Gathering the Fragments 22/8/2021

Still in lockdown, but we're going well. Hannah went back into lockdown yesterday at 1pm. I can rest easy knowing she has a full pantry, fridge and freezer and won't need to go out for a few days.

We have had on and off rain this week, enough to keep the ground moist, and that's just what we need right now.

Wayne ordered the new veggie beds last Sunday, and they are on the way. I keep getting tracking notices, and they should be here sometime this coming week - I'm expecting them Tuesday or Wednesday.

So we have started to redo the backyard. It's a bit like a puzzle at the moment. Until the new beds are in place nothing can really be put in it's permanent spot.

We have almost emptied one of the smaller timber beds. We used some of the filling to fill small pots for the apple trees. And we topped up the smaller beds on the western fence line. One almost empty, only seven more to go!

On a side note, we have 13 fruit trees, rhubarb and strawberries in our backyard orchard!

Oranges picked fresh from the tree

 

I had a pot of garlic and I've been waiting, waiting for it to come up. Nope, not happening. When I dug down, the heads had shriveled up to almost nothing - all of them. That means no garlic crop this year, and that's not good. There were a couple of heads in the kitchen and I know it's late, but I've gone ahead and planted them in another pot, in the hope that we'll at least get some.

Thomas made doner kebabs for dinner on Wednesday night. He tried a new recipe and a new way of cooking the meat and they were delicious. And he doubled the recipe, so we have enough for another meal in the freezer. The only thing he bought was the pita bread, everything else was in the pantry. The leftover pita bread (3 pieces) went into the oven to make pita chips.

On the sunny days I opened the back door and let some fresh air into the house.

Keeping a running list of things to be used up on the fridge is really helping to make sure nothing goes to waste. The nights I don't cook, whoever is can look on the list and see what to add to a meal. Easy!

Baking this week was a dozen cranberry hootycreek mini loaf cakes, a dozen vanilla butter cupcakes, two dozen chocolate cup cakes and two dozen mini fruit cakes. Cake tins full, freezer full, family happy. All ingredients were in the pantry.

 

 Mini fruit cakes for the cake tin

 

I've put bigger buckets in the showers to catch the warm-up water. I have a feeling this summer will be long, hot and dry, and water will be an issue. Catching and reusing what we can will not only keep the bill down, but stop waste too.

We had a scare on Friday with a colleague of Wayne's getting a message to say he'd been to an exposure site and needed to get tested and isolate immediately. We haven't heard the results yet - so much for quick test results - but we are praying it comes back negative, otherwise we will all be getting tested and isolating.

I'm so thankful for a full pantry. If we do need to isolate we will be fine. When the fresh veggies run out we have plenty of frozen and dried and canned we can use. And when the fresh milk runs out, there is powdered and UHT in the pantry. Yeast and flour to make bread. There's more reason than saving money for keeping the pantry full.