ILLOTF: Barn Animals Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Barn Animals Edition] [Find the Barn Door Edition here.] [Find a tour of the grounds here.]

This story is from Friday, around lunchtime.  We had just finished a driving tour of the property.  Upon exiting the truck, I decided to wander over to the butterfly plants along the black fence to get some pictures of the butterflies.

I was just minding my business, taking pictures of flowers

and trying to be quiet and still so I could snap some of the butterflies too.

I was crouched pretty low, looking through the lens of the camera and not paying attention to my surroundings, when I felt like someone, or something, was watching me.

"Hey! I'm a llama! Whatcha doin' down there?"

Now, being the city girl that I am, I didn't really know how to react to a llama staring me down. So I froze. But I got the feeling the llama kinda liked me.

"How you doin'?"

She liked me, that is, until someone better came along. Both of us heard a noise down the fence and looked down to see that Christopher had jumped the fence and was now in the pasture with the llama and alpacas.

Everyone was interested in this foreigner that had just jumped the fence.  The alpacas started heading his way.

I have to admit, I was jealous of all the attention he was getting! Chris told me to just hop over the fence and they'd come over to me. So, I jumped the fence.

And nothing happened.

He told me to put on my sunglasses and be real still, so I did that too.

And still, nothing.

Finally, he came over to help me, and we started picking grass to feed them.  And it worked!

I may look sorta calm in that picture, but really, I was scared and thinking, "please don't eat my hand, please don't eat my hand."

And then the llama kissed me!

And an alpaca decided it wanted in on the action, too.

I had to pull away from that one. I'm married for crying out loud!

More alpacas, whose names I can't remember.

This one I can remember - her name is Penny, cause she's copper like a penny.

Anyway, we fed that group of alpacas for a while (we'll revisit that in a different post) and then headed over to another fenced off section.

Guys, meet Emily. She's the newest alpaca on the farm, and is just three weeks old.

Before I could get in the fence with her and her mom, Emma, I had to be checked out by their bodyguard llama.

I passed the initial inspection and was allowed in the fence, but then I had to endure a few more rounds of sniffing.

And then, finally, I was able to try to get close to baby Emily.

None of my efforts worked. She was just too scared of me. 

Meanwhile, Doc was on the other side of the fence making friends with alpacas.

And he got some sugars from a llama, too.

After a good while of Emily still being scared of me, we decided to head towards the barn to get some real food to lure her in.

Here she is with her mama.

Turns out, if you fill your hands with the alpaca food, you may get attention from more than just the baby alpaca you're trying for.

At this point, I still had not gotten to pet Emily. I really wanted to feel her soft fleece! So, after lunch, we were able to put her in a pen by herself so I could get in with her. (I'm pretty sure I may have traumatized her.)

And as far as pictures go, this is the best we could get of the two of us together.

I'm happy to report that her fleece is every bit as soft as I thought it would be.

Here's what I learned while at the farm: alpacas are bred/raised/farmed/popular? for their fleece.  An alpaca sweater can be softer than cashmere.  The two llamas are their protectors.  If a coyote or something were to get on the farm, the alpacas would run away but the llamas would actually run towards the intruder animal to try to trample it.   I think that's it in a nutshell.

The llamas aren't the only protector animals.  When they go to sleep at night with the alpacas, Bonnie and Clyde 2 get to work patrolling the grounds.

These dogs (Great Pyrenees) make sure nothing crazy happens at night.  The sound of their barking is comforting noise for Jack and Jan.   And they're really just the sweetest dogs ever.

They'd sit in your lap if you'd let 'em!

Ok, that's a wrap for the Barn Animals Edition, but there are still several editions to come...

ILLOTF: Barn Door Edition

[I Love Life On The Farm: Barn Door Edition] I love sliding barn doors. LOVE them. Slightly obsessed. And coming to this farm did not help. They were everywhere!

First, here's a look at the front door. No, it's not a sliding barn door, but it is an over-sized barn-style door, and I love it, too.

Ok, that door's nice at all but let's get to the sliding doors.  The barn by the house had lots of 'em!

Aren't they cool? And they weren't just on the exterior of the barn, they were inside it, too.

The two pictures above show both sides of a breezeway.  If I were a senior in high school needing some senior portraits made, I'd want to go to the breezeway to take them.

Here's another set from the end of the barn.

You know what's cooler than just a regular sliding barn door? A barn door that serves a purpose. (Other than being a regular door, that is.)  Check out this barn door in the loft room Chris and Allison stayed in.

