Feather your Nest Friday, 9th October, 2020.

 It was another good week.   We continued to have rain!  It is beautiful.  No amount of work we could do would make as much difference as the rain does.   And it was good timing!  I had planted up my raised garden beds.   I had just planted a sunflower patch and my pumpkins.    

I had Buddy eating down this little yard that is eventually taken over by pumpkins.  To get them started I put a little surround around them.   Buddy looked thrilled and I am pretty sure he thought yippee!  Desert! 

Everything I planted had several days of rain to water it in.  They all look so good.

Some of the other ways I build up the nest this week included:

I had a move -the -animals -day.  This came after many move -stuff -in -the -house days!   I had one Bantam with the chooks and I moved her into a separate enclosure with another Bantam hen and a Rooster.  The goal is hatching some batches of Pekin bantams. 

We moved the sheep and cows.  This is done with yelling their names and a packet of biscuits and they just follow us anywhere.

Buddy was moved too as I just mentioned. 

I added protective shade cloth around my Lemon Tree in the orchard.  Lemons do not like wind.  So I added a bit of a wind break. 

My cups of seedlings are doing well.  A lot of cherry tomatoes have come up which is just as well as I could not find these in the nursery.   Zucchinis came up well...

These took off in the last few days and today I planted out 12 of them.  

I painted up some jars and lids that were a matching size.  These are for a gift. 

The little roses are waterslide decals... I put clear varnish over the top.  You could paint something, use a sticker or cut out flowers from a seed catalogue... anything!  I love jars so I often paint ugly lids so they look nice.

On the rainy days I kept spring cleaning and re arranging... I cleaned out a basket I used before we lived here to take swimming.  It is a good useful basket so now it is in use again.  I found almost $50 in small change in it!   

We are working on fixing up a fence.  Grass was cleared from all along the bottom and this filled a wheelbarrow. I took that all up and gave it to the chooks.

Each day I have picked spinach, chard, kale and silverbeet and given a big bunch to the cows as I have so much.  They love it!

During the week I make a big pot of spaghetti meat sauce.  We had some on pasta that night for dinner.

The next day I used the sauce to make up three lasagnas.  

One I baked... it was cut into 6.  Two serves were dinner.  I froze the other four serves.

One is a gift of help to Lucy.

The other is for the upcoming baby week for Chloe.    

At the end I still had some sauce left over and that gave us a couple of lunches.   I love a decent cook up as it is so many meals ahead at once. 

I went to Mum's and we went through some photo albums.   Mum is cleaning out cupboards and re arranging too.   She gave me some lovely photos including one of my all time favourite photos of Dad. 

Also a recipe book hand written by my Nana.  There are some letters too.   One is from my Great Grandfather to Nana when my Uncle Jim was born.  It is congratulating her and he gave her money to help.   It is beautiful to have.  Another if from my other Grandmother... a school book of her handwriting (which is beautiful and she decorated her pages ... 💖) dated 1905.   And many more treasures. 

There are always a lot of birds at Mum's and they are very friendly.  Her Shrike Thrush (that is practically a pet) was sitting on eggs...

Three beautiful speckled eggs.  To me Speckled Eggs are the most gorgeous thing...

I will be back at Mum's on Monday and will check to see if they have hatched! 

I made yoghurt then we had a favourite easy meal.   I submerge chicken pieces in the yoghurt for the day.  In the evening each piece is dipped into crumbs.  (I use gf breadcrumbs) You can use seasoned crumbs... whatever you like.  I cook them in the air frier but you can cook them in the oven on a tray.  Once cooked and golden they are so delicious. This recipe is awesome to use up yoghurt too.  I did enough for a cold meal the next day as well.

I decided to make an effort to include the little things that make up life.  So here is a photo of Scout.  I am cooking dinner.  There is a big storage box outside the kitchen window.  She likes to see what I am cooking so she is watching...

I often am working away then get the feeling I am being watched and there she is.

Being Spring wherever I drive there are flowers.   There are mainly yellows... some whites and a few pinks.  When I see pink I pick that!   These were my free pickings this week.

The jug is one I found in a thrift store and it is huge.  So this is a lot of flowers!

The chickens are laying and so are the ducks.   These are the eggs I collected yesterday.

So many simple things, like eggs, are just beautiful.   Collecting the eggs is happy too.   The garden, nature and animals are very uplifting.  I know I do best if I am outside a lot and getting loads of sunshine and fresh air.  I sleep better.  These are stressful times.  We really need to immerse ourselves in positive things as much as we can.   Whether that is knitting, crafts, cooking, gardening, preserving...  we all know there are things that when we are busy with them we are thinking happy thoughts.    To be busy at home and content is a truly beautiful thing. 

I hope you had a good week! How did you further your garden, pantry or preparedness?  How did you feather your nest this week?  xxx