bats in the belfry

 It's harvest time!

We got a grand total of two watermelons from our vine, but at least they were tasty!  I'll plant more seeds next year.  

Cantaloupe were plentiful, but they all showed insect bore holes before they were ripe enough to pick.  Eh, I'll probably skip planting these again.  

The weather was perfect for harvesting the apple crop today!   

We got a grand total of 4.5 pounds...not even enough for a pie, once I cut out the bad spots.  But plenty for apple muffins, apple bread, apple baked oatmeal...the house smells amazing!  :)  And in October, I'll start with pumpkin.  I love fall!!  

I've also started harvesting a few sunflower heads.  I've laid them out on the dining room table to fully dry, which is an incredible temptation for kittens who are not allowed on said table.

Lots of interesting sights around the property.  Last week, I saw something fluttering around at dusk and knew instantly that it wasn't a bird.  When I was growing up, my great-grandma lived just down the street, with a small church right next door.  

I spent a lot of time in the field behind the church, and at dusk, bats would swoop out of the belfry.  I've always loved them. And now, here at our Indiana place...bats!!

Unfortunately, because of my chronic shoulder tendonitis, I just can't heft my heavy zoom lens, so I was forced to use a lightweight one that didn't zoom much...but I got enough detail to be able to identify this as an Eastern red bat!  They're pretty plentiful here, although their winter habits seem to be somewhat mysterious.  Some fly south, but since they can withstand temperatures in the low 20s, some hang around.   So great to see them!

Another exciting discovery...black tiger swallowtail caterpillars!  They go through a couple of stages and molts before pupating.  I posted the early stage, or instar, last week.

He's already molted into a bigger, bolder fellow.

Lots of deer, as usual.

This guy, of course.

So many familiar faces, but some losses too.  I've been so excited about our wood ducks, even as their numbers dwindled.  The last two hung around for a really long time...

...but as our nights have gotten colder, they've been around less and less.  They've likely headed south for warmer temperatures.  It's possible that they'll return here in the spring...fingers crossed.  

(spider warning!  skip next picture if you're spider-averse!)

And oh, my garden spider!  I've been so excited about her web, right beside the front porch.  I studied it (a double web, as an added layer of protection against predators) and was sometimes outside early enough to see her weave it fresh.  I cheered internally whenever I saw her skillfully bag up a dead insect for later consumption. I read up on her habits and kept an eye out for egg sacs (one garden spider can lay up to four sacs full of eggs!).  And, one morning, she was...dead.

Her big, protein-filled abdomen was completely eaten by some predator.  A bird?  A shrew?  A praying mantis?  There's no way to know, especially considering that whatever did it had a light enough touch to take the abdomen quickly and leave her suspended in her web.  I was surprised at how disappointed I was, and how much I looked forward to my daily web-check.  It's tough to get so easily attached to wild things.  Well, hopefully there will be another one next year.

Since the weather's been so nice, Todd and I have been out hiking more.  I love seeing late summer berries!

grey dogwood

pokeweed

winterberry

A heavy trim a few weeks ago has brought fresh flower growth, which the hummingbirds love.  Looks like they'll be sticking around a little while longer!

Cool nights and warm days are also perfect for kitten naps.

Everyone here is loving this weather.

Have a great week!  

an iron fist in a velvet ant

 It's mantis season again!

Despite the fact that we crush the egg sacs of these large invasive insects they still proliferate, especially in the fall, and especially on the front porch.  They feast on the many insects drawn to our porch lights, and I am always a bit fearful, stepping out in the dark of the early morning to feed Claudia.  There might be a bug-eyed, serrated-armed, six-inch behemoth hanging over my head!

I found another scary insect in the garden this week, but I was actually pretty thrilled.  I've been looking for "cow killers" since I heard that they were pretty active in the fall, and I'd never seen one.  A cow killer is a velvet ant, and they get their unsettling moniker from the rumor that their stings are so painful that they can easily kill a cow.  Well, that's unsubstantiated, but they are rated as having the fourth worst insect sting on the planet.

A velvet ant isn't an ant at all, but a type of wasp that resembles an ant.  Males have wings, but females are wingless.  Up close, you can see the fuzz that gives them their name:

I wasn't a bit worried taking these shots, although I did squirm a bit when watching this video about velvet ant stings (jump ahead to 9:55 to get to the sting).  I'll just have to be careful where I put my hands when I'm working there!  This velvet ant female will wander, looking for a ground bee/wasp nest.  She'll lay a single egg, which a bee larva will consume.  Then it will incubate inside its body, parasitizing it.  They're pretty interesting insects!  

Although I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for velvet ants, I'm actually more worried about the goldfinches.  They are decimating my sunflowers!  See this female under the flower head in the middle?  By this time of year, they've totally lost their fear of humans.

I want to split the seeds with them 50/50 (or even 75/25 in their favor), so I tape newspaper over some of the heads until the seeds mature.  Then I can cut them down and harvest for next year.

Happy to see monarch butterfly caterpillars...

...and black eastern swallowtail caterpillars...

...in the garden this week!  This bodes well for lots of butterflies next year.  We still have quite a few fluttering around, although several of them look a bit worse for wear, with torn wings and faded colors.

Our hummingbirds are still here...

...but with overnight temperatures dipping into the 40s (!!!!!) this week, I expect that they'll be heading south soon.  For now, they're absolutely devouring the flower nectar.  

This is "summer's last gasp" for crickets and cicadas.  I've found three types of tree crickets in the past few weeks!

