The Great Monarch Relocation Project - Part One

A while back, when I posted the sandhill crane family photo album, I promised to share the adventure my brother and I have come to know as The Great Monarch Relocation Project. I'm slow at getting around to things, sometimes, but I do try to keep my promises!

We have a big field that gets planted with various crops to feed the wildlife every spring and fall, but there are always milkweed plants that take root during the spring and summer months and with them come all sorts of interesting creatures. 

Some of them can be chased away from their nectar feasts to go hang out in the other milkweed patches that remain undisturbed all year. This congregation of little moths is one example (I wasn't able to identify who these little guys are - I'm still learning to use my moth book!). 

Or the iridescent gold and green Dogbane Beetles that are impossible to capture adequately in a photograph. The spectrum of metallic colors glowing on their wings and carapace is amazing. When the sun hits them just right, they shimmer and glow. 

This Clymene moth, with the bold, black cross on its yellow wings is another striking creature that can fly off and fend for itself. 

Milkweed Tiger Moths, though rather unassuming in their adult stage, can also sail to safety out of the cultivated area. 

The difficulty is that there are others who can't so easily escape the ravages of mowing, discing and planting. The young caterpillars, eggs and chrysalises of all the various winged beauties are helpless. 

Even this Walking Stick, though it's an impressive adult, would be hard pressed to make it out of the path of oncoming farm equipment!

So, we have the great relocation project, which is primarily to save the monarch butterflies, but we like to keep the general carnage to a minimum! 

To be continued... :)

Cauldron Bubble - Brewing up Trouble!

Trick or Treat?

I thought I would scare myself a little by trying something new on the Stampeaz site for Halloween. I'm giving the sale scheduling feature a trial run to see how it works. My test is on Tan-Z, which is on sale for today only - at least, that's how it's supposed to work. :) 

So, it might be tricky for me, but I hope it's a treat for you - happy carving!! 

Happy Halloween!

Feathered Family Photos

One of the side benefits of the Great Monarch Relocation Project (which will be described in another post) was that the sandhill cranes came to take advantage of our progress. 

The extra special bonus was that, for the first time ever, the pair we've been seeing for a number of years was successful at raising a youngster!

So, of course, I had to take a bunch of family photos!

As an amateur portrait photographer, it's always fun to catch a candid moment with parent and child.

Not to mention the child's studio portrait that's inevitably shared with doting aunts, uncles and grandparents. 

Sorry, I got carried away there for a moment. It just struck me as funny that I had done the classic family photography session with these delightful birds! I hope you enjoyed getting to see them as much as I did. 

Also, many thanks to everyone who made the opening of the new Stampeaz.com website a success! I have the very best customers in the world. :)

A Garden of Delights

Before the weather started getting too crisp and autumnal, Baloo and I took a hike in a lovely area that used to be part of the state's mental hospital system. It's been renovated and the old buildings have been turned into shops, restaurants, and some senior apartments and assisted living quarters. Behind all this, though, there is a large wooded area with miles of trails to wander.

Last year, they added a beautiful pollinator garden at one of our favorite entrances to the woods and on this particular day, it was full of bees and butterflies taking advantage of the blooms before hunkering down for the winter or migrating to warmer climes. (There are at least four butterflies in the picture above.) 

Constant fluttering of brilliant wings made an already outstanding collection of colors and textures an absolute feast for the eyes.  

Incidentally, does anybody know what this tall purple-tufted flower is? It was the hands-down favorite with the butterflies and I would love to get some for my back yard!  Also, in the picture above, I managed to catch a monarch in flight - without it being totally blurred. That always makes me smile. 

This picture has a painted lady butterfly in the foreground and a monarch in the background - I didn't notice immediately, since they're both orange beauties. 

I liked the subtlety of the folded wings as these two fed quietly on that same (obviously delicious) purple flower. I've done some research and I think it *might* be a meadow blazing star, but I'm not an expert gardener, by any stretch of the imagination, so if you have a definitive identification, I'd love to hear it. :)

They had also planted an unusual type of mint that was absolutely humming with honeybees, but I didn't get any very striking pictures of that. I was just glad to see a bunch of happy honeybees, since this didn't seem to be a particularly prolific year for them.  Most of the bees I saw this year were of the bumble (or yellow jacket) persuasion. 

The Last Pieces of the Puzzle

Were you wondering when the last pieces of the puzzle would finally be put into place? Well, I think we're finally there. You can see that there are a lot of little parts that had to be sorted out and, while they looked a lot alike, they were actually different species. Not a perfect metaphor, but it was a fun way to think about progress. 