During the day, that barn door stayed pushed to the side like it is in the picture, so that you could look from the bedroom down into the living room. But then, at night, they could close it for privacy. Closed view from the living room:

I won't lie, that interior barn door made my heart go pitter-patter. I may have slid it back and forth a few times on my own.

But wait! I've got one more cool, multi-purposed barn door to show you.  Remember the outdoor fireplace from the tour of the grounds I showed you?  Here's a reminder:

Well, directly across from that fireplace is another barn door.

Now, what could be behind that? Let's get Vanna White Allison to help us out.

Ta daaa! It's an outdoor kitchen, complete with another dishwasher!

Awesome, right?  That door in the kitchen goes to the offices below the apartment Doc and I stayed in.

So that's it for the Barn Door Edition. But I promise there are still pictures of alpacas and Sheryl Crow to come, so don't stay gone for long!

I love life on the farm.

Doc and I just got back from an amazing long weekend on a farm.  We were lucky to be invited by our friends Chris and Allison to go with them to Allison's folks' farm.  It was SUCH a great weekend, and I have approximately 687 pictures to prove it.  I am slowly sorting through all of them and trying to figure out how to categorize everything.  Prepare yourself for several farm-related posts this week! Meet Jack and Jan.

It's their farm that we went to and, like Chris and Allison, they are good, good people.  They were so gracious to invite us into their home for the weekend. Well, sorta. We didn't actually get to sleep in the same house as they did...

Maybe we should start with a tour of the property so you can see why we didn't sleep in their house.

[Before we start, I should warn you that a lot of my pictures are blurry. I'm a little mad at my camera(s) about this. But, it's probably because I'm not a very good photographer. In fact, I think I'm getting worse.]

The farm is lined with all kinds of different fences to keep the animals in, and all the fences were built and put up by their 3 farm hands. My favorite fence was this black fence that ran along the roads.

With lots of fences comes lots of gates.  Not just anyone can make it up to the farm house, first you have to be buzzed in through the main gate.

To the right of the drive is the newly planted orchard.

And just past the orchard you can see the big farmhouse! (Oops, this picture was actually taken while I was still outside the gate.)

When we walked up to the front door, we were greeted by a stone fountain

and a BEAUTIFUL fall display.

Now, moving inside. I don't have pictures of the entire inside of the house, but I still have quite a few. You'll have to use your imagination for the rest.

From the front door, you enter into the living room.

And just past the living room is a small sitting area with tv.  In case you can't tell from the pic, those would be the Hogs that are playing.  Woo Pig Sooie!!

Also in this big open room is the dining table.  The whole wall behind the table and the tv area are really big windows that overlook the property.

I loved the long wooden candle holder that sat on the table.

Here you can see the big windows.

Just behind the living room is the kitchen.

Let's spend a few minutes talking about how seriously, completely, ridiculously awesome this kitchen is.

As you can see in the picture above, it's bordered by two pine(ish?) trees. These trees are awesome. They have split naturally since they were built into the house, creating very cool cracks.

Here's one tree post:

The other one has a really big split in it, and I think the shiny spots in it could be tree sap. Maybe?

Ok, now let's go back to the super awesome kitchen.   Check out this breakdown of its awesomeness (you may have to hunt for the letters - click the picture to make it bigger).

A - farm style sink B - island sink C - dishwasher D - two dishwasher drawers (on side of island) E - trash compactor F - oven G - stove top H - another stove top I - steamer (back of island) J - pizza oven K - pantry L - refrigerator M - pot filler (it's the silver spout on that white tile wall) Not labeled - wine fridge (on island across from pantry) Not pictured - another oven and microwave (on wall to the left of the bar)

I know, right? Even I would be up for learning how to cook if that's the kitchen I got to do it in everyday.

Wine fridge side of island:

Dishwasher drawer side of island: (The two dishwashers were Jack's doing. As he said, if you have two, you'll never have dirty dishes sitting around. I can get behind that.)

Wood storage for the pizza oven:

Awesome farm style sink:

And the microwave and oven that weren't pictured above:

In this kitchen, even the pantry is cool.  It starts like this:

Then, you open the doors to this:

And then, you can swing open those shelves to even more shelving!

I would kind of like a closet like that for my shoes.

