Feather your Nest Friday, 18th of Feb. 2022.

We have ten days of summer left.  I cannot wait for Autumn but just now it feels Autumn has arrived already.  It is beautiful.   

First I want to thank everyone who reported in and commented last week.  It seems we are all experiencing some pretty drastic price rises, shortages and even the threat of war.   I've had reports from the UK, US, Canada, NZ, Europe... it is educational to realise what others are going through.  Some are going through A LOT.  Wherever you come from makes no difference to me, we are all trying to take care of our families and homes and do the best we can.    I consider you all my friends and I am so grateful and lucky to have friends far and wide. 

With the above in mind I had goals this week to increase my container gardening.  Dad told me the gum trees would invade my veggie gardens and they have.  My kitchen garden close to the house is going ok... but my pumpkin patch has been invaded.  It has not done well.  Out the back there is a fenced courtyard, so it is protected.  It is also paved.  A space against the fence without pavers was an ideal place to plant something.  I put in a lemon tree and that is looking beautiful!   I have two huge pots that have produced hundreds of cherry tomatoes.  So I decided to start more containers of veggies.  

Mum helped me with some great options for planters.  The first is a big old copper.  It is about three foot deep.   It holds a lot of soil!  Another is a metal trunk with a wooden bottom.   It holds something like 4-6 cubic foot of soil.  The last is a huge plastic tub... maybe three feet long and close to two foot deep.   We had left over compost from when we top dressed all the garden beds.   Plus we have sheep and chicken manure.   My goal for the week was to get them filled up with the best soil possible and planted with seedlings. 

As soil went in I added old bantam eggs and eggs shells I had saved up. 

They are planted, watered in, fertilised...  I am happy! 

I also used four tin buckets as planters and filled them with potatoes that were sprouting.  

Mum also gave me a very rustic old wheelbarrow.  I filled it with soil and took babies from a lot of my succulents to make it into a succulent garden.  It looks pretty cute. 

The Cherry Tomatoes are almost finished.  I had all these tiny little straggler tomatoes... I made it that if I went outside I had to pick a handful until I had two trays to put into the dehydrator.   One basket is from my air frier... it has a smaller mesh.  I take out a tray from the dehydrator and use this instead which is so handy for little stuff! 

I have built up a bit of a collection of wire trays and baskets.  Last winter I dried trays and trays of stuff over the fire. It was fast, free and I loved it!

 I made raita with the bunch of mint from last week and a big batch of butter chicken. It was so nice and I gave Chloe some for a ready made meal for them.

My swap for the week was a goodie!  Look what I got!

A pair of young Silkies and a beautiful black and white hen... you can sneak peak a few feathers there... I have a rooster just the same so they will be a pair.   I traded eggs, I often give this friend 5 or 6 dozen eggs to help her as she works so hard to re train and re home dogs. 

The peaches (I came home with last week) were eaten fresh,  made into crumbles and stewed and were beautiful.

Pears cover a blanket on the floor in the spare room.   Over night just one turned yellow!   So I am betting tomorrow I will have a lot of yellow ones.

Today we picked the rest of this first pear tree.  We left small ones for the birds and brought in three more baskets.   These equal about 17 kilos.   

I did a test run and stewed a few pears.  They are absolutely beautiful.  So tomorrow I will start working on them.

Now they are harvested we took the net off the tree, ready to repeat the whole process again next year.  We got 35 kilos from this tree which is 77 pounds.   The next tree is almost ready, the pears are huge but they are still hanging on tight.    It is kind of nerve wracking trying to pick them at the right time! 

I have to tell you about Zackie.   When she first came to live with us I kept her in the back courtyard at night, since the first day she walked home to her old house.   So she has her bed and her bowl next to her bed.  The other night I put out her dinner in a different container... it was just a plastic dish with her dinner (which was some rice, three cooked eggs, cod liver oil and some dry dog food.) And also I put it just outside the back door rather than next to her bed.  She stood there and looked at me and the dish then me again.   Very carefully she picked her dish up... walked it to where it is MEANT to go and then ate it.  She didn't spill anything either!   I was amazed.   The last two nights I repeated the same thing as I wanted to get a photo! 

First of all look at her shiny coat!  When she first came she had he dullest coat and I made it my mission to make it shiny.   We are about half way there!  

Now I will put her dinner in the proper place and in her proper bowl.

My brothers office gave me big bags of shredded paper with more to come.  I ran out of time but this will re fill all the chicken nesting boxes.  I get beautiful clean eggs this way and then great compost for the garden.

I plugged away on crochet scrubbies,  cotton cleaning cloths and microfibre cleaning cloths as sets.  I like this dog/green set, it is a bit different from my usual pinks and blues!

So that was my week.  I had lots of opportunities to build up my garden and pantry.  I hope you did too. 

I am tired but it is a happy tired!  

How did you get ahead and feather your nest?  Have a lovely weekend! xxx