caterpillar

Our 2025 Garden: rescuing neglected strawberries, mulching potatoes and more

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Last year, we planted a little plot of Albion everbearing strawberries. They did fantastic!

Until they got eaten by deer.

Repeatedly.

They even tore through the net barrier I’d put around them, and I ended up having to use some leftover pieces of chicken wire. By then, there wasn’t much of the season left, but the bed did get heavily mulched for the winter, with some chicken wire draped over the whole bed for protection.

I did remove some of the mulch in the spring, but in the end, the bed got severely neglected this year.

Amazingly, some strawberries survived.

The strawberries I’d planted in front of the new asparagus bed, however, did not. Not a single one made it. I had simply taken too long before planting them, I think.

We do, however, now have a third Jersey Giant asparagus fern growing! So I still have some home for the rest of those, and the purple asparagus.

The first thing to do was to find and dig up the Albion strawberries and see how many there were.

I’m afraid I had to be pretty rough with them. The crab grass rhizomes were bad enough, but I was also finding new elm roots invading from below. When I planted this bed, I’d dug up as many roots as I could, then covered the bottom with several layers of carboard before adding fresh soil on top, in which the strawberries were planted.

You’d never know I’d done all that, from the roots I was finding!

Those elm trees have got to go.

I actually found quite a few more strawberry plants than I expected! In the end, I found 10 plants, plus a runner with fresh roots in it, though no leaves yet.

All of these went into a bucket with some water while I worked on where to plant them.

At first, when I thought there were just a few, I had expected to plant them at one end of the bed with the Spoon tomatoes, but there were enough that I decided to reclaim the space I’d planted bare root strawberries in that failed. The shallow trench they were planted in were, of course, filled with elm tree seedlings, along with plenty of other weeds.

There was still some soil left in the old kiddie pool we used as a planter last year, so once the weeds were cleared out, I used that to fill in the shallow trench the strawberries had been planted in. This was more for the asparagus, since I didn’t feel I’d been able to cover the crowns properly on that side.

While clearing the weeds out, I did not find a single sign of the bare root strawberries that had been planted there.

Totally my own fault. They should have gone in the ground as soon as I got them. Instead, they sat for about a month.

Then I decided to take some short logs from the old kitchen garden retaining wall and set them along the little wire fence, to prevent erosion and water run off.

That done, I thoroughly watered the newly added soil. It was bone dry in that little pool. Once everything was well hydrated, I spaced out the strawberry plants in between where the asparagus crowns were planted.

Once those were in and watered again, I went and got more grass clippings to mulch both the strawberries and the asparagus.

Then, because I had enough for it, I got more loads of grass clippings and mulched the potatoes.

By this time, it was getting pretty late, and I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes.

I did continue watering the rest of the garden beds for the night, though. As long as I was moving the mosquitoes weren’t as bad.

While I was watering the grapes, I spotted some friends.

We haven’t seen these in a couple of years! They are Abbott’s sphinx Sphecodina abbottii  and look VERY different, at different stages of development.

Around the edge of the spruce grove, I paused to check on the wild saskatoons growing there.

We actually have ripe berries developing!

I got a picture, then I ate them!

They’re not as big and juicy as they could be; we haven’t had a lot of rain, and the undergrowth is starting to crowd them again. We need to get under them with the loppers and clear it all out again.

All in all, things are going pretty good in the garden. At least, for our region. I have to keep reminding myself of that when I watch gardening videos, and I see all these people posting about their huge plants and amazing harvests. They all tend to be at least a month ahead of us!

I’m happy I got as much done this evening as I did. I’m not sure how much I’ll get to go tomorrow. Not only will it be hotter, but I’ll be driving my husband to his appointment. Thankfully, the AC in the truck works fine, because that heat is going to be brutal on him.

After tomorrow, the highs are supposed to drop a bit for the next while, then get right back up to the “heat warnings in effect” level again.

On the plus side, the peppers and eggplant will be just loving these temperatures!

😄😄

The Re-Farmer

Things that got done today

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It was hot, muggy and gross out there, but stuff still needed to be done!

My daughter and I finally got to picking the sour cherries from the tree next to the house.