So, phew! That's the kitchen.  Also on the main floor is the master suite - huge bedroom, his and her bathrooms joined by the tub and shower, a workout room, and a closet that's as big as our playroom, at least. It even has a window bed in it (similar to a window seat, but bed size). And from the workout room, you can go down into the tornado shelter basement that will soon be turned into Jack's wine cellar.

Upstairs is where Chris and Allison stayed.

Not pictured is their bathroom, which is so big it used to be the guest bedroom and had two twin beds in it. Yep.

From their room, you can go to the enormous game room.

On the very back wall is the big tv that was delivered while we were there.

And if you turn and look back from there, you can see the pool table that was also delivered while we were there.

So that's the jist of the main house.  From there, you can walk past the outdoor fireplace,

and head to Jan and Jack's offices.

If you head up these stairs, you'll see why Doc and I did not stay in the same house as everyone else.

We had our own little apartment above the offices!

I was obsessed with this artwork.  The paintings are done on tar paper and then glued onto wooden canvases.  Who's going to make me some?

Another sitting area:

Our super comfy bed:

Across from our bed was a little kitchenette, complete with, yep, another dishwasher.

And the tv and microwave were hidden in those cabinets:

So that's where we stayed. Here's a picture of the front of the house so you can try to put it all together.

And a pic from the back:

Now, let's see what else is on the property. Outside of the house is the small barn, home of the alpacas.

(Doc and I are not alpacas. We're just posing in front of the barn.)

This is the big barn that's not near the house.  In it is the Farm Manager's office and another bedroom and full bath.

It also houses big tractor-like things. Every boy's dream.

Did you know these big tires are filled with water instead of air? I sure didn't.

On the property is also Jake's house. He's the Assistant Farm Manager and the only person that lives on the farm all the time.

Outside his house are these two buildings - they were already there when Jack and Jan bought the property.

The little silver-ish building is cool - it's where they weigh all the cows.  They herd all the cows through these runs

and then, one by one, they step on the electronic scale.  This is probably the only time when the bigger the number on the scale, the better.

Holy cow! It's 9:24.  I started this post at 7!! It's the longest post ever, and all I've done is show you the farm. There are still a ton of pictures of what we actually did while we're there. Yeesh.

Come back soon to see pictures of alpacas and Sheryl Crow and other fun things!

Earl Wedding

Well, this is a week late, but last weekend I got to be a part of one of my best friends' weddings, and it was so, so fun.  I think one of the things that made it so great was that it wasn't a typical Saturday night wedding. Instead, they had their rehearsal dinner on Saturday night, complete with barbeque, peach cobbler, and a blues band.  All of the "young people" were invited, not just those in the wedding party.  And then, on Sunday, Jenny and Darrin were married at 5:30, followed by a cocktail hour and then the reception, complete with lounge music. So, pictures? Let's get to it.

The rehearsal was at 3:00 on Saturday afternoon.  I think Jenny was glad to see me and Darbie because the wedding coordinator had been stressing her out.

Jenny and Darrin were just ready to get the show on the road!

Jenny practiced her walk down the aisle with her dad.

And I practiced standing my post on the top step.

Our friend Ben was the officiant, and he talked them through how the ceremony would go.

Once we were good and rehearsed, it was party time!

The dinner menu was full of good, Southern food: lots of barbeque, ribs, spaghetti.  I was too nervous about eating the ribs not in the privacy of my own home, but I hear they were delicious. Darbie seemed to think so!

We were glad to have a time to visit with all of our out-of-town friends before the big day.  The Kinsers were excited to be there.

Hey, wait a minute...these two don't go together...

Um, and neither do these two...

Now we're back on track with the right couples! Here's me and my honey.

Darbie was a good sport and asked Darrin's 91-year-old grandfather to dance. I think it was the longest song ever.

Here we all are - Jenny and her three "bridesmaids."

I love this one - so many of my besties in one shot!

Sunday morning came fast. I had to get up early and meet Jenny at her hotel so I could blow dry her hair straight. She has a LOT of hair!

While we worked on her hair, we sent the guys over to the ceremony site with her dress.

I love Jenny's mom for many reasons, but one is definitely because she thought to bring flowers just to decorate the hotel room.

Around 12, we headed over to the ceremony site to check things out.

The florist had already started carrying in flowers.  Here's a table arrangement, and you can see one of the table runners I made!  (I think the flower arrangement looks lopsided in this picture, but it was fixed before show time.)

