Hi Dotty, This is my experience with many bales of straw. 1) If anyone tells you there are no seeds in a bale of straw as opposed to a bale of hay, don't believe them. There may be less, but they are still there. 2) I left several bales of 'straw' to rot for a couple of years and then used them in the gardens as mulch. Nice stuff when you place it down, but I am weeding out one garden I created just a few weeks ago from this stuff. ugh!! 3) Other bales were used in composting. Some were used for the walls of a compost next to another existing compost pile and that worked great. Then I started to use the straw as a brown in a new pile when I ran out of leaves. I am now using this compost to amend the gardens and see no weeds from seeds which must have been killed by the heat of the compost. The walls of one of my compost bins is falling apart and I plan on collecting bales rejected by people after Halloween to create another composting area for this winter. I'll use them for browns next summer. Waving at you from Nova Scotia. :O)

if you are looking for stamps you could use the alphabet stamps that go with wood burners or just by looking in the scrapbook section of your local craft store they are use to emboss metal or paper, and there is also leather stamps they could serve the same purpose , stone stamps, & do not forget you can make your own stamps out off polymer clay. these Ideas are what I use as you can tell I must have a messy craft area!!!!! I use a 50% coupon to buy my polymer clay supplies so you could always get you pasta machine cheaper sign up for the michaels online newsletters & coupons. also here are some websites I go to to buy things http://www.acmoore.com/p-32167-easy-to-do-series-stamp-set-alphabet-14.aspx http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/claystamps.html http://www.polyclayplay.com/Products/PolyPresses/ProdStoneStamps.htm :(sorry could only figure out how to post one site!): I am a Polymer clay artist who is hopefully going to get to do real mosaics soon I have my supplies just need the time & work area to get me going!! I am a member of the poly clay club which is a fun club that does polymer clay challenges, letters of love for sick children, artist trading cards, & monthly projects. They have free projects on their site!! But this month I'm excited about the challenge because it involves polymer clay mosaics. Mosaics are Definitely something I've always wanted to do but did not have the time but my children & getting bigger now so if there are any tips on getting started with real mosaics? Besides keeping my fingers because I'm accident prone!!!:) please tell me!! Abby Here is a link that might be useful: This is the challenge any Ideas for doing mosaic would help! I want to win!!! Thanks

Hello everyone! I'm back! Francy, thanks for posting the link. Patti, do you have any questions about it? It is in a covered area attached to the house. FYI, it is on a concrete foundation that also goes below the frost line. There were a few tense moments because my builder sized it for a smaller oven, not realizing that you need to have room inside the oven for a fire as well as the pizza! I have the 36" oven by Superior Clay, and can't imagine using one that is any smaller. Here is a link to their website: http://www.superiorclay.com/oven/oven36.html#cook Another site with really good info is Mugnaini. Here is a link that might be useful: Mugnaini pizza ovens

Came back to this thread to check on Comte de Chambord, yes, Val grows it, and I agree that needs loamy soil, lots of rain, and healthier if alkaline. Comte is rooting easily in my wet baggie, and rooted easily in heavy out-door rain, while other cuttings rot. Comte has aggressive root and can root easily in alkaline sand, but I need to make my rooting-medium more acidic for the cuttings which are harder to root. Pink Pet definitely likes dry/loamy soil and warmer climate (Val's pic. is awesome). But died in my soaking wet clay last winter.