Feather your Nest Friday, 8th September, 2023.

It was a week and a half!  Early in the week we had beautiful Spring weather.  There was a lot of progress with my potted up seedlings and seeds.   I continued to move baby lettuce plants around so they have room to grow as there are so many!  

The chooks have been getting so many greens by the wheel barrow or tailer load! 

Happy chickens!  

My pumpkin patch was dug ready for planting.  I thought how far we have come as when we came here this soil was just plain sand.   Now it looks pretty good!   There is a lot of well composted goodness already in this area.

This is in our orchard which is enclosed with a rabbit proof fence.  So in theory my various vines should be safe.  To start them off I have netting covers to keep birds off as well.

I got Rockmelon,  Pumpkin (two types) and Watermelon seeds planted. 

On Tuesday I went into town and met my friend Wendy.   She gave me lemons and also velvet!  (I took her some eggs.)

At the thrift stores I found a couple of items of beautiful children clothing,   a box of succulents and a whole heap of cotton fabrics!   The largest piece (at the front) was over 4 metres.  The most expensive was $3.  Some were 50c. 

Also I found a beautiful vintage transfer!  I think this will go on a tin or jar for my pantry.

It was a fantastic day.  I stocked up on meat and groceries while I was there.  I found two bags of bananas at a bargain price.. so I have 15 bananas to eat plus cook. 

Later in the week our weather changed back to winter!  It was freezing!  Actually it still is.  We had some great rain but also a wind storm that was something else.  It was a very noisy night.  The next day the mess was incredible but we had no serious damage.  Just hundreds of fallen branches!   Some of them will be next winters firewood.

When it rains the cows tend to come up close to the house.  This gave me a chance to feed them and say hello.  When they were calving I fed them everyday but once winter kicked in our paddocks were too wet to drive around and that had to stop.

On Wednesday my green and blue eggs in the incubator started hatching!  I had very low expectations.  Apart from coming so far by mail the eggs did not get turned for several days as I had trouble with the incubator.   I needed up hand turning the eggs every day.  We continued on but I didn't think I was likely to have any success.  But on Wednesday three chicks hatched without drama!  Then I had a late arrival. 

We had chick intensive care as I didn't think this one would survive.  It couldn't stand and it was covered in sticky membrane like glue (which I think is an incubator humidity issue) so eventually after trying to pick this off I washed him in warm water.  Well,  that worked somewhat.  He could move but he seemed to have one bad leg and fell over and over. I stuck with standing him up about a thousand times and voila!  eventually he could stand.  Once he went in with feed, water and the heat plate I was still not sure if he would make it so I got out the hot pack I used last time and warmed that up.   I checked after a little while and there were four little chicks with their heads on the hot pack.  

When the hot pack cools down I warm it up again and their little heads pop back on to it.  This has amused me endlessly.   How many chicks get a velvet pillow to sleep on I wonder?   BUT the little pipsqueek intensive care patient has improved in leaps and bounds.   It's a miracle I got anything else done.

So... I assumed being the end of day 22 all the eggs that are going to hatch have and I went to turn off the incubator.  I thought I had better double check all the eggs.  The last one I picked up was hatching!   I hate to say it but I am back to emergency intervention as it was slow to hatch, slow to move,  does not look very hopeful.   It's lucky I'm not doing this on a commercial scale.  

A friend came by with a box of jars for me. 

I completed a Koala.  Everything that could go wrong did!  I think this will be the last one for a while.  I even spent some time on Pinterest deciding what else I could make with velvet...  I have loads and loads and I LOVE it so much.  Well, I found some perfect suggestions.    Anyway I finished off (for now) with a girl and she has leaves which I thought was kind of perfect!

On the subject of Koalas Lucy had a mother and baby walk through her front yard and sit in a tree!

I completed some more wash cloths.

I baked a few dozen Blueberry Muffins.  These were shared with Mum and Chloe.

We had a lady come and use the cabin.   She arrived with a big bucket of honey, 3 kilos.  (6.6 lbs.)   I love to try honey from different areas and I love to have plenty on my shelves.   The lady is a hunter and she asked if we would like venison and if so how much?   While I was assessing how much I could actually take she already had her first deer.   I said I could take two.  As in two whole deer.   This lady is also the most excellent butcher.   So before she left I had two good sized whole deer butchered and also a huge tub of meat and bones for the dogs.  I think they are set for about ten days.    This all takes my freezers to capacity.   It was just a week of increase!   I am very grateful.

Over the weekend I hope to use up lots of bananas and lemons in some baking. 

I watched Cath's pantry tour on The Cheapskates Club and her recent You Tube videos.  I got so much encouragement and inspiration from both.   Like Cath my pantry is not all in one spot.  It includes supplies other than food.  I have a laundry pantry,  a medical pantry,  a bathroom pantry,  a sewing pantry, an animal pantry and a present cupboard.  Outside I have gardening supplies.   Then there is "the shed" and all the things for repairs, maintenance,  irrigation and so on.    The freezers,  dehydrated foods, canned goods, dry goods,  freeze dried foods etc are all part of the food pantry.   I am happy, happy, happy that several of these areas got a good top up this week.    I watch some You Tube homesteading, sewing, crocheting etc in the evenings, having given up on TV.   One of the lovely channels I watch was talking about the cost of food, the continuous rising prices and she has been showing some of their meals.   She isn't the only one... everywhere I see distress over rental prices, availability, food costs, availability,  electricity, gas and fuel...   The moral of this story is to take very opportunity to get ahead, stock up and make the most of things.     Make much hay while the sun shines! xxx