Feather your Nest Friday, 9th May, 2025.

I am happy to report we had a little bit of rain!  This started the week off well!  It just was such a boost.  Everyone was rejoicing!  I went for a drive to look at the rain and see puddles. 😊

Today I did the grocery and errands run.   It was a really beautiful day.  And I had thrift store finds!  Despite my car being loaded up I managed to fit in this gorgeous stool.... 

It had to go on top of groceries but I was not leaving it behind and that was that.

This week I had the cows grazing the driveway.  This fed them for two days.  I still needed to buy more hay.  I HOPE this is the last and the grass will grown now.

I was very lucky to even get this hay as it is a hot commodity.  And... so is water.  Across the state people have run out of water.  Even Chloe and her family are low.   I was able to donate 14000 litres....  

This topped up their tanks and I am so glad!

Speaking of hot commodities....  I saw eggs are $15 a dozen and my friend told me about a farm near her that is selling eggs two days a week.   A queue of cars lined up to buy .... this queue stretched for two kilometres!  And... they sold out.   I am collecting 18 or 20 a day!  

When we came here the farm was set up like most... (in the district) which is a homestead,  a jackaroos quarters (single mans cottage) and a managers house.  Usually these are nearby each other like a little town.  There might be a shed, hay shed, shearing shed etc.   Lucky for me the homestead is wonderful!   The jackaroos cottage was a complete dump and it was suggested to me that I burn it down and get rid of it.  I asked a builder his opinion and he agreed it was a dump but it was a structurally sound dump! haha!  So in 2020 the plan was to renovate it to a liveable state.   I hate posting ugly photos but I will post one which pretty well represents the state of the whole place.

It was pretty unappetising and made me feel sick!   It also stank.   So in 2020 this was every spare minute work.  Also later that year Dad died.  And of course the whole year was a barrel of laughs of lockdowns and so on.

Now you all know this became "the cabin" which is a man cave style camp/quarters and I have three guys who use it on an exchange basis.  Oh boy, this is so mutually beneficial to them and me!  

 

The "managers house" was really not much better so it took a while to pluck up the courage to take this on as over all it was a bigger job.   2024 this became my goal.   Andy wasn't keen.  He asked why?  I said because we have to be good stewards of what God has given us and fix it up.  Also I knew sometime I am going to need it.   He asked why am I going to need it?  I said SOMEONE is going to need it.  I just don't know who but it doesn't matter we have to fix it up.

Then later in January Andy died.  For many months everything stopped and I didn't really function beyond the basics.  I am not going to recount those months as everything that happened I wrote an account of already.  It is too hard to remember those months. 

Finally, later that year I got back on track.  I still felt God meant me to fix up this house.

It is still not finished but the kitchen is!  Also this is the best bit.

All the furniture came from my uncles estate.  I bought a new stove.  My helpers tiled using tiles from Andrews shed!  I had a professional do some flooring... most of the floors are wooden and fine but the kitchen needed a new floor and also the laundry floor was completely rotten so that you could actually fall straight through it!   All of that was cut out and replaced. 

Now I am beginning to find out why this needed to be done.   There is still a lot to do but it is now mainly useable and not a health hazard!  Painting the outside is coming up which will make it finally look lovely! 

I often have it where people say to me  "that sounds like a lot of work."  Well, yes.  But you can spend an hour watching Married at First Sight  (or insert some other vile sinful tv show) or you can get something done I guess!  I have had help and every opportunity add something nice or useful to these spaces I do.  It has taken a long time,  Rome was certainly not built in a day.  But I feel so happy with finally having an area complete! 

My cook up was tuna mornay.  I made three trays.

And also... I used up the very last of the produce boxes putting a ton of capsicum and mushrooms into a beef casserole.   As it cooked down I kept adding veggies until the slow cooker was full to the top.

The beef was really tender.  I served it over mashed potatoes and since I ran out of room I did the carrots (also from produce boxes) on the side... plus peas.  This made so many meals and fed all of Chloe's family a huge meal as well.

Mum knitted a vest for Lily.  It as my job to finish off the neck and arm holes with crochet.   

I decided to add a slight angel ruffle...

Mum must have been happy as she has given me a beautiful blue one to do the same only with "more ruffle."  😊

I am having limited success with peas and beans growing.   My broccoli is looking good though.  The weather is just weird.

I took limes to the swap table and got a whole ice cream container of cherry tomatoes. 

I am not sure if the green ones will ripen  (I think some of them will)  and there are enough red ones to make up a couple of feta and veggie bakes...

And a lovely friend gave me five tea towels that were her Mum's.  💕  She knew I would love them!

So there were many good things this week and I'm grateful!  I hope we get some more rain soon.  

How did you feather your nest this week?  We love to hear!  And it is Mothers Day this weekend!  The great irony with a Mothers work is that on one hand some things go unnoticed and on the other hand it affects the generations ahead.  How amazing is that!?  💕💕💕xxx