Zooming – August 2025

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All the images I selected for this month’s zooming post were from places around Springfield MO and Berryville AR. The subjects were:

  • Juvenile birds (cardinal and robin) and an adult hummingbird

  • Flowers and plants (pokeweed, naked lady lilies, zinnias, crape myrtle, cone flowers, daylily)

  • Caves (Cosmic and Onyx)

  • Caterpillars (spicebush swallowtail and zebra swallowtail)

  • Butterflies and moths (spicebush swallowtail, red spotted purple, cecropia moth, luna moth

  • Juvenile racoon

  • Edge of a golf course scene

The picture of the juvenile robin was taken through a window and with camera settings that gave it a hazy look to capture the ‘feel’ of the day – it was a very humid August day! The one of a bench looking out onto a golf course was an attempt to capture the morning mood as we prepared to leave our Berryville hotel; it was a warm, sunny morning…full of bird songs…a good beginning of the day.

Enjoy the August 2021 slide show!

Juvenile Cardinal

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I’ve seen several rounds of juvenile robins in my shade garden so maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised when a juvenile cardinal was there recently. The bird perched on a hose I had used to water the area after some of the vegetation looked like it was not getting enough water to offset the high heat. I saw the bird from my office chair and took the pictures through the window!

The adult feathers were just beginning to come in. At first, I assumed that the bird was a female but the area around the eye is red already --- so probably a male.  

Luna Moths Finale?

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Back in the first week of August, a lot of luna moths I had raised from tiny caterpillars to cocoons emerged within a couple of days.

I had already taken eggs, cocoons, and moths to the Butterfly House, so I simply enjoyed the show…deciding to release the moths near my house. I quickly discovered that the mating moths don’t want to be moved…they stayed in the cage. And then there were eggs on the side of the cage.

I finally had some that were single again to release…although some were still reluctant. They would fly a short distance and not always toward a tree. I managed to move a few from the cage directly to my dogwood tree; it isn’t a food plant for caterpillars, but it did provide shelter for them. Eventually they all flew away.

The release I enjoyed the most was of a female moth that was clinging to my finger. She vibrated in place – revving – and then flew gracefully away and up to perch in a river birch.

I kept the eggs and let them hatch. Several references said that luna moth caterpillars ate maple leaves…so it was something worth trying. They did not eat the maple leaves at all! I was so hoping the maple would be acceptable to them because I have a maple in my yard.

I still have some cocoons that seem to be viable, but they have not emerged yet. I am beginning to wonder if those cocoons are going to not emerge until next spring!

What is eating the pokeweed?

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I have learned to tolerate pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) in many places in my Missouri yard…where it provides lush greenery…eye-catching magenta stems…flowers for small pollinators…food for birds.

This is the first year I have noticed that something is eating the leaves.

I thought perhaps it could be Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe Scribonia) caterpillars that are reported to eat the plant….but I have never seen them on the plants.

I did see some frass one morning (the fly is for size comparison) but the caterpillars are apparently stealthy.  The mystery is not a bad thing necessarily; it motivates me to check the plants more frequently…and I’m pleased that the pokeweed leaves are food for something rather than remaining pristine!

Big Landscaping Change – Tweaking the Plan

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The Missouri Master Naturalist chapter meeting this month was about the Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden. As we walked around the boathouse and learned the history (and challenge) of some of the plantings, I realized that I was mentally tweaking the plan for my front yard.

The beautyberry at the Boathouse is thriving and it provides winter food for birds. I have one in my backyard and am going to plant another one in the front yard rather than a wild hydrangea which was not doing well at the Boathouse.

The serviceberry at the Boathouse was about 4 years old and had already lost most of its leaves (i.e. young trees might not have pretty fall color). I am still going to plant one, but I am adding a spicebush to my list to enhance the near-term look of the garden.

The big bluestem clumps looked great in the back of the garden at the Boathouse. They would be great to provide a different color and shape among the other plants in my front yard. The garden is on the south side of the house so the plants will always get some sun for part of the day…so the grass should thrive long term.

The cup plants are insect magnets, but they are too tall for the front garden. I decided to buy some to plant along my back fence (I can put some twine looped to the fence to hold them up).

