The Last 3 or 4 Months...

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, I thought it was probably time to put up some pictures that I took last Summer...  It's good to stay on top of things, you know ;)

This past Summer was a busy one - we had swimming through the majority of it, there were outings and family time and a little knitting thrown in...  Both of our tarantulas molted - this was huge because we thought our older one was done molting.  Here are some photos, we'll get those out of the way! This is Charlotte, our older one just after she exited her old exoskeleton. Look how pretty she is!!!

 

This is Charlotte's old exoskeleton in my hand to give you a size comparison :) I have some pics of Rosie as well but we couldn't get her exoskeleton out of the enclosure until after it had hardened into a weird shape so I'll just put these up for now!

One of our family outings this past Summer was to check out the Indianola Balloon Festival. We have gone before but it was a few years ago.

 

 

 

Our local library hosts a quilt class for kids age 10 and older.  Little miss had to wait last year because she wasn't old enough to attend but this year, she was able to sew a quilt for her very own :)

 

 

Little man was able to make another (because some of the kids didn't show so he could take the quilt class twice). He wouldn't show me the front - it was a surprise for me for my birthday!  Since they can only take the class twice, he cannot do it again next Summer but little miss wants to put her name down in case there are any openings!

 

 

The minions and I had a lot of fun exploring various parks and things while the weather was warm. Here are some random photos of our adventures.

 

 

 

The minions and I did hit the Iowa State Fair again this year - we spent time making quilts for charity and ended up donating 3 total quilts (one made by each of us).
 

 

I made them hold mine up for a photo.

 

 

I think I should probably break here, this post is probably a little photo heavy so I'll continue with another one!

Rosie's Molt

If spiders make you squeamish, this post is probably not for you as it contains some photos of our younger tarantula's recent molt.....

When little man got his first tarantula we knew we would probably get a second sooner or later just because Charlotte is older and will probably not molt again.  Last year we got Rosie - who is also a Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula - but until recently, we were unsure if she was male or female.  She is a female.  How do I know?  She molted so I could check it out officially!!!

Naturally she picked the worst corner of her tank for the occasion (as far as viewing is concerned) so bear with me on the photos. 

She spent the better part of the day like this.

Around dinner time she began to wiggle out of her old exoskeleton.

In case you're not quite sure what you are looking at, here's a brief explanation. Before the molt, the tarantula will grow a new exoskeleton under the existing exoskeleton. When they are ready to shed the old exoskeleton they get the carapace to pop off first and then the abdomen splits so they can start wiggling out of the open space. It's actually a rather stressful time for tarantulas and uses up a lot of there energy. In the above picture, you can see Rosie (darker charcoal color on the right) has wriggled almost all the way out of the old exoskeleton (brown on the left). They come out with new fangs and everything. After the molt they stretch and move around to obtain greater size and eventually things harden again (including the new fangs).

Almost there!

From this angle you can see Rosie has successfully freed herself from her old exoskeleton. Isn't she pretty? I love that tarantulas can look completely different after a molt!

 

New and improved Rosie. I mentioned that I figured out if she was a male or female and I did so by looking at a specific area of her molt and found evidence of her being a female.  :)

This is her molt in my hand. My hands are on the smallish side but this gives you an idea of how big she is. Or was I guess.  She doesn't appear to be much bigger though.

 

Catching Up - The Thaw and Charlotte

The beauty of the Seasonal Cycle is that nothing lasts forever; at some point, water freezes and ice melts.

These past few weeks things have been really odd weather-wise.  A few warmer days followed by snow and then repeat.  It makes for a messy time of it!

 

 

Proof of extraterrestrial Ice Creatures???

I love how the minions have distinct ways of doing things.  For example, the weather was warm enough one day that the minions could not wait another second to get on their bikes.  Now envision that they are on their bikes and facing a giant puddle.  What to do, what to do.  Little miss, not wanting to get funky water all over her attire/bike is more cautious...

Then there's little man.  The bigger the splash the better.  Then he wonders how his shirts and pants get so muddy....

Charlotte (aka Aragog) has been acting all sorts of weird lately.  Perhaps it's the thaw.  Normally, as per her species, she is rather laid back and doesn't do a whole lot.  She would hang for days at a time under her little hidey log and we'd feed her and she wouldn't touch them. 

In the past few months, however,  she is devouring crickets, is walking all over the place (including the sides of the tank which she has not done before), and spends days at a time standing up with her body raised off her substrate.  I can't figure it out.  Nothing has changed in her tank, her food source is the same.... 

I don't know.  We'll see how things go - little man is still keeping a daily diary of her actions (or non-actions) so we can use that as a reference.  Perhaps she's a little miffed that we are looking at adding another tarantula or two to the mix.  Either way, with her being so active lately, I'm adding a few extra rocks to the top of her lid!

 

I am still having to upload the pictures directly from my computer which is more of a nuisance than anything, so as per usual, there are more photos on my Flickr page.

 

 

Next up, the fiber arts.  But not right now - I still have a few photos to take (I'm still behind on just about everything, which is just awesome.)