Tee!Hee! You are too much, Tdog. Does your DH ever have to use the bathroom nursery???

Thanks so much for sharing. With all of the below normal temps that we've had lately, I've sure been going thru butterfly withdrawal. :)

Have you been to the Monarch overwintering place, lately? When do they usually start going North again?

It sounds wonderful to me, CalSherry, to have nice weather and monarchs flying! They left your house in good shape, so it's great!
MissSherry

I just hope the boudoir lid is closed! Hee Hee.

Another one of Sherry's famous Monarch stories. Who could do without them? I think we should have "Sherry's Stories" in our FAQs - LOL!

Susan

What a great story!

I can think of worse things than finding Monarchs flying around in your house!

Poor hubby, I can just picture him climbing over the furniture trying to catch the poor thing before it hurt itself. It's just great that he's so interested in your "hobby."

Hey Sherry, Just tell DH that you're just saving him the trouble of walking outside and he can see butterflies right inside the house. Besides, how many husbands can say that they have butterflies in their house? Hmmm? Heh. Of course, maybe it's not something he'd want to admit to anyone. ;-) I guess we all have stories to share at one time or another, but yours really are amusing. I bet you're really an entertaining type of person. :) My hubby thought it was bad enough when I'd bring gourds in the house to work on to make them for birds to live in, but now that I've been working on this butterfly cage that takes up a big space in the living room, he thinks this project is even "better" yet! Hahahaha! I forget which of my many projects I was working on at the time, but one day he said to me, "I knew from the time I met you that you'd be different!" Now, I'm not sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult! HA! He knows that I'll always have my quirks and have to do this nature stuff, so he's given up trying to reason with me so that we would have a "normal"-looking house. This year since I'm anticipating having pretty many cats around, I'm putting up "Beware of caterpillars" signs on all the doors where people would come into the house because I don't want any to get stepped on. I didn't have any problem with them wandering last year, but you just never know.
Ever since I had gotten into birds, I think I've been teased about my projects. I made a gourd rack and put it up in the backyard. I think just about everyone who comes here has such a dumbfounded look when they see it and of course have to ask what it is. My daughter's one friend says it looks like I'm trying to contact the aliens. Ha! Maybe I just like to amuse people or something because it sure hasn't worked to attract martins here. I do get tree swallows in a gourd on a shepherd's hook every year and bluebirds in houses, etc. One year when the weather turned cold in the spring I ordered crickets for the birds. The van driver who brought them had a smile on his face when he brought them to the door and said they had serenaded him from the time he left that morning and got them to my place (mid-afternoon). He enjoyed them on the ride. :) I supposed most of us nature "nuts" would be considered eccentric by those "normal" people out there who haven't a clue about these things, but I'd rather be eccentric than uncaring about nature.

Anyhoo, I love hearing about other people's stories of what happens in their lives because of their being into these things. So keep on telling us of your adventures, Sherry! We love 'em!

Cathy

I had cats scooting around everywhere this last summer. I just couldn't keep a handle on them, and believe me, they move FAST! I found a couple on my shirt after I'd cleaned the cages and piddled around doing other things before I finally noticed them! Also found one walking down the hallway towards the bedrooms (heaven forbid I should wake up with one staring me in the face!). Others climbing around the cabinets and the sink. One did pupate inside the cabinets and it eclosed just fine. So funny!

They do have a penchant for finding the odd places. And when they are between instars, they also can wander a great distance, too.

Susan

Susan, My caterpillars here must have been slow learners because I swear they'd go on our porch screen between instars and crawl right back down to the potted plants after they were in the next instar. Some just shed their skins right on the plants. I never had to worry about them wandering around except to the screen and back to the plants. I'm not going to expect that all the time though and so we're going to be really careful that we don't step on any and I'm putting up signs to remind people about them. Of course, I suppose I'll have most of them in the cat cage anyway. I might just put all of my big potted plants in there and put most of the caterpillars in there. I also will have some in a big storage container with a screen on top and some in that laundry sorter (possibly two), so there's no way they can wander away if they're in those. That's funny how yours would wander away like Sherry's. It's probably almost like finding buried treasure when one eclosed somewhere unexpected. :)

Cathy

Well...here's another story to add to the mix!

This afternoon I was out standing on my little 3-step wooden ladder, checking the Passiflora vines for Gulf Frit eggs (I am teaching a butterfly science class next Saturday so I want to have some larvae, if possible!). I've been fighting strep throat this week so I wasn't feeling all that great to begin with today but the sun was out and there were butterflies fluttering about (some Monarchs I'd released along with the Gulf Frits and then of course the pop-up full of Painted Ladies that I have been praying would start doing their amorous thing!).

I was checking for eggs, pulling off dead vines, and just trying to keep my balance when I kept feeling something inside my muumuu sleeve. I shook my arm, hoping whatever had fallen inside would just come out...thinking that a leaf or something had gotten inside. I continued searching for eggs and pulling off dead vines when I felt something like a BUG in my sleeve, rubbing or walking on my arm. I thought, "Sheesh, I bet some obnoxious stinkbug fell down my dress into my sleeve when I tossed some of those dead vines over my shoulder! ARGH!" so I shook my arm harder.

Guess what fell out of my sleeve! A Monarch butterfly! Yep, a Monarch flew out then flew back and came to rest on my dress. This butterfly refused to leave me, despite my taking him and putting him onto a plant (I said, "Hey! I am busy with the garden right now and you are just in the way!"). So, he hung around on my muumuu for about ten minutes until I decided I needed a break and then put him onto a Milkweed and went indoors for some water.

I tell you, this is probably how I ended up with a Monarch in my hair last year when I drove to get some Chinese food to-go...and freaked out the restaurant patrons and workers!

When I told DH about today's sleeve incident, he just considered it a 'typical' Sherry thing and that it just didn't surprise him in the least. :P

Hahaha, oh Sherry, you sure do keep us in stitches! :) That's hilarious! They know that you care for them so much and they can't stand to leave you! :)