Changing Rooms

For the last couple of days we;ve been letting both sets of Girls out, with the complete run of the back garden.

It's mostly been OK;  Gloria and Poppy re both in heavy moult, so are keeping out of the way a bit;  Fleur is being a bit of a b*tch. 

The Big Girls like to get to the Pampas (which is in the LIttlees area),  or in to the Littlees run to eat the treats in their hanging feeder.  So, I took the opportunity to shut the Littlees in to the Big Girls run so theycould have a good look round.   I've done it for a couple of days now, and the Littlees are quite happy in there.

They are still in no way ready to stand up to the Big Girls though, so integration is a long way off.

The Big Girls run has been partially divided, and I've started to move stuff around.  I'll keep it at this "one day at a time" pace for now.

I've been leaving the Littlees coop door open at night for the last few nights so they can get up at the same time as the Big Girls (whose coop door is on a timer).   However,  I don't sleep well when I've done this, and have to get up at least once in the night  (3 times last night) because I can hear a noise and I'm afraid it's a fox.   I'm going to have to shut the coop door at night for a while, I need to catch up on my sleep.

...

My cutting table is full of stuff, and it is amusing that this is always a good barometer (canary in the coalmine!) for what is happening in my life generally.   A clear table means I have a clear head, I'm on form, amd I can tackle anythinh.  I'm also likely to be doing something creative.

A table cluttered with sewing stuff usually means I'm trying to sew something, but I'm stuck for whatever reason.  Maybe I can't find the right pattern, or the right fabric,  or I don't want to sew the pattern I've chosen, or I'm stuck on how to do something.

A table cluttered with different stuff usually means that I'm having a bit of a tough time, and I just can't get motivated (or I've got too much else on) to clear it.  That's where I am right now, although I'm hoping that writing this down will give me the kick I need to go and attempt to clear it.

I've been unable to set my mind to anything creative (apart from idly investigating a different craft to try,  because another set of carp  equipment and supplies is exactly what I need [sarcastic voice],  and it's much easier to spend a few hours looking at this and that than it is to actually do some clearing up. ).  I'd found a half day course, but it's about 4 hours away, and not 4 hours in a direction of any use for anything else. 

 

I found some fabric I know my DGGwill like,  so I've bought some.  I broke my self-imposed fabric ban to do so, but I've bought barely any fabric all year so I don't feel too badly about it. .  I messaged her to ask her if she would like it. I didn't mention I'd bought it because I didn't want her to feel obliged to say yes.   She was very happy about it.  And, on the plus side,  I accidentally inspired her to make a top.  She cut round one she already had to make a pattern, and whipped something up.  She's much more creative and adventurous than me.   I'm happy to know that she's still sewing. 

I made yoghurt last night, but the milk was a little too warm when I put the starter yoghurt in, so the end product wasn't as thick as usual.  I strained it today, so it's a little thicker, but it isn't the usual greek-style thickness.  

I used the whey to make a batch of sultana scones and a batch of cheese scones.   The cheese ones are great, I haven't tested the sultana ones yet.

DH has made tomato juice (for drinking) a couple of times now, nd the second time he got the balance of salt just right.   We decided to take the plunge and try pasteurising some.    He was using salad tomates (rather than roma type) for this as we have quite a lot of them.  He made 4 litres of jiuce last night.    We decided to follow the US processing guidelines, and add lemon juice or ctric acid to each bottle.   Unsure what impact it would have, we did 4 bottles with lemon juice and 4 bottles with citric acid.    I'm interested to see what the taste difference is, and I really hope this works as it is alwayse rewarding to preserve something DH has grown.

Last night I made a pressure cooker Pork Butter Curry, using the Butter Chicken  recipe from Urvashe Pitre's Indian Instant Pot cook book.   It was really good,  we both really liked it. In fact we both liked it a bit too much.  I normally use about 500g of pork, which gives us 2 portions to eat, and 2  portions to freeze.  There was only 1 portion left to freeze.  I'll be making it again soon.

I also got my hibernating water kefir out of the fridge and I'm attempting to revive it.  I bought a jar with a strainer on it, which (in theory) should make it a little less faffy.  I'd bought a half sized jar for my milk kefir the other day, and that seems OK.   If I can't keep it going, I'll put it back into hibernation.

....

Wash continues to be on cage rest. He's not improving, so he's booked in to have his shoulder x-rayed in a couple of days.  It's a little stressful.

Other family stuff, not my stories to tell,  are ongoing.