A Glimpse into my World of Monarch Butterflies!

Hello Friends! 

Thought I would let you know what I have been up to this summer! 

Every summer I raise Monarch Butterflies! I've been raising these amazing creatures for about 5 years now. 

It all starts with growing milkweed plants to attract them. I watch for Monarchs to lay their eggs on the plants. Then I pluck the leaf off and bring inside to raise. Most eggs don't make it because of other insects eating the egg or the tiny newborn caterpillars.

 Once they emerge from the egg, you have to continually feed them more milkweed leaves. The whole process from egg to butterfly is around 25 days.

So far this year I have raised and released 23 Butterflies!!

A first for me this year is tagging the butterflies before releasing them. During the summer the butterflies go through 4 generations. Right now is the 4th and last generation  will travel to Mexico for the winter. 

I write down the tag code number, sex of butterfly, date of the release, city and state. When I have completed my tagging I send off my info to Monarchwatch.org.  Sometime during the Winter the people of mexico search through the mass amounts of butterflies to find the ones with tags. They record the information for research.

Monarch numbers have been dwindling for the past 10 years due to the milkweed plant being sprayed with weedkiller and other environmental issues.

So please if you can, grow milkweed or start a butterfly garden!! Save the Monarchs!

In other news....I've taken a little break from sewing and have been creating with polymer clay!

I've been making vintage style Necklaces! Please check them out in my Etsy shop, Rock River Stitches

These were so much fun to make! Brought back very fond memories when I was a kid and my mother had a ceramic class she taught in our home. I would spend hours creating with clay and then my mom would fire them in her kiln.

So this is all the exciting news for now....until then...have a great week my friends!