squirmy wormies

It's prime season for insects!  It's been too hot (and I've been too busy) to get out with my camera much, but I've seen some great specimens close to home.

soldier beetle...a great pollinator!

scorpionfly...this is a female and she doesn't have the cool scorpion tail that males have!

big group of aphids on the milkweed!

sweat bees

honey bees...look at those beautiful wings!

We have a new resident on the front porch.

chinese mantis

He's getting bigger and bigger...

...molting regularly.

There are plenty of moths around our porch lights to feed an army of mantises, so he's picked a good place to hang out!

It's not too late in the season for baby birds...

red-winged blackbird babies in our front pond

...and new flowers are blooming, like this milkweed.

Lots came up in the garden this year and I love it!

In the woods, blackberries are ripening...

...and woodland hydrangeas are starting to flower.

We're mostly INSIDE, though, with these lazy cats.

Barnabas

Frances

Pepita is doing really well with cat introductions.

All the cats are making an effort...even Calliope!

Pepita is having some adventures...

daily pond walks

fierce feats of strength

intense Daddy snuggles

...but she's spending a lot of time like this, unfortunately:

The vet couldn't fit her in for almost three weeks after the adoption, and when they finally saw her, they determined that she was crawling with parasites (despite frequent wormings).  Right now, she has giardia and hookworm.  Because she'd just had a flea treatment, we can't even give her the hookworm medicine for another week.  She's getting two doses of antibiotics daily for the giardia, but reinfection is SO easy.  I have to bleach her crate daily.  Water and food dishes have to be treated with boiling water daily.  Her bedding (including car blanket) has to be washed every other day, and so do all of her toys.  The floors have to be mopped daily and the carpets have to be vacuumed.  When she goes potty, we have to pick up everything and treat the location with diatomaceous earth (to kill the hookworms/giardia parasites that would otherwise worm their way into the soil and instantly reinfect her).  We have to wash our hands CONSTANTLY, because humans can catch giardia (although it's unlikely).  In short, everything has to be spotlessly clean and she cannot go around other dogs, because she'd infect them. 

We had to reschedule her puppy class and we're sad that we can't do our planned socialization around town.  Hopefully she'll get a clean bill of health at her next vet visit in two weeks, because I've read horror stories about puppies having giardia for MONTHS and needing constant antibiotics (and constant cleaning to prevent reinfection).  It's daunting but we're really hoping for the best.  The good news is that she's cheerful and active and shows no signs of being infected...that's a good sign!  We really want to expand her house boundaries but every room she goes into has to be deep-cleaned daily, so she's going to have to wait for the vet's go-ahead.  

Thankfully, giardia transmission from dogs to cats is rare.

Off to do MORE cleaning before work.  Have a great week!  

weather most fowl

 Rain...at last.

It's been insanely hot this past week, with temperatures reaching 100 degrees.  I've been seeing this meme a lot lately and Devil's Front Porch sounds about right.  Or maybe we're in Second Summer?  

When it rains in the summer here, we tend to get torrential downpours.  Unfortunately, it absolutely flattens my flowers.  You can see some slumping in this picture, taken earlier in the summer.

I took this photo a few days ago...

...and all the tall plants (amaranth, apple of peru) are twisted and bent in half. Two of my dahlias were ripped off at the roots. Zinnias, cosmos, celosia...anything that's over 2' fall...bent over.  Next year, I have to run rope the length of the rows, both sides, to help prevent flop. 

Lots of interesting faces in the garden.  So...many...katydids!

Colorful leafhoppers...

Too cool for school spittle bugs...

...and quite a few spiders.  Many people don't like looking at them, so be sure to...

...scroll...

...past...

...the...

...next...

...five...

...photos...

...if they creep you out! 

Okay, are we ready?

I was really excited to see this beautiful female garden spider (argiope aurantia) this week.

And just a few beds away, a loosely-related garden spider (argiope trifasciata) was nestled amongst the scabiosa.  Males are much, much smaller than females, so this one was easily identified!

I've seen several crab spiders in the garden...they're my favorite!

