Cows and Cactus: Some of My Favorite Things

Last week we enjoyed a quick trip to Colorado. We did a lot of work fixing up our grandparents’ house but were still able to have fun roaming.

One of the things I wanted to do, was to get a selfie with a cow. Some of my grandparents land is rented out to a rancher that keeps his cows one the land.One of the calf got out of fence so my great uncle and I chased it back in:)

Shooting or tree cactus

Another thing I like doing while in Colorado is go cactus hunting. I only collect the barrel cactus that are much smaller and better looking then the other cactus.

Barrel cactus

I also wanted to catch a rattlesnake and have one my uncles teach me how to skin it. Unfortunately, we did not see any snakes. My mom never said I couldn’t, but was thankful I didn’t.

 

Horses

‘Clay Horse’
Clay and acrylic paint
7 September 2018
‘Foal in Barn’
Oil paint on canvas
1 September 2018

Over the past two weeks I have been playing with different types of paint.

The clay horse is my first attempt at clay modeling, And the ‘Foal in Barn’ is the first time I have used oil paint.

I knew oil paint took longer to dry then acrylic, but it turns out oil paint takes a week or two before its dry to the touch, it depends on how thick the paint is. My painting is finally almost dry.

Experimenting

Last night I set up our black light to try to attract large moths.

 

 

 

 

I also tried a beer, banana and brown sugar mix that I spread on our trees to try to attract some moths too. I found a tulip tree moth and several little moths like the Isabella tiger moth and a bunch of different types of inch worm moths.

I hope I can try again this weekend and hopefully find a luna moth.

Learn about butterflies day

Today is National learn about butterflies day!

Here are some fun monarch butterfly facts:

Monarchs typically ride air currents of 800-1200 feet, The highest recorded was 11,000 feet!

Monarchs fly at a rate of 10-12 MPH.

Monarchs travel an average of 25 miles a day.

The largest known monarch migration site in Mexico is 216.21721 square miles.

Monarchs can flap their wings 120 times a minute.

A group of monarchs is called a congregation.

A group of monarch caterpillars is called an army.

A newly hatched caterpillar gains about 2,700 times its original weight before reaching chrysalis stage.

A large caterpillar can eat an entire milkweed leaf in less then 4 minutes.

Fearless

‘Fearless’ Acrylic paint By Audrey January 29 2018

“If we’re gonna fly, we fly like eagles
Arms out wide
If we’re gonna fear, we fear no evil
We will rise
By your power, we will go
By your spirit, we are bold
If we’re gonna stand, we stand as giants
If we’re gonna walk, we walk as lions”
   -Lions by Skillet –