We picked as many as we could reach using the little household stepladder. The ground is too uneven to safely use the bigger A frame ladder, even with a spotter. Which is okay. We can leave the rest for the birds! We almost filled the colander we were using to gather them. Then my daughter used one of the window screens we found in a shed that have been so handy to lay them out. She gave them a good washing and picked over them to get rid of any damaged or bird eaten ones that got missed. I think we still had about 5 pounds of cherries when she was done. I’m thinking we might make a syrup out of them, but will look up different ideas to try, first.

We’ll have other fruit to harvest, too.

There are SO many grape clusters! I’m still amazed. The most we’ve ever since since moving here. It will be some time before they’re ripe, though. The chokecherry tree by the compost ring and low raised beds will be ready to harvest soon. Actually, there are two of them, very close together. There’s a larger, healthier looking chokecherry tree by the main garden area, but with the tall trees beside it, it doesn’t get anywhere near as much sun as the one by the low raised beds. The berries on there are still mostly green, and there are far fewer of them. These trees are still pretty spindly, as they were quite choked out until we cleaned up around them, but they are just covered with berry clusters, weighing down the branches.

While checking the grape vines, I was on the lookout for more of those caterpillars, but accidentally knocked a big brown one onto the ground!

I tried to pick it up to put it back, but it kept flipping, uncurling and curling. It was remarkably strong! In my attempts to use leaves and twigs to move it, it flipped itself onto the step, which made it very convenient to take photos! I did finally get it on a grape leaf and back onto the vine.

Then I went to get one of the vines out of the spirea, where I found the green spotted caterpillar. So pretty! I was able to untangle the vine without disturbing it.

While I had the timer going for the sprinklers in the garden, I finally finished attaching the fence wire to the raised bed cover frame.

What a pain in the butt that was!

While setting up to work on it, I noticed that a screw in one corner – top right in the first photo – had snapped, allowing the pieces to rotate slightly. Not good!

Propping the frame up with boards helped steady it, but it was a real pain to attach that fence wire. Plus, Gooby decided that rolling around on the ground and sticking his head or feet right were I was hammering was a good idea.

It was not a good idea.

He was very determined, though!

I did finally get the fence wire attached. Between the snapped screw in one corner, and the likelihood of the U nails simply popping out while the frame is being moved, I decided adding extra boards to sandwich the fence wire was a necessity. I cut spare pieces to length, but by then I had worked my way through the sprinkler and soaker hoses, and needed to do the rest of the watering directly. My daughter was a sweetheart and attached the new lengths to the frame for me. That definitely made the whole thing stronger.

The lengths of fence wire for this was 5′, which made for a rather tall arc. This would be perfect for things like the bush beans on the high raised bed. For the next one, though, I’ll use 4′ lengths.

What I will not use, though, is that fence wire again! The twisted wire at every join is just too thick, making attaching it to the wood less secure. I still want to have something structurally sturdy, though, as it has to support any mesh, plastic or netting that is laid over it. Either that or I will need to add hoops to support the material. Hardware cloth or chicken wire would not be enough on their own.

With this one, I plan to cover it with the black netting we have, closing up the ends in the process. That will make sure no cats will get into the beds and lay down on our vegetables!

The buggers.

Meanwhile, the garden got a good watering. We hit 28C/82F today, as we did yesterday, but did not get any of the scattered rain showers that were predicted. Tomorrow, at least, will be a slightly more pleasant 23C/73F but it’s supposed to reach that temperature by noon and stay there until 7pm. To top it all off, we’ve got air quality advisories from all the wildfires. It was definitely on the hazy side, today! Just moderate air quality advisories for our area. Others are listed as extreme, so we don’t have much to complain about, that’s for sure.

I gave up trying to go to bed early today – at least not as early as the last couple of nights. Still debating whether I should try sleeping on the couch to reduce the interruptions by kittens.

