Feather your Nest Friday, 19th July, 2019.

It has been a really good week and it feels like longer than a week since last Friday!  Back then one of my goals was to get more chickens as my five eggs a day is no longer anywhere near enough.
I had to try a few different things but in the end Facebook Buy, Swap and Sell worked for me and I ended up going on two long drives to pick up new chickens.
As this took me to two different towns I went to the op shops in each and the Supermarkets in each to pick up the specials.  Before going anywhere I look up the catalogue specials for whatever supermarket they have and make a list.  Even though they are in the country the small towns are mostly affiliated with a bigger group and they have the same specials as the city stores. These can be good.  And I also look up to see if these towns have op shops!

The first farm I went to was really fun.  It was just full of all kinds of chickens.  It reminded me of Greenacres the TV show.  I went for six and I came home with ten.  (This is known as Chicken Maths) I got six regular laying chickens and then I had to have four beautiful black ones.  They are younger so I have to feed them up for a while.

Next I had another drive to get just one Wyandotte and I did it so I could order a few more now that I found a breeder.  I have always wanted these!

At the end of all of this I had stocked up my pantry,  found new op shops and now I have twenty chooks!

This is my fanciest chicken ever. She needs a name...

So soon I should have eleven or twelve eggs a day then later I should have sixteen.  Four of my chooks are bantams.  Their purpose is mainly to hatch eggs and look after chickens down the track.  Lucy and her husband have huge chocolate brown hens and a rooster.  So my bantams hopefully will hatch some of these!

My hens should give me plenty of eggs for us, enough to supply Lucy's family until their own hens lay and Mum and Dad (Chloe keeps her own chickens) and plenty for gifts and to barter with.  I am finding eggs are one of my main barter items.  Eggs, bunches of Bay Leaves and Parsley and gum nuts.  I seem to be able to do all sorts of deals with these.  I forgot to add... Scout just loves eggs.  When I cook eggs for us I cook her one too.

During the week we were cleaning up after a storm.  There were three big trees/branches over fences.  So we have more firewood to stack and more bonfires to burn!

I got stuck into some organising projects.  Firstly I tackled the laundry cupboards.  Now I have space to get a bit further ahead with laundry detergents etc.

Next I attacked the freezers.  This was a big job as we had added a chest freezer and as with chest freezers things got thrown in.   I have two fridges and one has an upright side freezer and one has freezer drawers at the bottom.   Between these now I have a drawer that is just ready to go emergency meals.  A draw that is fast and easy lunch options which is mainly for Andy and Luke.  I have meat, veggies and desert sections.  The chest freezer has giant chunks of venison at the bottom and baskets of bread on the top.  Now I know what I have and can find things!   I am really pleased!

In town I found a big selection of heavily marked down bakery items like cheese and bacon scrolls,  herbed focaccia and so on.  I filled a huge shopping bag for $10.   These all went into my easy lunches section in the freezer.  It was easily 30 lunches.

Also in town a shop had a stand out the front with everything for $2.  I looked but there were many things marked $49!   I think many people walked on by because it seemed the $2 sign was wrong, didn't apply to everything or something...   I went in to the store and asked if these expensive items were really $2?  The lady laughed and said yes they were having a big clean out.  So back I went.  I picked out two iPad/tablet cases made of leather in lovely colours marked $49 each.  Then I picked out other things that were good gifts... travel wallets, party times and more.  I spent $14 and I added up I had almost $300 in gifts for my gift cupboard!

We pruned the pear trees so we will be able to get nets over them later.  While in the orchard I closely looked at each fruit tree. They are all looking good with lots of buds!   It is so nice to be in the orchard. It is so nice to HAVE an orchard!  Each tree has a protective surround.  The calf and lambs walk around with me wanting to be patted.  It is so beautiful!

I made some bath soak for myself with some of my favourite essential oils.  Soaking in the bath is my relaxation!

All the laces were an op shop find!   I found a bag of meters and metres of laces and trims.

We used up more broccoli from the garden.

I made up a big batch of Wool Wash.  This is the most divine soap ever.   I use it to wash all my things like the quilt, woollen underlay, pillows, blankets, lounge throws and my jumpers, cardigans, scarves etc.   Everything comes up softer than soft.  For this reason it is perfect for baby clothes.  It also kills dust mites.  This is a beautiful gift too.

