Feather your Nest Friday 5th November, 2021.

This was a very busy week, too busy.  I had several appointments in town and they all needed attending.  They were worth it but four days out really doesn't work for me with this much garden and this many animals!  Stuff just gets away from me!   So it is really nice to arrive at the end of the week and appreciate the good bits.  And there were lots of good bits!

I continued to pick flowers including some Lavender from Mum's garden.

Some of my flowers are quite dry now so I am going to begin making up posies and packaging them.

I used some lemons to make lemon cleaning vinegar and vodka.  Neither of us are ever going to drink vodka so I decided to make some lemon extract and some for cleaning.

I met up with Wendy (The Nesting Hen) and she had beautiful ginghams for me!   I love gingham.  Also some lovely bottles, some pale pink waffle weave fabric... I already have plans for that!   That same day I checked out two op shops and had great luck.   For the baby boys I found fantastic farm animals...

Also some beautiful crushed blue velvet,  very old cake tins( that are small/narrow just right to make fig and quince paste in.)   Plus a whole heap of as new cook books.  

I think I got six or seven,  they all went straight into the gift cupboard.   The most expensive one was $2.50 but most were $2.   A Cath Kidston bag.  A pure silk scarf with tags on!  From the New York museum!  Into the gift cupboard... ($1) A flannelette sheet with horses all over it... perfect for kids hankies and wash cloths.

I planted Calendula seeds.   The idea is to grow it and harvest the flowers for soap making and lotions.

We put nets over the big old fruit trees.   I waited for all the fruit to set.  The apples are formed...

With the frames we built the job wasn't too bad.  It was making them truly bird proof that took time.   Every hole was blocked!  Andy used the tractor to put big fence posts down, to lay on the netting to keep it from blowing in the wind.

Now I will keep the water up to them and hope the fruit matures!

At the chemist they had a deal where you got a bag of products with $39 spend on several brands.  One of those brands was a vitamin we use and they were half price.  So I grabbed those on this good deal.  The bag had so much in it... full size liquid hand soap, toothpaste,  moisturisers, lip balm, baby shampoo, hand cream,  so much!  Some things from this also went into the gift cupboard.  Most went into the supplies cupboard.

I did a trade and ended up with 20 kilos of dry dog food.  This will be very good for emergencies.

At the post office they had a whole table of books out for $5 each.  I went through them and got ten more books for the present cupboard.   There were very good childrens books and activities. 

So it was the week of book deals!  Here at least books are now very expensive. It is nothing for a cook book to be $50 - $75.  A regular book to be $30...    so this is the way to put some books away for gifts.

My ambition for the weekend is a sleep in!    I am grateful for all the opportunities to get ahead here and there.   In regard to the farm and talking with locals etc we are seeing supply issues on everything.   What ever you go to do there are delays,  wait lists...  vehicles, machinery, parts, you name it.   If you have important parts/supplies you need act now. 

Today I baked a ham and made a big rice salad.  Tomorrow I am calling it a day off cooking as this is just the weather for cold meat and salads.  We love that.   When I get to the end of the ham I will chop up bits and make a couple of big Quiches and use up some eggs and spinach from the garden.    

I hope you had a good week and found ways to build up your home, pantry, garden...     Thinking of the pantry I know I have apples that need using, more lemons and tomatoes.   I will see what I can do with them before the weekend is over.  xxx