Speaking of kittens, Question has absolutely glommed onto me today! She’s constantly climbing up me, whether I’m standing or sitting. While bending over to pick up the adult cat food bowls, I suddenly had a kitten hanging off my butt. Question had been on the bed behind me and went for it. When I stood up, she climbed her way up to my shoulders and stayed there! After feeding them, I sat down to work on the computer with my own supper. Even though she ate her own food enthusiastically, she was determined to eat mine, too! She was not happy that I would not let her! When we were done giving Leyendecker his medications, I settled at the computer again, only to have her climb up me again, to nap on my chest. As I write this, I’m leaning way back in my chair as she sits on my belly. I think she’s nodding off! None of the other kittens behave like this. Mind you, while her sister has been improving in health, Question is still really gooby, and doesn’t have as much energy as the other kittens.

What a handful the litter bugger is, though. Literally. She’s just a tiny little handful. They all are! Not for long, though. They sure are growing fast!

Well, I need to make up my mind on where I plan to sleep tonight.

If I sleep tonight.

The Re-Farmer

What do you mean it’s not even noon yet?

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Well, this has been an unusually busy morning. Maybe busy is the wrong word. Let’s just say, there were a lot more different things that got done in a short time, rather than spread out over the day.

I took quite a few photos I wanted to share, but I am pretty short on storage space in my WordPress account (and I’m not willing to pay through the nose to upgrade my plan, when storage space is the only thing I need!), so I’ve uploaded them to Instagram, instead.

First up, check out these beauties!

The Black Beauty tomato is well named. They are gorgeous, and there are so many of them! Of course, the colour makes them very easy to see, unlike the Roma tomatoes, where the developing tomatoes are the same colour as the plants right now.

Then I spotted this guy on the grape vines.

We’ve figured it out. I’m not finding different Abbott’s Sphinx caterpillars. It’s the same one, in different stages of growth. So it went from that incredible blue, to brown and now brown and green. From the photos I’ve been looking at, I think we might see one more colour change before it starts to cocoon itself.

When feeding the cats this morning, Not-Junk Pile actually let me pet her… sort of. So we gave it a try and got the ear mite medication. It too my daughter and I many attempts to get close to her – she kept moving away, but was hungry enough to keep coming back for the food. Finally, while she was in the kibble house, my daughter was able to duck in and use the syringe to apply the ear might medication to a spot between her shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no way she would let us rub it in like it’s supposed to, but it’s the best we can do.

We have not been able to re-catch that kitten with the messed up eye. The eye is still open, but the swelling around it is huge, and I don’t think it can see at all out of that eye. From what little I can glimpse between the eyelids, it’s just red flesh.

After we managed to dose the cat, I threw away the syringe and packaging, then went to switch out the memory cards in the trail cams. I was just coming up on the driveway cam, reached into my pocket for a memory card…

And pulled out a syringe package.

So I went back to the garbage can in the sun room and retried the memory cards I threw out with the syringe… 😂 It seems that when I dug around the bottom of my pocket for the syringe cap, I grabbed the memory cards as well. I also had the empty syringe in my hand, so I thought I grabbed the packaging as well.

Oops!

After I was done with my morning rounds, I headed into town to the post office to pick up the other two books my husband got me for my birthday – and was surprised to find another package as well. I was just turning the corner on my way home when I realized that stick on the road was NOT a stick!

I was so excited to see my first garter snake of the year! Well, maybe. I might have seen one other, squished on the road, awhile back, but definitely the first live one. I carefully drove around it, and it didn’t move, so I stopped to take a picture out my window. Then I drove ahead, parked, and got it off the road. I did not want to take a chance that it would stay there and get smushed by the next vehicle! I hope it would cross the rest of the way towards our garden, but it turned around and went the opposite direction. Ah, well. Hopefully, it will make its way to our garden and start feasting on slugs and other critters that might harm our plants!

Once at home, I quite eagerly opened the packages. Here are my new books.

Somehow, I was expecting the books to be much larger, like the first one that came in. 😄

If you look at the contents pages, the first book (which is on the right) is almost entirely dedicated to food. The second book (on the left) adds in a few more topics, but is still largely focused on food.

I look forwards to going through these!!

