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Milkweed and Monarchs 🦋☠ 🐮

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Milkweed and Monarchs 🦋☠ 🐮

A few months back I posted several articles that I found in my research and reading about milkweed – how it’s wonderful for wildlife and really poisonous for livestock.

There are darn good reasons why farmers spray it and work to eradicate it from their farm fields. It can kill horses and cattle if mixed with their hay. That’s a big deal if you depend on your land for your livelihood that keeps you living the rural life. Seeing an animal die a painful death is traumatic to all involved.

But we need milkweed to support butterflies and our ecosystem. Like everything, there is a time and place. A noxious weed on the farm can also sustain life of other species, be part of a healthy ecosystem. The efficiency of clearing fields of noxious weeds is blamed for the decline of many common butterflies.

What is the solution? Probably a mix of both farming and places where milkweed can be planted and sustained in yards, nature preserves and land set aside by private owners for conservation purposes.

Milkweed

Being watched as the sun set

Butterfly

What I Like To Do Around Camp

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People sometimes ask what I like to do while camping⛺ Besides sitting by the fire and listening to the spring peepers and the birds,🐸 I also will often put on some music or a podcast, especially in the evening.

In the day time I like to cook – I actually like camp cooking better than at home as I’m not distracted by all the other things going on at home. 🍳I also spend a lot of time reading as camping often is a long distraction free time for me. Lately I’ve been spending more time writing, 📚as I’m trying to capture more of my thoughts and experiences in words.

Camping At Camp Run

Camping in the wilderness is a chance to get away from all the noise and problems that are inherent in living in the city.

These past few weekends have been major bummers 🏕

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These past few weekends have been major bummers 🏕

I’ve been hoping for a nice weekend to get up into the wilderness before black fly season got underway, but every weekend this April since the Easter holiday has been worse — and each weekend seems to get cloudier, cooler and rainer. Two weekends ago, I could have gotten out of town, and it would have been fine, but the forecast was wet. Last weekend was okay, until Saturday night when it absolutely poured. And then this weekend’s forecast.

At some point my luck will change. Indeed, Mothers Day Weekend might be a good one, as my parents aren’t going to be in town, and maybe depending when they get the state budget done, I can take off that Friday with just credited time. Black flies, if I decide to go up north might be bad. But maybe I’ll do Schoharie, especially if I get my bike working, it could be a lot of fun to ride some of the roads out there.

Changes I’m Making to My Coolers This SUmmer

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When I camp, I always like to have a fresh supply of fish, meat, vegetables, milk and cheese. I’ve long used two coolers in the warmest part of summer, one for drinks like bee, and condiments that are less critical to stay cold, and one for milk and meat which must remain cold for the weekend but only will be opened occasionally over the trip.

After Breakfast

This year, I am changing a few things….

Old Plastic Coffee Containers rather then Milk Jugs
The coffee containers when snapped shut, generally do not leak water at all. They do “sweat” from the moisture being attracted to the cold, but they don’t leak or leave the bottom of the cooler swamped with water.

Salt-Water rather then Regular Water
Salt water freezes at a lower temperature then regular water. That means more energy is stored in the water, which means it will thaw out slower, drawing more energy out of the surrounding foods, keeping them cooler longer then they would otherwise be, ensuring that even on the hottest long-summer weekends, the coolers will remain cold.