Feather Your Nest Friday, 10th January, 2020.

What a week we had!  Truthfully I have lots track of what happened and on what day.  But after having to evacuate  (due to the fires)  each day was still a bit of a worry as it was a big fire ground and much of it was smouldering.  So every time the wind came up there were firefighters here and farmers attending to everything so the fire would not start up or get away again.   Some days we had so much smoke. It was thick. Visibility was low and it smelled so bad.  Today is the first day I can say the fire is out for good.  We had some rain!
On Sunday Dad came to see me.  We had a cup of tea and talked over all that had happened.  We both concluded we were so lucky.  No one was killed, even Dad was amazed by this.  We all have our homes.  Our animals were ok.  We were so very lucky.

During the week we went on as normal as much as we could.   Some of the ways we caught up, got ahead, added to the pantry etc included:

I began harvesting parsley seed.  I have so much parsley that has gone to seed and it is so heavy with seeds it is bent over.  They are dry now and ready to collect.  I snip them off and bring them inside to dry a little bit more.  Then each head of parsley which contains a couple of hundred seeds goes into a little paper envelope.  I have stamped a bee on each go these.  This gives me little gifts I can share and they fit in a regular envelope in the post.   I have made up about 50 envelopes so far.
I also planted a lot of the seeds to establish new rows of parsley.  I cannot have too much.  It gives me a gift,  something to trade, something fresh each day for the ducks, chickens, cows and sheep.  And to use in the kitchen of course!  I can also dry it for gifts as well.

I planted a lot of the succulents I had last week into spots in the garden. They filled a few empty areas.

I made an Impossible Pie to take to the girls (and to use up a few eggs!)

This week I finally made Meringues from scratch.  I am sorry to say I have never made them before and they were so easy.  I am trying to add new ways to utilise all the eggs.  I use a lot of eggs in baking.  I keep Mum and Lucy in eggs.  I give some to my neighbour and some to a charity.  Scout eats eggs a few meals a week...    Anyway I thought meringues and pavlovas would make great gifts and contributions to meals when we are asked out etc.   I took a big tin of them to the girls and they fell in love with them.   

I started a fresh batch of Coffee Liqueur.  Between the meringues and the coffee liqueur my popularity seems to be rising.  haha.

I planted a lot more sunflowers, plus 2 types of beans and filled up my garden some more.

With three bananas that needed to be used up I made a couple of dozen little cakes.

Tomorrow is a big day. Paddy, Chloe's Alpaca,  Blossom and all the lambs are being shorn.  Tonight Luke came to get my sheep.  They were loaded onto his trailer which was pretty easy.  A packet of biscuits and they will do anything.   My "lambs" are not really lambs anymore! 

The sight of a packet of biscuits causes a near riot as Eddie wants some and the calves come running too.  Now when Laffie runs towards me she is pretty big and she is strong.  Sometime soon their love and affection is going to get very heavy! 

In the op shop I found some nice drinking glasses and got them to start the cottage glory box.  If I collect things as I find them I will have all that is needed when the cottage restoration project is over. 

Our local supermarket was not directly affected by fires... the road was not cut off and there were no fires near the town.  None the less the shelves were bare.

All around the store there were signs to explain the lack...

I think very much about all the towns with closed roads.  I heard one town finally got food today as the army got it there.  If your supermarket was closed for over a week and the roads were closed would your family have plenty of supplies?  

Tomorrow is exciting as it is shearing day.  I will have lambs wool and Alpaca!  Soon I will be ready to begin spinning.   After shearing they will all get biscuits.  Like a jelly bean after going to the doctor... only for sheep.

I hope you had a good week and were not impacted by fires.  How did you increase your pantry and preparedness, add to your savings and build up your home? 

When something goes wrong you are so grateful for all the times you stored away supplies and things that would be helpful when the power goes out.  I am still thankful to have had a battery operated fan to keep cool with.  Now we are adding other things that would have been good and I now have emergency bags packed in case we have to leave at a moments notice again. Lesson learned. 

Have a wonderful weekend! xxx