It could be 4 years before the new plantings are big enough to look like I want – but there should be improvement each year. I might add some nectar plants like coreopsis next spring. To fill in around the young plants

I’m going to trim some of my larger plants before they get buds/are too tall (like gray headed coneflower and pokeweed) to see if I can keep them short enough to use as front yard plants too. I’ll do that experiment in my backyard next spring with the plants already established there.

After this first round of tweaking – the plantings I will buy in early October are:

  • Roundleaf groundsel  Golden ragwort Packera aurea (3) (change made because of what the native plant vendor offers)

  • Blue Wild Indigo Baptisia australis (3)

  • American Beautyberry Callicarpa americana

  • Big bluestem Andropogon gerardii (2)

  • Spicebush Lindera benzoin

  • Serviceberry Amelanchier arboria

  • Pawpaw Asimina triloba (2- one for the front and one for backyard)

  • Cup plant Silphium perfoliatum (2 for backyard)

The plan for before winter comes is:

  • Order more wood chips/mulch and complete making the new bed (lots of work)

  • Place order for plants to be picked up the first week in October

  • Make 811 request (need to do before digging)

  • Plant (lots of work…but maybe not as much as making the new bed)

  • And, of course, continued pulling of weeds as they come up in my new landscaping area!

  • I am making a diagram to guide my planting…and will in include it in my next progress report.

Previous posts about Big Landscaping Change

Thinking of my Mother

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I cut one of the naked lady lilies to bring indoors – a single stem in a vase that easily fits on the windowsill.

The flowers remind me of my mother. The bulbs came from her garden to mine a few weeks before she died. Until this year, I had thought they hadn’t survived the emergency transplanting in January 2023. When I noticed the three stalks with blooms (I had missed the foliage in the early summer), they prompted memories of her last decade.

  • Her joy when they bloomed in August. She could see the sea of pink blooms from her garden room. She would sit by the largest window in the morning sun to read the paper or make notes….or she would look up from working on the jigsaw puzzle. The scene of the outdoors called to her repeatedly.

  • Her desire to be outdoors among the blooms. She frequently went outdoors when it was cool enough (generally only in the morning in August) to see the flowers either from the edge of the patio or wading into the flower bed to cut a few stems. Toward the end of the decade, a walker was increasingly required, and the family tried to accompany her into the beds….although she still managed some solo forays and (thankfully) came back unscathed.

  • Her making of bouquets. The naked lady lilies are not ‘day’ lilies, so they lasted longer after they were cut. She would sometimes have a vase full of just the lilies, but other times would combine them with other plants….but always the lilies were the standout of the bouquets for the duration of their bloom time.

I have some other plants from my mother’s garden (chives and irises are the ones thriving), but the naked lady lilies are the ones that prompt the most memories…her good times in August.

Spicebush Caterpillar Update

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After a hard rain – I checked to see if the caterpillars were surviving on the spicebush. I had seen 4 very tiny ones when I checked a week ago. I found a very tiny one right way and then two that were probably from the group I saw last week. One was completely enfolded in a leaf and was probably waiting to dry out a bit before venturing out. The other was partially in a leaf…looked like it had eaten part of its hiding place!

Hopefully I will have some that will survive to become Spicebush Swallowtail butterflies.

I didn’t look over the entire plant…it could be that there were other caterpillars although birds could have eaten some of them. Caterpillars are – after all – high quality bird food.

Our Missouri Yard in August 2025

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July was very dry here, but our sprinkler system has kept up. Our shade garden looks lush with violets and a few hostas and lambs ear going to seed. The dried remains of alliums and some grass seed heads offer some highlights in the sea of violets.

The American Spikenard is blooming with violets under it a little further up the hill – and where I can see it from my office window.

Even further up the hill with violets around it, is the spicebush I planted last fall. I have been checking it for eggs or caterpillars --- and it finally has caterpillars. I counted 4 – all Spicebush Swallowtail caterpillars. I am leaving them alone right now but will go out and check on them. They are easy to spot even when they are small because they pull the leaf around themselves (like a leaf taco) when they resting.

One morning last week when I was out weed eating, I noticed that one of my mother’s naked lady lily bulbs that I planted in my yard in January 2023 has survived! The pokeweed shades it from the heat. There was a second plant that was mostly still buds. I was happy to see it --- glad it was there to spark memories of Mom. I took some macro images of the flowers. They start out a darker pink then fade as they mature.

