Spider Mentoring Program

I found three more Banana Spiders today. And a walking branch - it must have been a female. She had the pinched look to the end part of her abdomen, with some poop hanging out. She looked really fat, possibly gravid. I wonder if they lay the eggs? Dunno. I say she looked gravid because when I saw some walking sticks mating recently, the male had the female in these clamps in the back... it looked uncomfortable. The female I saw today had a crimp in that same place, like the female had that was being clamped, although now I have to admit that I don't know if they are shaped like that to begin with, or get that way in the clamping. hunh. But back to the spiders...
I went to visit the big banana spider on the eaves of the back of the house. I noticed a very tiny replica on a web about two feet away, on the wall Now the big daddy on the eaves is about the size of a pecan in the shell in the body. Overall diameter is about 5 inches. Junior, in the background, is about two inches diameter, and the body the size of a black-eyed pea. They looked like buddies, but who can tell. While I was standing back there, I turned my gaze to the over-grown acre up front, now filled with blue day lilies hanging out very close to the ground, and the green mystery plant that has taken over. I think it is a milkweed, I wonder if it will flower? It looks like milkweed now, and is about 6 or 6.5 feet tall at this point - about two meters. I was staring at it, trying to figure it out, and my eyes caught a huge web, as big as a framed 8"x10" piece of art, hung off the mesquite and the milkweed. In the center is another gigantic banana spider, resting on her fuzzy hammock. Just below her, my searching eyes found a partner, a little bit smaller, a little bit closer to the ground, on a 5"x8" in a mat. I became conviced we have high participation in the Spider Mentoring Program in our yard.