The little birds...

If you watch little birds you will see they are busy and happy! Using whatever they can find they create the most gorgeous little nest.
I would be the little bird with some glittery thread in her nest!
We can be like this. Happily working away with the things that are available to us to create a beautiful and happy home.
All the while with a little song in our heart.

Banner by Free Pretty Things for You.

Thursday 5 December 2019

Feather you Nest Friday, 6th December, 2019.

We have had another lovely cool week.  I think we broke the all time recorded record for cold days in December and some places had summer snow!  I know we are very lucky as fires are still burning in other states.  We also had some rain!

It was a good week!   Chloe and I went to a country craft market. We had so much fun!  There was so much to look at.  So many ideas!   It seems everyone has some kind of sideline, makes or grows and sells something.   I love this.  I found some bargains too and bought a lot of pretty little succulents for 50c each.  And a heart shaped bird bath for $10!   It was a great day and another market is coming up next week.

I was given a whole bucket of lemons!

My little bantams have settled in and are so tame. You can just pick them up.  This is the little rooster.  He is just learning to crow.  It sounds hilarious.  It sounds like he is crowing with a bag over his head!


The two hens are silver/lilac.  So the babies should be a light version... we will see!


I caught up with Wendy. We did some trading and had a lot of ideas to talk about!  I took her eggs and she had found me stunning embroidery threads in an op shop.


Also a large decanter with stopper and a whole box of smaller bottles.  I am set for my next batch of coffee liqueur and my planned sticky balsamic vinegar.

While in town (of course) I checked out the op shop.   I practically crashed the car when I saw in the window they had a huge vintage kettle!   Then I found they were closed!  I was writing a note to put under the door when the door opened...   A lady was working in there putting out stock and she saw me.  I asked her if I left the money could the kettle be saved for me until there were open?    She invited me in and said to go ahead and look around while she worked.  And I found another kettle!  I adore these.  They match my kitchen and will heat on the combustion stove.  If the power was out I can heat a lot of water!  Just so thrilled!  


The black dot above the spout on the right hand kettle is Brady in his new paddock!  This is the view out the front.

Mum and I had our day trip to see the girls.   It was a beautiful day and I came home with more pink roses.

I made a big rice salad. I love salads that last a few days!   Also a tray of gluten free pumpkin scones.


We had animal fun and games.  It was well and truly time to wean Brady, Eddie and Freddie.   
Now I am not feeding any bottled fed animals!   We all marched over to the big paddock to join in with the big kids.   It is good as we can still see them in this paddock from our front deck.  

The biggest of them all is Laffie.  She is the friendliest cow and loves affection.  And Arnotts Milk Arrowroot biscuits!  


And Loui is just beautiful.


Anyway as usual a simple plan blew up.  I had planned Eddie would be the edge trimmer and moved around the yard.  He was not impressed.  He cried and cried.  We have been through this before with him.  He wants to be with the other guys.  He can escape any fence but he will only stray about 20 yards away from Freddie and Brady so he breaks out and back in again all day long.   A crying goat sounds exactly like a toddler screaming.  He could have his own TV show or get a job in sound effects.   I couldn't put up with this for long and abandoned my plan so now he is having a great time int he big paddock.   And in there are big logs and stones and hills to climb on so he will be having a great time!

I planted more zucchini, basil and spinach into the garden as I cleared out the spent spinach and fed it to the chooks and ducks.   The ducks just love anything green.   They are so cute and get so excited!


The rest of the big trees we cut down was dealt with. This was the stuff too big for us to cut up or move.   Luke put them out on the driveway with the tractor.   A young man came and set up his big saw to slice it all up into slabs and he made post and rail style fence posts with a lot of it.   


This young man was local and so hard working.  So this was a good trade as we needed this cleaned up and the wood was very useful to him.  He sliced me a great table top for the cabin which will fit my super rustic theme.  And he arrived with a gift for me that he had made.


My constant companion Scout is so good!   Whatever I do she is there.  


Enthusiasm is her middle name! I have to mention her with the other animals.

