Butterfly Dreams Part Two... Caterpillars!

A Monarch Butterfly graciously danced through my gardens.

 Read more about that sweet experience here.

Wouldn't you think that our next discovery might be butterfly eggs?

Nada.

We've checked the leaves everyday for weeks for this part of my dream to come true. But it hasn't... perhaps that's a dream for another time.   

But in the meanwhile, with a little help from my kids...

We have caterpillars!

Little did I know that my daughter and her sweet husband have been searching the fields to find monarch caterpillars for me. One day they surprised me with a little box that they were quite anxious for me to open.

And what do you think was inside?

 Tiny little caterpillars 

as hungry as can be!

They were barely a quarter inch long and were skinnier than the thinnest spaghetti noodle. 

  

Every day they got bigger

and bigger.

They chomped away all day on the milkweed leaves that my kids gathered from the horse pasture a long walk from our gardens.

Sometimes I would cut a branch or two for them

from the milkweeds 

Mother Nature had planted in my garden. 

(But not too many, because I'm still wishing for eggs to be laid.)

 Oh my, they are hungry little creatures!

They grow so fast that they don't fit into their skin any more.

So they wiggle out of their old skin into a fresh new one!

(Notice the old discarded frock.)

They shed their skin 4 times as a caterpillar.

And each time they grow bigger.

 They seem to enjoy crawling through the stems and leaves.

 And we've enjoyed watching them.  

 One night we noticed the biggest caterpillar had stopped eating.

It was time for a change.

 Upside down in a J-position means it will soon turn into a Chrysalis.

This caterpillar has chosen a very dangerous spot to become a Chrysalis.

It's not the place we hoped he would choose.

There are five more very hungry caterpillars who just may eat the leaf he is hanging from.

There must be something we can do 

so he can safely become a Chrysalis.

See how we come to the rescue 

then watch the transformation into a Chrysalis take place on the next post.

Oh we're having such fun!  

Thanks for joining us!