Oh, you are all such kind enablers and I thank you so much for your nice comments! I do love making totems, not really sure why. I've done a lot of other crafts but like this one A LOT! LOL My current "reason" I can have more totems is because we are in the process of enlarging the garden! Some might call that rationalization but I won't go there. Karen, that crystal horse is one of a pair I bot for $5 for both. I found the same ones online for $50 each. Almost hated to use it in a totem, but your know how it it with a pretty piece of glass. I'll offer that one for sale, there are lots of "horsey" people around here so it should sell. Marlene, it's reassuring to know I'm not alone in this fun hobby even if we are all "crazy". Looking forward to seeing your new creations. With the new garden I'll have almost unlimited room for garden junk. Scary thot isn't it! Vickie, yes, I have lots of spots of dirt for sure and really don't see this hobby ending. Susie, I may sometime in the future have more totems than plants! Toomuchglass, these things almost seem to make themselves and even tho I sort of plan them I'm not really sure what they'll look like til they're done. Thanks again everyone.

Don't you just love them. I had one live in my tomato patch late last summer. First time I saw him I almost stepped on him. Hope you see him around your yard again.

Dear Paigect, I am another one of those - former stepchild/stepmother. I didn't like my stepfather for a while, but figured things out when I grew up and we had a great relationship before he died of cancer. My first dad was dead when I got him, so there wasn't any wishing to get back together stuff. What role do you think you could play in putting an end to your son's fantasy of you 2 getting back together? Do you think that you could actually help the situation? Or do you just want your ex to be the one to deal with it? I take it you aren't remarried yourself. If you are truly trying to get your son happy and able to have a relationship with his dad- you could help. If your son acts out and is disrespectful to his stepmother and you condone it and blame it on the fantasy and her - you are giving him a message that he can be disrespectful to adults if he chooses not to like them. Do you see that? I have one stepson who is like that, and I have another one who I adore and he a loves me. The difficult one has done things that would curl your hair - choked his girlfriend, stole his dad's gun and got arrested 3 days out of marine boot camp, run around naked, at 16, holding his penis out in front of 10 year old girls thinking he's funny, wrecked cars- twice in one weekend one time, threatened me, runaway and left horrid notes blaming me numerously, got beat up at school for running his mouth and needed to be taken to the med station a number of times, stole his dad's 300.00 fish finder and lost it, lying, partying and skipping school, bad grades, no job, the list goes on and on. When do you say enough is enough? His hell bent goal was to get his dad to divorce me so he could be in charge. He wanted to run things. He blames me for joining the Marines -claims he wanted to get away from me. Now he hates it and it is all my fault. It will be my fault if he gets hurt too. He isn't responsible for any part of our bad relationship or his choices, is he? I am just supposed to take it, the blame and the horrid behavior. His room is a mess from the last time he was home - including used rubbers and half eaten candy bars stuck to the carpet. Oh by the way, his carpet is ruined, there are holes in the walls and his mattress is all chopped up - the new one I bought for him when we moved into our house together. That is all my fault too. Some kids just aren't nice. I must be doing something right though - his brother loves me like crazy. And now you can call me an evil stepmother like he does. Or you can realize that some of us have come to the end of our ropes and patience. You know what? I honestly hold my husband responsible, along with my stepson, for his behavior. If my husband hadn't made excuses for him, made him accountable for his actions and made him take some responsibility, he wouldn't have turned out as bad as he did. I have 2 of my own kids in the house too. They are not bad kids and respect my husband. My ex is out of the picture. It is like I have 3 kids and he has the one. I don't want to leave my husband, because then I couldn't keep my stepson who loves me. The older one is out of the house in the Marines now and it is a whole different household. There is peace. It isn't the his kids vs mine thing. Sure they all pull stuff. But I can discipline now and no one accuses me of being mean and targeting the step kid and other rubbish. It is fair. And there is respect and love that goes both ways. That is the most important thing. No I couldn't respect my older stepson. His repeated behavior wouldn't facilitate it. Every time it would seem to get better - he would pull something and some how he would turn it around and someone else was to blame. Usually me. Yes I am relieved he is in the marines. No, as a matter of fact, I clearly stated I didn't want him to join. He doesn't have good sense and I am afraid for him. But there is a peace in the house. Except of course for my husband. He blames me that his son is gone. But you know what - he is the one who could have refused to let him join. He is the one who could have talked him out of it. He had the influence and the power. Not me. Master manipulator that kid is, huh. Oh, by the way - the boys mother killed herself 3 years ago. She was a drug addict, convicted of embezzlement too. Her choices caught up with her and that was her answer. Now her son is going down her path. I am scared to death for him. I wish someone could help him, but I clearly can't. Maybe the marines will. And when he grows up, maybe he will figure out I wasn't that bad and we can have some sort of relationship. No I won't hold my breath though - I don't want to die, already had that scare with ovarian cancer. Life is too short to be that miserable. Until you walk in someone elses shoes, be careful how you judge them. Some of us have had waaaayyyyy too much to handle with perfect grace. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. That is the path of a stepmother.

Wow GT, I didn't think Betty was a frog. I mean I thought she probably popped up in your yard just like mine did and she looks so much like my toads :) But don't tell her, might be an insult to say she looks like a toad :) On closer inspection, she is much greener than my tan toads....oops, another potential amphibian/toadian insult to Betty! Interesting link on Bullfrogs, amazing that they eat anything. It's actually good they are eating crawfish which are also now considered a pest species here in AZ. But I can see how they might put a dent in other secies that we'd like to keep around too. I suppose if you were breeding and releasing little Bettys and Bufords that wouldn't be so great for the environment. But seeing how they are your pets in your own little garden of eden, don't see how that hurts anything. Like Jim said, it's when people go releasing non-natives, spreading them around the native areas, when we get into some troubles with balance. It's much easier to control the spread of animals like frogs contained in a closed yard than controlling the spread of plants like grasses which are subject to distribution by birds and wind though. I never could get paalexan's site to come up - wonder if too many of us were trying to access it.....