It all started on Friday. Shelly and Sarah, long time friends of ours, were coming out to the farm for the first time since we moved in. Sarah had never seen the place, only in the blog and Facebook pictures. She and Jessy are long time pals and have grown up with each other since little tykes! Shelly is her mom and my friend and we are were ready for the whole farm experience!!! Tours, livestock, petting zoo, mah jong tournament, good food and lots of chatting, laughing and silliness. Had baked chicken and fresh sweet corn and roadside stand peaches as well as peach ice tea and pepsis… spinach dip and chips… we were so ready! (Did I mention brownie bites??? Yummmm)

Well we just had a delightful evening, and even though Shelly had to go back to town… (darn job early in the morning!!!) Sarah stayed the weekend and we had a girls weekend of FUN! Of course, we had a big bon fire out at fire henge… Maggie and Sarah were our fire pyros and though they had a little bit of a rough start and needed a little girl scout fluid to getter all big and roaring… once it was right, it was perfect. We sat around and stared into the flames, laughing and giggling and just having a ball. After it got gooood and dark, we went back to the barn to peek in on the roosting chickens and Sarah got to hold her first hen and a rooster, too! Her hen was Eleanor, our most calm and friendly gal. It’s always fun to have folks realize that they are so soft and lightweight. She was in love with our little banty roo Josh, so we nabbed him for a little forced holding. He was indignant but hey, roosting chickens are like so easy to catch and hold.

Then we went out to our firework viewing bench and Maggie put on a show for us! It was wonderful…. can’t believe we don’t have anything but a fireworks store 2 miles from us! haha… That’s the country for you. Our shows are brief but beautiful. We’re more into sparkles and shooting things, than huge noises, I suppose it’s just a girl thing. We prefer to ooooooh and ahhhhhh at all the beautiful fountains of color and sparkle! Of course, a good bang or two does add to the over all ambience of the event!

Afterwards, we retreated inside for pop and treats and then the girls went off to their rooms to be silly little girls for awhile. I know they are 21 and all, but I was so happy to hear them in there laughing and being silly, and making friendship bracelets and playing with the little kittens. Maggie was so happy as well, joining right in the fray and all smiles and giggles as well. I hid out in my room for a little knitting and relaxing with a movie. It was so nice to have a whole weekend for RELAXING! I really don’t think we’ve done that since we moved here!

Of course, after sleeping in… we got up and I got a phone call from a lady off a Craigslist ad I had called last week! About a porch swing!!! I was amazed, it was still available and just about 10 miles from the house in the nearby big little city! So we decided to go get it and spend a little time there, grab lunch and shop a bit and do a little garage saling! Oh, the porch swing is so wonderful…. I feel like the farm is starting to be perfect… there is already two big metal hooks in the screen porch that I just knew had to be swing hooks and sure enough, they are. We were a little worried about sitting in it, and one by one we tried it out. It held fine and pretty soon, no one was worried! Haha… They are in a big solid board and seem pretty secure. I wouldn’t want to be rocking and swinging with three people in it hard, but that’s not really our style anyway. I spent a little time just sitting and holding Odin our angora buck, swinging in the afternoon breezes, soaking up a little sun. It was fantastic.

When we got done with our lunch and shopping, we came back to play bunny beauty parlor. Everyone loves holding and fussing with the angora bunnies, they are like bunnie Barbies and you get to do their hair and brush and cuddle them. Everyone had a bun bun and we were clipping and trimming and treating them like the little bunny divas they are.

I have to report that Odin and Grizzelda, the two mistreated bunnies we had gotten just about a month ago, they are doing fantastic. Odin, especially. He is nearly all groomed out of yucky hair and matts and his weight is finally starting to fill out his bony little frail body. He is so sweet and trusting and I was so amazed that I got a nearly two hour grooming session with him on Saturday! That was a huge thing… he was so content to just be held and treated and snuggled as I trimmed a lot of the yucky last bits out of his coat, especially on his tummy and nether regions. That is a HUGE trust thing, to be on your back and someone is clipping and brushing in your more private areas, he has finally relaxed and will allow that without a fight. In fact, he was really calm and content. I couldn’t believe it! I managed to get all the nasty fur clipped away and lots of tummy matts and such gone! He then went out to graze in the bunny tractor for a while! It was so funny to see him all stretched out in the grass, sunning himself and nibbling greens as the chickens wandered about and visited the bunny zoo.

