Friday, May 09, 2008

Hunting for Milkweed

So what do our resident critters like to nosh on?

Milkweed. And lots of it!! Chrys had donated quite a bit of the green, leafy plant, but we were running on short supply with two very hungry caterpillars constantly munching away. The Boys and I set off on a milkweed hunt this morning, armed with scissors, a bottle of water, a vague idea of what we were looking for and a lot of determination.

O's on an "aventur" to find his caterpillars some milkweed.

Nosy is never far behind.


To identify milkweed, a complicated test must be run. If, when a leaf is torn in half, beads of "milk" develop, it is milkweed! We tested many possible specimens before finally...

...stumbling upon some! Hooray!

Noah was pretty excited about our discovery...

...especially since he got the honored task of carrying the milkweed bottle. He took his job very seriously.

The absolute sweetest thing that happened today: Owen assisted Noah over the rough terrain on more than one occasion. He would take Nosy's chubby little hand and hold it, patiently helping him over rocks and up hills. What loving Brothers.

After we had gathered sufficient milkweed, we headed to the park to play in the sunshine for awhile.

Typical Nosy. He is always ready for a lunch break!

This much bigger boy befriended Owie. They had a great time playing.

The hot and sweaty ride home.

Once we were home, it was time to transplant Duckie and Chuckie off of the old, stinky, dried up milkweed on to their freshly picked new plants.

Here they are, happy as can be in their new home. Duckie survived quite a bad fall onto the tile floor during the transfer, but thankfully he seems no worse for the wear and is currently biting huge holes in the new leaves. Thank goodness they are resilient!

2 comments:

Erica said...

I love the hats!!

Unknown said...

Cute pics of the boys on their adventure.

I can't wait to find out the location of the milkweed supply field! We'll be needing some shortly, too!

:)

Chrys