Our Corn Roast Housewarming

After many weeks of working on the farmhouse, we were finally able to put the paint brushes down and celebrate with friends this weekend! Knowing that we were having people showing up this Saturday was motivation to get much of the work done around the yard. I can’t wait to share it all oh so soon.

After a rainy week, we were so lucky that Saturday ended up being one of the nicest evenings all summer!

We set up the party in the backyard with the great views out back. The chickens were happy for all the attention (and treats) they were getting from the kids that came. It turns out that having your own chicken coop is like a built-in petting zoo.

We kept the decor simple, reusing the teatowel tablecloths my sister used at my birthday and pulling out some of my favourite rustic farmhouse pieces.  My mom surprised us with this big beautiful flower arrangement in a vintage galvanized pail.

It was absolutely huge and was full of so many of my favourite seasonal flowers. