Thank you all for your empathy on my Monday post. I was really sad, down in the dumps, bummed, annoyed, etc…
Lu in TN commented (Thanks Lu!) about having a similar experience and reaching out to butterfly enthusiast groups for advice. Well, wouldn’t you know that I belong to a few different butterfly groups on The Face Book. I posted in my swallowtail group about my dilemma and lots of people had ideas; I love people with ideas.
Many of them were for nurseries too far from me, (I have my limits) but one mentioned a nursery that was only 1 & 1/2 hours. I had tasks that I had to accomplish yesterday, so a 3 hour round trip trek was pushing it, but I looked it up and it was only 25 minutes from my Lolo.
I started thinking….doesn’t that kid owe me something for the undying love I’ve been shelling out for almost 27 years? Didn’t I just purchase a wedding dress for her last week? *giggle giggle*
I texted her to see if she was up for a rescue mission and of course she was on board, I mean love and wedding dress, right?
I called the nursery and they had 6 pipevines, plus all sorts of good monarch butterfly plants that I needed. One, I had always coveted, but never found locally; the elusive Giant Swan Milkweed. AKA: Hairy Balls
She face-timed me when she was there and all the plants looked great. But, they didn’t look so BIG while we were on the phone. I ordered the 6 pipevines, 2 giant milkweed plants and 2 hairy balls. 🙂
She said, are you sure? They’re big. Me: YES!
SO, we met up a while later half way from my house and half way from her house in a Cracker Barrel parking lot. BTW, are we changing the name of that place anytime soon?
It felt like the best drug deal going down in a parking lot that I’ve ever been a part of. “You got my weed?”
Ya’ll, I didn’t have one inch of space left in my fake SUV. (I think of an SUV as a Suburban, Yukon, etc….) It fit tightly in Lolo’s Yukon, but it was a crunch in my fake SUV.
I immediately carried one of the pipevines to the grave yard ,scene of the crime area where I still had some starving caterpillars. I then went on a mission and found about 12 more caterpillars wandering. This morning I found two more survivors and put them on the vine.
BTW: last night I dreamt that the vine was eaten entirely overnight.
So, I saved around 15 or so caterpillars out of the 100’s.
Will I even put these vines in the ground? maybe not. I have PTSD. I’m just gonna see how it goes and if the ones the ground can fight their way back before being devoured again.
So, I feel a bit of relief today. For now. *giggle* I exhaust myself….
How is your humpday?
