Feather your Nest Wednesday!

I am home from my two trips and this is an attempt to catch up like a Feather your Nest Friday but a Wednesday!   It will take a while to catch up on a few things including correspondence and if you looked around the house you would see many other things I need to get to!
But my trips were great and productive in many ways!

Going way back to before I left...   I had roses everywhere and bunches and bunches hanging around the kitchen and lounge room.

Before I left I sat all the ones that are too big to dry as buds in  baskets to dry for petals...

I am planning to use lots in bath products and make up cellophane bags of buds for the next swap party! 

My first trip was to Mum and Dads farm.  As always I called into the country op shops on the way!  I went to three. This breaks up the three hour drive for me and these are much better than the city op shops.   And I had luck!   I found piles of beautiful and mostly brand new cookbooks!  Several were ones I would have liked as gifts myself and several are potential gifts.  The most expensive ones were $1.

I got eleven all up.  When I got to the farm Chloe was there and she and Mum both pounced on these and started reading them!   Chloe lives on the farm but her house is half an hour away from Mum and Dads.  Australian stations are big!  In the US you would say Ranch where we say Station. 

I also got knives.  Some time ago I realised how expensive good kitchen knives are and when I was cutting up the bulk steak I bought that we didn't have enough good ones.  I got these for Andy to sharpen up.  The most expensive one was 50c

Then I got big old preserving jars!  At this point I was pretty happy!

In the background is a cotton hand towel that Mum knitted for me which is gorgeous.  Another thing I got was a yogurt maker for $3. 

It was lovely weather and cool at night. I slept with the window wide open and all you can hear is an orchestra of frogs!  It is lovely.  

Mum had ducklings.  They are hard to get anywhere near so this is the best I could do!

There were several nests as well.  To me this is just beautiful.  Look at the cloud like nest.  This duck has been very busy this week feathering her nest!  😊

There was a lamb that is bottle fed.

And Joeys (baby Kangaroos) 

In the evening I went for walks.  Some kangaroos hopped down the hill near me. I could feel the ground under my feet shake!  It is a real thump thump thump as they go past.

I came home with a new supply of Bayleaves to get more drying,  eggs, lemons and the biggest t bone steak you ever saw for Andy! 

The next day we headed off again to stay with Chloe. 

I took this photo on the trip down.  

The artwork on these grain silos was just stunning. The children depicted go to the local school.

Chloe's house has the most beautiful view and surroundings.  This is her front yard...

Andy made her the swing! 

Chloe gave me more eggs. She has a funny collection of wildly different chooks as she rescued most of them.  

When we were feeding them I noticed the bags of grain had fantastic pictures on the front...

These are really tough thick plastic type fabric.  I asked if she would save them for me. I am going to make grocery shopping bags from them!  I came home with my first two! 

On the way home we stopped to have lunch.  We watched a tractor moving giant bales of hay.  Oh joy! He was literally making hay while the sun shines! 

Yep that is what we need to be doing!  While we have the opportunity make hay and store up!  

It was a busy week but really good.  And the long and short of all of this is we are thinking very seriously about moving back to the farm, back to the country.  There are things to work out but I know God's hand is on it all.  In fact I would really appreciate prayers on this.  My Dad is thinking of the Great Grandchildren, the generations and all our future security.  These decisions are huge ones.

I came home to beautiful parcels and gorgeous notes from the swap party! Oh my goodness! 

Next week I will get back to posting as normal.   I won't post on Friday since it would only be a two day report!  I will be glad to get back to normal as I feel something is missing when I don't write.

How did you save, get ahead and build up your nest this last week and a half?   I hope this week is going well!  xxx