The next books I want are newer editions of the Back to Basics book we have now. That one covers growing and raising food, butchering, preservation methods and recipes, too, but it starts with things like how to select land to purchase, how to did a well, and even step by step instructions on how to build three different types of houses, including a cordwood house. I’ll be using some of the techniques in there for when we build our outdoor kitchen. It also includes things like joinery, blacksmithing, etc.

We passed on many of our books before we moved, so we need to rebuilt our resource library!

As for the other package, that was like Christmas! A dear friend passed on some items. There’s a whole lot of very old cookbooks that I’m quite excited to see, and even a collection of seeds that belonged to a mutual friend and neighbour. They are all “expired”, but I will try planting them next year, anyhow. The germination rate will be low, but at least a few should still manage.

Well, this took longer to write than usual, because I’ve also been messaging with our mechanic.

He wasn’t sure the van was worth fixing, either. It hasn’t been long enough to rebuilt our credit rating enough, yet, so applying for financing at this point would not be a good idea. Plus, the Caravan we were interested in has sold, anyhow. I mentioned we were planning to replace the van in the fall, anyhow, so spending so much money to fix it just doesn’t make much sense. He ended up offering to buy it for scrap, of that helps us any. I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. We’ll get a few hundred for the van, depending on what the price of scrap metal is right now, and can cancel the insurance. The van cost less than my mothers car to insure, but it’ll still be reducing that cost by almost half. We can put that money towards savings for a down payment, instead.

So I think that’s what we’ll end up doing. Which means a trip into town to remove a few things from the van. Maybe not today, but we’ll see.

I do hate having to rely completely on my mother’s car, but we weren’t driving the van because of the noises it was making, anyhow.

Well, that got interrupted mid sentence…

It’s decided. We’ll sell the van for scrap. I’ve let him know, and might head over this afternoon to empty it out and do whatever paperwork is needed.

That van had a lot of problems, but considering the circumstances and the mileage, it really did to well for us.

Ah, well. It is what it is!

The Re-Farmer

Cool find, and a run around day

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First the cool stuff.

About a week ago, we found this bright blue caterpillar on one of the grape leaves.

Absolutely stunning colour!

We’d never seen one before and had no idea if it was a “good” or “bad” caterpillar, but we left it alone. After a rainstorm, I was surprised to find it still there, and then it just disappeared.

This morning, I found a different coloured one!

I almost brushed it off because at first I thought it was a dead leaf hanging, and then it moved and curled up like this!

It took some searching, but we finally found out what it was. It’s the caterpillar for an Abbott’s Sphinx moth, or Sphecodina abbottii. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen the adult moths around, but had never seen the caterpillar. Turns out, they can have quite a few different colours and patterns on them, but that blue is my favorite, hands down! The caterpillars do actually eat the grape leaves, though I haven’t seen any damage, so they don’t eat much, it seems! The adults eat nectar from lilacs and honeysuckle, both of which are done blooming in our area.

That false “eye”, by the way, is over its butt. It has claspers at its hind end and, when startled, curls up and hides its head.

I think they’re gorgeous!

Anyhow.

We had another cold night last night. The predicted low was 9C/48F, which isn’t too bad. I didn’t sleep last night, so I was awake to see when it had dropped to 6C/43F – with a “RealFeel” of only 4C/39F! An hour later, we dropped even further to 5C/41F, but at least the “RealFeel” didn’t get any colder. I do wish I’d had some idea that it would get that cold, because we really should have done things to help protect our tomatoes!

When I checked them this morning, however, they seemed to be okay.

I was scheduled to help my mother with grocery shopping today. She wanted to go shopping at a different store after picking up her new glasses, so she kept postponing the trip, even though I reminded her they would come in, in 7-10 business days. When we arranged this, it was Saturday, and I offered to help her on Sunday (which was yesterday), but she acted all surprised and said, not on Sunday. Which is odd, because between my siblings and I, we’ve taken her shopping on Sundays pretty often. My brother visited her yesterday morning and, when he saw how empty her fridge was, offered to take her shopping, but she said no. I was going to be coming over today. He did go out to at least get her some milk and butter, but the grocery store wasn’t open yet, and he ended up going to a gas station. They didn’t have butter, so he got her some cream cheese, just so she’d have something to spread on her morning toast. An 8oz package of cream cheese and a 2L of milk cost him $16!

