Feather your Nest Friday 8th May, 206.

What a week!  Incredibly the produce continued.  I think it's miraculous.  I certainly haven't experienced this before.   Every year I grow and glean and come by produce but never anything like this year.  When the war began I had fruit to work on.  I felt to be busy putting up everything I could and have not stopped since.  When I think I am catching up and coming to the end of it more comes....   !

This week I baked Quinces to pretty well live on, eating one a day.  They are so delicious.  I have run out and hopefully can bake some more tomorrow.

I made Quince and Apple jam.  I thought it would turn out light pink but it is about the same as the previous batch with pear.  It is beautiful.   

I made it a mission to know the prices in the stores and jams are generally around $8.   Jellies are even more!

A friend arrived with a bag of red apples.  They are stunning!   After having all green apples so far these made me think of Snow White.  🍎

I also traded for cherry tomatoes and froze two batches.  The gorgeous pink jug was a gift!  I love it!

On the thrifting front I got this Bessemer (I think 12 litre) cook pot.  It is so good!!   A huge deal!

My friend who was out op shopping messaged me and asked if I want a chandelier for $20?   Yes, I sure do!  This hasn't even been cleaned up yet bit it is so sparkly! 

After living here a few years now I know about a lot of fruit trees.   In our closest town I knew there was a lemon tree. No one lives in the house currently but I do know the owner.    My friend drove past and said yes,  there are lots of lemons!   So... we plucked up the courage to ask the owner if we could possible go and pick them.

And as has happened in every instance in my life he said yes!   😊

We hatched a plan.   With bags,  a ladder, a long stick fruit picker,  Tom, a picnic basket and cups of tea we set off.  It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon.   I told Tom we are going on an adventure!

Well, it turned out this yard also had an apple tree.  Not a big one but an old one.  And it was covered in green apples.... and they were ripe.   🍏 

It was crazy...  the more we picked the more we found right down to the ground.   

We just kept going and ended up with about 40 kilos (more than 80 lbs) and they are huge. 

We also got several kilos of lemons... but most are not ripe yet so we hope to have another visit in a few weeks.

I was just as excited to find the yard was full of huge thistles!  I filled there bags with thistles and then all the apples laying on the ground (or damaged) we bagged up too.  This bag here... when I went to lift it I couldn't!!  Lucky I had help!  

When I got home the chooks and ducks got the thistles and the apples were retained for the cows.   Apples are their favourite.

Oh boy it was a huge amount of free and healthy chook food.   I would like to go back just to get more thistles!  So this was wonderful and fun day! 

By contrast...

We had a terrible fright on Tuesday.   Chloe rang me and said "Mum Chase has had an accident and is bleeding can you come?"    I knew my farm friend had just headed over there to pick figs... and were ahead of me.  This was helpful.  I somehow imagined Chase had a cut finger or something like that.  It is about a seven minute trip to Chloe's house, she is my neighbour.

When I got there my friend and Chloe had Chase in the bathroom and he had a giant split on to of his head.  There was blood everywhere but now it wasn't really bleeding and he wasn't crying. He was sitting there and my friend was holding his head and talking to him calmly.   Chloe was getting ready to race to the hospital.   Due to distances it is faster to go to hospital than call an ambulance.   I put on a sterile pad and wrapped his head trying to hold things together.  Chloe got the baby in the car.   Luke was coming home.... my friends took Tom and Lily down to the fig tree and they were occupied and distracted.  I cleaned up the messes and had dinner organised and Chloe got him to hospital.    He still didn't cry!  

Several hours later he was home and he didn't have concussion,  slept well and woke up hungry the next morning.   Here he is two days later! 

I think we are very lucky.  It could have been much worse or his eye...  but thankfully he is ok.

I made them all a very simple meal they like.  Kids love sausages!  I now have to read the labels carefully as some supermarkets are putting soy and bamboo in them.   I have found some that are free of all that and they scoff them down.

I chopped a couple of apples and make muffins.

Today I traded some green apples for some pears!   They are beautiful!

So now I have Quinces, (still)  figs,  (more) green apples, red apples, lemons, eggs, small tomatoes and pears.  

What is the saying?  "The hurrier I go the behinder I get."  haha.

I have to include Sparkie.

In my cover picture you see the front of my driveway.  It is quite long and it goes past my house, past the cabin and top house,  past the work shed and hay shed... around the hen house...  I guess it is a few acres all up.   Well, thanks to rain that arrived and kept the grass going it is lined with deep green grass.   

Tonight I drove my cows out of their paddock into the driveway to have a few days having a feast.   It was a circus getting them out.  They followed me about half way after apples.   But not as far as they gate.  To push them though the gate is hard as they are not frightened of me or the ute and don't run away!   Finally they went though.  Once they were out they were so excited they didn't know what to eat first!   And I realised the grass was higher than I thought!  Some of the calves were standing in grass as tall as them.... and these calves are big, they have grown so much!    By now it was almost dark... I will try and get photos over the weekend.   When they find the grass around the chook house they will be excited as that is like a huge patch of thick green feed.  And this all will make the whole area look mowed!  It is beautiful seeing the calves.  They are a picture of good health and thriving.

Last week I shared a you tuber I like.  I am still watching and learning so much.  This week I will share an Australian you tuber.  

Urban QLD Homestead is a wealth of knowledge and I share this episode as someone here mentioned she has a lot of bananas to use.  But you can scroll though her subjects and the one I watched last night she shares places she buys some of her stock ups and there were several I never even thought of!  

The next produce I must use is the figs.  I have decided to make Sticky Balsamic Fig Glaze,   I LOVE sticky balsamic... on salad, quiche, zucchini slice... all kinds of things.   It is so yummy.  Also it is $22 a bottle!  However that is a regular one.  We found a fig balsamic and that was $34 for 340 g (12 oz). Then I would like to make Quince jelly.  I saw that for $9.95c for 150grams which is about the tiniest jar you can get.  (5 ounces.)  Can you believe it?  Don't underestimate the value of the things you make, their value as gifts or to trade either!

I found a fantastic deal on bananas so I bought about 6 (they were cheap because they are ripe.)  So I better get on and make some muffins with those. 

It was really a week of opportunity for me.  This included "don't be afraid to ask!"   Everyone of those apples we picked would have fallen to the ground and been wasted.  Not now... instead every single one will be used, shared, traded and feed a lot of people.   And animals!  About thirty were cow snacks tonight.  I will give them a lot more tomorrow in the light of a new day. 

Sunday is Mothers Day here and in the US.   I am not sure about other countries but happy Mothers Day.

The world is crazy and many Australians are feeling very upset but some vents this week. Distressed even.  Don't give up.  Don't tire of doing good.  A lot of people are feeling very down and defeated.  This is all the more reason to add goodness.   xxx