Monday, September 7, 2015

Donkeys, Guineas, and Nugs, Oh My! (Part 1)

Happy Labor Day, folks! I’m back from Black Feather Farm, exhausted, but I have a LOT of pictures from the trip to share. So, this is going to be one of those multi-part post kind of deals where I can only share so much before needing a nap.

For those who don’t yet know or are discovering this blog for the first time, this is me:

And this is one of my best blogging friends, Kit:

She blogs over at DIYDiva.net, and, like me, has been blogging about wacky things of remodeling, power tools, and single life for many years. We became friends right around the time that my ex and I broke up (which, coincidentally, was happening to her around the same time), and have kept in touch through texts, Skype, and random blog remodeling smackdowns ever since.

dueling DIY

There’s only one little thing that has made our friendship kind of odd: before last week, we’d never actually met in person. And if we’d only been friends for a few months or just over a year, that would make a lot of sense. But it’s been years. The best explanation? This internet thing is crazy.

After several years of friendship and a couple of missed opportunities to meet before (Kit was supposed to come down to Atlanta for a DIY conference called Haven two years ago but couldn’t make it, etc.), I decided that my family trip to Wisconsin was the perfect opportunity to finally meet. A couple of short (and annoying… I’m looking at you, 14C) flights to Michigan later, I was on my way to figuring out life on Black Feather Farm.

Since there were so many photo opportunities during my visit, I wasn’t quite sure how I might go about doing a proper recap of all of the things I discovered/experienced/enjoyed while at the farm. Eventually, I decided just to upload my photos as they went into my phone, and let them tell the story.

Lunch: Kit picked me up at the Detroit airport, so we had lunch in Ann Arbor and did our favorite thing before taking the drive out to the farm: storytelling. Clearly, mine had a few WTF moments, because this is what wound up in my camera:

Arrival: The nuggets did not disappoint. They ran right up to the car to let me know I’d arrived at exactly the right spot. Though if I could have described the look on their faces, it was more or less, “…and who the HELL are you???”

They’re… cute?

House tour: It’s kind of surreal to walk around another blogger’s house in person and peek at all of the things they have posted about through the years. It felt very familiar in an odd way, and it was interesting to compare the floor plan I had in my head with the reality as I walked around.

View from the sliding doors in the kitchen, leading out onto the patio. With guard nuggets, obv.

Donkeys! Doc and Parker, each of them 250 pounds of cool. I was a bit unsure how they would react to me, but they soon started acting like brothers pestering each other, which was incredibly amusing. And they really seem to like petting, no matter who it’s coming from.

Taking a ride on the Kiterpillar: As some of you might know, Kit has an old refurbished golf cart appropriately named “The Kiterpillar”— and naturally, Kit decided to show off that we needed to take it for a spin as a way to properly introduce me to the FARM part of #farmlife.

It didn’t take long to understand exactly why she enjoys living here. There are some pretty amazing views around Kit’s property. Tip: beer helps you keep your balance when driving through the field.

Not to mention: it’s also pretty damn peaceful.

At the end of the first night in town, it really was just about two friends catching up, grabbing a beer, and coming up with a plan for what the heck to do with the next few days (something we did not discuss prior to the visit… we just kind of winged it… pun intended!). We (I?) soon found our project, which needs its own post, but here’s a pretty good summary of what the next few days wound up looking like!

More to come: the blogger’s code for how to prepare for guests, Kit and I do a number of dumb videos for pure entertainment’s sake, and actual, honest-to-god progress on a project I muscled my way into finishing. Hope you enjoy!

The post Donkeys, Guineas, and Nugs, Oh My! (Part 1) appeared first on The Ugly Duckling House.

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