Now that the animals are moved from the small yard, which is my orchard yard, I have  another area that I could put in pumpkins.  There is a big mound of sheep manure in there.   So next week I am going to dig a dish shaped hole in that and plant another batch of pumpkins.   I am watering there every couple of days as it is so it will be easy to water them.    And they will have so much area to sprawl around.  So happy about this!! 

I have been crocheting, making lambs jumpers for next winter.  Last year I used small dog coats.  Now I am making up a heap ready plus for my friend Di who raises a lot of orphans.  Also bottle hangers so lamb bottles can be hung on the gate. And if I get far enough I want to make a joey pouch as Di often raises baby Kangaroos.   I love having a new project to work on.

I hope you found ways to save, get ahead and build up your pantry this week.  How did you build up your home or savings?
Also I am hoping you are doing well with Christmas plans.  I am making my coconut ice next week.   And posting off all my cards and parcels on Monday.  I am starting to feel organised! 


Have a lovely weekend! xxx











28 comments:

  1. Dear Annabel, I love your blog post. The photos of the animals are so sweet. Well done on the op shop finds. The kettles will e very handy. Those scones look incredible. How lovely of you to make things for the lambs and joeys. I love the sound of our gardening too. I haven't been able to do much, even though we have a tonne to do- it has been too hot. I have really been trying hard to organise presents etc. I am so happy because I have tried to either make/source locally/buy second hand for some of them and that feels great! Lots of love to you all XXX BW

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    1. I am 100% loving the buying of local gifts. I would much rather support a local or family business. Thank you re my scones. I appreciate this as most of my life I couldnt make scones. Then I ignored the instructions and make them in the mix master now they turn out great! I hope it cools down a bit for you. There are some places so hot and others with snow! Crazy December. Have a lovely weekend! Love Annabel.xxx

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    2. It’s lovely, super lovely, to see you here!!

      Buying locally and second hand has to be good for us, too! Stopping to visit an op shop yesterday, I found beautiful pink-green-white big wool yarn, and something that made me laugh! It is a print with Bluebirds stamped onto it, and it reads, “I love my computer because my friends live in it.”

      Loving your comment,
      Rachel

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  2. That wood slice is beautiful! It will be a gorgeous table.

    We have all the gifts wrapped and the one box we needed to ship went this week. Now we are decorating. I am thinking about my menus for Christmas. One DIL is now vegetarian so that requires more thinking. My husband had an echo cardiogram of his heart this week and he was given a clean bill of health. I cannot even begin to tell you how happy we are about those results.

    Have a lovely weekend!

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    1. Dear Lana, Well done on having your gifts done. It is wonderful to hear your husband got such excellent health results! This is a Christmas present in itself! I am posting my parcels and mail too on Monday. It will be good to have these things all taken care of. Have a lovely weekend! With love Annabel.xxx

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  3. Your animals are all so darling!! I can imagine the noise the little rascal made when he was unhappy was quite intolerable, but he did get his way! Enjoy your slow entry into summer...winter blasted autumn out quite quickly here this year. I once had a Scout...she was the best dog ever!! She's been gone for 14 years and I still miss her!

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    1. Dear Farm Quilter, I heard about the abrupt end to Autumn and very cold snap. We are in opposite seasons but the similarity is that in the extremes we need to be set up inside safe and sound.
      I love that you also had a Scout!
      Have a good Sunday and new week! With love Annabel.xxx

