Feather your Nest Friday, 23rd August, 2019.

It has been a long long week.  My Dad hasn't been too well for several weeks and we have all been worried.  It came to a phone call  from Mum ,just as I was finishing my dinner on Saturday night,  to say "come quickly Dad is not too good".   In Australia "not too good" means REALLY BAD.  Dad's heart rate was only 32.   There were a series of dramas to add to it but soon he was on The Royal Flying Doctor plane to the city and he was given a pacemaker.  By now I had a lot of prayer support as I quickly posted in two groups, The Tuesday Club and The Women of Provers 31 group.  I really felt the presence of God all through this.  It was amazing.  There were a couple of crisis to deal with and the surgeon said it was the most difficult pacemaker op he ever did and they had so much trouble and obstacles to overcome.  But it worked!  So I am so thankful and grateful.  We are all home now including Dad.  Thank you to everyone who knew and prayed.  If I have not replied to an email, comment or message now you know why!  We were all very tired when we came home.  I still feel tired and am catching up gradually.

Despite all of this there was so much to be grateful for this week.  I was still able to achieve some things, some of which was on Saturday before the phone call.

In the city we had lots of long waits.  Mum cleaned out cupboards at one stage.  We all clean and cook when waiting or worried.  I came home with six bottles of wine (which I figure are possible gifts, contributions, cooking etc aside of drinking) and at one stage I weeded the garden and brought home several bags of thistles for the chickens.

My chicken feed bags get a constant work out as it doesn't matter if they get dirty you just wipe them out.

When I got home Scout went so crazy.  Then I did the rounds and visited everyone.  It was so nice to be home!  Laffie started running around leaping like a deer and being silly.  This is all good but she is getting so big I am about worried about being bowled over.   She was pleased to see me though!

On Friday we had worked on another area cleaning it up.  I took photos of how nosey the lambs are about everything you do.  

Everything is so darn interesting!

They all run up to greet me.  But little Blossom still wants me to pick her up. If you don't she gently pokes my leg with her little hoof.  Like "hello, I'm here"  so I pick her up and she isn't so small anymore.   Andy took this funny photo of me showing him the face she makes when she wants to be picked up. hahaha

All the clearing up has given us whole walls of stored wood.  We have sections, ready to burn areas and some that needs a year to dry out.

Wood to me is like the pantry, money in the bank and an emergency fund.  This means warmth, the ability to cook and boil water and many things.  I love a woodpile.

In Adelaide I picked a big bunch of mint from Mum's garden.  So I will make a curry soon and make a raita to go with it.  I love this.

On the way home from the city I did a big Aldi stock up.   Aldi is so much cheaper than the regional towns.  I took advantage of this and re stocked the pantry with all kinds of basics plus things like butter, meat, cheese.   When I got home I began unpacking bulk packs i.e. sausages into meal sized packs and freezing.   

We decided to get another freezer.  If we had a deer or sheep  come in we have no room to freeze it.  My freezers are not big and are full of ready made rolls, regular meat packs, frozen veggies,  breads, ready made meals... I don't have an inch spare.  I found a good place to put a bigger freezer with a re arrange.  So this is planned for next week.  I feel it is a good investment especially with the prices of meat and butter going crazy.

My vacuum stopped working.  I googled it and it said Vax machines cut out before overheating.  To clean all filters etc.  Now it is not long since I did that but that was it.  I washed everything and it was pretty disgusting.  It is some high efficiency filter system. So it needs doing really often.  Now it works wonderfully again!   I don't have a manual as I found it on the side of the road and the nasty people didn't leave a manual with it. haha!  (I BET they threw it out because it cut out like it did on me because the filters needed cleaning!)  At the time I looked the model up on the internet and it was a $600 vacuum!

Yesterday the calf and lambs all got out of the paddock as they beat me back to the gate. My fault.  I remembered Mum's trick to bribe them with biscuits.  Now they have never had biscuits (cookies) or seen a packet.  Yet when I took out the packet they all chased me.  How on earth did they know something was good in that packet?  And then they just ate their biscuits.  They didn't taste them to see if they liked them they all just went berserk like they had seen a convincing TV commercial.  Anyway now I know to keep a packet of biscuits on hand! 

So this was my week.  When I think how I expected it to turn out verses how it did turn out I am so grateful.  

Dad is doing pretty well.   He just wants to get back to work!  He is not very patient.  But his left arm looks a big mess as he had a big bleed and a lot of bruising.  That arm will slow him up a bit.

How was your week?  How did you build up your home and pantry, get head or save?  

Have a lovely weekend! xxx