Feather your Nest Friday, 20th August, 2021.

 It has been a busy week!   Spring is in the air!   I never set foot off the farm this week as Andy did the run into town and picked up the groceries.   This allowed me to get so much more done at home.  An extra day is like gold! 

Some of the ways we got ahead, build up our home and pantry included:

We set aside a day for a "put it to good use" project.  There has been an old and dilapidated garden shed on the property that was not used.   I decided that the tennis court where we keep the goats would really benefit from a better shelter.  Nothing much fits through the gates into the tennis court which limited us before.  But if we took this shed down, and re building on the inside,  it would be fantastic!  

Our helpers for the day watched on.   In the end it worked, the shed came back together and although it is not the Taj Mahal it is really good! 

The door isn't yet on.  That needs repairs.   So I think I will add my black rooster and hens to this area and see if we can hatch some black chicks.   I am on the watch out for some perches and nesting boxes.  

I cut up a whole pumpkin and roasted it plus a couple of onions. 

This became the most delicious soup which I shared with Chloe.

Orange was apparently the theme of the week as I made Orange Cakes using up three oranges. 

This one was for the girls and two more were made up in loaf tins for easy work lunches.

The jar is some Lemon Infused Honey.   It was something new to try as I have lemons still and farm honey.

You wash an organic lemon and cut it through in a spiral so that honey is going to get right through it.  Then simply cover with honey.   After a couple of days your honey is full of lemon goodness.   I am having some everyday in a cup of tea.  I am calling it immune boosting honey!   I read you can keep it like this for months.   We are using it everyday so I might not find out how long it lasts unless I do a test one to see.

At Mum's I picked a basket of Rosemary and Bay Leaves.

I used some of the Rosemary with a Lamb roast during the week.  I saved a little bit to see if I can get it to strike.   The Bay Leaves are hanging up to dry.

And I still have lemons left... so I made another batch of Lemon Butter and froze it.   It is probably a bad thing to discover but it freezes soft and is like ice cream!

After a few weeks of battling away I finished re organising my craft room.   Now I love it! 

I also know what I have and where.  

I painted up an old table and a little set of bedside drawers.   I had left over paint and decals from another bigger chest of drawers I did last year.

I made an Impossible Pie one night and got lunches from it as well. 

Now I am starting to realise I did a lot this week!   Ok then... full of momentum at conquering the craft room I took on the fridge!    Oh boy.  But now like the craft room I keep admiring it!   It looks so good and smells of vanilla.  It took a couple of hours as I washed the drawers, re lined everything and re organised it.

Because of all this I didn't get much craft done but I did dye some seam binding ribbon.  This is my first batch.  I am going to do several colours and use them as crafty gifts.

I added 10 250g slabs of butter to the freezer. 

Now,  the two biggest things.   We got our tractor!   It came yesterday.   This was very exciting.

This is the getting stuff done equivalent to the Cavalry arriving. 

Straight out to work...

Today it is one year since my Dad died.   I feel better about it so far today than I did yesterday.  I know he would be very happy with how things are going here.  I feel him with me such a lot.  I feel I am still together with him although I am here and he is there.  If that makes sense.   

Well, that is my week.  See you Monday with our next preparedness post. xxx