Around the Farm

Work in the garden continues. We discovered a nursery down the road that was closing for the season in a week so everything was half off. Jenna ripped out our dead plants and put in peppers, beans, pumpkin... um, I don't remember what else. We got a Hydrangea too. I shoveled out a trailer-load of mulch around our bushes and perennials.


The most exciting thing about this week: Caterpillar House! One of our trees is infested with Eastern Tent Caterpillars. I thought I had burned all the nests earlier in the season but a few more popped up. Rather than exterminate them all I put some dirt in a 20-gallon aquarium, cut the inhabited branches, and stuck them right in there.


So now we've got about half a dozen pets plus one Forest Tent Caterpillar we found at my in-laws' house. That one got an oak branch to munch on. Natalie was moderately interested by the gathering and she likes to check on them every day. I hope we'll get to watch them spin cocoons and turn into moths (or as Natalie says, "a beautiful butterfly")!