The recipe is easy.  It is a Jackie French recipe I have used for years.
4 cups of water,
4 cups of Lux flakes.  If not in Australia use a pure soap flake or grate a pure yellow soap.
1 cup methylated spirits,
1 tablespoon Eucalyptus oil.
Bring the water to the boil.  Stir in the flakes until smooth.  Then add the rest of the ingredients and pour into jars.

At first it will be a liquid and look like this...

(Sorry about the lighting it was late evening soap making!)
Oh... see the old pot?  I got that for $4 to be my soap and detergent making pot.

After about a day your Wool Wash will set.  Make sure your jars have lids so you can seal them up.

To use it dissolve one tablespoon in a jug of hot water then use it in your bucket or tub to hand wash. I use it in my top loader washing machine all the time.   The water can be warm or cold as long as it has been dissolved first that is all that matters.
Things that were scratchy will be soft.  They smell glorious.  It is honestly the most beautiful wool wash.

Next I made a similar recipe for fabric softener.  (There are the two on the right of the picture)
This is the same... you need a little bit and dissolve it in a jug then add to your wash.
The recipe is
4 cups hot water, 2 cups Lux flakes (or grated pure soap) 1 cup methylated spirits, 2 tablespoons Eucalyptus oil.   Dissolve Lux flakes in the hot water and add the other ingredients.  Put into bottles of jars.   Use two tablespoons in your wash.   This also smells beautiful.

In a way if you have never make soap this is a way to start.  These products are better than anything you can buy in the shops.  I have set two jars aside for friends I am swapping with.


I made two Tuna Mornay casseroles and two chocolate cakes.  One of each went to Chloe and Luke.

I sliced the chocolate cakes and put fresh strawberry jam in the middle.  This was delicious and kind of a cheats version of black forest cake (ish) and was a hit!

I mended a shirt for Andy.

I am really pleased with the week as organised freezers,  budding fruit trees and more chickens are all very good things.  And we had rain!

Setting goals as I plan my week on a Sunday really helps me.  It gives me things to keep in mind that I need to try and get done.  This made me try several ways to find chickens after asking everyone failed to produce any.  It made me go pick them up right away!  I know next week one of my gaols will be to set up lots of new nesting boxes and perches.

How did you get ahead, build up your pantry, save and build up your home this week?  I hope you had lots of good opportunities.

It has taken me ages to post this as we woke up in a blanket of fog.  When there is fog the internet is either really slow or doesn't work at all!  So after lunch the fog cleared a bit and now is my chance! xxx

Cookie could really use some healing prayers.  And Rachel could really do with some prayers also. Thank you!

Feather your Nest Friday, 12th July, 2019.

It has been a really good week!  It is raining now and has been for a couple of days.  It did hit with a big storm and we have lots of branches down and mess.  But the rain is worth it.  I like to watch it pouring down the pipes into the rainwater tanks!

Some of the ways I built up our home and got ahead were:

This is a big one!  Laffie is weaned and so are two more lambs.  They are all eating grass and hay, spinach, parsley and other leaves from the garden.

This lamb is Jellybean.   Do notice Laffin's eyelashes! 

Before the rain we went on with cleaning up and burning another area.  This was bonfire number 23!

Once the fire is going well we work away and throw on branches for an hour or two until that spot is pretty well cleaned up.   I save boxes, household paper and dryer lint for my fire lighters.

I baked Dad's favourite cake and he turned up just in time to see it fresh in the tin and cut his own piece.  The rest I sliced and froze for when he visits.

I stewed some apples (still from the big apple tree) to go with some pork.

On Tuesday I made a big pot of spaghetti meat sauce then made up pasta bakes.  The recipe is essentially lasagne except with spiral pasta instead of sheets.  I find this so much easier.  A huge tray of this went down to Lucy and the girls.  I froze some and we had this for two nights this week.

I made gluten free little cakes.

For the girls I made little cakes and dusted them with icing sugar.   This is because a certain someone just eats the icing if I ice them.

I made a stack of cleaning cloths from a soft flannelette sheet I found in the op shop.

Mum gave us some turkey.  It was four pieces for two meals.  So this made two dinners including tonights.   She also gave us some meaty bones for Scout.  And little Scout is doing so well and tries so hard to please.  

