"A watched pot never boils....", MissSherry. That's what my momma always used to say. But, it is hard not to just sit and stare at something that really is a marvel, isn't it? I have 3 QMs about the pupate. All those QMs and everything I said about them being easy? I woke up one morning and went to make my usual foray to find fresh, tender elm leaves. Went in to start cleaning containers and pulled out the one that had at least 18-20 QMs in it, and there were only 3 living!!!! What happened? I feed them fresh food daily, my neighbor doesn't spray chemicals, so I have no idea. What a loss! I have had more losses this year than ever before. I think predators, virus, bacteria, etc., has really been bad here in OKC. I rescued two more Monarch babies (I know, I know), but I did it anyway. I release my first GST yesterday. Yippee! They did fine. The 3 CS's are still munching and getting bigger. I have 10 Tersas, and 3 will pupate soon. I must get them into a container of potting soil tomorrow. My pipevine is just starting to grow back a little, so I hope it gets a reprieve from the onslaught of PVSs the rest of the season right now. Cassia obtusifolia? I must check that one out, altho I have plenty of sennas for them, and here they seem to really love the Xmas cassia and the S. hebecarpa. I'm losing my verbesina enceliodes. It grew to about 2.5' tall from a little plant that Linda gave me. It's been blooming like crazy, too. All of sudden, the leaves began to droop and I'm afraid it's got some kind of root rot. I'm hoping the flower heads will mature before it completely dies back, so I can have some seed for next year. I really love this plant - it is so beautiful! The silvery-grey foliage with the pure yellow blooms is stunning. Besides which, it's a host for the Bordered Patch. I need to start collecting seeds. Goodness - I'm going to have plenty of Tropical Milkweed this year. The plants are a good 3' tall and taller and just beautiful without any activity on them (sigh....). Do you know that I have had no munching on the pentas? That's how many predators are in my yard this year. They've managed to consume all the Tersa hatchlings, except for those I rescued. My plants are still full, flowering, and beautiful (in which case, I wish they weren't). Some kind of caterpillar is eating away on my solidago, too. It's a moth cat I'm sure, but I don't know what. It's just stripping the foliage in strings. Kind of odd, huh? Susan

DeeMarie: Did your MIL accept the invite? Why not ask her to teach you how to cook a Hungarian dish? She'd just have to supply you with an ingredient shopping list or maybe you guys could go shopping tohether! Couldn't DH pick her up? HAHA. I'm trying to make your weekend MORE busy for you! LOL! :) Raeanne~ Enjoy the weekend! Man, your kids sounds like jetsetters! They travel as much as you do! Marci: Glad you had a goood start. Hope Tuesday is smooth sailing. QOD: Today, I'm headed downtown for a lunch. It's DH's last day of his internship. Then I have to do some biz at work and get an emissions test on my car. Hope it passes. Tonight, DH and I are headed out to a quick dinner and a drink while one DD is at her high school football game. I have to be very, very careful eating out as I think I am entering plateau territory in my weight loss. The good news is I have lost over 15 inches in bust, waist, abs, and hips. Saturday, we're all going to the last fair of the year---it's the biggest. But if it rains too hard, we'll pass on it. Sunday is a birthday party for a family friend of my youngest DD. I will stay at the party to help my friend with her new baby while she runs the party. Baby holding!!!! I love it!!!! Then, later, we're having our neighborhood picnic and BBQ. They have it on our community tennis courts (lots of room!) and are having one of those blow up bouncy room-things for the kids----and lots of food---POTLUCK! There are 42 families and usually a good turnout. I am in charge of one of the grills, so I'll be having fun for sure! Somewhere in there, I have to balance a checkbook and reconcile 2 credit card statements. And there's the ever-present laundry! BESH! Are you still on WW? Check in! Have a GREAT weekend! Cheers!

Rhonda, still no monarchs? I read somewhere that their numbers have increased, but apparently not where you are or I am. At least you have those beautiful queens! I just received my new MW plants in the mail that I ordered from Pine Ridge Gardens in Arkansas. She operates her small nursery primarily for the benefit of nature, and she says the reason many of her plants arrive with imperfections is she uses no pesticides. Tom, you know how when you walk through weeds by the edges of woods at this time of year, you get those 'stick tights' (triangular shaped seeds that stick to your clothes) all over you? Those seeds come from Desmodium plants, a member of the pea family that the LTSs around here use. I've raised them myself on it. Here's a caterpillar whose picture I made a few months ago - Yes, I did get more monarchs last year, even had the privilege of raising a batch of them myself in late summer. Unfortunately, the female didn't leave me any eggs or cats this year. Mary, I thought the same thing myself, that the blue area looks like feathers. Most skippers are so plainly colored, the long-tailed skippers are a treat! My husband is hanging in there, that's about all I can say. I finally told my nurse practitioner about GI problems I've had for years, she sent me to a GI specialist, I had an upper endoscopy, and it seems I have a huge hiatal hernia that will probably need surgery and an esophageal stricture. The doctor enlarged the stricture, so now I'm eating better. I had gotten down to mostly ice cream and yogurt. This little health problem is why I haven't answered on this thread until now. Gardenfullofswallowtails, monarchs are a good bit bigger than viceroys. I haven't seen any viceroys this year, unfortunately. jtmath2, congrats on releasing the viceroy! Sherry

