Hello everyone! I am tired and deflated but not defeated!
I will share my nesting...
I had a big spaghetti sauce cook up. It included zucchini and tomatoes from the freezer. At the end of making a fair few meals I made up a huge Lasagne to freeze.
Last week I mentioned my fridge -freezer kicked the bucket. It was my second fridge... and mainly contained drinks and canned goods so I did not lose much... the freezer part I did lose some stuff. So the chooks and dogs thought it was great.
For full real life disclosure... what I had was a mod podge of a very old chest freezer, my older fridge/freezer and an old upright freezer.
I am not showing you the inside! Just think Gordon Ramsey's Hells Kitchen.
Having to replace the large one I decided to replace the older ones and hopefully prevent another break down. Free and cheap can only go on for so long. I had many years from them all.
In town I ordered the best option I could find for the space. Two identical...
Across the top it is fridges. Across the bottom it is freezers.
What you can't see is that in the middle of the kitchen I still have two old freezers plugged in so that I can transfer everything and organise it over the weekend. I guess I am close to half way there. As you know... to get out of a mess first you have to get into a much bigger mess. 😊
I have discovered I like buying frozen peas. I have so many I am going to freeze dry some over the weekend.
So I have 2x this space. I am labelling the freezer drawers and can see what I have. By the end of the weekend the old freezers can go out. Mind you the best one is going to go up to the top house. I am taking my time to do it so that is is truly organised properly.
Last week I mentioned collecting wool fabric to make boys quilts.
From Pinterest these images show what I mean.
They remind me a lot of my Dad. I love them. I had two daughters then two Grand daughters.... so I was all about making things for girls. Then I had three Grandsons in a row! Well, now I am appreciating and finding beautiful boys things to make.
This is some of the wool I've found and washed in wool mix ready to cut up.
It is all so soft and delicious! I have more to wash now and hopefully next week I will begin to cut it into squares.
I was also cutting out flannel and other soft cottons to make wet damp dusters. This jar is full now and smells of lemon and eucalyptus. Spring cleaning is here!
(If you want recipes and how to make these see Thebluebirdsarenesting Clean and Fresh.)
I let the fire go out. Then I dug out all the ash which goes to the chickens. It was a huge bucket. Then... Tom helped me and we took all the left over wood and kindling out of the house and cleaned the floor.
We also built a pretty big bonfire with the boxes from the fridges, all kinds of junk that needs to be burned. This is for a wood fire we are planning next week. Last time we did this I had a friend here. I was poking the fire up and Tom told my friend "Don't worry, Nana is a little bit crazy but it will be ok." hahaha!
The work on the shearing shed and yards is almost over so we went and inspected and spoke to one of the men. Tom asked him if he could have a ride on the skid steer. The man said "sure hope on!"
They drove out into the paddock and drilled a hole. 😊
This all amounted to "the best time ever." As I drove Tom home he said "Nana I see a grader!!" Indeed a man had parked a grader with a huge roller quite close by. So I drove up next to it and a man was there filling it with fuel. He said Tom could sit in the grader for a bit. So the best day ever got better. The man told me he and his wife are having their first baby on Saturday! Tom told him his Mum is getting a baby too. 😊
I had some op shop fabric finds but this sheet and pillowcase I bought on Ebay....
The quality is gorgeous!
Chloe decided to let Lily try painting as they boys were set up painting away.
I'm going with it was a little too soon.
She still had a fine time. (Non toxic paint thankfully.)
For Carlo Acutis "I cannot understand why so many people are so concerned with the beauty of their bodies rather than spending time on the beauty of their souls." We must keep on track. Our Great Grandchildren will not know about our toenail manicure. But they will be affected by our strong faith and prayers.
For Charlie Kirk. "I want to be remembered for courage for my faith." For Charlie I promise to be more bold in my faith, tell more people and be brave. They can't kill us all. I'm upping the ante.
"Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged." xxx
Annabel and Dear Bluebirds!
ReplyDeleteAnnabel, we are in a world where right is wrong and wrong is right, it is horrid, evil does all it can to defeat us, though it will only make us stronger in our faith.
You had a very busy week to say the least and accomplished so much with your little helper. Having the matching frig/freezers has to feel so good, new and more room. It feels good having a little more room.
We had a busy week here with work travel, I was able to come home with shower caps and sewing kits from the hotel, I use the caps to cover bowls, like when I am proofing bread.
We purchased a new frig/freezer back in June, it finally arrived this week. So we have been doing the reorganizing like you.
We finally have our bathroom finished, so it meant reorganizing the bathroom closet, vanity and we finally have medicine cabinets. It seems I am doing a lot of cleaning and organizing, though I was hoping to work on Fall cleaning.
I did bring home 5 granny smith apples from the hotel that will become baked apples. A nice free dessert. My husband brought home sandwiches from his class and bagels, the sandwiches were great for when we got home after the drive.
I'm still working on my free yarn afghan whenever I can, it seems it went to the wayside this week though.
Prayers for Charlie Kirk's family. A true loss for humanity.
Hi Annabel
ReplyDeleteWhat a lovely comment from Tom, being a little crazy I'm sure makes you a fun Grandma. Your fridge freezers look good, lots of space for storing your lovely home cooked meals. The wool looks so nice, I'm looking forward to seeing the quilts in due course.
We've had a very busy time with more guests, I feel I've been cooking for the five thousand. We were able to serve so much from the garden, sweetcorn, beetroot, tomatoes, lettuce, cucumbers, red cabbage, onions, potatoes, runner beans, courgettes and cooking apples. A friend called round with a big basket of damsons for us so I made apple and damson crumble and stewed the rest for freezing. Today my husband arrived home from a client with more damsons and lots of lovely pears.
It was my turn to make cakes for Floral Group so I made chocolate sponge, reduced sugar malt loaf and vanilla sponge with glace icing and sprinkles. I won a beautiful floral arrangement in the raffle which was great timing because it's my month for doing the church flowers so it's now at the altar.
I bought a new in its wrapper toy for my granddaughter at the charity shop and two new with labels tops for me. I've lost some weight so I'm selling clothes on Vinted and buying a few things there or in charity shops in the smaller size.
Prices are getting crazy but I enjoy calculating how much I saved with home made. The supermarket were selling vanilla sponge like the one I made, their price £8.28, my costs approx £2.50. Served 12. Ready to bake freezer cookie dough, enough for 6 biscuits £4.50. Only six biscuits!!! One pint chicken bone broth £7. I haven't calculated how much mine costs but bearing in mind it's the carcass from which we've stripped all the meat for meals the cost of the broth is negligible.
Batch cooks this week were stewed damsons, cheese and courgette fritters and tomato soup.
Have a lovely week Bluebirds.
Penny in the UK.