We love her!  

I had a few strawberries sitting in the fridge about to go to waste.  Then I remembered some in the freezer.  I made them into jam and made up a batch of gluten free scones.  

I had left over roast venison and made several Shepherd's pies.  They were beautiful and some went into the freezer.

And I made Gluten Free Melting Moments.  These were delicious!  

Luke came by yesterday.  He calls me Mother lol.   He says "Hello Mother I have a present for you!"  Luke has me figured out.  The present is something he found... a calf feeding set up that will feed three calves at once!   I have the same thing that feeds one calf.  So I know this would be worth over $100 and it will be wonderful to have in my animal pantry.   I was so pleased!   

One of the things I set to good use this week was feed bags I had saved up.  These come with grain for chickens and various animal feeds.   There is one with a Kangaroo I have seen too which I would love to get.   Anyway they are an item that people throw away.

I made heavy duty shopping bags.  They are also water proof so can be wiped down.

I love them!  A lady in The Tuesday Afternoon Club gave me another idea for them too so I will save more.  

Also I tried something new and felted some soaps.  This was fun and easy.  It is like soap in a wash cloth or bag.   I seem to be accumulation a whole heap of gifts that are very practical/reusable/ money saving etc.    So on my list next is soap making.

So it was a week of getting lots done,  a day visiting the girls with Mum, rain and cooking.

We have decided to get more chickens.  We get five eggs a day and now this is not enough.  I give eggs to anyone I know of that needs help,  I take two dozen a week to Lucy and like to give Mum a dozen.  I like to use them for bartering and I use a heap myself.  Now Scout loves a cooked egg  better than anything!   So we are getting more chickens!    I can't wait!  We know someone who breeds all kinds so I hope to get some pretty and interesting chooks to add to the flock.

I hope you had a wonderful week.  Lets face it some weeks it is an achievement to still be alive at the end.  Others are big weeks for getting things done.  This is a case of make hay while the sun shines! 

How did you build up your home, pantry, savings or gift cupboard this week?  We all learn such a lot from each other.  A little bit of encouragement and someone to work along with is good too.  Thinking over my week makes me happy.  I can see I was very blessed this week.xxx

  

Feather your Nest Friday, 5th July, 2019.

This was a much slower week for me!  A cold and a shocking cough slowed me down.  And these reminded me of why we prepare and keep spare meals in the freezer and why I make soft flannelette hankies to keep in the medical cabinet.  They saved my life just about this week!

But I wasn't sick all week and I am on the mend now so I still achieved some things!
Some of the ways I feathered the nest included:

I made a big batch of pumpkin gluten free scones. I had made pumpkin soup earlier and I just rescue a couple of chunks of pumpkin from the top and set aside for scones.  The addition of cheese makes these pretty good for lunch boxes.

I love scones, they made soup a full meal and they freeze well!

I also made a big batch of homemade dog food.  Little Scout is doing so well and we love her!  She is so good and wanting to please. She sits nicely :) 

She has learned how to be good in the car and lots of things like fetch.  She has a squeaky toy which is her favourite.  

A highlight of the week was meeting my friend Wendy in a town north of us.  We had a coffee together then later we met up again for lunch. It was so much fun.  We had planned a swap from the swap party plus an additional swap since.  I took Wendy eggs, a fabric panel and a big bottle of Miracle Cleaner...

Wendy gave me lace, doilies, a vintage sheet and bulbs for my garden (from her Garden) that are pink Lilies!  I got them all planted and am so excited as they will be beautiful.

While in town I went to two op shops.  I found two thick and good quality old bread pans, glass cut napkin rings, a piece of velvet for making hot packs and three gorgeous old jars for my collection.  

One is older with the greenish tinged glass.  The brand we have in Australia is Agee.  I have probably fifty of these now. These were $1 each.  The glass is thick and often uneven with bubbles in it.  I adore them and use them!  This is how I store my food so these will be full and on my shelves soon!

During the week I made two fruit loaves for toasting.  

We picked Broccoli almost every day.

I roasted another big piece of venison and it was beautiful.  Tonight I am making a lot of it into Shepherds Pies.  I will do one each for the girls and two for us. One will go into the freezer.   After that I will still have some left which Andy will have for lunches. Finally Scout will get the bone!

