Feb
1
2013

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An Evening at Cold Antler Farm

by Tara

For the past few years, I have been following Jenna over at Cold Antler Farm, occasionally checking in on her animal-filled adventures. Her posts always kept me inspired when we were hunting for land and dreaming of starting our homestead. Now that we've moved to southwestern Vermont, we live very close to one another.

A few nights ago, Allan and Suzanne's daughter, Rachelle, was heading to Jenna's farm to pick up a half a pig's worth of meat that she and a friend had purchased. We were invited to tag along, and of course, we jumped at the chance to meet such a cool, like-minded person. We hit it off right away, and planned a board-game night for later in the week.


Tonight, we spent a fantastic evening with Jenna and company. All told, that included her dogs, Annie and Gibson, her cat Boghadair, and her very sweet friend Tom, who drove more than an hour from Massachusetts to join in the fun. We began with supper: as a great mix of my favorite folksy music played, and two oil lamps illuminated the space, we feasted on rice and curry and washed it down with beer and hard cider. Later, we shared a maple oat pie, which I baked in our little camper's oven.

Gibson the Border Collie

When we were all stuffed, Jenna carried our plates away, and we got the games set up. First, we played Tsuro (for the first time!), and then Tyler and I taught our new friends how to play Settlers of Catan. It was an absolute blast. Jenna had wanted to play it ever since she heard how you could trade sheep for wood in the game, exclaiming, "Hey, I do that in real life!"

Playing Board Games Catan Tom Playing Catan Tara Playing Catan Tyler Playing Catan

We ended the night with a round of Gloom, a card game where you try make your "family" as miserable as possible before you kill them all to win. The game involves a lot of amusing storytelling as you attempt to explain all of the horrible things happening to the characters. Good times!

Jenna Playing Gloom Playing Gloom by Oil Lamp Jenna Playing Gloom Tom Playing Gloom

After many enjoyable hours, we departed sleepily, ready to return to our home in the mountains, but not before making plans to hang out again later next week. I'm amazed at how quickly we're meeting kindred spirits and making awesome new friends over here.

Thanks for having us, Jenna! It was wonderful to meet you, Tom!

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5 comments

Have you guys ever tried Carcasonne? My hubby Sean and I are fellow Settlers lovers, and I heartily recommend Carcasonne and it's vast expansions. It's even fun to play with two people :0).
Posted by liza on February 9th, 2013 at 12:13 PM
Nope, we've never heard of that game, but now we'll definitely have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation, Liza!
Posted by Tara on February 9th, 2013 at 2:58 PM
I'm very excited to stumble across your website! I particularly look forward to following the unfolding of your building process -- I really hope to build with strawbale or cob myself some day! Thanks!
Posted by Mari on February 10th, 2013 at 12:34 AM
YAY YAY YAY! I'm so happy things are coming together and you are meeting such great people. So happy for you.
Posted by Sheila on February 10th, 2013 at 1:57 PM
I knew the night you all were hanging out because I read Jenna's blog every day, and I was trying to explain to my husband how warm and fuzzy I felt knowing that 3 of my favorite bloggers were playing Catan (one of our favorite games) together that night. So cool your worlds collided!
Posted by Julia on February 10th, 2013 at 2:46 PM