Feather your Nest Friday, 27th March, 2026. How to fit a year into a week.

It has been a very intense week news wise and by the end of Tuesday I felt surely it must be Friday by now!   

I am going to assume you are a watcher or you have someone who watches for you and not tell you any news.  Instead I will just report how things are here in southern South Australia.  

Today diesel in town was $3.21 a litre which is basically $12 a gallon.  I know yesterday they ran out altogether and I am not sure about today as I did not stop. 

A general and brief Aussie update would be people are being encouraged to work from home.  Warnings of food production being halved next year due to lack of fertiliser.  "Food crisis" and "Fuel Crisis" mentioned over and over.  "Stockmarket's plummet."  Talk of rationing.  Some service stations already have introduced rationing of fuel and some have none. 

Then there have been trucks stuck at fuel stations having to sleep the night and wait for feel to arrive... and each day things have escalated.  Each day the price of fuel has increased.  For people who commune a distance this is making going to work pretty unprofitable. And no there is no public transport in the country. 

Now I am most certainly not complaining.  Many countries have it worse. The Phillipines was the first country (as far as I understand) to declare a state of emergency.  Many many countries have it much worse and have populations vulnerable to freezing to death in extreme winter conditions if they cannot afford heating oil.  So I have not one thing to complain about.  But I do want you to know that wherever you live this is going to affect all of us and we should be aware that our brothers and sisters near and far may be in really hard times.

Last weekend I really needed a break so I could think.   Then I began the new week with a long list and a plan.  There were small things on the list such as turning all the ripe pears into baby food for Ike, assessing exactly how much freezer space do I have?   And also some really big things were on the list.  One was a new big water tank down in one of the back paddocks.  Another was securing fuel for things like chainsaws and the mower.  Well, there were many and in some cases I needed help but tonight everything on that list is complete! 

So to start...   I began with using everything I had.  

First I turned bananas that needed using into a batch of muffins for Chloe's family. 

Then a batch of gluten free ones.

Most of these were frozen.

Then scones for Mum.

And then I turned left over beef casserole into a family of pies.

These went into the ready meals freezer.

I was given onions and apples.  The apples were quite ripe so I got to them right away and made baby food.  I did save some for myself for breakfast and it was so nice!

Pears also become baby food.  And this weekend I can see the next lot of pears have turned yellow so I will start on those.  

All of these went into the freezer.

Next... we inspected the fig tree and although most of them are still green there were enough ripe ones to pick a couple of buckets full.

I

The first figs I made into Fig Paste.  This is just beautiful with crackers and cheese.  In the stores it is almost $7 for 100grams... a little tub.  So a rough calculation made me realise my batch would be almost $200 to buy.  But it cost me maybe $2 to make!   

Next week we are doing a very serious big fig picking day.   More will be ripe and we hatched a plan to get to the top of the tree.  😊

My friend saw figs in town and took this photo.   

Yes they are $2.50 per fig...   😳

My next plans are candied and choc dipped figs for Easter and then jam.  But also figs are beautiful in a roast ie with chicken or on a pizza even... and many other things I will get to hopefully! 

We are also sharing.  My friend comes with me to church.  Today we took eggs, onions and figs... which I put into egg cartons so they didn't get squashed.

They were a great success!  

I got broccoli and celery planted and the broccoli is all covered with netting.

At the swap tables I got cherry tomatoes again which I washed and froze.

I was blessed with beautiful mail and several amazing gifts.  These vintage transfers... oh boy do I have plans for them! 

My pram rug is ready for a wide border.  I hope to begin this tonight.  Please excuse all the treads, I will get to those.

Yesterday I felt up to date with the produce I had and two friends came to stay in the cabin.  This is what they brought me.

The cauliflower, rockmelon and cabbage are huge!!  I began to plan.  Tomorrow I begin on this but I already shared some.  The kids will enjoy sweetcorn over the weekend and I shared the rockmelon and leeks with a friend.  I am going to make a cauliflower cheese and freeze dry quite a bit too.... I have a few days of freeze drying lined up.

How good is this!? I can work on it before picking figs on Monday!  

"Be very careful, then, how you live - not as the unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity!"

It is amazing what you can do in a week with a plan.  I feel much better this way and with action and being busy than I do worrying.  Keeping my hands busy of an evening as well helps me sleep, I am convinced.  When my eyes start to shut it is time to put down my crochet. Sometimes I catch myself crocheting with one eye open and one eye shut! haha.  Time to call it a day then!xxx