When in town I also did a big shop.  Since I re arranged the pantry and added the shelves in the laundry I am really working on stocking up more. I wait for really good deals.  This time the best deals were dish washing liquid, dried pasta and canned soup.  I also bought extra packets of matches to store. 

I made heat packs for the girls.  I lined them with thick flannel then they had pretty covers.  They loved them!  Lucy will just gently warm them for bed at night.  It is cold there!   

Then I made two new ones for myself.  I cannot be without heat packs!   I used barley from the soup bean section in the supermarket for the filling.

I made a long one to go around my neck when I get a neck ache/migraine.    These make wonderful gifts and a good inclusion in a get well gift or a winter birthday. 

So this was my week and it was a bit slower but still ok!

Andy has been working on cutting up fallen branches and fire wood.  This afternoon I think we will light a few bon fires and get a few more patches cleared up. 

We have a beautiful sunny winters day!  I love these days.  I need to get out in that sunshine.  

This week I have weaned two lambs and next week another lamb plus Laffie can be weaned.  They are eating so much grass now they hardly bother to come to the gate for their bottles.  Then I will be down to Jellybean and Blossom.  (The babies!) 

I hope you had a good week and that you had little opportunities to get ahead, build up your pantry, preparedness and savings.  Over the last few weeks I have noticed I have built up a lot of sewing and craft supplies.  (Thanks mainly to the Swap Party!)  This was from getting very low on fabric especially.  I am really hoping  that over the weekend I can get busy making things from all of this!   Now we are into the second half of the year I want to really work on my Christmas cupboard.  With less animals to feed I hope to have more time to craft!

Have a wonderful weekend! xxxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 28th June, 2019.

This week went really fast and was super busy!  But it was productive with lots to be thankful for.
First of all on Friday we got our puppy!  Dad said to get a dog. I was thinking this. Rosanne confirmed it.   And there were farm puppies.  Lucy's family adopted a dog that wasn't very wanted or loved when Harper fell in love (and I mean LOVE) with this dog a farm worker had.  Their love become so obvious in the end the worker said "take the dog!" and so they had an instant dog.  I was very cautious. You do not trust an unknown dog with children.  However it turned out that Kelly was the most patient loving dog ever.  She became a family member in a day.
When the girls wake from a sleep they say "where is Kelly?" and Kelly turned out to be the most excellent working dog and helps Kato during the day. She is the hardest worker ever.
However one day I asked if they realised Kelly was pregnant?  No apparently they did not.  I told the girls "You are getting puppies!!" and they were dancing around saying "yippee yippee" while Mum and Dad looked shocked.  I predicted the puppies would be born on Andy's birthday.  and they were born the evening before!!  It was pretty exciting!
And NINE puppies were born!   So one dog turned into TEN! (sorry to everyone who already knows this story!)

You can see how much Harper loves this dog and it loves her back.  Scarlett loves her too!

From the litter we chose a girl and one that was less mad keen on chasing sheep.

We chose this little one and named her Scout.

Well, she has been so good and we just love her!!  We are in a little routine now and she is happy and we are happy!

Meanwhile the older lambs are almost ready to wean.  The middle lambs including Jellybean are doing well.  And Blossom, the baby is going along well too.  I managed to get a photo of them all sun baking after being fed with smug and happy looks on their faces.  Blossom at the end is the funniest of them all! haha!

Some of the ways we build up our home, preparedness and pantry and saved money included:

Dad had given us a leg of venison. I roasted one half and it was beautiful.  I am now slicing it for many meals.

I made a few dozen man sized pasties. These fed everyone plus gave me many freezer meals. They are rustic but taste good!

A couple of days later I realised oops I have a whole packet of puff pastry left over in the fridge.  I was inspired by Mel S and Wendy to made trays of pinwheels with cheese, bacon and tomato paste.   Again they fed everyone!

I was sewing lots of custom made door snakes for Lucy's house. She has beautiful old fashioned french doors but they leak a lot of air.   And it is really cold. So I made eight to fit just right.

Then I went on and made four wheat heat packs for the girls... same reason... it is really cold down at their farm!

Speaking of cold, we had several severe frosts.  We have some garden damage from this.  But we are learning this is our first winter here after all.