A funny thing happened on the way to the testing phase, though. I had asked a few intrepid souls who needed to order things anyway to put the new site through its paces to see what they might think of it. I only wanted a couple of people to test it, because there are always bumps and wrinkles when moving anything from building to testing to production. So, I turned the site on and told my few testers it was live for them to play with yesterday afternoon. 

What happened next was a big surprise for me. One of my testers got a little enthusiastic and posted on Facebook that the site was live! You can sort of imagine the chaos that ensued. There were, indeed, some bumps and wrinkles and I had to scramble a bit to get my hosting site to fix synchronization problems, figure out why a number of things weren't working quite as I was told they should and otherwise learn the administration side of the site under pressure. But, in the end, I think everybody's going to get what they wanted and, while I still have the iron handy for any persistent wrinkly spots, things are going really quite well. They'd have to be or I wouldn't be posting this, would I??  :)

If you want to see what you think, you can try it yourself (https://stampeaz.com) and let me know how everything works for you!!

Counting Crows - and an Update

Crows, ravens and magpies have often been considered birds that are prophetic, depending on how many you see at one time. There are a number of old nursery rhymes and poems to unravel their messages. 

When I see one crow, I always look around to find another one because it's supposed to be an omen of sorrow to see a single crow. Happily, they're social birds, so there's almost always another one in the area. I also always think of my grandmother, since she had a lot of superstitions that guided her life. :)

My favorite version of the old rhyme goes like this: 

One for sorrow, 

Two for mirth,

Three for a wedding, 

Four for a birth. 

(these four were wondering how to get at the ripening grapes)

Five for silver, 

Six for gold, 

Seven for a secret not to be told. 

Eight for Heaven, 

Nine for Hell, 

And ten is for the Devil's own self!

Since the collective noun for a group of ten or more crows is called a "murder", I suppose thinking of that number as the embodiment of evil isn't too much of a stretch. 

Every night, a flock of crows gathers along the beach to await a favorable wind (or the dying down of the wind as the sun sets) to help them fly across to the island in the middle of the bay where they have a rookery. They frequently get a little raucous and it's always enjoyable to see them stream across toward their home. 

Speaking of counting, the inventory is finished and entered into the new database and I only have a few more pieces of the new Stampeaz website to put in place before going live with it.  The biggest piece is that I'm still wrestling with finding the best solution for the shipping part of the site. Other than that, it's a bunch of little things (of course, those little things always take longer than I expect). 

So, it will be soon! Very soon! 

Thanks to all of you for your patience and you can still let me know if you need something in the meantime! 

A Different Kind of Meadow Hawk

Every now and then, I see something that perplexes me as I take my daily rambles with Baloo. Sometimes, I never get answers to my perplexities, but sometimes I do. A week or so ago, I started noticing rows of burrows that had been dug into the center hump of a two-track where we walk. These holes in the side of this shallow ridge had no tracks coming to or from them, they were clearly fresh, as the sand that had been displaced was still damp from the excavation efforts. The holes were perfectly round and not very large in diameter - maybe half an inch or thereabouts. 

I wondered about this for a number of days, as we passed many newly created homes. I also  began noticing enormous wasps flying around in the field beside this two-track. Then, I witnessed one of these big, scary looking creatures land and disappear into a freshly dug hole. 

The next day, I saw one zip by and dive straight into one of the burrows with a cicada in tow. Then, another one, also laden with a cicada, flew in and I was able to capture a picture as it landed on the sand (the wings are still blurred in flight in this photo). I was stunned that it could fly with such a large insect weighing it down. 

It apparently came in at a distance from its home, since it kept dragging the cicada along toward me - it acted like it wanted to crawl under my boot and I kept backing up and out of its way as I took more pictures. 

I did a little research on these creatures and discovered that they are called cicada hawks or cicada killer wasps. The female captures cicadas and carries them back to her burrow where she leaves several of them, along with a single egg. Cicada hawks build these burrows for their young one at a time, sealing them up when enough provisions have been stored for the egg inside. Once hatched, the larva will feed on the cicadas and then spin a cocoon of silk and sand in which it will overwinter, finally emerging as an adult the following spring.  

These wasps are about two inches long, so they're a bit alarming to see flying around, but they really have no interest in humans and will only sting people if they're harassed. They are good guys, acting as a natural check on cicada populations, thereby protecting the deciduous trees on which the cicadas feed so voraciously.  

So, there's the final chapter in my cicada story for the year. I had fun learning something about both the cicadas and wasps. I hope you did, too. 

Completely Buggy

No, I'm not talking about the Stampeaz site building operation driving me a bit off the beam (although, the description is apt for that, too). I'm talking about the rare opportunity I had to watch a cicada that had just emerged from its nymph stage to grow into its adult self. 

I had often found the nymph husks of these creatures attached to a tree or the side of a building when I was a child and marveled at how they usually stayed stuck. This one had apparently come unglued during the process of breaking out of the shell and had to cope with emerging on the porch right by the door of the house. Check out those tiny, wadded up wings. 

