Raising Painted Lady Butterflies

One of the most rewarding experiments that the boys and I did this spring was raising Painted Lady Butterflies. We got a kit from Toys R Us, sent in our coupon for our caterpillars and waited. A few weeks later a small jar with five tiny caterpillars arrived in our mailbox. All the food they needed was in this little jar. We watched as the caterpillars grew tremendously each day. They turned from green to a hairy black and got bigger and bigger and bigger. Eventually, they crawled to the top of the jar and hung upside down from the lid. As we watched, they began to harden and turn grey. We transferred the chrysalis's to the mess habitat and waited. After about two weeks week got to watch a butterfly emerge. It was amazing! All five made it and we began feeding them sugar water.
My boys loved them and decided they didn't want to release them. Well, these little critters started mating! The boys watched that too. A little privacy please! They'd say, "Mom, the butterflies are mating again." The females started laying eggs all over the habitat. We decided we had better find out what these guys eat as we would probably have babies soon. After some research, we found out they ate milk thistle and mallow. We knew we had that in the area with the help of some pictures. Off we went in search of food for our pending babies. Sure enough, one morning we awoke to our kitchen counter being covered in tiny black worms. Breakfast anyone? With the use of a credit card, I very carefully, scooped up as many of the babies as I could and put them in a container with some of the leaves we collected.
We had to go on several hunts over the next few weeks to supply our new caterpillars with enough food. I was a caterpillar mommy now, checking on them often. They were eating and growing so fast. One thing we noticed was the amount of poop these little guys can produce. Tons of it!!! Every couple of days we had to clean out the container. Well, we ended up with 21 chrysalis's! Sixteen of them hatched. I made sure the boys released them within a day. No more mating for me! This was a lot of effort on my part to make sure they had enough food. I think we cleaned out the neighborhood of thistle and mallow. This new batch was on its own! I hope this experience is something the boys will never forget. Even Levi would sit with the habitat in front of him admiring the butterflies. God is an amazing God. I'm glad we got to join Him in appreciating part of His creation.

Pt. Mugu Camping June 2010

 











Went camping at Pt Mugu, about 30 miles above Malibu, over Father's Day weekend. Had some camera issues so playing a bit of "catchup" on the family blog here.

Great trip, we all had a blast.

Pt. Mugu is one of those state parks that has a little something for everyone - mountain biking, hiking, and a beach. The campground is located inland from Pacific Coast Highway in a canyon called Sycamore Canyon. From there you can reach anywhere in the park. We'd scramble onto our bikes and ride up the canyon for as far as the littlest legs among us cared to go, which would usually be about an hour. Then it's all downhill coming back.

Plenty of hiking, too. We took a "no bikes allowed" trail that branched off to the south from the "main drag" about a mile up sycamore canyon, and it meandered up another little canyon whose name escapes me. But it was a beautiful hike. The pic of Gina is that hike. We stopped and ate some fennel bushes. We found a stream, dipped our toes. The boys spotted plenty of butterflies, and we learned some new botany of the area. Monkey flowers and lemon bush among them. Also some fuschia.

Chase found something called a "wooly bear caterpillar," which looks a bit like Abe Vegoda's eyebrow with legs.

Also I'd like to point out this was the maiden voyage of the "dutch oven," that big cast iron pot thing in one of the photos above. We cooked an amazing "mountain man scramble" - sausage, hash browns, eggs, cheese. Later we cooked a peach cobbler thing for dessert that was delicious.

The boys befriended a family staying at a nearby campsite, they were delightful to pal around with for the weekend. We are coining a new term - "camp friends." The boys made some more camp friends this last week camping at carpinteria state beach. more on that trip later.

We learned two nights is not enough for the amount of work that goes into putting on one of these camping trips. It's more of an expedition than a trip. This camping trip was the first in a while, and we spent about two days prepping all the gear. We were just getting warmed up there and boom it was time to go home. No good. So we'll stay longer in the future. Had some great rides, great hikes, and "kicked it" on the beach for an afternoon.

Sleeping the first night in Mugu was rough. There was a guy snoring somewhere nearby - deep, jet engine snoring - and Levi was squawking all night, and our air mattress needed some more air. I call it the "equalizer" night -- because the 2nd night, everyone was so exhausted, they all slept like rocks. Things were equalized. There were some pro mountain bikers camping next to us. I know they were pros because they had huge pictures of themselves painted on their fancy biking van. "Lopez #55". Too funny. They had some wicked cool gear.

This was a great trip. We love camping. We haven't been out for a couple of years because we've been busy breeding, so this was our "welcome back" trip and we enjoyed it thoroughly.