I grew up being more familiar with the brown crickets that you'd find under overturned rocks, but tree crickets are just as common.  You're probably really familiar with their chirp, although you don't necessarily see them!  

Geese are flying overhead...another sign of fall...

...and even Claudia seems more active, actually bringing us a vole this week!  I think it's the first time in months that she's roused herself from the porch.

terrible cell phone pic

And so...many...turkeys.  This is their really active time.

The corn will be ready in a couple of weeks, too!  This ear was partially eaten by crows, but when the husk was peeled back, I saw what the rest will look like.  I'll even turn the dried stalks into decorative bundles for the porch.  

Pumpkins are coming along and I expect to start harvesting them in about three weeks.  

In line with everything else right now, our apples are ripe...really ripe. 

Although we had a fair amount of rain and moderate temperatures this year, we just don't have many apples.  I don't expect to get more than 10 pounds from the entire tree.  We have a lot of blue jays that peck holes, which are rapidly filled with and expanded by yellow jackets.  I cleared all the lower branches of apples this morning, and got a grand total of two pounds.  Just enough for a small apple crisp in an 8" x 8" pan.  We'll take the ladder out this week and get the rest.  Better luck next year!  

Dahlias really come into their own in the fall.  My favorite ones are blooming...

Pick them and more will grow.  I love putting them in late-summer bouquets!  The other colors I selected...orange, white, and purple...are great for fall too.

It's just a really wonderful time of year.  Honestly, mid-September until Christmas is just the best, although the kittens don't like it when we close up the windows for the year.  They spend quite a bit of time in front of our dining room screen door, "taking the air" like Victorian dandies. 

For their benefit...and for fresh air circulation in the house...I still open the windows for about an hour in the morning, no matter what the outside temperature.  The only time I leave the windows closed is when the humidity is near 100%.  The floor actually becomes slick with moisture and it's pretty unpleasant.  Thankfully, I think that season is nearly over.  Welcome, fall!!!

From 2022

Have a great week!

nest, pest, and egg divest

 The flower garden is coming along!

Just as quickly as Todd lays out drip tape, paths, and rows, I drop in seedlings.   

It was so different this year!  No filling the barn with grow lights and heat pads, no soil blocks, no drama.  I have a shelf upstairs with a few grow lights and heat pads.  I seeded in plastic six-packs, and popped the seedlings outside to acclimate once they'd gotten big enough.  Then straight into the garden.  Repeat, repeat.  We're nearly done!  

Claudia is a huge help.

Meanwhile, the other gardens are popping and I'm getting plenty of bouquets.

Nothing fancy...just whatever I feel like in the moment.  A big part of being out in the flower garden is the insects, of course.  I absolutely love hunting for them.  I found two tiny praying mantises this week, both about 1 1/2" long and hiding among the yarrow blooms.

This Tarnished Plant Bug is pretty, but a big garden pest.  They can decimate vegetable crops, so I'm going to have to keep an eye out.

Here's a blast from the past!  I haven't seen woolly aphids since we were in South Carolina.  These little bits of fluff that float through the air like fairies are actually sap suckers, like the Tarnished Plant Bug.  There are many varieties that are tree-specific, but this aphid is probably eyeballing our apple tree.

The tree is already stressed from the drought (we seem to have no rain for weeks, a day of monsoon-level pounding, and then back to no rain for weeks), so I'll definitely have to monitor it and remove any aphids immediately.

Speaking of suckers...ugh.  Ticks.  They are RELENTLESS this year.  I've only pulled off a few attached ones, thanks to multiple daily showers and tick-checks, but I'm constantly pulling them off of clothing when I come in from outdoors.  The worst is the nymphs, or seed ticks.  They're freckle-sized, so almost impossible to see.  But they can attach to you and transfer disease just like full-grown ticks.  Here's one that I found crawling on my leg this week.  I was able to magnify the picture.  You can see that although freckle-sized, it's all tick.  Walk across cut grass?  Ticks.  Walk through the garden?  Ticks.  They are everywhere, which is one of the reasons I'm so pleased with the new fabric-covered garden.  It's ugly, but at least it's safe from ticks.  

At least I've seen some beneficial insects, like this syrphid fly (great pollinator)...

...and this Sarcophaga fly.  It's known as a "flesh fly" - sounds gross, but they're great cleaners in nature.

Our bee balm is drawing bees, and many other great pollinators!

From planting one little milkweed seed a few years ago, we now have about 10 plants that are going to be blooming soon.

If I remember correctly, they smell wonderful!  I love growing fragrant plants, like sweet peas...

...and dill.  I love the smell of dill so much that I planted 5 mature plants in a huge container on our porch steps.  Every time I walk past, the scent of dill is released.  Love!!!

While I love seeing so many things growing this time of year...

...this is also the time of year for nest mishaps.  Yes, we've lost another nest.

This barn swallow nest, which has been in our barn for years, was knocked to the ground and the babies eaten, just like the bluebirds.  Was it Claudia?  She's never bothered it before, but technically she can climb and could possibly reach it.

There are also a lot of stray cats around.  And snakes...and snakes climb.  But could they actually knock down a nest?  I've also seen evidence of raccoons.  They are born climbers and could knock it down easily.  I will never know, but next year we're going to take steps to protect the nests we find by setting up barriers below for intruders.

For now we'll just accept our losses and move forward.  There are a lot more positive things...the garden is looking great, the big project is almost done, the weather has been mild (although dry)...and we've got some great support when we come in from our hard work.

Have a great week!