p4    Now with children grown, married, and on their own, I have more time to stay in shape cycling, exercising, and working in the garden.  Combine that with staying away from sugar and saturated fats, hard to do sometimes, and maybe my old age can be spent doing better things than going to the doctor.
    Before I plan and then go on trips, I have to get my yard ready for the caterpillars.  That is right, you can get caterpillars and butterflies unless you are ready.  To have wildlife in your yard you have to create a landscape for them.  Grass doesn't benefit wildlife, so the less you have the better.  As I write this, the birds are making a lot of noise outside, as there a lot of trees in my yard and the neighborhood.  Bird feeders and berry bushes help them to decide on my trees for them to make nests.  Squirrels are numerous because of the trees and you can usually see one looking out a hole in the trunk of one tree. 
    I have many butterflies flying around as I write this.  You have to be careful to select the right landscape plants in order to see butterflies in your yard.  You must first have plants whose leaves the caterpillar eats.  For example, a monarch  caterpillar eats only milkweed leaves.  A sulphur prefers a cassia tree leaf.  A zebra prefers passionvine leaves.  Swallowtails like citrus leaves.  So if you want to see butterflies, you have to have leaves that the caterpillar prefers.  Flowering nectar plants that butterflies like are lantana, penta, passionvine, plumbago, firebush, firecracker, honeysuckle, and many others.