I picked more broccoli from our garden to go with our meals.

We planted three more fruit trees.  With all the trees we planted we still needed an apricot and an orange. I added another lemon.  They are all in with tree guards around them.  Now we have an orchard of twenty fruit trees!   I am so thrilled about this as it was a major goal.

I was able to give eggs as a gift of help.
I made a big batch of pumpkin soup for us and also as a gift of help.

Tomorrow we are off to see the girls and I can't go without cakes.  I used up the last of my little decorations on this lot.

So that about sums up my week.  Of course a normal week involves all the usual cooking, cleaning, washing, family Birthdays, shopping and so on.  It is so much!  People say "oh what do you do with yourself?" as if surely I must lay in bed all day dying of boredom.   This is why it is good to review your days and week.  We have a good answer full of industry and productivity!   I have a fair idea of how much I saved.  I keep track of things we added to the pantry, freezer... how we are tracking at being more self sufficient and more prepared.  We are making hay while the sun shines!  

How did you build up your home this week?   I hope it was full of opportunity for you! xxx

Feather your Nest Friday, 21st, June, 2019.

What a week!  Good things to report!  And an exciting day today!  I am sorry this post is late.  It is because my internet has been bad and pictures would not load.

First things first.  As you know Dad comes over often and seems to love seeing what we have been doing, how the calf is, how the veggie garden is doing...  I was telling him a couple of weeks ago that it was almost time to plant bare rooted fruit trees (as it is winter here) and how much I want to add to the orchard.  We have a lovely rabbit proof fenced area with three big old fruit trees in there.  These are the trees everyone told me had no fruit yet we had tons of beautiful delicious pic apples and two types of pears from them!
Next thing I had a message from Mum.  Dad had ordered me ten fruit trees and I just had to pick them up in town!  I was so excited.  What a beautiful gift!  In fact I could hardly think of a nicer gift or more meaningful either.  Dad also picked out the exact trees he thought would be good.
So much of the week revolved around these trees.  I picked them up on Tuesday and we were told to plant them as soon as possible.
I knew we would need tree guards because of the animals.  Andy set to work to make them.

Then yesterday Luke came over with the farm Bobcat.  This little tractor is the handiest thing!   We placed the tree guards where we thought worked well, we lined then up with the established trees and formed three rows.  Luke dug deep holes in no time flat.   This is the paddock with Laffie and the lambs.  They seemed to enjoy is and bounded around and inspected everything.

I added two buckets of sheep manure to each hole and planted the trees.  Then the tree guards went on and next they get steel droppers to hold them in place.

We now have an orchard!   This area we now have thirteen trees but overall we now have seventeen fruit trees!   We will have a couple to add as Apricot and Orange are missing and we need those.

So this was a great amount of progress for the week.

During the week some of the ways we got ahead, saved etc included...

I cut Andy's hair.
Mum gave Andy three beautiful pure wool jumpers.
I made sour dough gluten free bread.
I picked Parsley and was able to give a bunch to Dad and a bunch to Chloe.
I made a big batch of spaghetti sauce.  This made two meals, a meal for each of the girls plus a meal for the freezer.
I made Play Doh for the girls.
To use eggs I made six cups of baked egg custard.
We added hay to the animals shed as it has started to get really gold.  We hit freezing last night and will again the next few nights.
I made a batch of gluten free scones...

Today Mum is coming and we are heading south to see Lucy and the girls.  I made a chocolate cake to take.  It is decorated with what I could find in my tin of cake decorations.

Last week I shared a very sad photo of an orphan lamb that I rescued and it was in very bad shape.  I did not expect her to survive.

This is her now!   We named her Blossom.  She has been a lot of work as she does not suck a bottle properly.  But she is so gorgeous.

Lambs are just the strangest animals.  Within about three days they go from out in the paddock to loving you like crazy and wanting to live in the house and watch tv.  Like they know everything!

During the week I finally had a little time to sew.  The first thing I made was something to help me feed so many lambs.  It was kind of an experiment but it worked!!   I sewed bags to put bottles in and hang from the fence.

These have helped me so much and saved me so much time.

The only glitch was I had to adjust how I tied them on because at first I tied bows and Laffie came along and undid them!   I was amazed.

