Feather your Nest Friday, 9th July, 2021.

Today is just beautiful.  The farm is so green and it is a glorious sunny day.  We know rain is coming so to me this is perfect.  The sun does me good and I see the baby goats are outside sun baking.  The chickens are sun baking, also the calf.  I am guessing down in the paddock the lambs are soaking it up too.   This week the fourth lamb arrived!  At last!  

Some of the ways we built up the home were:

I embroidered several baby items to put in my gift cupboard.

I made some sewing themed fabric bags.   Some of my Christmas gifts are going to be sewing notions, laces, ribbons and so on.  

We worked outside each fine day.  Andy started to make a goat play centre from stuff lying around the farm.  This was a big success.   The goats are in a big old fenced in tennis court.  It is perfect for them as a regular fence does nothing to contain them!   This is a huge space so we can add on to the climbing/obstacle course as we find things.   So far we have tyres and planks to connect them. 

They love it.   I can't wait to add to this more next week! 

Out the front of the house we have a deck and a big old table.   Back in the day I imagine the people who lived here sat back and watched tennis.   

We sit on the deck and watch goats play. 

If the weather is ok I love to eat outside.  I have always believed having a table and chairs somewhere outside is as good as an extra room.  Better!   Even a tiny balcony is so nice if you can have a chair to sit in the sun and enjoy some fresh air.   Anyway now we can see what the goats are up to.  I should have called them Raphael and Roger. 

I made some scones and shared with Mum.

We finished the chicken run!  It was so much fun to see the chickens go through the door and start to explore in there.

The way it was built there is a step to go over to get though the gate.  The ducks needed help so I put a box on each side to make a step up.   In no time there were in there having a great time.

I open the door in the morning and close it again later in the afternoon.  When the grass gets low I will leave the door shut until it grows up a bit and repeat the cycle.    We have been doing a lot of things to keep the cost of feed down and also reduce our dependance on store bought animal feed.   So this was another step.   Now all the chickens are able to free range to some extent.

My essential oils came out and I made myself a facial serum and some for a friend.  I make a rose serum that just soaks in like nothing else and smells gorgeous.  Expensive to buy, cheap to make!   While I was at it I added essential oils to some bubble bath to make it relaxing and good for bedtime.  

Our sheep were able to graduate to a bigger paddock.  I opened the gate and they all followed me.  When they saw the grass in the new paddock they ran past me and did leaps and bounds.   So they were happy! 

So beautiful!   The world is a really crappy place if you turn the TV on.   If you turn it off it's amazing how good things are.  I don't mean to be uninformed or not watchful.  Our news is mainly not factual anyway but rather a sort of social engineering project.   Not everyone is on a farm but if you have a garden, animals, any kind of handiwork, right there you have a formula for a lot of joy.    If I get a case of the myseries I go sit outside and talk to the dog.  Or sit with the goats or go feed the sheep or cows..  they are all so beautiful.

I found an old colander.  Finally I realised what to do with it.  Some of the succulents I saved the other week and soaked in water are looking good now.  I potted some up into the colander as an outside table centrepiece.  I like it!

My zero dollars and zero cents masterpiece! 

Some of the fruit tree cuttings I took are sprouting.  I expected leaves and hopefully roots.  Some of them are growing figs!!  

Well, I guess they are fig trees!  It just seems so funny to have sticks growing figs! 

I have Harper and Scarlett coming to stay tomorrow so I made a tray of Apricot Balls as a treat to have ready.

Two major investments this week.   A pole chainsaw.  This will help us prune up the big old fruit trees we have plus many other jobs.   If we can prune them we can put nets over them.  Last year the birds got most of the fruit and as much as I love birds I want my orchard.  The time to prune them is now.   Also three fruit trees to add to the orchard, two apricots and a peach.  I might see if I can still add a couple more next week.   

This morning I was thinking about busy mornings.  I am more a night owl than an early bird.  But getting the handmaidens all working gets the day going.   I was in the kitchen wiping benches down as the dishwasher and washing machine were humming along.   We have great handmaidens we have to get them working though!  

I hope you had a good week with opportunities to add to your pantry, garden, preparedness,  maybe gift cupboard!   It all counts!  Food doesn't have to be fancy to be delicious and decor doesn't have to be new to be warm and welcoming!  Most of us are here and alive today because our Grandparents and Great Grandparents (and beyond) put up food and supplies for hard times.   Now I am the Grandmother and it's my job.  Somehow looking well to the ways of our households is a great joy.  Small things are worth celebrating so share with us your progress!xxx