The pokeweed seems to have more evidence that insects are eating its foliage…but has plenty of energy to make seeds. None of reached maturity yet (i.e. no purple fruits). I am going to let the ones in the bed with the lilies make seeds and hope the birds will enjoy the this fall/winter.

There are birds around: a female hummingbird that comes to my feeder frequently and sometimes flies to the nearby pine or visits the plants in the shade garden, a family of finches,

A young wren,

And a juvenile robin in the pine tree (the third brood for the summer). I am glad that the shade garden seems to be attractive to so many birds.

In the front yard, the crape myrtles are doing better than I expected. They tend to die back in winter but this year they seem to be more robust.

The Virginia creeper is a thick ground cover in the front bed around two of the crape myrtles. I periodically pull it off the bricks although the way it adheres is not damaging like English Ivy can be.

Our yard is looking good in August…and I am looking forward to the work to do the landscaping this fall in the front of the house.

Macro Daylilies and Cecropia Moth

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I enjoy macro photography with my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max)…today’s post shows two different rounds – one from July and the other from August.

In July, I realized that I would have to dig out my daylilies that were growing around the maple to be cut down – so I cut all of them that were in bloom to enjoy indoors….and too photograph.

I like the shapes and textures and shades of color. They all change as the flowers age: texture and color intensify …and the shapes often become collapsed curls. The flowers and stems are now in my shade garden to decompose among the pine needles and plants growing there; another component of the mulch.

On the morning I volunteered in the Butterfly House last week, there were two Cecropia Moths that had died. The adult forms don’t live very long (10-14 days) since they don’t eat as adults.

The Cecropia Moth is the largest species in North America. It is a type of silk moth and has one life cycle per year. It overwinters as a cocoon made of silk and leaves. I took pictures of the body from different angles…marveling at how ‘hairy’ the scales look there. The antennae look feather-like. The tips of the wings have what looks like an eye…and markings that look like a snake profile!

The dead cecropia were interesting to visitors. They were able to feel how soft the wings were – like velvet – which is not something we suggest with living moths. It doesn’t take long before it is noticeable that some scales have been rubbed off. Moths and butterflies are beautiful…and relatively fragile.  

Big Landscaping Change – the plan

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Having a maple cut down after a storm damaged it, prompted some thinking about what to do with our front yard. It looked way too open, and I didn’t want more grass to mow! I talked to another Master Naturalist that has a lot more experience than me for advice about good native plants for a front yard. She had done a lecture about native plantings last fall when I attended the Missouri Master Naturalist core training, and I remembered her comments about serviceberry (Amelanchier aborea) – was leaning toward that plant as the largest in the new landscaping. She invited me to see the plantings in her yard…and that helped me decide on the other plants I wanted:

Wild hydrangea (the one that would be the next largest and be planted midway between the remaining maple and the serviceberry)…this is the one in am still thinking about…my alternative would be a Ninebark like I had in Maryland…it does well here too!

Multiple wild indigos as a smaller shrub and a legume that will put nitrogen into the soil

Roundleaf groundsel that will become the groundcover and will stay green when the other plants are dormant

My Homeowners Association has an Architecture Committee that wants to know about significant landscaping changes so I drew a sketch and listed the plants I was considering….and they approved it about 30 minutes after I sent the email! It was much easier that I thought it would be.

Now to get the bed made (an area encompassing the three areas I heavily mulched with wood chips from the maple)…and order the plants…and plant them in late September/early October.

Goodbye to a Maple

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Our maple that was damaged by a storm in late June was cut down in late July.  All that was left was a stump surrounded by saw dust in our front yard and a pile of wood chips in our driveway. I dusted the stump off and discovered that I will need to sand it if I want to count the rings.

I had tentative plans for the wood chips, but they were left during a time when the heat and humidity was too high to work in the afternoon. All I got done the first morning after the tree was cut down was pulling the grass in the bed near my mailbox. I put as many wood chips as I could mash into the soil and surrounded the Missouri Evening Primrose with bricks. That project made a very small dent in pile.

The second day I was able to work for about an hour before 8 AM (the only time of day it was cool enough!) and put mulch around the stump and a dogwood tree.

The third day my daughter came to help. We got more done with both of us to loading the wheelbarrow, dumping it, and spreading out the mulch.