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  4. Those babies of yours as getting so big! They are still completely gorgeous. I am in love with those old kettles of yours. They will be a wonderful addition to your home. Having one simmering away on the wood stove will help keep some humidity in the air. This should help Andy a lot with his breathing.
    This week I got the last of the presents wrapped and all that need to be posted have been. I had a facetime conversation with Tilly who loved ebryfing fwom Gwanny!!!!!!!!!!!! She did tell me she is coming to my house next week to make pancakes. Jo wont make pancakes with the girls as this is something special that Daddy or Granny do with them. Daddy is on deployment so maybe Granny could be hit up for pancakes. Sadly distance will put a stop to this.
    Bluey had been paving an area at the front of the house. It is the fenced off area of our veranda. The palms and a number of potted trees will end up on the paving. They will provide privacy for the veranda and I will no longer have to deal with weeds growing up through the pots. It is looking so good.
    I spent time in the wee hours with my group, 'Graffiti Grannies' We yarn bombed a small shopping centre and then outside of the local Gallery. It looks great and was a lot of fun. We had so many people stop and tell house how happy it made them to see the yarn bombing. I was particularly taken by the number of young people who stopped to say hello, with big smiles on their faces.
    It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas and life is good.

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    1. Dear Jane,
      Oh how cute is Tilly!? That is lovely! Well done on having the presents wrapped. It is my posting week too.
      I saw the paving.. a very good job and I can see how it will give you so much more space.
      It is so nice that young people thought your yarn bombing was cool. Love it. Also sounds like such fun. I think we have achieved heaps and hope the new week will go along smoothly! With much love Annabel.xxx

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  5. Dear Annabel, Thankyou for another gorgeous post. I love your new bantams. What a lucky find with those kettles - just gorgeous and so practical. This was my daughter's last day of school - hurray! She likes to give her bus drivers and teacher a Christmas gift so I sent her off with three little packages of short bread biscuits in star shapes all decorated. That was a big achievement for me in a crazy busy week. Our Magpie is doing well and I am leaving him outside more and more as he learns to look for and eat insects. He does follows us around if we are in the yard and is quite cute - he is just so loud, it sounds like he is saying the word Mum constantly. It certainly has been a lot of work digging worms three times a day. I used to feed him the worms one by one, now I dig the hole and stand back and he feeds himself. I am trying to keep him as wild and independant as possible. I did nearly go bananas with the always having to dig worms so I caved and spent some money on Meal worms at the pet shop for when I am in a real hurry. Love Clare

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    1. Dear Clare,
      Well done on the lovely biscuits for the bus driver and teacher. These things are lovely I think. Now the magpie... he may well be saying Mum... he would hear this word plenty so he could be imitating. Now you are his Mum too!
      If you are desperate you can feed him mince meat or little bits of meat as long as it is preservative free. This is easy to get now. I had a Magpie years ago and to get preservative free the butcher had to make it especially for me. Then I would divide it in tiny batches and freeze it. Later you can wean him off being dependant by slowly feeding him less and he will forage more. I also caught bugs once and stayed home from school to feed baby Woodswallows. oh the work in that! But they were raised successfully! Have a lovely weekend! With love, Annabel.xxx

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  6. Love your farm animals. And I am totally in love with those 2 gorgeous kettles you got.....They are amazing...Their is a U Tube channel I follow called Homesteading Family and she has these huge kettles she uses all the time......So nice and homey looking,...Have a blessed and productive weekend

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    1. Dear Tammy, Thank you! I am going to watch this channel thank you for telling me about it. I am finding more and more homesteading channels to watch and they are really good for me. I am glad you understand my love of the kettles... I am sure not everyone would! With love Annabel.xxx

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    2. Oh, I do!!

      Rachel

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  7. Those 'kettles' are surely teapots?

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    1. Dear Su, There are kettles as you fill them with cold water and place them on the stove and boil them. This allows me to have a huge volume of hot water ready to pour. In winter they will go on my fire stove. Then you make your tea or pot of tea from there. All kettles used to be tis way. They used to be bigger than today too it seems to me. I just love them! With love Annabel.xxx

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    2. It must be a UK thing then, they'd definitely be teapots here. Stovetop kettles have handles that go over the top, teapots have handles on the side and some teapots are truly enormous!

