Gardening and Crafting

Over the last few days, I haven't been doing much else other than gardening and working with my clay.  We have had a LOT of rain, so the storms have impeded the garden progress at times, but I can't help being thankful for the rain.  I only wish we had installed rain barrels already!  

Here is the newest bed:

I know, I'm a little late putting them in the ground.  I had issues getting the seeds started.  Plus, the plants are still a little small, and I was hesitant to put them out too soon.  My smaller, tender, tomatoes were shredded by some unknown force of critter origin...and I didn't want the same to happen to these guys!  I'm hoping now that they are out in the sun and well fertilized dirt, that they will start growing better.

We have our first heirloom Amish Pie Pumpkin!  I'm so excited to make a pumpkin pie with a pumpkin that came out of my yard!  This plant is a little cramped for the beds I have, but I learned my lesson for next year.  A large portion of the front end of the vine snapped when I tried to move it away from the bunny fencing, even with my efforts to be exceptionally gentle.  It eventually rotted apart, and I had to toss it.  I was sad at the loss of two potential baby pumpkins...but that's gardening I guess.  At least it has more room in the bed for the few pumpkins that have started already!

Here's one of the bunnies we have in the neighborhood.  There are a few, and I've seen two at a time roaming through the yard while gorging themselves on our dandelion field (aka the back yard).    I enjoy watching them, so I haven't wanted to repel them.  But I was super paranoid about them getting into the beds, hence the bunny fence.  However, I was reading that bunnies tend to stay out of raised beds anyway, due to fear of putting themselves in a vulnerable position.  Even so, I'd rather be safe than sorry...and the fence still serves a good purpose:  it keeps some of the roaming neighborhood cats from pooping in my beds!  Cleaning someone else's pet's poop piles out of my garden beds, was not something I was expecting...

Most recent crafty endeavors have involved working on some video game themed items.  I just finished up some Plants vs. Zombies based desk buddies.  I've gotten some really good feedback on these, so I'll be making more soon.  This is one of my all time favorite games, which I keep on my iPad and my PC.  I sucked my husband into playing as well, and he's taking to playing on the iPad while we're settling in bed for the night.

These pics are while they are still in progress.  I'll be posting some "formal" pics when I finish up the touch ups and sealing.  I've got a big pile of baked clay items to paint and seal, which I can hopefully get done this weekend.