Days of a Porch Post Spider's Life

My old front porch has some posts featuring 4x4 uprights and crossing decorative connecting pieces of wood that make nice spots for spiders to hang out.  It doesn't hurt that I also don't brush the webs away very often.

On a recent hot morning I was hose watering some plants (yes, Officer Waterwatch, I do have a positive shut off valve on that hose!) and kind of absent-mindedly squirted some water onto the post where a labyrinth spider has been living.  The water scattered her recently hatched spiderlings out of the retreat and into the small yet disorganized web structure shining in the low morning sun.

A day later I looked again for the young spiders but they were not around.  The female adult however was already busy finishing up her next egg sac, hanging like a ripe fruit just above her retreat built mostly of dried leucophyllum frutescens flowers.