In this second picture, it had pretty fully emerged from the nymph stage and done a face plant into the concrete stoop, since the nymph shell toppled over with the effort and weight of the escape. You can also see how its wings are just beginning to unfurl.

It found purchase on the door frame and latched on, as its wings took advantage of a little gravitational pull to drop even further. 

The wings were the most amazing color of green that fairly glowed in the sunlight. 

In this picture, the cicada has worked its way around to the front of the door frame and its wings have started to angle in along its sides, rather than flat and open as in the previous picture and they're starting to become less opaque. 

It kept climbing higher and the green began to recede from the ends of its wings, as they became more transparent. Of course, all of this took a number of hours to happen and we finally had to go make some dinner. 

The following morning, this foolish creature had found its way under the outdoor table, where I was barely able to save it from being eaten by Baloo, who thought it would make a crunchy treat. We did get to see that the green that remained in its wings had become more olive than neon lime and the wings were completely transparent (except for the veining, of course). 

As I was getting ready to put the little fellow in a relatively safe spot, I noticed the amazing nose on this guy. It reminds me of early car grilles. (Yes, you know me - I had to look up cicada anatomy to find out that it was called a nose!) Nowhere is terribly safe for a cicada, since almost every creature likes to eat them, from birds and fish to rodents, reptiles and spiders. Even some organisms without mouths snack on cicadas - like fungus. Other insects eat them, too. More about that in an upcoming post! 

People also find culinary uses for these high protein insects. I remember one year, when the seven, thirteen and seventeen year cicada cycles all peaked at the same time (the sound was deafening!), a local ice cream parlor made cicada ice cream and the confection was an instant sell-out. No, I didn't try any - it was already gone. However, I still think I would prefer butter pecan...

A Cheery, Cherry-Faced Progress Report

Baloo wanted to make me take a much-needed data entry break and go out on what should have been a lovely walk in the woods. Reality kicked in when we were completely beset by swarms of deer flies and horse flies and no amount of bug dope seemed to help repel the vicious little biters. The good news is that I got to be introduced to the cherry-faced meadowhawk along our way (what a great name for these winged wonders!). 

The bad news is that Baloo decided, while I was concentrating on trying to get a good picture of this striking dragonfly, he would foil the pesky flies by jumping into the mucky pond beside which this red beauty lives and hunts. Needless to say, stinky dog had to have a bath before he was allowed back into the house! 

Oh! You mean you don't care about my canine cleansing conundrums and what you really wanted to see was the promised progress report? Okay, here goes! 

All the different products that I carry at Stampeaz are now officially entered into the database. This is huge progress! A whirlwind inventory will need to be done before the site goes live, since some of the counts will be different from what I pulled out of the old database (I've sold some things since the crash), but that's a manageable task that should be done anyway, just to make sure everything's correct. 

Other than that, I still need to figure out the shipping and customer account parts of the new platform. From the research I have done so far, it looks like I may have to do something similar to what I did with the old store for postage, since I use the least expensive priority mail method I can for each order. My only option for accurate shipping is to use standard flat rate, which would be more expensive for my customers. So, folks may just have to put up with me creating the best estimate I can and refunding money that I don't need for shipping an order. Who knows? I may yet find a plug-in or add-on that allows me to do what I want, but it looks like I make things too complicated for that (no surprise there!).   

Panning for Gold

Sometimes, when Baloo and I are out walking in the woods, we find something really marvelous. Usually, it's something beautiful to look at or interesting to learn about, but occasionally we discover gourmet delicacies. 

We ran across a particularly nice bloom of golden chanterelle mushrooms glowing like a beacon in the shade of the forest. I know - they look toxic, don't they? One of my brother's friends says that they look like they are positively dripping with poison, but they are among the most choice of edible fungi.

Some of them were pretty sandy, so rigorous cleaning was required, but I ended up with a lovely bowl full of golden treasure. 

Then, after slicing them all up, it was time to saute them in a little butter and olive oil. 

Since mushrooms are mostly water, they took time to cook down. While they did, the nutty, earthy aroma was absolutely moth-watering. 

So, of course, I had to have some for breakfast in scrambled eggs, along with homemade sourdough pita bread. A mushroom lover's delight. Yum! I saved the rest of them for other culinary adventures.

It's Coming Together - Slowly

It was getting a little quiet on the blog front again, wasn't it? There has been a lot going on with the Stampeaz site rebuild, so it's time for another update. I can't pretend it's terribly interesting reading, but people have asked for it. You have been warned.  

The pieces are starting to create a picture that looks like it might eventually make some sense. As you can see, there are still big chunks missing, but it's beginning to look like it's really going to come together. So, what does that mean, exactly? 

