Well this post has very little to do with handymanning but I am just so excited I have to tell somebody.
Several years ago I read or heard that monarch butterflies were having a tough time of it . . . loss of habitat, insecticides, disease . . . so I decided I would try to do something about it.
I have a phrase I try to share with folks when it comes to making changes, which is, “take an inventory of your power.” After all, your power is all you have to work with, so, look around and see what you got.
So I decided, I don’t have power to pass any legislation but I CAN plant some milkweed for them to eat as they fly by on way to Mexico.
A little embarrassing, this is how ignorant I was: I actually thought adult monarchs would just stop in as they flew by and drink some milkweed flower nectar. And on that impression alone, I got some pots and some dirt and a shipment from cheapmilkweedseeds.com and gave it a go.
I was late planting but six plants came up. They were little stumps, and of course no monarchs even looked at them.
I did virtually nothing for a year but lo and behold, the milkweed stumps actually grew into milkweed plants. They flowered, but . . . nothing else. At end of season the flowers turned into seed pods and flew all over. Again, forgot all about it.
But what I did not realize was. all those seeds had landed in all my other pots, and this year, I had milkweed all over. They grew to good size, and then . . . and then . . . holes appeared in the leaves. A momma monarch had found my plants worthy. I soon had 3 little monarch caterpillars. Oh Joy oh rapture.
So for the past 10 days I have been observing these little guys eating and growing. Utterly fascinating.
I have to tell you, this guy was a cross between Tarzan and Nadia Comaneci.
This morning they all crawled off into the wild green yonder to pupate. So Mother Nature started with a momma and a daddy, that’s two, and I sent back three. Such a deal. I made a difference. I had the power.