He had intended to go to church with her, and then take her for lunch, but she turned out to be having one of her bad days and got really nasty with him. So bad, he actually left, which takes an awful lot for him to do that! So I was a bit concerned about how she would be today.

Turns out, she was having one of her better days, and things went pretty well.

She’s been making a big deal in telling me not to pick up lunch before visiting her. The last time I got take out, including the food she’d been asking for previously, she gave me a hard time about it, so the next time I was set to come over and she told me to not bring anything, but if I did, to bring her onion rings, I made sure to eat first and didn’t bring anything. She was all surprised I didn’t bring her onion rings, when I didn’t even go to that particular restaurant. I told her; she said not to bring anything, so I didn’t bring anything! Then she had to make herself something to eat. This time, I simply picked up some fridge chicken and potato wedges (from the gas station; only place that was open at the time) and didn’t tell her. I just came in with the food. This time, she didn’t complain! She didn’t even complain that I bought a couple of fruit smoothies to drink, even though she’d never tasted them before. So we at least had a decent lunch! She did start to make comments about how we shouldn’t be eating so much “goody goody”, until I asked her, just how often do we do this? Now I wonder if she thinks we should only have food that tastes bad or something. She keeps seeing on TV or whatever, about how this food or that food is “bad” for you, to the point that she’s stopped even buying perfectly healthy food at the grocery store, but replacing them with stuff that isn’t any better, and sometimes worse.

It had been so long since she’d gone to the grocery store, she really needed to stock up. I think her good behavior likely had more to do with how tired she was. Tired enough that she got me to run in to get a couple of things for her from the pharmacy store, rather than go in herself. I got her the 2 things she needed and was done, but if she’d gone herself, she would have walked through the whole store and probably found other things to get!

But, she is well stocked now, and she was more than ready for a rest after I’d put everything away for her. She didn’t even try to guilt trip me into staying longer!

Before I headed home, though, I went back to the grocery store, as my daughter had asked me to pick some things up while I was out. Then I went to the hardware store and talked to someone about that water pipe to the garden tap that’s got a hole in it.

The pictures I took came in handy. After showing them to a staff member, she showed me some options. The problem is, I don’t know what the exact diameter of the pipe is. However, once I know that, I have a plant to fix it, without having to dig up the entire pipe! I can simply cut out the damaged part, and insert the cut ends into a flexible PVC coupling with stainless steel clamps. Once I know for sure what size I need, it can be a very quick and easy fix – and won’t have to dig out the entire length of pipe and replace it!

Though I am curious as to how it switches from the pipe I uncovered, to the hose end that connects to the tap.

She was very very helpful and likely saved me a lot of unnecessary work!

While there, I also picked up some water soluble fertilizer for the garden, which was planned, but also got a 50′ soaker hose, which was not planned, but the price was too good to pass up. I’d been looking at those in the city, and they were typically about twice the price or more – and the one I got wasn’t even on sale! I want to set it up in the bed with the purple corn.

While I was out and about, I got messages from my family. The first was to let me know there was a nice downpour happening – that started just minutes after I left! The next was to let me know it was hailing! Once it was clear, they checked the garden. One of the garden stakes supporting a tomato plant had fallen, but that was all – and the tomato plant was not damaged.

By the time I got back, the storm system had blown over, but the winds are still very high. We’ve reached 18C/64F, which is lower than the predicted high, and temperatures are supposed to start dropping now. Our overnight low is supposed to be 9C/48F, but that’s what it was supposed to be last night, too! Still, we are supposed to creep up to above 20C/68F for the next week or so, so the garden should be okay.

It would be nice if the winds would die down a bit, though. Driving home, I could feel the wind trying to push the car off the road! Oh, that reminds me; in one of the messages my daughter sent me, they had actually watched the top of a dead spruce tree break off. I’m going to have to make sure to check on that when I do my evening rounds.

Oh, there is one more happy bit of news. Last night, we reset things in baby jail, after taking out and washing all the bedding, including the cat cave. This cat cave is like a big bag that is drawn closed at the top with a rope. My daughter managed to wrestle the sides down to fold it in half, so the kittens couldn’t climb up it anymore, and risk them accessing the parts of the cage with wider openings in it.

