Feather your Nest Friday, 10th March, 2023.

It was a beautiful week.   We had rain,  lovely days,  cool nights,  just perfection.   Things are looking greener and I planted lots of seedlings into the garden which were rained in.  

My son in law send me a message and asked me if I would like two lambs.  Is the Pope a Catholic!?  Of course I said yes!   I drove down to pick them up with two bottles made up and my biggest basket in the back of the car.   They turned out to be pretty big lambs,  not new born.  One is a boy,  his name is Rambo and one is a girl, her name is Panda.  

The belts I save came in handy,  I measured them up and Andy adapted them to fit as beautiful collars. 

The first couple of days they were really shy and took a while to feed and get used to the bottle.   This is why they are tethered here.   Day three they began to be friendly.  Now they are running free and come when I call them.

At night I lock them up safe and sound.   We have foxes so they have a secure house until morning bottle time.

A few weeks ago when I made Pesto I saved the Basil stalks and put them in water and kept them on my kitchen windowsill.   I wanted to show how they have great root systems so quickly. 

Because the weather is cool and damp this was the perfect time to get them in the ground.

I had a collection of all shapes and sizes of tomatoes,  garlic and zucchini so they all went into the slow cooker and became pasta sauce. 

I got four jars, it is quite concentrated.

I decided I would like to turn another area into potted plants and make it much nicer.  Andy made me a gate to keep certain four legged individuals out.  

So this is my next project!  

I finished painting my chairs.

My cows came up to the fence...  this is to show how our front yard goes down hill to the paddock in front of the house.   So this is where the cows come and I give them biscuits and apples.

Tonight they came up and I ran down with biscuits.  Laffie is looking well and truly pregnant and has an udder and teats...  Maybe this is too much information.  Anyway how exciting!

I had the most amazing thrift store find.   I spotted a roll of cream fabric.  When I looked at it I noticed it had a pearl like lustre.  I thought surely not.... surely this isn't silk?    The next thing that was amazing is it had a price tag of $4.   THIS WAS FOR THE WHOLE ROLL.   I started to examine it and became convinced it was silk taffeta.   I shelled out $4 and when I got it home I looked into how to be sure...  including burning an edge.  It is silk!   This is hard to photograph but the pearlescent shine and texture is just so beautiful.

Finally I unrolled it.  There are 9.6 metres!  This has to be one of my best finds ever.  I also got some lovely kids clothes in bigger sizes so I washed them up and put them away.

Today we picked apples and pears.  There are still a lot on the trees,  especially the apples as not all are ripe.   These are the trees I was told were no good and never fruit.  Each year we get more!

It is all so beautiful.   

I will have the dehydrator,  slow cookers,  freeze drier and oven all going. 

Our pruning, watering,  building frames,  covering with nets... it has paid off so well.   We have a routine now and once we have finished harvesting the nets will come off.    The lambs will be able to eat lots of green grass under the trees then.   Come June we will prune them to keep them smaller than the frames we built.   It is worth it.  I just cannot believe how much fruit there is this year.   

There are hundreds of tiny Parsley plants coming up in the garden beds.   I love Parsley and it looks like I will have masses again soon.

At the swap tables I exchanged bags of pears for garlic and giant zucchini.  

So what a week!  I am very grateful.  I hope you had a good week too.   How did you feather your nest, build up your home,  increase your pantry or garden?  We love to hear!  xxx