this creepy-looking creature is the larval stage of a cecropia moth, the largest moth in north america. another mass audubon sanctuary gave him to us when he was only an egg. he hatched two weeks ago and grows bigger every day. before this caterpillar spins a cocoon, he will have grown to a length of over 5 inches. i think i will be too freaked out by his size and his sharp black pointy things to take his picture then.
someone donated this little guy to oak knoll for us to sell at the garage sale, but i kept him for myself (despite the fact that he probably could have netted us a good 25 cents at the sale). now, he sits next to my monitor and provides companionship, as well as helpful advice and commentary.
"no sarah, that's a WHITE ash."
"i think you should use fingerpaints."
"watch out for that falling ceiling plaster."
"of course it'll stop raining someday."
"do you really think they are paying you to blog?"
and he does all this in a voice that is sharpish and bossy.
the pantry moths have taken over the back hallway to the point where we are now afraid to open the door. they have been breeding in the bag of chicken feed - probably going at it for months down in the garage- and now they are everywhere. i bought a trap to catch some- it uses a pheromone to attract them and then sticky stuff to ensnare them. so far, despite a pantry moth haul numbering in the thousands, we seem to have fallen far short of our goal of actually decreasing their population.
i know matt already put an egg picture on his blog and really, how many egg pictures is a person supposed to find interesting, but i am so excited to have fresh eggs again and i feel like eggs are the most photogenic animal by-product, so i decided to include an egg photo on my blog as well.
i had a delicious breakfast burrito this morning. mmmmmm.
we're having a barn sale at oak knoll on saturday. matt and i have been hard at work scavenging goods from the dover dump and i also cleaned out part of the shed at oak knoll. i discovered that we currently own more than 250 feet of garden hose, most of which has likely been full of water since 1997. seems like that might be a hot item.
i found this attached to my leg today. i know it's a bit blurry, but the point is the size. tiny. really, really tiny.
we drag the chicken coop to fresh grass every day. it is pretty hard to do, especially in places where we have really let the field grow. usually matt pushes while i pull. now that he will be at radiation during prime coop-moving time, we needed a system that would allow me to move the coop by myself. matt is still on orders not to lift anything heavier than a phonebook, lest he herniate himself, so he is absolved from any solo coop-dragging responsibilities. i thought maybe we could put wheels on the thing, but matt came up with even better idea of skis. he found a nice pair at the dump and i attached them to the coop this morning. it slides like butter.
although they are not quite ready for picking, i was excited to see tomatoes on the plants today. i also noticed a pretty hearty crop of aphids, which we had problems with last year as well. i think i will use some insecticidal soap to get rid of them. it makes me long for all those ladybugs that died by the thousands in our house over the winter. if only i had thought to stick them in the freezer so that they could be thawed out when the demand for their services was high. an adult ladybug can eat up to 5000 aphids in its lifetime. oh ladybug, why did you have to turn into a crispy husk on my windowsill? why?
matt went in for his first radiation treatment this morning. i talked to him around 11:00am and he said, "so far, so good." we're hopeful that the side effects of the treatment will not get bad over time. he was able to secure the 7:30 am time slot for his daily visit. i think this will work out well because he can drive in to boston before the traffic gets very bad and the day gets very hot. it does mean that we will have to start getting up a little earlier than normal but maybe this will be the boost i need to start going for a bike ride or a run before work. or perhaps i will spend the extra hour watching morning programming. the latter seems like a much more likely possibility.
matt started taking the oral chemotherapy medicine xeloda yesterday. possible side effects include rashes on the fingers and toes. it is recommended that while he is taking this pill, he should avoid any activities that could potentially irritate the skin on his hands and feet, including walking, gardening, and doing the dishes. it's going to be a long month. for both of us.
we discovered this car deep in the woods of the 70-acre parcel near oak knoll. i think i might post it for sale on craigslist: c. 1989 chevy blazer. minor body work needed. missing all easily removable parts. great find! $2250
i was told what species this is but i can't remember. it seems like it might have had "emerald" in its name somewhere. little help, aaron?
