Feather your Nest Friday, 29th March, 2019.

Can you believe March is almost over!?  I feel like I was just planning my year and here we are three months in.

It has been a really good week!  So much going on...

These are some of the ways I feathered my nest, built up our home, saved, got ahead, added to my pantry...

First of all you have to put up with a story.   My Dad pops in pretty regularly for a cup of tea and a chat.  And to see what I am up to around here.  Every time he comes he asks me in a slightly exasperated way WHY don't I have a kitchen table?  Our dining room table is in the lounge room which is big, like one end is living, one end is dining.  The other table we have is out on the deck which is where we mostly eat.   That is all the tables I have!   But I kind of agreed with him.  Ours is an old fashioned kitchen and I kept it as it was, original cupboards, sink and stove, even floor.  And a table would fit.  Well, a small table.  So Dad would drag a chair out of the lounge room to the kitchen and sit there saying it is much better to sit in the kitchen.  And he is right, I am always cooking or usually when he is here.   My Nan had a big old farmhouse table in her kitchen. I loved it.  It is true that the kitchen is the heart of the home.
So finally I took the hint and thought to please Dad I will find myself a little kitchen table.  It would have to be fairly small, narrow and long as that is the shape of the room and the space I have.
Then I remembered seeing a small table up in the top shed.  Right at the back amongst junk and spider webs.   So I planned to go investigate.  I went armed with fly spray.
Amazingly I decided the table was about the right size, it was sure rustic and farmhouse style but it was covered in thick cobwebs and you had to climb over all kinds of stuff to get to it.  So I would need Andy to help.  I sprayed a ton of flyspray to kill black spiders and let that do it's work!
Later we went up with the trailer and hauled it out.  I wore thick leather gloves and boots.  We lifted it up and started shifting it toward the door and something moved next to my left hand.  I screamed and dropped the whole thing!  It was just a spider web moving in the breeze lol 🙄
I truly nearly had a heart attack.  Anyway this all continued until we had it on the trailer then unloaded it out on the front lawn.  Then I was able to use a broom to clear twenty years of dust and then the hose until finally I scrubbed it down with Ajax and steel wool.
Now it is very rustic.  Too rustic for some probably but I love it!
Finally it was dry on Monday morning and Andy helped me bring it into the kitchen.   I found two chairs and popped a tray and a jug on it and it looked like it belonged.  
Two hours later who should turn up?  Dad!  He walked to the kitchen door and stopped in his tracks!  I said "Ta dahhh!" throwing my hands in the hair!   And he beamed and said "That's MUCH BETTER" and pulled out a chair and sat down.  So out came his own special cup and saucer and he had two cups of coffee.   So now he is happy!  
Vicky and I joked and said it was all done for our favourite piece.  (That would be zero dollars and zero cents!)

I made three reversible shopping bags from lovely fabric a Bluebirds sent me in our swap party.  I have been running out of bags on my trips to town.  I made the pattern up and was really pleased!

You can see the table and chairs here but I will take more photos when I am happy with how I have it set! 

I finished off my pin cushions.  I found bow and button pins to add to them. Underneath they each have a button and on top they each have a crystal or a flower. 

We used our apples, pears and figs in our meals.  I wrap figs in prosciutto and fill them with cream cheese and bake them.   We had pear, walnut and rocket salad,  baked apples with pork and apple pies.

I found a big bag of bananas marked down so I used them to make the cakes to take this week to see the girls.   That is today after I post! Mum is coming over and we head of at nine am! 

I made two dozen regular banana cakes and two dozen GF ones.

As I am trying to use apples up I made a heap of individual apple pies in my pie maker.  This lot are to take to Lucy today.

My tray is a lined lid of a big shoe box.  Well it works!

I added to the pantry with coffee at an amazing price.

My chickens are laying better and better.  I am getting four eggs a day so I have some slackers but I think they will all be laying soon!

Just as I thought I was getting ahead with apples we got MORE apples.  Dad said to go look at the old apple tree and pick the rest.  So we made a trip out of it and headed off down a track we had not explored yet.  It was just beautiful and a short cut to the beach!  This was back to the apple tree over the old stone house.  The apples that were left were way up high!

I had my long picking stick Andy made me. It has a long handle, a hook and a tin for the fruit to drop in to.  So we still got four baskets full.

The apples are a bit scruffy on the outside but good on the inside.  I put an egg in the basket to show how big they are!  

While poking around at the old cottage we found a big old cast iron box.  I think it had once contained machinery.   Anyway we needed a wood box at the back door.  We both looked at it and said "wood box!"   It is amazing!   

In the afternoon we went wood cutting and filled a trailer and our new woodbox at the back door.  This is really good timing as it could be only weeks before we need to start having a fire.

Early in the week we had some rain. It looks like we are set for some more which would be wonderful!

I planted cauliflowers and cabbages and some flowers.

So it was a great week.  Lots of progress here and there.  And that is how it adds up.  Week by week we can make so much difference and achieve all kinds of goals.  

Watching well to the ways of your household and being busy are important things!  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Have a lovely weekend! xxx