Bizzy Bizzy Bizzy!!!

I have to say we had a rather productive weekend!

Hubs fertilized the lawn while I puttered around in the Tiki Shack/Studio, glazing my Works-In-Progress. I don't know why, but I find glazing to be mind-numbingly dull. Yet "sanding" pieces with green scrubbies (which, honestly, is FAR more tedious) doesn't bother me one whit! I had NO company, and NOBODY I could call on the phone, so I just tackled it solo - with Spotify blasting 80's Pop Music thru my Netbook...

I do most of my Ceramics Record-Keeping on Facebook - not this blog.

I've got a lot of Ceramic-Artist FB Friends so - hopefully - they aren't *too* terribly bored with it! But, even if they are, I find it useful to go back thru my "albums" to keep track of what glazes I used on what pieces and, generally, track the progress...

But I *do* like to share SOME stuff here:

Well hello Mr. Easter Bunny!

I shall cook you @ 2167°F, for 8-9 hours on EASTER SUNDAY!

Mr. Easter Bunny is one, in my series of "Clay Critters" - basically animals that are squished out of leftover clay-blobs.

Full-kiln - after glazing all of my pieces.

Actually, two of my tall vases didn't make it into this firing.

I have a third tall-vase "in the works" but it hasn't been bisqued yet. I have TONS of stuff to bisque (including some of P's pieces) so - sometime next week - I'll do another bisque firing (low-fire - Cone 06 @ appx 1828°F). Then, after that, I'll probably do another mid-fire, glaze-firing for *just* my tall vases.

I'll try to post a few pics of Random Ceramic Creations, as they're completed...

Now, onto Gardening!

"The Peaches are Coming! The Peaches are Coming!"

Early-bearer white-peach - gonna be prolific!

Tough as it may be, I have to "cull" roughly half of the peach-babies from this tree. Unfortunately, we learned this "the hard way" a few years' back. I was culling baby-fruits from "Hubbie's" (yellow) peach-tree when he stopped me. He hated to see me kill the baby peaches but, later that year, the tree - so overladen with fruit -SNAPPED halfway up the trunk!

So yeah, I *gots* to cull the babies!

Annnnnnd.... As I'd mentioned in yesterday's post: I have tested my soil and found it to be completely deficient in Nitrogen, and mildly deficient in Phosphorous. Today, I amended the beds:

Tools for Soil Amending:

• Organic Blood Meal
• Organic Bone Meal
• Disposable plastic container for measuring
• Digital Scale
• Bucket for mixing amendments
• (not shown) Bag of Organic Compost and a hand-trowel...

Note: Measurements (below) are "Per Bed" (25 sq. feet apiece)

3-1/2 oz. of Blood Meal

Appx 1 oz. of Bone Meal

I dumped the Blood/Bone Meals into the plastic bucket with a couple-three cups of compost, and mixed them thoroughly (Droid seems to have "lost" that picture - Grrr!). Then I pulled-back the wood-chip mulch from my raised beds and sprinkled the beds. Then I gently raked it into the surface...

Beds w/1 (cubic foot) bag of compost,

plus "Amended" compost, skritched in with a rake...

Okay... Time for a break! Poke my nose into the greenhouse and check-up on the babies:

Starting to look like a "Garden Center" in here!!!

Next up on my list of Garden Chores (driven, mostly, by the friggin' Garden-Center in my Greenhouse!), I need to get rid of last year's Garden Experiment:

Straw-Bale Bed - FAIL!!!

I *might* keep the very-back bale for a few more weeks (there are broccolis and/or cauliflowers "still hangin' in there"), but I DO need to clear the space soon, because I am gonna have to build another raised bed. Otherwise all those Greenhouse Veggies are NOT gonna have a home!

Moderation? I haz none!!! (at least not where the garden is concerned!!!)