When You're Growing Weeds: Bug Identification 101 (and weekly zucchini report)

I'm back at work.

I took a week off until my appointment at the fracture clinic.  Yes - the bone is fractured, but should heal in four weeks.  In the interim I have permission from the Ortho doc. to do whatever I like, as long as it doesn't hurt.  OK.  I can handle that.  The cast is going on and off, and the crutches are being used frequently but not always.

Monarch Butterflies are getting so much press these days - declining habitat and blah, blah, blah.  Like lots of folks I know, I am growing milkweed for them.  Poor DH.  He grew up on a farm where if you didn't plant it, you kill it on sight.  Whenever we're on the front walkway he looks at the milkweed, shakes his head, and says "I can't believe we're growing weeds".

Since I have permission to do stuff (isn't 'stuff' a great adaptable word?), I've been weeding the flowerbeds along the front walk.  Last night I found this weird, weird, caterpillar.  On the milkweed.

Because I love you, and I know you are curious too, I spent about an hour and a half this morning getting TOTALLY grossed out looking at bugs on Google, trying to find this sucker.  You're welcome.  This is a Milkweed Tiger Moth (a.k.a. milkweed Tussock moth).  HERE.  You can learn all about it.  The other bug is a milkweed beetle of some sort.  These guys will likely defoliate a lot of the plant.  As long as they leave my zucchini alone...

ZUCCHINI REPORT
Picked this week:  7 (can you believe that DH has been picking zucchini???)
Picked YTD:      24
We gave all 7 fruits away because I still had a large-ish one in the fridge.  DH cooked up half of it for me, then left the other half sitting on the kitchen counter for days.  Uh huh.  It's compost now.  If we get a decent zucchini today I may spend some time on my feet in the kitchen (first step:  clean it!!) and make some zucchini fries.  Recipe HERE.