The weird eyed bug

This is an eyed click beetle we found last week in our yard on a tree we'd had to cut down. We sat and watched it for a while. The eyes you see are actually false eyes. They are used to scare off predators. It seemed pretty shy about being watched because it kept trying to find places to hide and finally disappeared into a crack in the tree trunk.

Carrots

This is me pulling one of the carrots from our garden. Sadly they are at the end of their season because it's too hot for them now. I love homegrown carrots. They taste so much better than store bought ones. We can sow seeds again this fall. I'm looking forward to that!

Endangered Species Day!!!

Today is Endangered Species Day! I'm joining with the National Wildlife Federation to bring awareness to endangered species. My pick is the Florida Panther! There are 100 or fewer left in the wild. Pretty sad, isn't it? It seems they are going to go extinct and we will lose this beautiful cat forever. I don't know about you, but that makes me mad!!!

Because there are so few in the wild they sometimes inbreed. This has caused genetic problems and many health problems for the species. Another problem Florida Panthers face is habitat destruction. The state of Florida has a growing population so they have less and less area in which to live. This is causing them to move more and more into human populated areas and then these fantastic cats are often hit by cars.

I want everyone to join me in spreading the word about endangered species. A list for each state can be found by clicking here.

Friday Show n Tell - October 31

Visit Mrs. Mary for Friday Show n Tell!

Last month I was studying Monet. I did this project to make my own impressionist painting.

First cut out a landscape picture from a magazine.

Next use a q-tip dipped in acrylic paint to dab and make quick strokes over the picture. Don't mix the colors.

Keep doing that until you have the whole picture covered.

Here is my finished painting.

Friday Show n Tell - October 24th

Visit Mrs. Mary for Friday Show n Tell!!

I got to go on a field trip the other day. It was at an airport and there were all kinds of airplanes you could see and go in. I liked checking out all the controls.

I got buckled in the bucket seat of an Army helicopter.

I met a pilot from Missionary Flights International and got to go in a DC-3 they use. The DC-3 is pointed up at a sharp angle so it was hard to walk in. I almost slipped and fell. They take missionaries and supplies to Haiti and the Dominican Republic. They also receive mail for the missionaries and take it to them.

I also met some Tuskegee Airmen. You can read more about them on this website and on this website. The man on the left was a mechanic during World War II and flew in the Korean War and Vietnam War. The man on the right was an instructor for the Tuskegee Airmen. They talked to me for a long time.

Friday Show n Tell - October 3

Visit Raising 4 Godly Men for Show n Tell Friday.

I went on my first field trip of the school year last weekend. We got to go to Kennedy Space Center. I have been before but we got to see some things this time that we didn't have time for before. It's a big place!

My brother really liked the Robot Scouts show. He loves robots. I had been before and I thought he would like it. It helps you to learn what role robots play in exploring space.

This is a cool spinning ball with water. It has constellations on it.

These next two pictures are the vehicle assembly building. The second one shows the doors open and that was a special sight. We were there at just the right time.

Here is a space shuttle main engine. It is huge!

Next is a crawler. It is what transports the space shuttles to their launch pads. If I remember right they burn 40 gallons of fuel per minute and it takes about 7 hours to get a shuttle to the launch pad.

We also went to the Astronaut Hall of Fame. There you can see the actual Apollo 14 Command Module that went into space!

This is yo-yo that got taken into space. I thought this was pretty funny.

Here is some space food that the astronauts eat. At the bottom left is scrambled eggs. I thought they looked gross. Right below the tray in the middle is some M&M's. I think that would be the only thing I would eat!

Friday Show n Tell - September 19th

You can join Friday Show n Tell by visiting Canadagirl (Miss Mary).

These are black swallowtail caterpillars. We found them back in the middle of August in our parsley. I decided to let these two go. The three I kept that you saw on my Friday Show n Tell from last week were found on Sunday, August 31st. .......



This was the first black swallowtail butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis. We were still asleep when it emerged. I named it Max. A male has lots of yellow and less blue on it. .......


This was the second black swallowtail butterfly to emerge. We missed seeing this one too! I let my mom name it. She named it Jasmine. You can tell it is a female because it has lots of blue and little yellow. We used a book we have called Butterflies of Florida to help us know what a male looks like and what a female looks like. She was friendlier than Max. She let us hold her. She didn't want to fly away when we tried to release her. She tickled my fingers and arms. We placed her in our garden and the next day she was gone. .......


At the time I'm writing this post there is still one more in its chrysalis.

I hope you enjoyed this. Thank you to everyone who visited my Show n Tell last week and today!

Friday Show n Tell - September 12th

Visit Canadagirl (Mary) if you would like to join Friday Show n Tell or find links to the participants.

Hello! This is my new blog. Thank you for visiting me!

We found 3 black swallowtail caterpillars in the parsley when working in our garden the other weekend. I decided to keep them so I could see them make their chrysalis and turn into butterflies.

This is when the caterpillar gets into position to form its chrysalis.

And here is the chrysalis. It's green at first and then changes to brown. All three have now formed their chrysalis and we are counting down the days until the butterflies emerge.