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    3. Dear Annabel, I also think that they are teapots.
      Check on the thickness of the bases.
      I used to have large kettles and a large teapot, the kettles I used on my fuel (wood) stove in the winter and kettle was to morning tea and afternoon teas for the shearers.
      Kettles are made from much heavier materials then teapots are.
      Farm clearing sales would be good places to find them. Especially farms that have been held fin the family for generations.
      I am busy catching up on a lot of things that I have been unable to do for nearly 2 years. four months since my surgery and I am still not supposed to bend, when I forget and bend is reminds me, I am also still unable to garden and a lot of other activities.
      I am working on family birthday towels for this year that I was unable to do because of the health issues but also because my machine was the sewing machine doctors.
      So 39 towels to finish in the next few days.
      Eldest daughter and her family, from Brisbane, will be home on Thursday for aweek. Son no3 from Western Qld will be home next Sunday until th2 27th. Our 2 daughters that live here obviously will be here.
      However Son no1 from Perth and Son no 2 from Western Qld won't be home and they and their families will be very much missed, but there will be phone calls.
      Christmas lunch will be here, and I have all the meat etc, and the families will all bring food.
      Love Lorraine

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  8. Dear Annabel and Bluebirds!!

    Annabel, it’s a bit like home reading your post! I love that your cute ducklings get so excited. My chook Squeakie is like that! She has a beautiful squeak! Ha ha!!

    I bought some Shine rinse aid for window cleaning!

    I am looking forward to following Jane’s wool work and sock knitting. Maybe we could all band together in the future and market luxury woollen products!! Wool is very expensive!

    Clare’s worm digging put a smile on my face!! Thank you, Clare!

    Enjoying your work,
    Rachel

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    1. Dear Rachel, Pure wool is such a fine product and now a luxury. Some of the USA ladies tell me how expensive it is there and how a pure wool blanket for instance is a huge cost. My little lamb jumpers are also in pure wool! It is cute to think of! I hope the fires are not near your place now. This has all gone on for so long... what a time. With love Annabel.xxx

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  9. Annabel
    You hit the jackpot! Those kettles are the best. Having a big kettle of water especially in winter is a great thing. You animals are all so pretty and look so good. I love how animals have their own personalities and are so funny. Your farm is coming along. Over the summer I kept thinking the neighbors must have had a baby and it wasn't happy nope they got goats haha. And bartering is excellent! I love to barter and your cheeseboard is nice! It must be so peaceful at your place it sure looks like it.
    I traded eggs this week, made dog food, i have been using my drying rack and only the dryer for heavy things. I have been lighting candles in the morning instead of turning on the lamp. When it snows it is pretty just enough light to see the snow falling. I got heirloom tomato seeds sorted so I know which ones I want to plant next year and we have burning wood. The rest of the week was just doing chores.
    XOXO
    Vicky

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    1. Dear Vicky, I love that I can have a lo of hot water going with my kettles. I was so happy finding these!
      Well Eddie sounds exactly like a child. If you didnt know what the noise was it would really frighten you!
      I love to trade, as you know. I really need to make some dog food too. When I make it I freeze batches and I have used all the last lot up. I use it to fill in the gaps when I have no meat or bones.
      I have a lot of tomatoes growing with green baby tomatoes on them. I plan to continue to plant more tomatoes too for maybe two more months.
      You did very well with your week! With love Annabel.xxx

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  10. Dear Annabel,
    You always find such incredible things at the op shops. Not so much here. The kettles are fantastic. I really enjoy reading stories about your animals and their personalities and antics.

    This week I made bone broth out of the turkey carcass and froze most of it. I made a huge batch of a dairy free "cheese sauce" that used pureed cauliflower as the base and nutritional yeast to give it a cheese flavor. It tasted quite authentic. I made a roast and sliced the leftovers very thin for sandwiches. I made a batch of pumpkin chili for the freezer, using pumpkin instead of tomato sauce. I baked more gluten free banana bread for the freezer. I made gluten free wraps for sandwiches and stocked the freezer with them. I used flaxseed and gelatin eggs to replace whole eggs in baking some muffins. They turned out beautifully. About a year or so ago I found some hand spun alpaca yarn at the thrift shop for 50 cents a huge skein. There were 4 skeins each having 240 yards in them. I've been holding on to them to make the "perfect" project. I've decided to make a shawl with them and if there's any left over, perhaps a hat or some socks.

