O What A Tangled Web We Weave

I went outside today to spend some time with the goats and noticed that the large lilly in the "well head" garden was blooming so I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture. Also took pics of the other lillies currently in bloom and I noticed a large yellow marked spider with a web between a number of flowers. She was very cool just hanging out upside down waiting for breakfast. I had to snap some pics of her which you can see below. The markings on her back reminded me of an alien with it's hands on it's hips. I posted a question as to what type of spider it was on The Electronic Naturalist site and was told it was an Argiope spider. Apparently it is literally a garden variety spider. I hope she doesn't catch one of our humming birds. That would really bum us out. Apparently if they build their webs out in the fields they are great eaters of grasshoppers.

We spent some time over in Waterville this afternoon cleaning up brush and chipping. I started working on a large stump behind the shed but still have a long way to go in order to finish it. Also started putting a culvert up in one of our swampy areas in the woods but ended up spending more time getting the tractor out of the muck than putting the culvert in. We'll have to wait until things dry out a bit more to finish that job. We also are having some problems with our hose to the pond. I suspect it is just too small and is getting clogged with crud. We'll have to figure out something else.

Tomorrow we head down to White River Junction to help with the Habitat for Humanity house they are going to ship off to New Orleans. Should be interesting. I'll try to get some pics to show the progress. Putting together a whole house in one day is going to be a hoot. Or maybe we'll be too tired to drive back tomorrow night.