Picnic at the Farm

We had a wonderful gathering of friends this Saturday at the Farm, the weather agreed and everyone had a wonderful time. Andrew took some wonderful pictures, which can be seen here.

Chickens and first storms.

Two things I never thought I would need or want in my life, chickens and storm cellars.

Today I am grateful for both.

First came the chickens, born over the weekend they came to the house on Tuesday. 9 little hens joined our family. While they have a comfy coop waiting for them, they are safe and warm in the garage with a heat lamp for a while until the reach a safe size. This is certainly a new experience for the Bunbury boys.




The other thing we are grateful for today is a storm cellar. Bunbury Farm is dead center of this map. The skies are dark here and there has been some thunder. Jim is home with the animals, while Peter is safely at work. All the animals seem calm and they are starting to cancel warnings, so hopefully we will be all good.

Saturday morning shopping

So when we lived in the city Saturday morning would mean a spin class at The Firm, then a stop at the Minneapolis Farmers Market then a run to the Room & Board Outlet and a check in a J Crew.

This Saturday while stopping to buy a chicken thermometer at the feed store, Jim and Peter were distracted by the critter swap, specifically the pygmy goats. We are already expecting our chickens, we pick them up Tuesday, likely pecking through their shells as I type this, and now we have both fallen in love with the pygmy goats. This was a shorter fall for Peter than it was for Jim, but we are both there now. These little guys are adorable!

We are still holding to the "next year" plan for adding goats to the Bunbury family, but things often change. For now we will spend our time visiting the goats, and from time to time, J Crew.

One room with a view

Peter lived in his place for 2 years before Bunbury, Jim has not moved for the past 8 years. When you add to the mix that both the guys like to accumulate stuff, you have a taxing month of moving and two exhausted, and sometime cranky, homeowners.

We made a decision Thursday night that there had to be one place in the house to relax and put full effort into settling the sunroom. Apologies for the quality of the picture, there is only so much a blackberry can do and there was no way I was going to dig through all the boxes looking for the camera.



And we have a little corner of calm. The Room & Board sofa (a craiglist find from 4 years ago with a slipcover from the outlet) fit perfectly in the sunroom. This was a good thing, because the sofa, which does not have removeable legs, would not make it into the living room. A painted bench found at a garage sale provides the perfect place to put our feet up for a few minutes before tackling another box.

From the sofa we have a great view out the front of the house to our new hosta garden. Thanks to friend Joe, and his wonderful mother, we have a hosta garden that looks good today and will be amazing in a couple years.

There were a couple milestones this weekend. A wheelbarrow was purchased (craigslist again), tools from a bunch of garage sales, the chicken coop is being prepped, a Bald eagle was spooted feeding on the side of the road, a croquet set and volleyball showed up in our new stocked outdoor game cabin and most importantly, our marriage license arrived from New Hampshire.

Life is good at Bunbury! Join our group on Facebook

Dinner at the Farm

We held a dinner party this past weekend at Bunbury, just a few friends who came up to check out the place before too much work was done. Because everything is in boxes, and there is no dining room intact (and since the weather was so wonderful), we set up an impromptu dining room in the stable.




Dinner was nice and light, and the fact that we got to take a break from painting made it even nicer. Jackie brought a delicious summer salad with a secret recipe mint dressing and Jim put together a smoked salmon salad, both were wonderful on a warm spring night.





It was a fantastic night, wandering the fields and woods with friends and dogs. Thanks to Andrew, Jackie and Joe for coming up.

Which came first? The chicken or the coop?

What a weekend! Gardening and painting, with a dinner party hosted in the stable on Saturday night (pictures to come).

The most exciting news though is the expectations of the arrival of our newest family members. On Tuesday, we are expecting 10 chickens! Currently there is very little knowledge of dealing with chickens, but we are about to learn. The chicken coop is being cleaned and the little fenced in yard has been cleared and Peter is buying chicken feed, the chickens are Peter's project so he is busy researching seed and techniques.

Hopefully no chickens will be harmed in the creation of this Farm.

If I had a hammer..

These nails were used to support a plant holder in the living room! It must have been a very large plant to need this kind of grounding. We are discovering lots of interesting and exciting projects that need to be done.

So, last week after closing on Bunbury, we headed off to get married in New Hampshire. We said our "I do's" at the beautiful Elephant Rock Farm in Fitzwilliam. We could not have asked for a more beautiful day.

Coming back home on Sunday we brought all the cats together to meet for the first time, I am sure it will get better with time.

The work on the house now begins in earnest, weeding, painting, tearing up of awful carpets. We have a lot ahead of us.