Nestled Feathers News - August 2026

Please accept my apologies for the delay of this months update!  So much has been happening here at Nestled Feathers that I haven't had a chance to blog about it all!  From the basics to the blessings in life, it seems like there has been no stone unturned this summer.

Food first!  Well, that has been my daily mantra for several years now  but this year has been different.  Our garden is sort of  on auto pilot this year.  Due to favorable weather patterns in our neck of the woods, I have barely had to water from the IBC tanks at all.  The healthy amounts of rain have kept them full to the brim and I have been mainly using that water to replenish the hydroponic system or for cleaning.

I primarily focused on weeding and fertilizing more consistently and in spite of these efforts the yields this year have been a bit disappointing.  We have been enjoying our best ever yield of sweet peppers with some reaching enormous sizes but we failed completely in so many others.  One stalk of corn after three plantings, no potatoes (what?) or onions after repeated attempts.  Peas were also slow and required two plantings but have since begun to produce but we have several watermelon.  Another disappointing year for the pickling cucumbers and also long island cheescake pumpkins (which we adore).  Hot peppers and tomatos have just been smaller yields that previous years which will result in less preservation time in the kitchen.  By this time last year, we were exhausted from the weekend canning schedule!

Great news is that we still have a very full pantry so the fact that food might have taken a back seat this summer is not too much of a concern.  We are replacing the plastic on the greenhouse this fall so we have been hard at work cleaning up and reorganizing inside and prepping for this winter.  A much bigger task since converting to the wood stove for heat.

This summer has been about developing the services that Nestled Feathers has to offer our customers.  That has meant a lot of sewing for me as I master my longarm machines and preparing work areas in the studio that will accomodate future classes, workshops and such events.  Upstairs we have the sewing studio and now downstairs there are areas for all things messy like stained glass and kiln glass, painting and sublimation and photo printing too, oh my!  We are still working in pretty cramped areas with all of the merchandise still sharing the space but it gets more comfortable with every sale.

Along with all of the above blessings, we have also been updating some very basic aspects of our business like it's logo.  I absolutely love our new logo!  I created it in Canva using AI much like I had with the original logo that was created over 15 years ago in the Avery app.  It really made me realize that all this AI hype really isn't such a new thing.  We have been employing it for over a decade already but I do believe when it starts poluting our water that we have come to the point where the rubber band has been cocked and loaded but no one is sure if we should let it fly or gently back off to preserve control.  I favor the later myself.  I will choose water over just about everything except air.  I mean, if we are talking basic building blocks of life, business and everything else: these two should top all of our lists for successful living!  Well, there I go getting all up on the soap box again and why I am on my second attempt at this particular blog post this month.  But I do digress, so let's move on...

New logo, tons of updates and upgrades in every nook and cranny, updated technology for age old skill sets and growth with purpose all adds up to a very beautiful life of learning, adapting and embracing the journey.  The only thing missing, is you!  We embrace each step of our journey and love to share what we have learned along the way.  However, we have so much more to learn from all of you and our most sincere hope is that we can acheive a community that fosters creativity and inspiration and most importantly the connection with one another.

We are all teachers, we are all students and we would just love to connect with each of you and walk together for a stretch of the journey.  Please join us in whatever capacity that you are comfortable with and together we will create something beautiful.  We here at Nestled Feathers wish each of you the very best in your creative pursuits and look forward to your evry success.  God Bless!