More Milling, More Garden, More Soap

Hi… Really don’t know where the days are slipping away to.
Halfway through February already!

Today, Sharon’s husband, Paul and his friend, Ed, spent the day getting through heaps of the timber in the paddock
Jeff cut and split ‘smaller’ pieces while the others milled a fabulous lot of the wood

There are some fantastic pieces in there and my brain is a bit giddy thinking of all the possible projects

Beautiful slabs and sleepers.
Paul took most of this back today. We are doing a bit of a barter for all their hard work – ie they get lots of timber to use!!
Below is a good number of slabs they did last week. I am hoping to revamp the hothouse with it and create raised beds around the edge of the structure… (Looks amazing in my head!)

We drove our car into the paddock and filled it a couple of times with the wood that Jeff was splitting, then drove it back so we could stack more – trying to clear the paddock as fast as we can for the VERY patient neighbour

Still harvesting food as needed for the dinner table

Actually today was pretty good… Sharon dropped in with Lottie and we all came up to the house for lunch. I picked fresh lettuce, added our cucumber, tomatoes, capsicum and grated carrot.
I baked a tray of potato bits (in olive oil and my garlic salt), hard boiled some eggs and put out a bowl of the pickled beetroot and a jar of homemade relish!

All soooooo local !!! (Bit proud)

Yum

Did a bit of a pick and sent home Paul with extra veggies
They brought us over some fresh onions too!!

The carrot patch is so lush

Funnily enough there are several plants going to seed… really strange as they usually take over 12 months before even thinking about it

I spent a fair bit of time tying up the crazy tomatoes

Snipped off lots of the big leaves and tried to wrestle them back under control
I still have more to do.
But then I got distracted and FINALLY weeded the corn and mulched it.
Still no sign of cobs but surely they can’t be too far off making an appearance?

Most of the celery survived despite being dug up by Flea.

I keep thinking I want to remove the shelters off the apple cucumbers but…it keeps turning cold at night

I did get in there and weed and they’ve grown a bit since the photo … maybe I will just leave them alone if they are happy.

I Spy… baby butternuts!

I put in some late potatoes… because?? Because I could basically. Will be interested to see how they go at this time of the season.
Our other patch is a scant few weeks off full harvest

Soap… Did the embeds.
I was hoping to have a few more bunny soaps for Easter

I made the embed, which is basically filling a silicone tube with the soap mix. The first one I took apart didn’t come apart cleanly (Bunny’s foot got a bit mangled.) These ones stayed in the mould for a week while I was sick… so came out better because they’d set a lot more.
Key tip… Be Patient!

The extra ones I cut down and poked into some heart moulds

Check out my lovely vase, designed and created by my sister Rosemary!
I do need to put it somewhere else to photograph it so its not competing with the table cloth.
Not too many flowers happening in the garden but the oregano flowers were perfect

Well… I am feeling a few aches and pains from spending a day moving wood about so I am going to call it quits for the night!

Hope you’ve all had a splendid weekend!
Cheers