Fly By Night

Dear Connie,
Did I tell you about how the guy at Peterson Farm chewed me out for picking milkweed leaves to take home for our monarch caterpillar? It wasn't like he worked for the EPA or anything, in fact he was the guy who keeps his sheep up a Peterson Farm. Maybe I should have pointed out that perhaps there'd be more milkweeds if his sheep weren't eating them and/or tromping on them.
And, it's not like I was pulling them up by the roots, I was clipping leaves off a plant that was growing in the parking area. As a matter of fact it was growing right next to another milkweed plant that'd been recently run over for Pete's sake. Good Grief, I think he was a little out of line but now our caterpillar is a nice chrysalis and we're pretty excited about it becoming a butterfly. I was thinking that once it hatched we'd release it back at Peterson Farm but the sheep gestapo would probably come and yell at me for transporting wildlife.

Dear Connie,
The monarch butterfly hatched this morning! How cool is that? I'm stressed out about it though because Ken took the kids to Connecticut last night. They're suppose to be back by dinnertime and I don't know what to do with the butterfly in the meantime. Should I let it go? I probably shouldn't until the kids get to see it. I'm afraid it's going to die! All it has to eat in the terrarium is some really old, ill-gotten, milkweed leaves. What if it's starving? I mean it's been in a chrysalis for almost three weeks! What should I do? I put some sugar water in the terrarium but isn't that for hummingbirds? I can't drive to Peterson Farm and scam more milkweeds because I'm waiting for the guy from the oil company to come clean our oil burner. He was suppose to be here between noon and 2 and I just called to find out where he was. I was trying to be assertive. I should have shouted: "Look! You've got to hurry up! My butterfly's life may depend on it!"

Dear Connie,
The butterfly is sitting on the paper towel soaked in sugar water. I feel better about it since you agreed that the sugar water was a good idea. The kids have seen it and it's a preschool morning so I suppose I should take the butterfly out and put it in our garden and just say that it flew away. That way, if it happens to keel over and die no one will be traumatized except me.

Dear Connie,
You were right! It was just sitting there drying off and resting! After lunch the butterfly became really animated and started flying around in the terrarium. We opened the lid and it just took off! Straight up over the trees and as Ken said "on its way to Mexico!"

song: Fly By Night • artist: Rush