i think this is a newly-metaporphosed american toad, but it's hard to tell for sure. today at work, i had a chance to explore a piece of property close to oak knoll. the landowner is reaching retirement age and is thinking about selling this 70-75 acre parcel. we were hoping to find box turtles, as the state considers this site to be potential box turtle habitat. the turtles were nowhere to be seen but these tiny toads were everywhere.
i have also learned to ID a yellow-billed cuckoo by its song. i now know 31 birds.
julie and evie found these in their yard. the nest is in a perfect location for kids to peek at, but is also immediately adjacent to the tent site where matt and i slept last night. the robin squawked at us for a while before returning to her nest- it's likely she just forgot we were there. there's a reason the term "bird brain" isn't a compliment.
it was hot in vermont today. dad says i should say, "very hot." i guess he's right. aaron and dad were up on the roof at the new house, laying down shingles. this elevation put them too close to the sun and they had to call it an early day. unfortunately, evie and a.j. were the only ones who fit in the pool. everyone else had to sit around and sweat and pretend like they weren't disappointed.
sometimes i think it looks like the stream at oak knoll is full of beer.
mmmmm, beer river.
we now have four dump computers
and still no coffee maker.
matt's aunt kathy and cousin ian are visiting for a couple of days. matt took them to see dover's #1 attraction shortly after they arrived: the dover dump. ian was lucky enough to find this laser tag set, missing a few key pieces and in need of a massive number of AA batteries, but a godsend none the less. if we ever decide to go on an expedition to hunt down the dover demon, we now have the appropriate outfit to wear. oh, and it also comes with a walkie talkie. unfortunately, there is only one of those.
another meeting with the oncologist yesterday. dr. stuart told us that they still haven't determined an exact plan for the chemotherapy because they haven't gotten any results back from pittsburgh. "pittsburgh?" we said. "yes, we sent samples from the tumor to pittsburgh and are waiting to get the results before we develop a treatment plan." perhaps pittsburgh is too busy worrying about the future of their young superbowl-winning, no-helmet-wearing, throwing-touchdown-passes-along-with-caution-to-the-wind quarterback to pay attention to a tissue sample from some guy in massachusetts (AKA: patriots land).
dr. stuart also refused to tell us any of the potential side effects of the chemo treatment. he was quite determined to focus on the task at hand: the upcoming radiation therapy. it still is sounding like there will be minimal side effects from that, beyond the vague nausea, a possible rash on matt's fingers and toes (treated with over-the-counter "udder cream"), the daily drive into boston, and the five permanent tattoos. matt will also be taking a chemotherapy pill while he is getting the radiation treatment. this pill will help to weaken any cancerous cells and make them more susceptible to the radiation. three years ago, the only way to administer this chemo medication would have been for matt to wear a small pump that injected him with a constant IV supply. we're fortunate that they found a way to encapsulate the drug (although it sounds like pumps of chemo drugs are likely in his future. more on this when we hear from pittsburgh...). the doctor also prescribed some anti-nausea medication to counteract any side effects. the total costs for a one month supply of these two drugs: $2754.03. thank goodness for co-pays ($25 each).
the value of these medicines brings up an interesting point and one that i perhaps shouldn't be discussing on my blog and matt will likely chastise me for this when i get home tonight so this message probably won't be here tomorrow so feel lucky that you got to read it before time ran out: where do we stash the drugs? they're worth more than most other things in the house. we know, based on lessons learned from the william jefferson incident, that the freezer is no good. plus, our freezer is so full of last year's zucchini (why haven't i used it yet?) and a giant chunk of what appears to be corned beef that there is no room for pill bottles. i was thinking maybe sealed in a plastic bag and buried in the compost heap, but it seems cruel to make matt dig through our nauseating food scraps in order to find his anti-nausea medication. i wish we had a bag of asps- then we could just hide the medicine in with the snakes and hope that all the drugs coursing through matt's veins would counteract the effects of any venomous bites. i called petsmart but they don't sell asps and wouldn't recommend keeping them in a bag even if they did. at the farm this weekend, michelle seemed to be inordinately afraid of chickens, so maybe we could put them somewhere in the chicken coop. would potential thieves also be scared of four hens with cauterized beaks? probably not. but we could rest assured knowing that we didn't have to worry about michelle pilfering the pills.
