by Anura Guruge
on July 6, 2022
Cracked me up when I saw it. We are ‘friends’. So, we chatted. No room inside the air-conditioned cab. That is crazy. This is a 2017 model. ‘We’, i.e., the town, got it in the last couple of years. The crew LOVE IT but this is poor design. It isn’t if they are short of space.
They really should have a decent size cooler built into the cab! They know that the crew have to put in long days — HOT in the Summer.
Come on, CAT. You can do better.
by Anura Guruge
on August 21, 2022
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Sequence with NEW caterpillar.
Sequence with prior caterpillar.
As with the previous one, I had NO hand in this. So, I am not accepting any blame or credit. I don’t know whether hatching them, indoors, in a plastic bottle is good or bad. Yes, I should look it up. OK. I just looked it up. Kind of what I expected. It is, however, not a TOTALL ‘NO-NO’. Of that I am glad. Plus, the plastic bottle was well cleaned out before the new caterpillar was put in. So, they got that part spot on. [Plus, as you can see from two pictures above, the caterpillar has produced plenty of waste. So, he/she must have fed well on the leaves that were provided.]
The last caterpillar was rescued at the start of the month. So, I am kind of surprised that there is a 3-week ‘window’ (so to speak) — i.e., all the eggs obviously do not hatch at the same time. I guess that this is a good thing. Spread the hatchings out. That would explain why the caterpillars are staggered. Nature is amazing. Well, I will keep you posted. It is already getting ready to chrysalize. You can see that it has started to hang upside down (so to speak). I will keep you posted.
by Anura Guruge
on August 16, 2022
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NOT my doing & I am NOT taking any credit for this. All I am doing his documenting it.
‘They’ (& we will NOT mention any names) found the caterpillar while I was away on the ‘Bold Coast‘ at the start of August. When I came home the caterpillar had already become a chrysalis. Hence why I have no pictures of the caterpillar — but start with the pupa.
In 2019 we did rescue an injured monarch & nursed him for 10 days. We had used the same BIG plastic bottle.
This morning I noticed that the butterfly had emerged. It could NOT have been out for long.
Per the norm of the day, ‘Google’ provided guidance as what to do next. Again, I was not involved.
We do have a fully enclosed, covered deck brimming with plants. It makes a perfect, temporary, very safe, V. LARGE butterfly sanctuary. The butterfly was put in there. It is supposed to rest for 24 hours. So they brought in the recently hand-painted, hanging butterfly house from outside & put in inside the deck — with a collection of fresh flowers. They also cut some fresh fruit for it. We do look after our critters (or at least do our best). You can see these efforts in the last set of photos.
In a few days we will let it OUT. Set it FREE. That was always the goal.