Set Up

Hello! Hope everyone had a lovely weekend and a good start to the new week.

I drove over to Smithton yesterday to set up my little spot at The Arty Duck.
Over the weekend, Maureen helped me sew up some material to make that curtain. I busily elasticised it and tied it on THEN spotted I should have dusted off the iron and given it the once over.

Anyways…

It took a little time to set up as I had to label each product with my code etc

All in all I was happy with the final look and I got a notification today that I’d sold a few already so yay for a great start!

Whilst on soap…

A batch of Lemongrass and Exotic Lime… all the colours back into the pot and poured together…

Its fun to do and it was good to see the designs once unmoulded

Pretty pretty!

And progression on my current basket:

(Actually its got sides now so will have to take another updated snap)

Hey! I used some of my soap $$ to purchase myself a proper hiking pack!

I’ve taken it on a couple of local walks and its lovely and comfy. Smaller capacity than I am used to but hopefully I won’t have trouble loading her up for the big hikes.

Chook News.
They all seem to be settling in well together! A few squabbles here and there but overall they are all doing well! Some are more timid than others (both from the new and old flock) I’ve had to pick up Freckles a few times to take her out of hogging the food and explain a few basic manners too.

Thats Freckles above. She’s quite a big bird!

Thats Cocoa and… poor Gimpy who still doesn’t have a proper name yet.

Of the new girls we have Speckles and Freckles (of course). The two black ones I can’t tell apart so they are Pot and Kettle. (Yes I amuse myself)
There’s Mamma and Nihon (the Japanese Bantam), Cocoa and at some point I will come up with a brainwave to name Gimpy something suitable.

Hey! I did some gardening. Watching the calendar days tick past and fretting about the garlic

Bit of clearing and digging needed

The little woven fence had had its day… so out it came

Happily we have a ton of timber hanging about so I was able to shore up the left side that was getting holey and put in a whole new side on the right

At this point I wanted to woose out and quit (I’d accidentally hiked for 7 hours the day before and was starting to feel it)(details next post) – but I told myself to suck it up and get on with it.

So thats the purple garlic in

I have high hopes of getting the white garlic in this week.
I want to pull up the carrot patch and use that area.

Before I quit for the day I also popped 4 spuds into the hothouse garden. Fingers crossed for a few feeds of new potatoes early spring!

The broccoli in the hothouse are a little leggy still but growing nicely

I also picked the chillies and collected our first eggs from the new chooks!

Someone said chillies were in her local supermarket at $85/kg!!!!
I am clearly sitting on a gold mine! Our local supermarket they go for about $28/kg so no retiring for us yet.
Speaking of food costs… what is a head of iceberg lettuce going for in your neck of the woods?
Shortages due to flooding and transport issues due to covid have really pushed up the prices of a lot of stuff. Our supermarket had the lettuce at $6.50 but around the country they were topping $12 each!! I mean really… who wants an iceberg lettuce THAT badly?
People are flocking to join the gardening page I run again because of soaring food costs and supply issues of various products.
How about fuel? We were hovering just under $2/litre for a while. Then I ducked into town late at night last week and it had gone back to $2.06. (regular unleaded) 24 hours later it had jumped 17 cents!!
Sigh. Things aren’t getting easier for people are they?

Hope you are doing well wherever you are!
Cheers!