Like the venusta orchard spider, this beautiful long-jawed orb weaver looks like he's been decorated with gold flake!  

We've also seen the chogs out in the barnyard...the older parents who've maintained their home under our back barn are still there, but not outside very often.

The "babies," now grown, have gone further afield.  We see one especially chunky one by the front garden quite a bit.  I think he's got a nest down by the stream that bisects our property.  As long as he doesn't burrow under our porch!

After our insane rain storm, a flock of turkeys inspected our back yard for insects.  Two parents and...nine(?)...babies!  Well, like the groundhogs and our wood ducks, they aren't babies any more.  They're nearly full grown.

see the babies standing on the fence post?

Our county is doing a turkey brood count and I've been able to document several sightings this month.

Todd and I are still taking short hikes before breakfast almost daily.  So much to see in the forest!

This beech tree is covered in beech blight aphids, aka the "boogie-woogie" aphids, so named because they appear to be dancing on the branches.  We saw quite a few of these in South Carolina!

A lone luna moth wing, nearly bleached of color...

Interesting fungus, like this Chicken of the Woods...

...and so many wildflowers, even this late in the season.

goat's rue

The days are busy as we slowly fade into fall.  I'm looking forward to resting up once things slow down.  The kittens are leading the way.

Have a great week!

birds in thirds

 Good morning!

red milkweed beetle

It's been a very busy couple of weeks around here.  First, we had a series of crazy storms...

Seventy mph winds that uprooted a 30 - 40 ft tree right in front of us!

Todd cutting up fallen yellowwood tree

We lost power three or four times, for up to ten hour stretches.  Then, we had smoke drift in from the Canada wildfires, and for some reason it was really bad here.

For reference, our air quality this morning is 33!

That kept us inside for a couple of days, too.  But once it stopped raining, and the air cleared, we were able to get outside and get back to work.

Corn is growing!

I'm getting insanely big 2 lb zucchini from the garden...the one below is one of the smaller ones!

Borga is unimpressed.

That's a lot of zucchini bread!  

Grilled zucchini ribbons with white beans and pesto coming today.  Because, you know, we also have a ton, and I mean a ton, of basil.  

I love using it in bouquets...the cilantro I'm growing is great, too, with its pretty purple flowers...but I prefer to eat it.  I made pasta with a basil vinaigrette and roasted cherry tomatoes last week that was to die for!  I'll make it again soon and pop in the recipe here.  

I've got to be diligent about checking our veggies for insects.  I found close to 50 squash bug eggs on our lone zucchini plant.

They'd devour the plant if allowed to hatch.  Helpfully, I found a mating pair of trichopoda flies on a leaf, too.

Trichopoda flies parasitize both stink and squash bugs, helping to balance things out just like the ladybug nymphs did on the milkweed last week.  I've always got to be diligent with the plants, because even flowers have pests.  This isn't a great photo, but one of my cosmos stalks was infested with oleander aphids this week.  Fascinating to see all the different things going on in just a few inches of space!

Tiny-but-deadly ambush bugs help keep things in line, too.

They are venomous and can deliver a nasty bite, but they also eat aphids and other pests!  Here's a quick video if you want to see their grab 'n stab technique.

Lots of animals out and about.  Here's our possum, right at bedtime, after one of our big storms.

I see our big turkey family several times a week.  There are nine poults and I love hearing them chattering in the field!  I can easily see them from my office window.  

In our front pond, we've started seeing a little wood duck family every day...mom and three babies!!

Although the back pond is fine (probably because it's a lot larger), you can see that the front pond is choked with algae.  We've ordered grass carp, a type of fish that love to eat algae, and we're hoping that they'll quickly clear out the gunk.

Of course, we see the chogs all the time.

I see hummingbirds every single day.

waiting out a storm

They are pretty foul-tempered birds and I can almost hear their string of profanity when I enter the garden and they have to zip away for a few minutes.  

The roses are done blooming after a brief show...

...but when one thing stops, another starts.

hosta flower

Madame Butterfly snapdragons

It's a lovely time of year, both outside...and inside!

Have a great week!