Quite a lot went into a low place in my yard (a large tree must have been cut down there a few years prior to when we bought the house) where I plan to add some landscaping plants; the places where the lawn mower had scalped the grass down to dirt helped me define the extent of the bowl. And then there was the base of the remaining maple where more mulch could be spread. I will probably hire a crew to create a bed that connects all three areas and do my plantings in the fall.

I had one more wheelbarrow and sweeping up the scattered chips left for the fourth day. The last wheelbarrow load were spread around the witch hazel I have planted in the backyard.

It took me about 4 hours to distribute all the wood chips. I’ve learned to drink a lot of water and pace myself when it is so hot and humid outside even in the morning. The 4 days allowed me to think more about what I want to do with the front yard too…and say goodbye to the maple as a tree knowing that its chips will stay close to where it grew.

Ten Little Celebrations – July 2025

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July was a great month to be outdoors – even though it was very hot…plenty to celebrate.

Rescuing a large cecropia caterpillar from the trash. One of my morning shifts at the Butterfly House started with quite a surprise….finding a cecropia caterpillar in the trash while I was cleaning up before opening. I celebrated that I happened to look down before I threw in the messy paper towel…and could easily return the caterpillar to the table display.

Luna caterpillars making cocoons. I celebrated when my 40 or so Luna Moth caterpillars started making their cocoons. When they were all large caterpillars, it was challenging to keep them sufficiently supplied with sweet gum leaves.

More and more cocoons…and then I took the last 4 Luna caterpillars to the Butterfly House. I celebrated some quite days with only rustlings from the pupa inside the cocoons.

The first Luna Moths emerging. The first moths started to emerge…3 males in one day! I celebrated that so many of the cocoons seem viable too…so many more of these beautiful moths will be emerging soon.

A late afternoon barbeque picnic and evening mothing. I celebrated with a great meal with fellow Butterfly House docents…and then seeing how lights and sheets in the evening attract moths.

Dayl ilies at the Botanical. I celebrate the profusion of color and form of the day lilies every year about this time.

Finding S. Fred Prince’s The rainbow in the grass; wildflowers of the Marvel Cave Ozark. I was doing my usual look at botanical books for next month and happened upon this beautiful one from the early 1900s about the wildflowers in the Branson MO area….close to where I live!

Seeing cattle egrets. As I drove north from Dallas, I saw a flock of cattle egrets flying over the highway. It must be a good year for producing young.

Lake Springfield Boathouse Garden. My husband and I always enjoy the plantings around the building…and the walk down toward the field of wildflowers. We went early enough in the day that it wasn’t too hot.

Sunflowers at the assisted living home. My sister planted sunflowers in a big pot (and some of the seeds must have spilled because several plants are growing in the soil next to the pot). I celebrated that they are thriving and the memory that my niece brought a sunflower seedling in a cup home from kindergarten, and my mother propagated them along the alley for years. That niece is getting ready to have her second child soon.

Zooming - July 2025

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The places for this month zoomed images include: my neighborhood/yard, Fantastic Caverns, my dad’s assisted living home, Springfield Botanical Gardens, and Lake Springfield Boathouse. It was a good month to be out and about in the morning…before the heat of the day! The early summer flowers doing well: arugula, cone flowers, day lilies, sunflowers, prickly pear cactus, button bush, and Missouri Evening Primrose. Enjoy the July 2025 slideshow!

Luna Moth Cocoons

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Some of my 30 or so luna moth cocoons are over 2 weeks old now. So far – no moths have emerged, but the pupas are making noises as they move around inside the cocoon! I made a short recording of the small noises that reassure me that they are indeed viable and developing.

The cocoons are optimally silk produced by the caterpillar and sweet gum leaves, but sometimes other things get incorporated – twigs and bits of paper towel (which was on the floor of the bin) are the most common additions. At the time these caterpillars made their cocoons, the bins were very crowded and sometimes two cocoons are side by side…too close to separate without risking damage to the cocoons. It will be interesting to see what happens as all of these emerge.

Sometimes the caterpillars don’t use silk and leaves; they are ‘bare.’ I have three that are like that. They are easy to see moving so seem to be acting like the ones that do have the outer covering. Will they emerge and be healthy? In the wild, it seems like they would be vulnerable to be eaten although if they fell to the ground, they might look enough like poop that they would be left alone.

