How did you spend your extra hour?

I love getting free time. When I was turning our clocks back Sunday morning I wasn't thinking about what I would do with my extra hour. I was just changing the clocks. By the end of the day I realized that I spent my time well. It was a very nice Autumn day Sunday.

We were walking around our yard, enjoying the gorgeous fall weather and admiring all the different colors of the season.

Bug was under the Oak tree trying to figure out if he could make a big enough pile of leaves to jump into. This is something he has been pre-occupied with doing since the leaves started to change.

He first noticed a beetle like bug and screeched with delight. "Mom look, look at this beetle bug" Just then he saw a lady bug, he picked it up gently and closed his hand so that it couldn't escape.

Then there was another lady bug and another and another. This went on until he had no less than seven lady bugs in his hands. He passed them on to me to hold while he ran to the house to get his Bug catcher. "Don't loose any of them mom" He kept repeating, like they were little golden treasures, worth millions. I assured him that I wouldn't loose any, but to please hurry because they were tickling my hand and I think one or two had peed on me already.

Really, I think they did. Some sort of protection mechanism they must have. Any way Bug rushed back with his bug catcher house and we dumped them in.

He then spent several more minutes catching as many as he could. They were hiding under the oak leaves, I just had to know why. Bug asked if he could keep them and I told him we needed to find out more about these little bugs first. We didn't want them to die, we needed to know they would be ok in there.

So we went into the house and Googled ladybugs. It turns out they were looking for a place to hibernate. Often ladybugs will try to find their way indoors in the winter. The only issue would be that it could be too dry for them. They didn't need anything to eat this time of year, since they munch on aphids the rest of the year.

So I guess we are going to try and keep them around for the winter and let them out in the spring. Probably next to my Rose bushes so they can do their job and get rid of the aphids. They don't look to unhappy about being locked up.

Funny enough people can actually order ladybugs if they have an aphid problem. For a moment I thought maybe I could make a buck, until I realized the price was only $20.00 for 1000 of the little suckers. Wow it would take me a month to find that many, not good money by the hour.

I hope you all had as much fun with your extra hour as Bug and I did.