backyard science

I'm sure you all remember our pet garden spider. Well, right before our beach trip we noticed that the male spider had arrived. He spent several days on the opposite side of the web from her. Notice how much smaller he is. Then he disappeared. We assume he was eaten even though we didn't actually see this happen we have read that it does.

That same night that we noticed he was gone we saw the mom begin to make her egg sack. Daniel and I watched for a little while since the girls were already asleep. As she made the sack it looked like she was sitting on top of a cotton ball. It was amazing. The next morning she was gone and this is what we found by the deck.






Right underneath the web is a big bush that is the home to a green lizard. We would always see it but could never catch it. Daniel finally caught one last night in the front yard and had him waiting for us when we got home from the park yesterday. Both of the girls got a chance to hold him and pet him before we let him go. See if you can find him on Ellen's shirt in the last picture.

Isn't it amazing what you can find and learn about by just spending some time outside. I don't know about you but I think it's much better than the discover channel:)





























Here's recent pictures from the garden. I bought baby buttercrunch lettuce plants from Home Depot and we planted them several weeks ago. We've been having some great fresh salads! These sweet potatoes were planted in the beginning of the summer and did really well over the dry hot summer. We still have a lot more of those to pull up! I made a yummy sweet potato parsnip soup with them. We planted lots more seeds (spinach, kale, chard, lettuce) and but they are still small.