They also now have a shallow litter pan, and I’ve actually seen a kitten using it! The whole set up is more open, though we can no longer casually reach in to pet the kittens in the cat cave. I look forward to seeing the pet cage the Cat Lady said she picked up for us to use!

The babies are really active and want to explore, so we have to be careful. We’ve changed things up enough that they shouldn’t be able to reach sections of wall where the wire is further apart, but they’re determined little buggers. I don’t want to get up in the night and discover kittens have gotten underfoot! They seem happy and playful, though, so that’s good!

The Cat Lady will be coming for Ghosty and her sibling soon, but I do hope she’ll be able to find homes for the younger ones, and Decimus, after they are weaned, too.

The Re-Farmer

Following up on things

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I got to follow up on a couple of things this evening.

We hit 32C/89F today, so once things got cooler, I headed out to water the garden beds.

Yesterday evening, after letting the silicon sealant cure for more than 24 hours, I filled the rain barrel by the garden, so today was the litmus test. I’m happy to report, there were no leaks at all at the cracks in the barrel.

With the barrel set up in the shade of a tree, the water in it was actually still cool! But not cold, which I’m sure the squash pants appreciated. Some of the leaves look like they got shocked by the cold, the last time I used a hose to water them.

While watering the beets and carrot beds, I startled a little friend.

It even gave me a chance to get pretty close with my phone to take pictures, before disappearing. This is the first time I’ve seen one of the green tree frogs jumping out of these beds. Gosh, they’re pretty!

While there, I decided to check on my other green friend, in the chokecherry tree by the junk pile.

The caterpillar is still there – and noticeably bigger! If you look at the veins in the leaf to compare between the two dates, you can see he’s quite a bit longer. The colouring has smoothed out, too. I’ll have to check again over the next while; he might get as big as the ones I found when I was a kid!

I’m happy to add that I saw flashes if kittens while making my way between the garden beds. While I was checking on the caterpillar, Butterscotch even emerged from the spirea to say hello and let me pet her. :-)

I’m glad she didn’t move her kittens.

The next thing I’ll be following up on is how things go tomorrow! We’re headed to the city for my husband’s first appointment with the pain clinic. I’m glad it’s finally happening, though to be honest, I don’t have much confidence in how it’ll go. After all these years, I think I’ve gotten way too jaded, but between the 2 years it took for my husband to get a 14 page form to fill out, and what was in the form itself, I am already not impressed with this place.

Mind you, I don’t think I’ll even be able to go in with him. They said he’ll have to wear a mask to go in, without anything about medical exemptions – and he has several conditions that would apply! I already know wearing a mask triggers my chronic cough, so maybe we’ll both be able to get exemptions, but I doubt it. Another reason for my expectations to be very low.

Hopefully, I will be proven wrong.

The Re-Farmer

I found a little friend! So exciting. :-)

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Okay, before I show you what I found while picking chokecherries, I’ll share with you why I am so super excited about it.

When I was quite young, I spotted a caterpillar on the leaves of a crabapple tree. It was unlike any I had seen before. Not only that, but I found three more!

I don’t know how long I spent, examining them while they worked on spinning silk around them. Their green colour, almost exactly like the leaves they were on. The yellow stripe around the body, with the row of spots along it. The way it’s real head was tucked and hidden below with – most fascinating of all – “eyes” that made it look almost like a fish head, with a very distinctive line next to the “pupils”! With another stripe around the real head, it looked like a fish holding something in its mouth. :-D Then there was the fact that, if I poked one (gently, I must add), two little orange “horns” would emerge from its body.

I was absolutely thrilled by them.

So it was with great excitement that I went running to my mother and brought her over to see them. She seemed very interested in the one I showed her, and even asked me to show her the others as well. I enthusiastically obliged, pointing out each leaf that had one of these caterpillars.

Then, to my shock and dismay, my mother proceeded to bash at the leaves, sending the caterpillars flying. After making sure she got rid of all 4 of them, she left. I searched in the grass for them, hoping to put them back on the tree, but never found them.

