Another week and lots more done at the farmhouse.

It is so good for me to stop and consider what we have achieved in the last week rather than just look at my to do list!  This is good for all of us!  We really do need to think over and soak up the week.
Many of us had huge and special weeks such as Jenny who moved into her own home for the first time ever and Roseanne who is also moving into her dream home.  Both of these Bluebirds prayed long and hard for these outcomes and here we are!  Both are proof prayer does move mountains!

This week I started to feel the effects of being neighbours with both Mum and Dad and Chloe and Luke.  Also now my niece Allie also moved back to farm life. So another family member for a fairly close neighbour (by country measure at least...)
On Sunday Mum drove over and we headed off and picked up Chloe. There was a little Spring fair on at our nearest tiny town.  Now despite this town being so little (I think it has four buildings all up) the fair was beautiful!  I met locals and there were plants, essential oils, jewellery, sewing, linen, cooking, you name it.   It seems to me that all the locals have a side line /home industry of some sort. It was fantastic.  I came home with a tray of seedlings to add to my garden...

At the moment it is working out that each Friday/ Sat we go back to the city to tidy up the house for inspections on weekends.  Please pray our house sells.  I mean really please....  we so much need to buy rainwater tanks, a ride on lawn mover for the vast area we need to keep mowed, many things for here.  Selling means we will be able to.   

Anyway... each trip I get some more plants.  So my flower garden is progressing!   And I quickly planted the seedings from the fair to add to the garden beds.

This week we finally have clean sparkly windows. I cannot tell you how much difference this makes. Many were filthy and a hard job.  The transformation is massive.  I keep admiring how much better everything seems.  I am thinking from now on I will properly clean one window per week. If I rotate this way I will keep on top...

We also had some finishing off things around the house.  We finally have a shower screen!  And a dish washer!  And rain water in the house!   And my kitchen counter tops and splash backs were installed!!!

Ok I have no decor yet but I have counter tops and splash backs!

This all made the world of difference!

I kept the cupboards and sink and it still feels and looks like the original kitchen just better!

Sorry about all the kitchen pictures but if you saw it before you would be excited too! 

We also have lights ready to go in and we ordered a lounge.  We still have not sat down one evening except to eat and have no lounge or TV.  Mind you we will be in the city this weekend to watch the AFL Grand Final on Mums TV!

There was the usual big mess while things were installed.  But we noticed that everyone we have had in this house has been just wonderful and so nice to have around.  

The builders who painted also offered to clean my laundry sink up... I had tried and they said acid would bring it up like new and they did this plus acid washed my laundry floor. Again it involved mess of emptying the whole laundry but the sink and floor look great without replacing anything... this acid they use isn't like any cleaning product!   Bit like a miracle!

The opposite of this was I got started on cleaning the inside of the big oven.  I did have three lots of oven cleaner, gloves and a pile of steel wool and rags but it was no miracle. It was four hours of scrubbing and washing, soaking and carry on.  Others at the house that day came and went and came to see my progress offering advice and sympathy.   In the end I would say I got it to a reasonable state.  Not great but ok.  I feel like I am 3/4 there.  Next week I am going to re apply the cleaner (when I re stock) and repeat the process.  It will be easier and shorter this time!  Then I think I will call the oven clean.  I still felt pretty good about how it is going. 

Now that I have flowers in garden beds the main worries are 1. cockatoos.  They love chewing stuff!  We have a fake hawke that hangs in a tree and looks like it is flying in the breeze and we have Owlie...

His head moves in the wind, his eyes are reflective... we have to move him every couple of days from post to post so the cockies don't wake up to the fact that he is full of lentils haha!   You have to fill the owl with sand to make it heavy. I used lentils... so he is weighty and doesn't blow over.

Number 2 issue is sheep.  We are completely surrounded by paddocks of sheep and if any get into our yard they will go for the flowers first you can count on it.   My Mums friend Di is great at making gates, fences and handy stuff.  She came over and make us a "cockie fence" which is a fence you can lay down if needed and good for an area larger than a normal gate.

Then we needed a normal gate for our main entrance.   We found this gate unused against a fence...

It is really nice!  Better than average farm gate anyway...  Then we needed a large fence post.  So I went walking up around the big old shed and sure enough I found a huge old beautiful fence post.  So now we just need hinges and a chain.  Then in theory we should be able to keep sheep out of the garden!

Three nights this week we had bonfires and cleared more areas that need cleaning up.

We think we have two or three more weeks that it will be safe to do this.  So next week we will do as much as we can and have another area picked out.  But everyone that comes here now says "wow" at all we have done!  

As of Saturday it is two weeks until the wedding.  The next couple of weeks will have a lot of wedding related preparation.   Harper is so excited.  She has a "wedding dress" and she knew I was going with Chloe to pick up the dress on Saturday. She kept saying how she wanted to come, she wants to see the dress!!   

On Tuesday night Andy shouted "come out and see the moon!"  as I was inside cooking.  The moon was rising and was huge and deep orange.  It was so hard to capture but the next night Andy took this photo which was better than I managed..

It still was enormous and amazing!  This was the view from the front deck. I googles "what is up with the moon tonight?" and found out it was the Harvest Moon and people worldwide experienced it!  Chloe was messaging "Mum, look at the moon!!!"  

Really now I can see that a lot was achieved this week yet on Thursday I was feeling it wasn't enough.  This is one of the reasons we need to reflect!  It was a lot and it was all amazing!  

There were added things that I loved.  Being here Andy was able to help Luke with water tank and pump issues... he is really experienced with this kind of thing and there was a problem so he could help.  I loved seeing them work together for the good of the farm and that Luke can come to him now we are neighbours!   And we had major junk to cart away and Luke came over and gave Andy his trailer to use.  This was so helpful.

I am late in the day with posting as we travelled to the city today (Friday) to work on the house for open inspections tomorrow.  As we left it started to rain and I was so thankful as the garden and the farm were getting a drink.

So that was my week and we are really progressing.  I hope you also had a good week.  How did you build up your home, save, get ahead,  improve your pantry or preparedness?  

I am noticing that I am much more mindful of everything I use at the farm as if I run out of something it is too bad until the next trip to the city.   Nothing is wasted!  About every third or fourth night it is a use it up somehow inventive night! 

Tomorrow I hope to be able to add some plants to my collection and today I dug up some more ground covers and Rosemary to transplant.  Bit by bit I am filling in my garden beds.  Next week I will start on my herb garden.  I can't wait for that.  All the little bits add up! 

Have a lovely weekend!    xxxx