Sarah loved holding Ozzy, our big German angora bun bun… they were snuggling and having a lovely time on the swing for a good long time. Ozzy is a real ladies man, and he loves attention from young ladies for sure! I think Sarah was surprised at how big and soft they were! She helped him with a little grooming aid, we think Gwendolyn and Grizzelda have been over grooming his cheeks a little too much and were making little fuzzy knots! They love to fuss over him all the time.

In the afternoon, our wonderful neighbors came down to help a little bit with party prep! Jr. and Carl had in their minds to patch up the pig barn loft roof! Well, okay… we were doing some chores in the back with the chickens, so it seemed perfect for a little work detail. There was a little patch of roof that had failed around the old chimney in the barn and they brought a bit of wood and ladders and managed to get it all nice and tidy in no time at all! I have to get a can of expanding foam to just seal up a little bit of it but I think we’ve saved that building from major deterioration this winter! Yeah!!! And then they got to work with a pair of chainsaws to remove a bunch of dead wood from the beautiful wind chime tree in the back! We love that old tree and now it’s all nice and tidy looking. Just wonderful! Miss Julia has been so wonderful with her glass and trash patrol… she’s been raking up and gathering bits of nasty stuff whenever she comes over, I think it’s a mission for her! I just love that she wants to help and can’t believe how blessed we are to have found such great friends!

The girls decided to make fire starters from pine cones they gathered on the farm, so that was fun to do after we were done with repairs and chores. It was like girl scout camp all over but with a touch of creativity and alchemy! We had read on the internet that chemicals such as borax powder, epsom salts and salt in the wet wax after you dip them, will create different colors in the fire! They wrapped the pine cones with yarn wicks and made a big old mess in the kitchen, laughing and dipping and creating.

We made BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches and chips for dinner and then waited for dark for another great bonfire with a little guitar singalong for fun. Ray, Jeremy and Amanda, our young friends from down the road, came over and we all had such a good time being goofy teenagers and singing silly songs and laughing at each other’s antics. I’m so thankful that I can be so young at heart that the young people don’t mind me hanging out with them. It’s so delightful that they can be themselves with this old lady tagging along.

We had a few fireworks left over from the night before, so that was fun to do. However, we had one special finale one that was the largest firework we’ve ever gotten! A 19 shot repeater!!! They had these $40 babies on sale, with a coupon for $9.99. One per customer. So I figured, why not? Wow… let me tell you, it was HUGE! And lit up the entire barnyard! And if we were in the city, we would have been visited by the cops in no time…. but out here? Oh heck, no big deal. I suppose IF we had any neighbors within a quarter mile of us, they MIGHT have been annoyed if we kept it up, but, it was only one. Haha… But boy, was it a DOOZY! Going to have to get one of those for open house party for SURE!!!!

And then we all walked out into the back pasture, far from the lights and star gazed! Sarah and Jessy are astronomy nerds and they love to watch the skies. They filled everyone in and we found the dippers and the North Star and a pair of planets and other cool constellations. You can see the Milky Way so beautifully out in the pasture. The night sky is so beautiful and vibrant, it’s like nothing you will ever see in the city.

By the time we were back in the house and snuggled in for the last of the sleepover weekend, it was just getting a little nippy. Oh, how I love this time of the year. Shorts in the day, sweaters in the evening. Super beautiful skies and just perfect perfect weather… low 80’s, 70’s and then cool 60’s for sleeping. I would have gotten a good nights rest if it weren’t for Miss Julia swapping me a book that I ended up reading all night long… that biography of Amber Frey, in that Scott Peterson/Laci Peterson murder trial of a few years back! Of course, a house of giggling girls playing games and watching silly hamster videos of their youth didn’t help! Haha… but it was so wonderful to have such a wonderful relaxing weekend finally! Of course, we still have 15 cards to finish before the party, but we decided on the drive home from taking Sarah back to the big city that it means each of us have 5 cards to finish in 2 weeks! I think we’ll make it!!! We’ll get started tomorrow for sure.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend… can’t wait for this week to unfold… I think it’s going to be a great week of accomplishment!!!! I can feel it in my bones!!!