This year’s crop of praying mantises steps out into the real world.

The weather’s wetter, which means…

the froggies are back, which means…

the snakeys are back.

Junior and I have gone from being fascinated by snakes to being kind of creeped out by them (after our snake ball sighting last weekend).

Oh, and we had another mantis sighting today, but we didn’t get any good pix. Here’s one from a couple weeks back.

A game we play in Ory-gun.

How to play: on your walk to school, count all the slugs you see, and also all the (non-human, non-slug) animals you see (bugs, birds, dogs, worms, etc.). Five sightings wins for that category. Or, if one gets to five, you can keep counting the other until you hit the school yard gate (that’s how it always used to be, until yesterday). Or you can change the rules as you go. Actually, I think it’s an unwritten rule that the rules will change at the whim of your third grader, and depending on whether we’re rooting for slugs or animals, and depending on how many of each are out on a given day.

Today, Jr. said the first one to five wins, period. Then, when animals got to five (two flies, a beetle and two dogs vs. four slugs), we decided we’d give the slugs one last chance. We were so engrossed in the contest, we didn’t realize the first bell had rung, and the playground was empty and quiet when we got there. Still, no more slugs.

Animals win again.

Bought egg sacs at the Beaverton Farmers market in April, hatched ’em, and some stuck around. Awesome.

Cicadas:

Monarch caterpillars:

Garden report:

• weeded and thinned: beets, carrots
• harvested: the rest of the spinach, strawberries
• direct-seeded: pole beans, winter squash, zucchini
• transplanted: tomatoes, cuke, jalepeño
• pruned: Rose of Sharon
• confirmed: ladybugs released by junior yesterday are hanging out in the potatoes
• anticipating soon: raspberries, blueberries, new potatoes

After a delightful trip exploring the amphibious and bug life in Iowa, from the Devonian to the present, we came home to discover a big bug in our own back yard.

And I was just saying we don’t have nearly the richness of bug life in Oregon.

Pretty, pretty big. Beetle-like wing covers, fuzzy as a tarantula, with horns and bat wings.

A bunch of its body is missing, eaten by ants?

What the?!?? ID anybody?