clothes. Still have another load to do. First, I have to shower and run to the grocery store, which I was planning on doing yesterday. Instead, last night I went to JCPenney and Elder-Beerman and bought some tops and a bra for my trip. All my tops are so baggy right now. Came home and went on-line to Land's End and bought a few more things, sweater, another bra, and some t-shirts for Alex. All three "stores" were having sales. I got 50% off at Elder-Beerman after the guy at the checkout scanned one of their ads to give me more off on my purchases. Good thing, too because I was already having buyer's remorse before I even made it to the checkout. Clothes are so flimsily made anymore and so expensive. I hate buying bras. Why are 99% of them so heavily padded? There are 2 inches of padding on so many of them.