Week 5 of plastic

Week 5 of my plastic consumption

June 8th to June 14th

6 cup lids

6 straws

3 plastic fast food cups

3 2-litre soda bottles recyclable

2 20 oz soda bottles recyclable

7-11 grocery bag reused for kitty litter or taken to grocery store and put in the bag recycling

plastic freezer bag

The freezer bag is from frozen mice, food for my snakes, so it is regular thing that I don't have an alternative to. Everything else was completely avoidable. I had a craving for cream soda and my husband replaced the soda's from last week. I also had a craving for a shake and that is what one of the plastic fast food cups is from. When we do eat fast food I have been trying to get the smaller sizes that come in the waxed paper cups, they have to be a bit better than #6 plastic cups right, that's what I tell myself. I was going to try turning the larger soda bottles into upside down planters but all I have are peppers and apparently peppers don't like the upside down as much as tomatoes so I think I will just be recycling them. I so wish my tally for this week was just a freezer bag.

Week 4 of plastic

Week 4

June 1st thru June 7th

-3 produce/bulk bags will be reused for kitty litter

-cracker bag old saltines that had a hole in it and were disgustingly stale

-carrot bag

-chip bag

-bread bag

-ice bag

-2 cereal bags

-2 envelopes with plastic windows

-sour cream container

-2 fast food dipping sauce containers

-spoon

-wrapper from spoon

-drink lid

-bread bag tab

-lid to soy milk I realize now that every time I have a soy milk lid I also should include the soy milk spout since it is plastic but it is not easily removable from the "paper" carton. I put paper in " " because it is paper but coated in plastic...

-seal from soy milk

-chicken broth lid the spout on this is plastic too and the same with the "paper" carton...

-3 2 liter soda bottles we went to the store for ice cream and next think I know hubby bought three 2 liter's of soda (will be recycled)

-gatorade bottle, I was beyond thirsty one day on my way to work and had to buy something, I love gatorade but resist buying with all my might. (will be recycled lid is reused at work as a food dish for baby geckos)

-mouthwash bottle I went to the dentist for the first time in at least 7 years and while the poor hygienist really worked for her pay that day scraping years of tartar build up off my teeth I got the all's good (my husband says I am a cheater because I have no cavities, ever, and I haven't been in so long and he has 5 new ones) but you may want to think about purchasing some mouthwash, not because I have horrible breath, well they didn't say that at least ha ha, they said since I have my wisdom teeth still bacteria will tend to build up back there and mouthwash is a good idea.

-mouthwash safety seal

I got ambitious at some point in this week and cleaned out my cupboards of old food, a lot of the stuff was easily over a year old, like the crackers, the chips, the cereal, and the stuff out of two of the bulk bin bags. We don't purchase items like that any more and if we do we do it in MUCH smaller quantities so we don't get "sick" of it and still have a large amount.

I also cured my problem with ice by putting the ice I can make with one good ice tray I have into a paper bag so they don't stick together. So no more ice bags for us.

Not much else to say about this week, I've pretty much made all the major changes I am willing to at this point it is just now a matter of thinking ahead so I don't have to purchase things like the gatorade because I have no other option or will, I don't really need a this or that.

Caterpillar into Butterfly

Well caterpillar into cocoon at this point.  Will update with any real changes but I don't think there will be any more until butterfly is ready to come out.  

So the story goes, my boss grabbed some passion fruit flower leaves out of his yard to put in with a little gecko, a few days go by and I notice a two caterpillars in with the gecko.  I plan on taking them out but forget about it, the next time I go into work one is cocooned so I leave it and I take the other one out and take it home with me.  Over the next few days I give it some fresh leaves and watch it grow.  I doubled in size within a week.  

The caterpillar is a Gulf Fritillary, Agraulis vanillae. 

Then it starts getting REALLY fat and I start tweeting about it and someone asks for pictures. End result I decided to take pics and post a blog about it.  It really is fascinating.  I think I brought the caterpillar home around May 20th.  I took a picture of it when I brought it home but I think I may have deleted it, wait let me check my computers recycle bin.....nope nothing there, maybe I didn't take a picture.  It was probably just under an inch long when I brought it home.  

I apologize for the pictures, I didn't think to clean the sides of the little tank I put it in.  I think I had some crickets in there at some point and while I did wipe down the bottom it was only when I started taking pictures that I realized the sides were all spotted with stuff.  

Here are the pictures I have so far:

Tuesday June 2nd 6pm

I took this picture because he was so fat compared to when I brought it home I was amazed at how much it had eaten and how plump it was getting.  In this picture it is busy eating away at more leaves. 

Wednesday June 3rd 11am

The orange had been getting lighter for the past few days and when I set up the tank I specifically put the stick in like that and kept leaves away from it because I thought it would be the perfect spot for it to cocoon, looks like I was right.  I saw it here in the morning and around the time I took this picture it was putting some white substance on the stick by its mouth, which is on the right.  

This is just a crop of the above picture.  You get a better look at the actual caterpillar and his spines (and of the spots on the sides of the tank).

Wednesday June 3rd 5pm

I came home from work and look what I found.  

View from the other side and a surprise, another little caterpillar (on the leaf to the left of the big guy) that must have hatched since I brought the leaves home because I checked them for other caterpillars, didn't think to look for tiny little eggs.  I am going to take it out and put it into a very clean cage and grow him too and document it.

Thursday June 4th 12pm

Look all cocooned! It shed its caterpillar spines and stuff, big black blob under it and to the right.  All the little dots of black are caterpillar poop, there is A LOT of caterpillar poop in the cage. A LOT!!!!

I will update with more pics if things change and when butterfly comes out. Also will be keeping track of other little caterpillar.