Feather your Nest Friday, 12th November, 2021.

 It has been a lovely week.  I was able to stay home it was so nice.  

Every day I have a routine starting with going outside to survey the situation.   Then I begin with letting the chooks out and watering garden beds.    Then I give water to the goats and move them,  collect eggs, harvest some greens or herbs,  plant some seedlings and so on.   

I do some watering in the orchard and check how the fruit is going.   My little buddies accompany me on my tour. 

Molly absolutely loves the goats.  

During the day I usually have a list of jobs and goals to work through then at 4 pm I begin the whole routine in reverse,  rounding up chickens to put them away,  feeding everyone for the evening etc.   It is light here now until about 8 pm and this is my favourite time to walk around the garden.  It is just beautiful and very noisy with thousands of parrots getting ready for bed.   A day like this is a perfect day. 

Some of the ways I got ahead, got things done and added to the pantry were:

I dehydrated some cherry tomatoes that needed using up.   Later in the week they went into two Impossible pies.  I gave one of these to Chloe.

I also made two baked rice custards with one for my Grandson.   I made Scones for when Mum came by.

My Calendula seeds are up and I have been planting them out in various spaces in the garden. 

We were given two huge bales of fresh wheat hay.  

Andy put them out into the paddock for the cows.  We have lots of feed right now but later in summer we will be glad of the extra.

Our bee keeper came out.   He cleared some honeycomb out of the shed where bees have been.   

We sat out on the deck with coffee and fruit cake.  I thought well this is a learning opportunity and asked him to teach me how to get beeswax to make balms etc from the honeycomb.   I learned a lot.  This produced about a quarter of a cup of beeswax and now I know what to do.

My flowers I've had drying are mostly ready to start making into arrangements, posies and packaging up.

The whole house is full of flowers.  Every vase is full.  Then I started filling buckets and baskets.

Chloe gave me a hanging air drier.  Finally it is up in a place I can keep it all year round.  I went Dandelion picking as my first addition to it.

I hope to have this full in the next couple of weeks!

Every day I have worked on Christmas cards and presents.  I made enough headway that most of my craft room is reclaimed and I am sewing again.  I want to stick to 15 minutes of sewing minimum per day as this really works to get stuff done.   

In the evening I am working edges on wash cloths.  When I am tired that is something that takes no concentration.

I put together a heap of gift packs... these each have a bottle of Vanilla Extract,  a packet of Bay Leaves and a packet of Parsley seed.  

I have really been thinking a lot about what resources I have, what I can make and what is useful.  Also what I COULD make if I grew certain things... like the Calendula.

It was a beautiful day and a beautiful week.  I hope it was good for you.  How did you get ahead with your home, pantry or garden?  

Have a very nice weekend! xxx