Jennifer, The caterpillar in your photo is a Tiger Swallowtail caterpillar, not a monarch caterpillar. Tiger Swallowtail caterpillars have the green and black stripes with the little yellow dots....and monarch caterpillars have green, black and yellow stripes with no dots. The plant likely is rue, a favorite of swallowtails. Monarch caterpillars look like this: Image of Monarch Caterpillar Swallowtail caterpillars look like this: Image of Swallowtail Caterpillar George, It is good to see you here. I am thinking of digging my sweet potatoes early as well. They're not in hardware-cloth protected beds, and now that is has turned back so hot and dry, I'd like to harvest them before the voles find them. Kim, Good luck on finding a place that seems right for you. I think working on a farm with housing included would be a great experience. I don't blame you for wanting to find a new place before it gets too cold. Nancy, Welcome home. Daffy is just pretending she's not excited that y'all are home. You know how cats are---they are not going to admit they missed you. You can be gone a week and come home....and the dogs almost have a hysterical breakdown as they jump and bounce and wag and bark and show you how happy they are to have you home....and the cats will look at you cross-eyed and squinting as if they aren't sure who you are, then they will send you an ESP message that says "my litter box needs to be cleaned" as they turn their deliberately back on you and carefully wash their butt---all to show you how they really feel about you going somewhere and leaving them behind. The difference in dogs and cats just cracks me up. Amy, I hope your mom's repair surgery is an easy one. I didn't even know artificial hips had plastic parts. I guess I thought they were all metal....so they'd be less likely to fail. That shows you how little I know about artificial joints. Perhaps Honey would like to be a vegetarian, but she needs to learn that in order to have veggies to eat, she needs to let you grow them first. Our two youngest dogs were terrible about chewing on things they shouldn't---especially blankets and furniture. It took forever to mostly break them of it, though I know Princess still chews a hole in her blanket now and then. She's only a couple of years old so I still have hopes that someday she'll stop chewing on everything in sight. I'm still constantly buying her rawhide bones, real bones and all sorts of chew toys in the hopes she'll chew on them instead of chewing on something she shouldn't. One of my first clues that she has chewed on something she shouldn't is that in the middle of an ordinary day, I'll walk into the room and she is in her dog crate. Since she only goes into the dog crate to sleep at night, finding her in there in the daytime is a clue that she knows she's misbehaved and she's put herself in "time out". She is so smart---but apparently not smart enough to stop chewing on things that belong to her people. Jersey used to be a big, big chewer like that, but has finally settled down---but she's ten years old and gray-haired and, until we bought her a new dog bed about a month ago, her favorite thing to do even at this somewhat advanced age was to chew a hole in her dog bed and tear the stuffing out of it bit by bit. So far, knock on wood, she hasn't chewed a hole in the new bed. (I'm sure since I just said that, I'll go upstairs in a few minutes and find a hole in her new dog bed.) Rebecca, Congrats on the rain. Of course, it is not raining here, but I believe the western edge of our county got some rain earlier. Before that rain arrived, it was 94 degrees here with a heat index of 102. It cooled down quite a bit when the western half of the county clouded up and got rain. At our house, we had half clouds, half sunshine (on the southern part of the property) and no rain, but the temperature dropped into the 70s already, so it feels much better than it did at the same time last night. Hailey, Soil that is 8 is pretty alkaline. Our unimproved soil tested around 8.2, and so does our water. With many years of amending with as much organic matter as possible, we now can keep our soil in the 7.0 to 7.2 range, but if we skip a year of amending, it can head back to a higher pH really quickly. You also can use sulphur to lower soil pH and most bags of sulphur will tell you how many pounds to add per square foot to lower your soil pH a certain amount. Have a fun and safe trip to KY. I like to compost the current year's mulch and add it to the soil as compost. Often, my mulch has pretty much decomposed by winter on its own, and yours may or may not do the same---in some dry years it does not decompose nearly as quickly. I often just pile up several inches of chopped/shredded autumn leaves right on top of the mulch and let it all decompose together over the winter. I used to rake up all the mulch, haul it to the compost pile, layer it with chopped/shredded autumn leaves, let them decompose over the winter (watering and turning it all occasionally if we were having a dry winter) and then I'd haul it back from the compost pile (as compost) to the beds in late winter or early spring and mix it into the soil. Then I learned I could leave it in place, pile stuff on top of it, and compost it in place and save myself a ton of work. Gardening smarter....not harder....that's what I try to do. By composting the mulch, as long as it gets hot enough while composting, the composting process kills disease microorganisms and insect eggs and such. If yours doesn't break down over the course of the winter, you can just add new layers on top of it each spring. Eventually it all breaks down in place and enriches the soil as it does so, and this process should help slowly move your soil pH to a lower number. Dawn