Blog

Oh grave, where is thy victory?

This site contains affiliate links that benefit my family if you purchase through them. Read my full disclosure here.This site contains affiliate links that benefit my family if you purchase through them. Read my full disclosure here.What if God put butterflies on this world because we’re slow to comprehend the new life awaiting His children in heaven? Maybe they are…
Read More

in Life Unplugged· Nature Calendars

Queen Anne’s Lace Prints Journal Pages

After we raised Swallowtail butterflies, we decided to make journal pages showing the swallowtail’s life cycle. I had seen the idea of using pressed Queen Anne’s Lace to make prints and thought it would make a lovely base for a journal page. Before we go on, here’s a photo of our beautiful Black Swallowtail that we raised. First, we gathered…
Read More

in Life Unplugged

Raising Swallowtail Butterflies

Raising swallowtail butterflies is such an amazing experience. Swallowtail butterflies are usually hesitant to remain in one place when I’m around, so raising the caterpillars is one way to get an up-close look. We found our swallowtail caterpillars on our dill and Queen Anne’s Lace around our home. We kept them in jars covered with paper napkins that we had…
Read More

in Life Unplugged

What is Causing That Blue-Green Stained Wood?

One thing I love about nature walks is that you can head out looking for one thing (in this case May Apples) and stumble across something completely different. I was puzzled recently when we came across a fallen log that was stained an attention grabbing blue-green. Don’t you love the contrast between the yellow lichen and the bluish wood? As…
Read More

in Life Unplugged· Nature Calendars

Solstice or Equinox Activity

For an educational activity for the spring equinox, I’m going to show you how you can track the sun’s position throughout the day. I’m indebted to John Muir Laws’ for this sun and shadows equinox activity. He has a very informative article and video about this, but I thought I’d try to break it down a bit simpler. The activity…
Read More

in Life Unplugged

Calendar of Firsts

Keeping a Calendar of Firsts is a wonderful way to begin or expand your nature study. It’s also a great way to dive into phenology. Phenology is the study of the cyclic events in nature and how they effect each other. Viceroy caterpillars emerge a few weeks after the willows leaf out. Birds time their nesting to when there are…
Read More