I have so many cocoons that I will have plenty of opportunity to observe moths emerging….so looking forward to that experience.

Late June Storm

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We are still dealing with the aftermath of a late June storm. At our house, one of the two maples in our front yard lost some larger branches. It spilt in such a way that leaves it vulnerable to the next high wind event – likely to fall into the street. This was the first year that the daylilies I’d planted around its base have been numerous enough to look good. It is upsetting; we’ve accepted the arborist’s recommendation to cut it down. In preparation I’ve cut the daylily flowers and am going to transplant the rhizomes elsewhere. We aren’t going to grind the stump. Instead, I am going to create a native plant garden around where the tree was cut and incorporate a lower place where a tree was removed before we bought the house. It will include a small tree (maybe a serviceberry), a bush (maybe winterberry holly or ninebark)…and then some perennials; I’m looking for a landscaping company that can do most of the work…hopefully leaving it where I can maintain it. I’ve also requested the wood chips from the tree that I can spread elsewhere around my yard…keeping the nutrients on my land.

My daughter’s yard had damage too. One of her amur maples dropped a limb on the driveway and the other dropped a limb on a fence (but gently enough that it didn’t take the fence down. Her husband handled the branch in their driveway shortly after it fell. The tree service will take the limb that fell on the fence and the junipers that fell over at the side of her house. She had her trees trimmed earlier this season or she probably would have had more damage. She is contemplating what to plant once the junipers are gone.

There were many people that had more damage that we did and were without power for days. We are using the destruction of the storm as an opportunity to plant more natives in our yard!

Yard Work – June 2025

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It’s the time of year when there is a lot to do in the yard. There is always something to see along the way….like an insect on one of lawn mower knobs. I am appreciating the new blades my husband installed on the mower.  It does not clog as easily when the grass is a little wet and the batteries seem to last longer too.

With my husband’s surgery in May, we got a little behind on edging and weed eating. When he was recovered enough to do the edging, he went out to check the situation and someone in the neighborhood had already done it! They also did some weed eating which was not as appreciated since they cut some daylilies and my Missouri evening primrose too. There was a smashed bird nest/egg nearby as well (although that could have been from another cause). I put some bricks around the cut primrose and later pulled most of the grass growing around it. I posted a thank you with a proviso about the evening primrose and day lilies on the neighborhood’s Facebook page since I have no idea who did it.

We have hackberries coming up everywhere….planted by birds. There is a large hackberry near the neighborhood pond – probably the parent. I am cutting them at this point but might leave one if it comes up in a place that it could grow to be a tree. Poke weed and Virginia Creeper are other natives that are prolific in the yard…..sometimes a little overwhelming and I usually leave them – particularly in the back yard. Poison ivy is something I always try to pull as soon as I find.


A hedge parsley came up in one of my flower beds…and it was pulled since it is not native to North America and tends to spread. I do the same with tree and Asian honeysuckle. A forsythia (also non-native) has been an ongoing project in my back yard. I am gradually cutting it down and will eventually paint the cut stubs with herbicide to kill it. I would rather have a native bush there. In the meantime, the results of my pruning are making a higher pile on my deck….drying out now and will be burned in the fall in my chimenea.

I planted a pot of flowers and veggies and a white oak seedling in late May. The zinnias are beginning to bloom! I won’t do it long term since it must be watered frequently….not something I want to do! I’ll have to decide where to put the white oak.

Other than my mower - my pruners, water bottle and gauntlet gloves are my primary tools. I’ve purchased some summer weight sunblock shirts and wear a hat, so I don’t need sunscreen except on my face!

Adventures in Caterpillar Care (4)

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July 2 – July 9 with a lot of bigger and bigger luna moth caterpillars and a few cecropia moth caterpillars… an ongoing adventure.

I graduated to two large bins for the 40 or so luna moth caterpillars on 7/2 because the caterpillars seemed too crowded in one.

I moved the cecropia moth caterpillars to are larger bin too. They were still small but were beginning to look colorful…growing well on the sweet gum leaves.

I appreciated my neighbor with the sweet gum tree even more as the caterpillars got bigger. I made almost daily trips to get a bag of leaves! Pretty soon I graduated from my long-handled pruners to a pole saw because all the leaves were higher in the tree. The cecropias were eating well (I could find them more easily once they were in their own bin) and were still small enough to keep up with their food requirements.