As you can imagine, that was the last time I shared my excitement over a critter with my mother. In retrospect, my mother probably assumed it was something that would eat and harm the apple tree. She certainly never took the time to explain it to me.

For years, every summer, I would find myself searching among the leaves of the apple trees, hoping to see this caterpillar again. It took me even more years (in the years before internet! LOL), but I eventually was able to identify them as the caterpillars of Tiger Swallowtails. The butterflies are rather common out here, but finding the caterpillars, not so much!

You can probably imagine my childlike thrill and excitement when I finally saw one, today!

I’ve cropped the photos, but did not resize them, so you can click on them for full size.

With its little bed of silk on the chokecherry leaf, it almost looks like it is floating in mid air!

Doesn’t that look almost like a fish head? A bit like the local catfish.

In this photo, you can see just a little bit of the real head, tucked underneath.

This little guy is, of course, different from the ones I saw as a kid. It’s a darker green and more mottled looking. The spots along the yellow stripe around the body are harder to see. This one also has a spot of purple in the black “pupil” of the false eyes. It is still, however, the same kind of caterpillar, and I couldn’t be happier!

I did, of course, call the girls over to see it, too! I had told them the story about finding the caterpillars – and what my mom did to them – years ago, so it was fantastic to be able to share this with them.

I then took great care not to disturb it, while picking berries. Alas, I did not see any others, but I did look! :-)

I am so excited!!!!

The Re-Farmer

Going wild

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Wild with wild flowers, that is!

And… other things.

While doing my rounds this morning, I got to enjoy some lovely wildflowers.

I’m counting the cranberries as wild, since they are self-sown. ;-)

There is a path of flowers running along the south fence that my mother sowed many years ago and have been taking care of themselves, ever since. They’re doing much better, now that we’ve cleared that fence line as much as we have. The white flower in the first photo is the first of these to bloom; there are several more of them budding, and lots of buds on another type with purple flowers that look like they will be blooming, soon.

I don’t know what that tiny purple flower growing in the moss is. The flower looks like a miniature bearded iris!

The wild roses are blooming nicely, but on one of them – just one – I found this.

I’m used to seeing caterpillars eating the plants. Not beetles!

My daughters reminded me to check out the patch of nettles growing near the barn door into the hay yard, to see some caterpillars they found.

A few of the nettles are covered with these caterpillars. They’re not the canker worms I expected, and am more used to seeing around here, like these ones. I’ve just been looking them up and my memory was correct; cankerworms have a preference for trees, like maple and elm. They can also be incredibly destructive. About every 10 years or so, their populations explode and cause a lot of problems. In between those explosions, we don’t see them all that much at all.

These guys, from what I can find, may be the caterpillars for any of three different butterflies. None of the photos I’ve been able to find are helping much to identify them properly, but they could be Red Admiral, Tortoiseshell or Peacock butterfly caterpillars.

So… these are good things to have.

I hope!

Also, it’s not a good idea to walk through a nettle patch while wearing shorts. Especially after getting clawed up by kittens.

We are, however, supposed to get really hot today. As I write this, we’ve already reached 28C, with a “real feel” of 33C. (82F/91F). Thunderstorms are on the way, though from the weather radar, it looks like they’ll miss us. The system seems to be getting pushed up from the south a lot more than I usually see, and it looks like the storms are going to hit to the north of us. Other provinces have already been hit with severe storms, with golf ball sized hail and flash flooding. It’s been really crazy to see videos people have posted online. I don’t expect to be getting any of that here, though the high winds did bring down another, somewhat larger dead branch this morning. Nothing near any buildings, thankfully.

We shall see how things work out!

The Re-Farmer

Critter of the Day: mystery critter

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

This critter is a mystery in a couple of ways.

The first: I don’t know exactly what it is, other than “caterpillar”.

I’ve been doing searches, and the closest I can guess is that it’s some variety of tussock moth. It’s quite tiny – smaller than my fingernail. I’ve never seen anything like it around here before.

The other mystery is, where did it come from?

I was at my computer, typing away, when it dropped onto my keyboard.

From…

…somewhere.