i guess this is a question we'll just have to spend some time pondering. i'd say that suggestions are welcome, but we couldn't take your suggestion because then you would know where the pills are. this is something we're just going to have to do on our own.
we went down to the farm in cranston today to get new chickens. i had to show them who was boss. maybe we'll have fresh eggs tomorrow.
matt is pointing to one of the five dots that have been tattooed on his body, which serve to identify the exact location of the radiation treatment site. in this photo, you can also see how well the incision is healing- especially on the port side. matt no longer has to hunch over when he walks, although there are still bulges in his stomach where they knotted the muscle fibers back together. this does make his stomach feel slightly stretched when he stands up straight for too long.
the rain continues here and matt is starting to feel a little stir crazy in the house. i'm encouraging him to try watching the world cup, which would give him something to do during these long rainy days. i'm willing to buy him an outfit in the team colors of the country of his choice- trinidad and tobago?- and some matching face paint so he can truly embrace the spirit of the event.
we received the cookies yesterday. thank you!
matt and i walked down to the vernal pool this evening. the water level was pretty high and the mosquitoes are really starting to flourish. i thought the root of this birch tree was lovely.
it's been a wet few days here in attleboro. this bridge at oak knoll normally takes people across a small stream. now, one would have to wade through foot-deep standing water to reach the edge of the bridge. the rain is supposed to continue on and off for the rest of the week.
matt amazed me and himself by knowing this one. he claims it was the best guess of his life. but then he also admitted to winning the "history award" in high school.
lookout farm uses black plastic on all of their beds. it warms the soil and prevents any weeds from growing. however, it also isn't normally re-used from year to year. it can make for an incredible amount of waste.
matt attended my last indoor soccer game of the season yesterday. he tried to take some pictures but because of the low light, they all turned out blurry. i think i like it better this way because the photos make me look wicked fast. also, you can't see just how sweaty i was.
matt learned more about his upcoming radiation therapy today. in a long meeting with the radiologist, he had a chance to ask questions about the treatment and its potential impacts on his health and well-being. the radiation will be very targeted- in fact, they will tattoo the exact location for treatment on his stomach, with little blue deer tick-sized dots, so that every time he goes in for therapy, they will know exactly where to wave the magic wand. because the treatment is localized, he'll likely be keeping his full head of hair. phew. matt has a crooked head. he needs hair to make it look balanced. his hair is actually three-quarters of an inch longer on the right hand side than on the left, purely for symmetry's sake.
i'm kidding about the hair, but his head is crooked.
he is scheduled to start radiation on june 21, the summer solstice, and he will have to go in 28 times. they say he will feel well enough to drive himself to and from the doctor's and they even have a free parking lot for people getting radiation. that perk will save us quite a bit of money, since lots in the area charge $45 for the first seven minutes and $116 for each additional minute or fraction thereof.
matt continues to recover well from his surgery. he has been working in the garden, running errands, and, thankfully, is again able to do dishes. they were really starting to pile up. he is also eating a more robust diet and cookies from uncle david would certainly be welcome. i am just saying.
on monday and wednesday nights, i teach an ecology class at dean college in franklin, ma. during the day, the room i teach in is the domain of professor kreshpane, who teaches US and world history. the entire space is wallpapered with 9"x12" black and white photographs of famous historical figures. the rumor goes, if you can accurately name every one, you get an "A" in whatever class kreshpane is teaching. i thought about making the same offer to my students, but because it is totally irrelevant to ecology and because i couldn't accurately identify 47% of the photos, i decided it wasn't a good idea. see how you do with this wall and i'll add more as time goes on. there are two of marilyn monroe to the left of the clock. he does repeat people occasionally.