Here is where Jenny and Darrin actually got married. Pretend like the curtain in the background is closed (although you can see the cake table with another one of my tablecloths on it), the lights are low and the chandelier and candles are all lit.  It was a very pretty setting.  During the reception, the big arrangement and the ferns were scooted back a little so the cake table could sit under the chandelier.

More flowers.

After we looked around and grabbed a quick bite for lunch, it was time to get ready for pictures.   Jenny was the last to get her hair done.

And after getting dressed and some last-minute makeup touch-ups, she was ready to go see her groom!

Wasn't she a beautiful bride?!

Unfortunately, my pictures from the weekend end there. We spent the afternoon taking pictures and then it was go-time, so my camera was put away and never came back out.  Now, if Jenny and Darrin could hurry up and come back from their cruise, maybe we'll have some sneak peeks from their photographer to see!

Heimke Wedding!

Saturday morning started bright and early for me. My mom was my assistant for the day; she helped me decorate at the reception site.  We loaded up her car with aaaaalll the decorations and we were on the road by 8:30 am. We had some work to do! We worked like busy bees all morning long. We strung lights, laid out the table runners and overlays, moved tables around, laid out all the sparklers.

We also filled our apple bowls with moss,

and then added the apples.

The apples were cored so that candles could fit in them. See?

We built pyramids out of the favor boxes.

And we folded over LOTS of bags to make luminaries. Some got ribbons, some didn't. They all got sand and candles.

We arranged cute chalkboard signs outside so the guests would know which way to go.

Back inside, we arranged all of our apple centerpieces on half of the tables. (Check out that runner and "poof!")

The other half of the tables had flower arrangements on them, complete with apples in the bottom of the vase.

The bakers arrived with the delicious cake and got to setting it up.

And the DJ got his system plugged in and all of his lights going. It was show time!

(Special shout-out to my mom for her help, and for Doc and Allison for helping me finish all the decorations that afternoon. You guys rock!)

We headed over to the church and guess who we ran into downstairs? The beautiful bride!

She was ready for her walk down the aisle! We hurried upstairs to get seated.

Jenny and Darrin - they're next!

Chris and Allison - I'm sorry this picture is blurry, but look! They match! You know I can appreciate that.

And Kendra and Antonio - they're next summer!

It was a wonderful ceremony - great music, gorgeous bride, handsome groom, good scripture and vows.

I think immediately following the ceremony was the most stressful time for me. Pictures needed to be taken but I also needed to get the flower arrangements and bouquets to the reception site. It's not easy getting big branchy arrangements into your car and then carrying them into a crowded room (thanks Chris and Doc!) but we got everything there and in place.  I was tense during that transition period and felt very unorganized and behind, but as soon as the last two arrangements were placed in their vases, I looked around and took a big sigh of relief. Everything looked good. And the guests looked happy. And the wedding party had arrived and were lined up and ready to be introduced. We made it! Time to party!

Me and my handsome date for the evening:

And some of our friends:

Me and the bride!

And some more of our friends that were there:

A few minutes into the ceremony and we had a small incident with a busted bustle. We searched for safety pins - thank goodness for men's suits and their dry cleaning tags! - and headed to the bathroom to pin the bustle.

Meanwhile, the groom got things going on the dance floor.

Some more details from the reception:

There were more toasts given to the bride and groom and we all cheered and clinked our champagne glasses.

The groom spoke and thanked everyone for coming - check out that new ring on his hand!

Remember those brown bag luminaries that my mom and I worked on to line the sidewalk? I'm not gonna lie, I was a little nervous about them. Would they look right? Or would they look too homemade? They definitely could've been a  big fire hazard and I could picture myself stomping out flames later in the evening. But, I'm pleased to say they looked great! Way better than I expected! And of course, I had no idea what kind of setting to put my camera on to get a good shot of these, so here's a blurry pic. You get the idea.

It was the groomsmen/friends of the groom that enjoyed stomping them all out at the end of the evening. Fine by me - that was just one less thing I had to do!

After a few more rounds of dancing,

some poses at the bar,

a tired junior groomsman,

and empty bottles of liquor,

it was time to wrap up the party!  We bid farewell to the newlyweds with lots of sparklers, and they drove off into the night on their decorated golf cart.

And then I immediately walked to my car to do this:

Tip: the night you are trying to make sure a reception runs smoothly should NOT be the same night you try to break in a new pair of shoes.

It was a great day...perfect couple, beautiful wedding, and a great party. Congrats, Mr. and Mrs. Heimke!