saddle up!

 More beautiful caterpillars!  I'm in love!

stinging rose caterpillar

saddleback caterpillar

Both of these guys are "no touch 'ems."  These little spines are full of venom that will break off in your skin if you make contact...especially the saddleback caterpillar.  The pain has been described as "electrical" and can last for hours.  Rash, headache, and nausea are common side effects, and some people going into anaphylactic shock and/or hemorrhage. To be safe...just leave them alone!  

I also found this Orgyia definita...

...more brown-hooded owlet caterpillars...

And look at this guy!  It's the caterpillar for the spicebush swallowtail butterfly.  It's an incredibly common butterfly but I've never seen the caterpillar before!

I love caterpillar hunting in the fall.  

Some other fall insects...I'm afraid my pumpkin crop has been pretty much ruined by squash bugs.

Todd cleaned them off and I've been able to salvage a few for the porch!

The mantises are out and about.  I was cutting down the perennial garden and noticed a pile of butterfly wings, all different sorts.

It could be the work of birds, who tend to have favorite perches...but this gal is the likely culprit.

This time of year they're big, hungry, and likely pregnant.

It's extraordinarily difficult to cut down plant stalks that loom 4' above my head, knowing that a ginormous mantis might be clinging to one, but so far I've been lucky.

Cicadas are still singing...

a lucky catch!  Linne's cicada

...and the deer are out in force, eating as much as they can before winter.  This buck has been hanging around our barnyard.

When I got a little closer to him, I could see why.  Do you see how swollen his left hoof/ankle is?  It's hoof rot...again.  It's not very common, but the bacteria is definitely around here somewhere.  This is the second deer affected - that we've seen - this year. 

We haven't had too many changing leaves yet, but definitely some interesting discoloration.  A sign of the advancing season?

There's SOME color, of course!

Inside, the cats are soaking up every bit of late-summer sun...

And our formerly sweet, quiet Pepita, who is approaching sexual maturity and is coursing through with hormones, has become quite a rambunctious little girl!

No, she doesn't want to take naps.  No, she doesn't want to play with the same old toys two days in a row.  No, she doesn't want to be in her playpen.  No, she doesn't want to respect the cats' space...most of the time.

At least this is a temporary phase...and we can finally say that she's pretty much potty trained!  She's only had a handful of accidents in the three months we've had her, and she's learned to give me "the stare" when she's ready to go out.

She stares, I query, and then she gives an excited shake.  There, we have communicated!  

Just a few more months until she settles down.  :)  Until then, she's running off that energy!

Have a great week!  

berries and hairies

Caterpillar thriller continues!  More beautiful caterpillars this week.

brown hooded owlet caterpillar

banded tussock moth caterpillar

leopard moth caterpillar

silver-spotted skipper moth caterpillar

And I know I had some of these last week, but I think these eastern tent caterpillars in this lacy redbud leaf are so beautiful!

I'm loving, loving, loving late August in Indiana this year.  Temps have been in the 70s every day and the lower 50s overnight (we'll be down in the 40s by Wednesday!).  I'm back in my long-sleeve t-shirts (I'm ALWAYS cold at upper 70s and below) and very happy about it.  Seeing so many signs of fall now.

Ripe tomatoes!  Roasting lots to make my favorite tomato sauce for winter pizza and pasta.  After years of searching, I finally found a cauliflower pizza crust recipe that I like and I'm making it constantly...and need lots of sauce!  

Quilts...with cats on top.

Fall berries!  I love seeing the berries turn as the weather cools.

dogwood

spicebush

black gum

Japanese barberry

jack-in-the-pulpit

Tons of spiderwebs this time of year...

...and some really beautiful spiders (just two if you're spider-averse!).

spiny-backed orb weaver

red-femured spotted orb weaver

Our hydrangeas are taking on their pink edges...

...and some leaves are really starting to show some bold color!

Lots of fall flowers in the fields...

downy yellow false foxglove

common thistle

goldenrod

boneset

ironweed

I still have lots of late season flowers to pick from the garden, too!  I found this pretty blue ceramic pitcher at a church rummage sale for a quarter and it's just perfect.

Pepita is learning new things all the time...like how to climb on the couch to keep an eye on Daddy!

She looks so innocent...

...but she is entering her teen phase.  Not listening as well, a lot more energy and vocalizing, testing boundaries.  Teen time is considered a real regression and she will probably be more of a handful for the next few months!  

Good thing she's so cute.

Have a great week!

caterpillar thriller

The weather is delightful this week and I've been outside quite a bit.  Lots of activity that I would've missed if we would have had "normal" (miserably hot) late August weather!

Check out this pine tree spur-throated grasshopper.

Isn't he a beauty?

More butternut woolly sawfly caterpillars!  I love them so much. 

 This tussock moth caterpillar was suspended from a branch and just spinning in the air.

Eastern tent caterpillars were busy in this tree, protected by webbing.

Look at this beautiful guy!  It's a redbud leaffolder caterpillar, and those lines of webbing are protection against predators.

I've seen A LOT of caterpillar frass (feces) around.  It's everywhere, if you know what to look for!

We're getting a late harvest for our tomatoes this year...

...and it might have something to do with this guy.

It's a tomato hornworm caterpillar...

...and they are major munchers.

tomato hornworm damage

I found several which were parasitized.

A small wasp lays eggs within the caterpillar.  The larvae hatch, chew an entrance hole, and spin those little cocoons that you see.  These caterpillars are already dead...they just don't know it yet.  They'll die around the time that the new wasps emerge from the cocoons and seek new victims.  I left these parasitized caterpillars alone.  More wasps = fewer tomato-killing hornworms! 

My pumpkins, however, are a wash.  I thought they'd be relatively safe from squash bug, because I planted this group in a totally different location from last year.  I noticed a lot of the vines dying, but I figured it was from lack of water (I'm a "sink or swim"- type gardener lately).  

Nope.

They are everywhere.  I guess I'll be visiting a pumpkin patch this year!  

Pepita has started puppy school!  She is, by far, the tiniest pup there.  Other classmates include a 150 lb mastiff and a great dane mix!  She is learning there, but learning a lot at home too.  

She has learned to climb up on the couch cushions to peer over the half wall between the kitchen and the living room.   Important investigative skills!  

She's learned to dig holes.

"Digging?  What digging?"

Despite having the world's stubbiest legs, she's a good runner.

Meanwhile, our anti-runner has learned that he has to go to extreme measures to distract us from Pepita.  He spends a good deal of time in the kitchen, on his back, begging for belly rubs.

He's becoming a champion napper, too.

If you haven't seen Barnabas as much, well, he's staying out of the way a little bit more now.  Still getting used to Pepita.  And Claudia is nearly back to normal, although when we tried to put her outside today for a little while, she begged to go back into the barn.  I'm going to keep putting her out for a few hours a day, though.  It's perfect weather for lazing!

Have a great week!