One morning I thought I heard noises coming from one of the big luna bins. I made a movie to capture the sound of caterpillars eating (not loud….but I was pleased to capture the sound of caterpillars munching)!

The same day that I heard munching, I started to see some cocoons and noticing how big many of luna moth caterpillars had become.

The next morning I saw one that had changed color…as they sometimes do before building their cocoon.

I thought I left plenty of leaves in the bins for overnight….but when I came downstairs the next morning there was not a leaf left in either bin. It was a caterpillar emergency. I texted my neighbor and cleaned out the bins (put cocoons in a separate bin) and then went to get leaves. Fortunately, most caterpillars survived.

As I was cleaning out the bins, I found another caterpillar that had changed colors and put it in a small bin with violet leaves, and it immediately made a cocoon!

After the caterpillar emergency was dealt with, I had a shift in the Butterfly House. I took two larger caterpillars for the caterpillar display table and 4 cocoons for the display case. The cocoons contrasted nicely with the older cocoons already in the case because the leaf part was still green!

I got a collapsible case to put my other cocoons in so I can watch them emerge….and hopefully share the experience with the family that provided the leaves for the caterpillars.

The cecropia caterpillars will probably go to the Butterfly House at some point and maybe some of the luna moths when they emerge.

It’s been an exciting week…probably the peak sweet gum consumption of this adventure.

Previous Adventures in Caterpillar Care posts

Remains of a Bird

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I found the remains of a bird on our patio. It must have been there for a while – through several recent rains. It has been picked clean except for the more substantial wing feathers. It is about the size of a barn swallow; they nested under our deck again this year. The cause of death is not obvious, and I was relieved that it was unlikely caused by the bird flying into the glass of a window since there is not one nearby.

 My first thought was about how fossils of archeopteryx look because of how flattened it is except for the skull. I didn’t try to move it because it is out of the way and appeared to be glued to the pavement. The most nutritious part of the bird is already gone and I will let nature complete the process.

Adventures in Caterpillar Care (3)

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This post is about my adventures in caterpillar care from June 25 to July 1.

The cecropia moth caterpillars (4 of them) were moved to their own bin. They are slower developing than the luna moth caterpillars and started out still having lots of block bristles but had progressed to more colorful instars a few days later. They are still quite small.

My daughter sent me a picture of a ‘wild’ cecropia moth caterpillar on elderberry. Mine are eating sweet gum.  

There are 40+ luna moth caterpillars. They are bigger and go through sweet gum leaves faster. I replenish leaves twice a day in the big bin.

The big bin with a cooling rack to support the leaves works well. I take out the denuded twigs and put in new – using the rack to support the leaves well above the frass level. With 40 caterpillars – a lot of frass accumulates in just 24 hours!

To refresh the bin, I put a layer of paper towel in the bottom of a fresh bin, then move the cooling rack from the old bin to the new. There are always 3 or 4 caterpillars among the frass; if they will crawl onto a leaf, I use that to move them but otherwise, I cut the paper towel around the caterpillar and move it on the paper towel.

With the caterpillars eating so much more, I got some leaves from another sweet gum and also went to the Botanical Garden after a storm and found a branch that had be ripped off a sweet gum….lots of caterpillar food! I am saving the neighborhood tree for when I need a quick food source for the caterpillars. Sweet gum has the advantage of staying fresh for days in a closed bin….although it doesn’t last that long if there are 40 caterpillars in the bin!

Volunteering at the Library

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I helped set up the used book sale at one of our county libraries last Friday. It was different than last year because the room was in use until 5 PM so our set up was delayed until after that. In addition, it was raining all afternoon. I wondered if there were going to be a lot of wet boxes.

I got there about 10 minutes before the allotted time and there were indeed people in the room, so I worked on a jigsaw puzzle that the library had set up near a window while I waited. Other volunteers were arriving too – some with a load of book boxes in their cars (since it was raining – enclosed vehicles were required…the usual pickups could not be used).

After helping stack chairs and move tables to the periphery of the room, I got started on the children’s books like what I did last year. There was a table and a cart. The differences from last year were 1) more helpers and 2) less books (we estimated what we needed for the sale based on what happened last year). I had two helpers that loaded the bottom shelf of the cart, so I didn’t have any backache from this set up! We were done in less than an hour.