Since then I beat her and tied them on with a knot and now it works!

I made pillowcases for the girls plus a batch of multi coloured play doh.

So the reason today is extra exciting is we are getting a puppy!  Like I need more animals, right?
I had thought about having a dog.  Dad said too how we should have a dog and how having one would be good security.  And now we have the chance and we get her today!

I took a photo of the garden near the kitchen door.  This has a parsley edge I planted all from seeds from the old house.

This time last year we didn't know we were moving for sure.  When we did move this area was sand and weeds.  Now I pick from it every day!

So that was my week!  I am very pleased as we were able to add to our preparedness very much!  We saved in many ways and it was wonderful!

I hope you found ways to save, get ahead, increase your pantry and preparedness and generally build up your home.  Looking well to the ways of your household includes so many things!   It is beautiful to look back over the week before we begin to plan the next one.

Have a lovely weekend! xxx

The Tuesday Afternoon Club. June report.

There have been so many wonderful ideas shared and The Swap Party as well over at The Tuesday Afternoon Club.  Now and then I have a post here for the ladies without Facebook.  This gives us an extra dose of hand made goodness!

Firstly we have Cookie.  I am excited about this one.  This tiered skirt is very like a skirt both my girls loved when they were little.

Best of all Cookie made it from some fabric from sheets she got for 25c each from the thrift store.  And she would have miles of fabric for other projects!    Now here is the pattern which you can make in any size...

Here's the formula for the skirt. Measure the waist at the natural waistline. Multiply that measurement by 1.5. for the second tier multiply the original waist measurement by 2. For the third tier multiply by 2.5. Next decide how long you want the skirt to be from you waist down. Divide that number by 3 in  order to get the length of each tier. Now add about an inch to the width of each tier  to allow for seam allowance. 

1st tier -- see the side seam and then turn under the top to make a casing, leaving space to put the elastic in later. For the girls I would probably use elastic that's about 3/8  inch wide. So make the casing accordingly. For myself I use 1 inch non-rolling elastic and make the casing 1 1/4 inches.

2nd tier-- sew side seam and then gather at the top and pin to the bottom of the first tier placing the gathers evenly.

3rd tier--see the side seam. Turn up the bottom hem about 1/4 inch, press and then fold over itself. Stitch up on the machine. Hem done.  Gather the top and attach to the bottom of second tier. 

Cut elastic same size as waist measurement and run it through the casing. Overlap it and see down. Close the casing.  It's finished!!!.

Thank you so much Cookie!  I will be making these up for the girls.  They will love them! 

Next Cookie made bowl cosies. They are so good as they both keep a bowl of food warmer and stop you burning your hands.  The solution too when you are having a bowl of soup on the couch or sick in bed.

Beautiful gift bags, cards and gift boxes...

The box is filled with homemade fudge! 

And Dandelion Honey! 

Cookie you always come up with so many beautiful things.

Jen in NS worked on knitted projects.  Her knitting is so divine my Aunt went to great lengths to get her hands on some!  In the end mittens travelled from Nova Scotia to South Australia!  

Look at this wonderful work.   It all looks so warm and cozy.  Just divine Jen.

Chloe made the cutest Easter little cakes.  

She found good packaging boxes in the cheap shop which made them look wonderful for gifts.

Clare made bubble bath and filled gorgeous containers from the op shop.  How lovely it looks!  Clare your photo looks like it is straight out of a magazine!

So many lovely ideas!  I hope I have not forgotten anyone... it has been just ages since I did one of these posts.  As it is this is late in the day.  I had a day going in to town for supplies.  I started feeding lambs and the calf at 7am and then next thing I needed to bath the little lamb she was in such a serious mess.  I have never bathed a sheep before.  It didn't do a lot for me getting out the door on time!  Anyway she didn't seem to mind at all and wagged her tail even.  And it turns out sheep shake off water exactly the same as dogs do when they do that big shake after a bath!  Lucky I was not dressed yet just in my dressing gown.  Now the worlds grubbiest lamb is white as snow!   So this is how my day went and here I am posting late!

I hope your week is going well!   If you are able come over to the Facebook group and see what everyone has been making plus some op shop finds!   We are almost mid year now.  I am on track for Christmas and Birthdays provided I keep going at the same pace!

See you on Friday! xxx