    All the Christmas packages got posted this week. I continue to work on Christmas cards and December birthday cards. Football playoffs are this weekend so I'll have plenty of time in my craft room while the men watch the games.

    All and all its been a good week with much progress made in other areas. Blessings, Cookie

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    1. Dear Cookie,
      The bone broth sounds wonderful. I remember when you found the skeins at the op shop! A fantastic find! They will be a beautiful shawl.
      I love to use a roast to slice up for the lunches etc. To me this is much better than deli meat. And healthier. All your baking sounds beautiful. I feel like pizza so I will be doing gf pizzas this week!
      Enjoy your craft room time. I have a pretty warm day today so I will be in my craft room too! With lots of love, Annabel.xxx

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  11. Like you we are doing animal jobs. Tomorrow my Farmer and DS2 will sort and wean our spring calves. We will also take our bull and one cow/calf pair to the sale barn. We've had Amos the bull for 6 seasons now and it's time for a younger bull and new blood. We hold back some heifers every year and don't want any genetic problems by breeding down the line.
    I am getting to the end of my holiday gift gathering. I only need a few small items, stocking stuffers for the local kids/grands and something for my boss. He will be deploying for a year in January so I'm thinking about a Universal Yums subscription while he is still stateside - about 3 months worth.
    We have several birthdays in December so I am gathering those gifts as well.
    The tree is up and decorated. Farmer needs to hang the stockings. I need to decorate the kitchen. It's all very simple this year since we have very young grandchildren around.
    I have all the Christmas cards for our church family delivered into the church's mailbox system and will be working on the ones I need to mail this week in the evenings. Next week wrapping gifts and baking. The time is going so fast! With it being just Farmer and me here most of the time, we get in a rut. Next week I plan more comfort food to eat and holiday movies in the evening while I wrap gifts.
    One last thing: the cold & flu season is upon us here in the States. Farmer and I drink komucha every day to help with gut health. We inhale Thieves when we've been out and about in the city or after church. And tonight I will be making up a batch of Elderberry syrup to add to the arsinal. We've had one bout already and my simple cold turned into a sinus infection and lasted 4 weeks. I don't have time to be sick!! :)
    It's chilly/cold here. I'm dreaming of your warm Christmas. Blessings.

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    1. Dear Kay, What a nice comment! I keep decorations very simple too. I love how your Church has a pigeon hole system that is awesome!
      I also use thieves or a home blend equivalent to inhale and the I go out and it is flu season I will add it to my scarf and I have an essential oils necklace. So I can float around in my own private cloud of protective oils. I feel it helped me enormously the last couple of years. I diffuse it at home also.
      I hope your calves are not all crying but they probably are! Mine took a couple of days...
      You sound very well organised for Christmas. Thank you for your lovely post! With love Annabel.xxx

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  12. Dear Annabel,

    Scout is so adorable! I love seeing all the photos of the animals. I cracked up about you and your ducks from your last post. "Just one more????" Just like chips...can't stop at just one! They are beautiful, as are your bantams. I know exactly what you mean about Eddie...goats definitely let you know when they aren't happy!

    Very busy here as Christmas looms near. Blocked a vest, today...will have to darn in ends once it's dry, but otherwise it's well on its way to being done in time! Also got one of the Christmas parcels out today, one more to go tomorrow and that's done. Haven't really started any baking, yet, except for fruitcake, which still needs its almond paste on top...maybe this week. My hubby is taking his Christmas vacation next week, as they all have to rotate turns for the actual Christmas week, so I need to be mostly done by the time he is off, except for some baking. It all seems to be coming together, thankfully.

    Glad to hear you had some rain and cooler weather!

    Love, Jen in NS

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    1. Dear Jen, You are doing well. I am wondering if the vest is for your husband? I know it will be lovely.
      Chickens are definitely in the "just one more" category! Now I have another broody bantam so I am thinking of the possibilities!
      It is great your husband has a week off near Christmas. I hope your new week is going well! With love, Annabel.xxx

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