Bugstock #6 Report - May 22nd - 24th, 2009

Bugstock #6 report: May 22nd - 24th, 2009

Thursday (5/21) after work, Michael, Pete and I stayed out at the Farm until around 10:30. We were mowing, cleaning the porch and organizing the first floor of the cabin. We stacked the lumber into a stage for sleeping and playing music.

On Friday I arrived at the Farm around 2:00. The weather forecast for the whole weekend was bad, which discouraged a few folks, but we were determined to have a good time even if it rained. Michael and I brought equipment so that we could all watch ento. videos all weekend if we had to. I did more mowing and shoveled some of the new gravel into spots that needed it. It started raining so Michael, Travis and I sat on the porch with the Stricklands for a while until it stopped.

After the rain I needed to walk to the middle of the pasture so that I could get a cell signal. On my way out I met Linda and Shane coming in. Not long after that I met Allyn, Victoria and Christopher on their way in. A bit later David, and Jeanne then Pete and Tanya all arrived. The Rodriguez family decided to try out a night in the new cabin, so we set them up on the second floor. As it got dark we started a fire and David grilled up some hotdogs. A few of us took trips around the pond to see what we could find and Michael led a “no lights” hike down the Wagon Rut trail.

Early Saturday morning I was woken by the sound of a car horn and crazy, loud music. Travis had arrived with about 8 dozen donuts. Another surprise was that a tent had sprouted up over night. We discovered a bit later that the tent belonged to Billy and Clay. Linda and Shane spent the morning catching Zebra Swallowtails. Michael, Aidan and Alden then James and Eric drove up.

A large group of us hiked down Wagon Rut and over the new bridge and up to Michael’s hill. The group split up into three parts and somewhere in the split the little dog Daisy decided to do some exploring of her own. After everyone but Daisy made it back to the cabin, a search part was dispatched to look for her. She was found happily hiking on her own.

During the afternoon there was no rain to speak of but we had a flood of people: Christian, Faren, Anik, Dr. Ray, Uncle Bill, Andrew, Jeremy, Jared, Juan, Stephanie, Katherine, Mitch, Jen, Renee, Greg, Caroline, Heather, Susan, David, Ingrid, Nicki and Emma. Nicki set about cooking red beans and rice over the fire while Andrew and Heather gave a rare dual-flint-knapping demo –not often seen in the wild. Linda broke out some of her now famous brownies. After a while we were all treated to Nicki’s wonderful dinner then Linda and I setup our light rigs. Michael and James unveiled their secret weapons: a new type of blacklight bulb. The kids had fun playing on Emma’s “sand dune”.

The activity at the lights was pretty good, like: luna moths, giant water bugs, a bess beetle and a Phileurus valgus. After dinner we had a nice jam in the cabin and would periodically step out to check the lights.

Sunday was pretty relaxed, as usual. A few groups went on hikes and the rain that we had all been worried about visited only briefly that afternoon. Lind spotted a Black Swallowtail laying eggs on a native parsley plant. The groups slowly dispersed until it was down to Michael and I. The two of us took one last hike down the perimeter trail to look for phasmids and to look for a tree that Travis had mentioned seeing.

It was another fun weekend and the rain didn’t bother us very much at all. We also had a Bugstock First: our first engagement during Bugstock! Congratulations David and Jeanne!