A Happy List from Camp

As many/all of you know, I work at a camp in Missouri. Working at this camp gave me the most terrific experiences and I have gotten to work the the most amazing people. One of those sweet people is Jell-o and she has a habit of making "Happy Lists" and so this is for you Jell-o...I missed you.

A Happy List
J. Low 2009

• The Hoedown Throwdown Disaster
  
• The Sugar Shack
  
• Julia's kisses
  
• Jell-o's visit
• Sewing aprons for the Go-gos
  
• The new macro lens
• Titan and the other ho-dos (host-dogs)
  
• Clean But Wet shirts
• Salmon surprise and other questionable menu items
  
• Katianne's enthusiasm
• Getting to watch a movie instead of going to the pool on closing day
• Slide...like an onion
• The weirdest staff meetings ever
• Jillian and the mixed emotions of her involvement in the Ad Building
• Getting the giggles at lunch
• Getting glared at like first year counselors for the giggle fit
• The stupid lights key...I hate that key
• Surviving Shitstorm 2009
• "So formal"
• Hanging out with Dot and the Sci-Fi Channel
  
• Kayla's dry dry humor
• Cooking out like 5 times in a row...not on purpose
  
• Being a Unit Counselor again
• Realizing how good I have it as a Unit Leader
• Lepi's wellness and zest for honesty
  
• Cleaning up vomit in every color, viscosity, and stage of digestion
• Cleaning up poop in every color, viscosity, and stage of absorption
• Razzle's friendship bracelet
• The Paper Source
• Staying up late talking to Twiggy
  
• Calvin the mouse in cabin 3
• 84's camp chic look
• My Keens...so comfortable, so fugly
• Duhbul's expressions that are not really expressions
• Missing out on all the Michael Jackson news
• Lauren's laughter
• "There are snakes in the grass, get your ass in the cabin!"
• Meeting the new campers
• Sequoia's impromptu orienteering course
• Maggie's fishy faces
• Spending time at the tables with 'Da Unit
• The incredible weather
• Getting to spend an evening with Katydid
• A Diva is a female version of a hustler
• Unit 1...enough said!!!
• Throwing pepperoni and hot dogs into the woods
• Elmo's sweet smile...and teasing her about Abraham
• The cooking demo
• Hearing about the cooking demo about a million times
• Trying a few of the cooking demo ideas...abandoning the rest
• Lizzy and her swimming program and sweet letters
• Bamboo/Katherine Heigl
  
• Mullet Margaritas
• 4th of July+Missouri+Online Ordained Minister+Breathalyzer=Awesome time (the breathalyzer was used purely for recreational purposes)
• Discovering Facebook Scrabble
• The charcoal chimney vs. chiminea discussion
• Twiggy
• A thousand little smiles and laughs that cannot be captured or described but make up memories that will last a lifetime

Silkworms...finally

Ok, I have been promising the last installment of insect posts for a while now....and I was waiting for the silkworms to complete their life cycle. The tragedy in this post is that they have been in their cocoons for about 1 month and I am a little doubtful that they will release their enzyme and crawl out of the carefully woven silk to flutter, mate, and then die.

So these little preciosos started as little grayish blue eggs and hatched into wonderful little caterpillars with large heads and fuzzy little bodies. In the picture below you can see the three first instars (stages) of their lives. The one in the middle is at the end of the first instar....all balck and fizzy. The second instar is the one in which they get a little bigger, loose the fuzz, and get a bigger abdomen.

Another little picture of the first few weeks of life for these caterpillars.

Here is the third instar...they are so cute!

You guessed it instar number four and the classic "I am king of the moutain" pose. I love their cute little prolegs (the suction ones in the back) and the little back spike.

This big boy is in his fifth instar and is a few days away from starting his cocoon.

Here he is about a day before changing into a cocoon. As you can see he is shrinking a little bit, his skin went from gray white to a creamy white and he is getting a little wrinkly. He got quite a bit shorter and then stopped eating.

This is the beginning of what I call "flossing" in which he begain stringing thick silk strands to an fro in his egg carton. As you can see he had a pretty loose frass (poop) and that will be the last time he ever poops. He also has lost a lot of length. His body got a lot thicker and the last few segments kind of absorbed up into his body.

After a whole lot of flossing he starts producing the actual silk and goes back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until a cocoon starts taking shape. This is the stuff that they use to make silk cloth and it is just one long thread. Below his head is far away and his prolegs are at the top most part of the cocoon.

This is kind of like ultrasound pictures to me...I don't really see the baby's foot, ankle, face, until I look at it like a 3D picture from 1994. In this one he is on his side with his front legs facing up and his back curling around the bottom.

And finally a cocoon!!!

Silkworms were by far my favorite insect this year. I had so much fun watching them grow. The kids loved them. I had to leave them before they hatched (who am I kidding they aren't going to hatch) so I left my roommate in charge. I told her to throw them away if nothing happened by August. It's only supposed to take 3 weeks...it's been about 5- maybe next time something will actually come out of the cocoons.