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.
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!"
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!
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!