A Housesitting Staycation, or Fun with Chickens

Navah and I had been planning to take a camping trip one weekend before our wedding - just to take a break from the wedding planning and job searching (for me) and long hours (for Navah).  But the weekends filled up so fast that before we knew it, there wasn't a weekend free.  Luckily our 2-week housesitting gig for a friend is out a ways from Burlington in a beautiful home on a nice-sized piece of land with a gorgeous garden.  


We decided to take the opportunity to give ourselves a little overnight staycation.  So from Friday evening until Sunday morning (when Navah had to head back to work), we lived it up retreat style at our temporary abode.  


Friday night I zipped out to pick up our friend's CSA farm share (super big bonus of housesitting) and made a meal plan on the way back.  The fresh whole chicken in my bag got my mind rolling, and I knew exactly where it was going. 


Skillet fried chicken.  Corn on the cob.  Slaw with carrots and apples. 


I met Navah at the door with a piece of fried chicken in my hand. 


It was like our wildest dreams come true. 


I suppose it's sort of rude of me to share all that with you and then tell you that there won't be any recipes.  But I haven't mastered the art of taking photos when I'm covered in batter and fried stuff.  So that'll have to wait til some other day. 


For now, some pictures of the live chickens we hung out with over the weekend.

So that's Flappy up there, loitering around the kitchen door and squawking for some grub.  During the day, she's the chicken envoy, popping in at random intervals to see if she can score some sunflower seeds or granola.  We're an easy sell.


Willie, on the other hand...

But luckily for the chickens, he doesn't make the decisions.  Or go outside. 


So they can eat in peace.


Jammer's only allowed out with extreme supervision.  He wants to chase the chickens, and we're not sure what he wants to do after that.  So he mostly hangs inside with Willie (whom he is both scared of and wants to play with).

We have to do a little creative tossing of the food to make sure that Rita and Matilda (the two that we took care of when they were baby chicks) get some since they're littler than the others and get bullied pretty intensely.

This gal's unhappy with the favored treatment they're getting.

We also made our way over to a beach on South Hero for a couple hours of beautiful views and perfect temperature water.

And we got a visit from this beautiful little dragonfly.

We closed out the night dining on leftover fried chicken and watching Moneyball.  It was a perfect staycation, if a wee bit short.  


What did you do this weekend?

Katie