All the carving materials and kits, most of the carving tools and several lines of ink pads and inkers have been entered into the new database. Today, I'm working on more of the inks, inkers and markers. I have set myself a deadline for getting it all finished and, if I manage to figure out how to deal with shipping costs, I just might come close to making that deadline. It's  possible I will have to use the same shipping refund workaround that I did in the old store, where I simply refunded any shipping overcharge. This is only an issue since I use regional flat rate mail, which varies in cost depending on how far away from me a customer is and I can't know how much postage will be until I actually create the label at the post office's web site, but we'll see if I can come up with a better methodology. I just don't like people to have to pay more than is necessary for postage. 

This data entry process has brought home to me just how many different things have been added to the store over the years, as people requested them. There is a surprising amount of stuff in the basement! So, I confess that I might cheat a little bit on the deadline thing - I am trying to get the most important and most popular inventory entered first and some things that don't get as much love from my customers may straggle into the store after it's up and running. That means that if you don't see something that you think should be there, don't panic. Let me know and I will take care of it. :)

How has Baloo been faring during all of this? He has been amazingly patient as I continue my extreme preoccupation with all things computer. His human is unusually boring these days, but he's still insisting that we get outside for several walks every day, so he's right on top of his job. When it's time for me to move (or feed him) he keeps jogging my elbow, making data entry impossible -- and I have to keep him from putting his chin on the keyboard to do his very own database manipulations. He is helping. 

Farm Art

Once again, the big farm that Baloo and I pass on our way to several of our favorite walking areas had a noteworthy addition or two (the last one being the baby burro that appeared in the blog a couple weeks ago). One of the people living at the farm is an artist and I have featured her work in past posts, too. On our way by, I noticed she was working on something out in one of the fields and I thought it might be a play area for some goats or something, since they have had goats in that little field before. 

On returning to the area a couple days ago, I saw that what she had been working on was a platform for a new art installation. The fun thing about the pieces she creates in her yard, her fields and on the walls of barns and outbuildings is that she uses characters from among the animals that live on the farm. In this case, you can tell by the markings that the baby burro is featured here pulling the cart.One of their several border collies is riding shotgun with one of the human residents of the farm. The pieces she creates are always delightful and I get to admire them every time we go by. 

In addition, this pony has just joined the herd. It looks quite content with its status as the newest denizen of the herd.  If my memory serves, this looks like a Shetland pony. I remember a few adventures riding these occasionally feisty little guys at the fair when I was a child... 

I'll have to keep my eyes open - maybe she'll create something using this pony as her model. 

Frogs and Fashion

One of the places Baloo and I like to walk is a wetland area that is currently even wetter than usual, due to the record high water levels in Lake Michigan. The water table is so high that parts of the trails have merged with the marsh. 

The fun thing about this was that frogs were hanging around right where the paths run and it was easy to see them up close as we wandered along the wetland's edge, trying to keep our feet dry. 

These green frogs (yes, that's their name as well as their color) must have been particularly confident because they didn't budge when we walked up to them. This was unusual, since most of the time I hear the plops of retreating frogs before I find them in the water. I liked the birch bark this one was using for a little bit of cover.  

Seriously, frogs were everywhere. Big and small. 

I think this one might have been my favorite, though. It had fashioned some sort of vegetative headgear - an amphibious trend setter, don't you think? 

It's a Shoe-in!

Once again, Baloo and I were out walking (we do that a lot) and we encountered a very active little butterfly fluttering around nearby. I wanted to get a closer look and maybe even take a picture or two so that I could identify it and maybe even use it for blog post or carving inspiration. And when I say nearby, I mean that it was flying all around us and frustrating any attempt at a capturing a photo. 

Then, for some inscrutable reason of its own, it decided to land on the edge of my shoe, which was close enough for a picture, but not a very useful one. 

It started to flap its wings, but rather than fly off again, it simply climbed higher. 

Apparently there was something rather pleasing about my shoe, because it stayed for quite a while. In this picture, I was able to get a tiny glimpse of the markings on the underside of its wings. 

Interestingly, when it opened its wings fully, the markings on the top were less colorful than those on the underside, where the spots had orange rings around them. I was able to look it up when I got home and learned that it's a Little Wood-satyr butterfly. They like sweet tree sap, some mushroom secretions and they even eat the sugary honeydew that aphids create from feeding on plants.

It must have found something sweet on the top of my shoe, as you can see here, because it has its proboscis extended to take in something - and it kept at it until Baloo finally got curious enough about what was going on to come over and nose around, which sent it on its way. 

While perhaps not the most colorful of butterflies, it certainly qualifies as one of the friendliest we have had the pleasure of meeting.