O.k. I am finally updating! Seems like forever since I blogged, but maybe it hasn’t been that long.
            Hey has anybody ever raised Monarch butterflies?? We do, last year we raised around 180 butterflies, but mom said we are NOT going to raise that many this year, at least not at one time like last year. So far we have raised about 5 butterflies and we have 7 little caterpillars and one egg. If any of you don’t know what I mean about raising Monarch butterflies, we find the eggs and caterpillars on milkweed, which grows by a lot of roads and in fields, just about anywhere. Then we have an aquarium where we put the milkweed in jars of water, usually we have to change the milkweed about every day or two, then when the caterpillars get about the size of your pinky finger (usually about 2 weeks from the time they hatch.) they start to look for a place to go into pupa stage. They usually got up to the highest place they can, normally they go to the top of our aquarium. Then they will spin a little silk, stick the end of there body in this silk and they hang there for about 24 hours and then shed their skin and after they shed their skin they are a green thing and after a bit the green part will harden and stay there for about 2 weeks. When it is time for it to come out it will turn clear, you can see the butterfly inside, they’ll come out and just hang there for a little while and dry off, then we get them to climb on our finger and take them to a plant out side and put them on a flower with juices or whatever they eat.

            It is really fun to carry them around on your finger! Since you raise them from just little they are used to you and aren’t afraid of you. Last year we let anywhere from 5-12 butterflies go everyday!! That was fun to see how many were going to come out of there pupa ea day.
            Well we didn’t have a very exciting 4^th of July, it rained quite a bit on Tues. morning and then some more that eve. We were going to have a church picnic that afternoon, but it was too wet so they said it was postponed until 5:00 but then it rained some more and it was canceled. So we just lazed around the house all day playing games and reading. That was o.k. but I was looking forward to the picnic. We went on a bike ride then later in the eve with our dad, I like bike riding, except going up a couple of steep hills that we had to go up.
            O.k. I think I am going to do a book report on the last book that I read.

It was by Carol Cox, and it was one of those books that have four stories, usually the people in the stories are related. I like to read those when I don’t have the next in a series I am reading or just don’t know what to read next!
            The first was about a girl, Judith, that was going to New Mexico by wagon to live with her Uncle and the people that she was going with dumped her along the way. Then she decided to dress as a boy for safety, some guys find her and take her with them to the ranch they were herding cattle to. (Along the way they find out she is a girl.) The ranch owner’s wife was very ill and Judith ends up taking care of their two children until their mother finally goes to the east to get treated, by that time one of the herders and her fall in love. (He was one of the ones that found her on the trail; also the owner’s brother.)
That one was good; the second was about the girl that Judith took care of before she married Jeff. Lizzie was more of a tomboy and ends up falling for this guy that helped them catch a runaway horse and started working for them. And there is another ranch hand that has liked her for a long time and now he can get his own ranch and was sorta waiting for her to notice him so that he could marry her. Lizzie finds out that this other guy, Tom, was leading her on and didn’t like her, so she gets really depressed and then after a while she sorta likes Adam, the guy that wants to marry her. And one time she overheard him praying that she would notice him and like telling God that he thought he was supposed to marry her and that he loved her. That opened her eyes, and then I think it was that day that she got stuck in the barn because it was raining really badly and then he came back from praying and they were together there and he proposed and she accepted!!

            The third was about a girl, Rachael, her dad died and her and her sister are taking care of the farm all by themselves and then they find out they have a really big debt to pay the bank and might not be able to pay it off by the time they have to. Then this guy that worked with their dad shows up and wanted to help them on the farm, but knew that Rachael wouldn’t take charity so he said he would help them to repay what he thought he owed their dad for helping him one time or something. So he helps them pay off their debt and he and stubborn Rachael fall in love and get married.

            And the fourth is about Rachael’s younger sister, Violet. It actually starts out with Willie Bradley, Lizzie’s brother, he has to baby-sit three orphaned children who his mother’s cousin (he is a lawyer) brought with him to take them to their legal guardian and decided to visit his cousin first. Anyway, then the lawyer brakes his leg and Willie has to take them to their guardian. (Which he was not happy about.) before they get there the three kids run off with wagon and go to Violet’s place and say that Willie was mean to them and stuff! He ends up staying at Violet’s place which is the town where this guy lives. He isn’t there and Violet and Willie fall in love and the three kids end up being adopted by the sheriff.

            Well hope that wasn’t too boring for you, but I just sorta felt like sharing a bit about that book. The title is Sagebrush Brides. Well better go, tonight we have a surprise b-day to go to and I have plenty to do before then.

                                                       - # - Amber - # -