Donkeys, Guineas, and Nugs, Oh My! (Part 2, With Video)

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Okay, time for part 2! If you missed part one of my recap to visit Kit (DIYDiva.net) at Black Feather Farm, check that out here. My arrival was quite the spectacle (at least as chickens and donkeys were concerned).

A few things are quickly established when visiting a fellow blogger’s home on a farm:

1. Unfinished projects should be expected in every room. Your job as the guest is to not give a rat’s ass (it’s one of those unwritten rules we all seem to agree upon without consulting each other on the topic). But it’s honestly because you won’t care at all. Not even if it’s clearly not Christmas and the mantel is insisting otherwise (I debated about whether Kit would care if I shared this picture, but I freaking loved that this was unchanged from the holidays… I still have my Christmas tree in a storage box in my living room with a basket full of clean laundry on top that I’ve been meaning to sort for Goodwill, so my immediate thought when I saw it was “So. Awesome.”). It still looks perfectly pinnable to me!

2. Rule #1 notwithstanding, not only will you not care (especially because you can relate so much), but you won’t really even notice. The home you visit will feel properly lived in, as well as impress you for the Pinterest-y level lengths that your host has gone through to make sure you have everything you need, working upstairs bathroom or not (more on that later).

Sidenote: I really need to step my game up when it comes to guest prep, because Kit was totally on top of things as far as the guest bedroom was concerned. Freshly painted, a basket full of snacks and water, and a killer view right as the sunlight started poking me in the eyeballs the next morning:

Speaking of the guest room, Kit hinted at what was to come on Facebook, to which I had no choice but to reply in kind snark:

3. Chickens are crazy entertaining. The whole chickens-get-into-everything stuff Kit blogs about? Happened plenty of times during my visit. One strutted right into the kitchen like she owned the place… they followed me around the yard constantly… and generally made the trip all the better.

And just so you guys could enjoy it as well, I Periscoped one of my coffee breaks so that some of you guys could enjoy as well (for those not familiar with Periscope, it’s a live video social media app that lets me share video in real time with you guys and respond to comments as they’re asked… it’s crazy fun, and you can follow along at @uglyducklingDIY… I even got Kit on board with the idea).

4. Farm food… yum! I was hesitant about this “creamy” scrambled egg business that Kit made for us the first morning, but I can honestly say that I’ll probably try to make something similar for myself in the near future. And I’m a sucker for cherry tomatoes (sorry, just drooled on my keyboard).

5. Farm sleep > regular sleep. It could have been the fresh air, the hard work (I’ll get to that below), or the great dinners (and ahem, beer), but I slept soundly and woke up in time to see some pretty great sunrise skies. Plenty of energy, too, which was definitely needed for our project!

6. You’ll get crazy ideas, like volunteering to do tile work in someone else’s shower for two days (and filming a lot of it). We didn’t really have a set game plan for what we were going to do for the three days I was there, and we (I?) decided that I wasn’t going to leave without helping Kit finish something. Kit had made a few off-the-cuff remarks about how much she likes taking baths in the winter, how much she loathes that she doesn’t have a working bathroom upstairs, and how it kind of sucks that it’s so far down on her giant to-do list that she probably wouldn’t get around to finishing things until it’s freezing this winter and she can’t take a nice hot bath.

And once I realized she literally had all the supplies for us to make this happen within 48 hours, I figured, why the heck not? No-brainer!

We got started the second day I was in town, and I continued working on things solo the next day until Kit got home from work. This may or may not have also included a little alcohol-inspired ingenuity on Kit’s part.

Then we finished things up together the following evening, and realized (with a great amount of groaning between the both of us) that we were missing one LAST tile. Ugh! But yay! So much progress! (Before & after to come in next post because this is getting too long).

7. Winging it is/was the way to go. In the end, it was a vacation well-designed. Since we didn’t really have a set list of things to do in advance, we just sort of went with the flow, and it made for an awesome trip. And for those of you who like video, I’ve got plenty of that to share! Each day, we Periscoped ourselves for some Q&A with those that were following me on the app. While you can no longer directly interact with the videos below, you can still watch and enjoy.

Driving to the Farm:

First Night Q&A: feelin’ goofy

Second Night Q&A (and my personal favorite video): Wherein Kit tells me about #beardporn, I tell a terrible dick joke, and we talk about things not yet revealed on our blogs.

The Last Night: #exhausted

So, I guess the verdict is in: I had a blast, and can’t wait to go back. I am beyond grateful for blogging bringing so many wonderful people (and such amazing friendships) into my life.

Kit, I’m a total convert… life on the farm sure doesn’t suck.