Hands on: the butterfly edition

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I swore I wouldn't shoot my own hands for the Hands-on Project.

I'm breaking that rule because I wanted to show you the handiwork of the past few weeks: five monarch butterfly chrysalises.

There's a sixth hanging from one of our dining room chairs, from before I wised up and confined them. The seventh and final specimen is a day or two away from its own chrysalis.

Caring for these caterpillars has meant work every day, principally in sourcing milkweed leaves, the only food they'll accept....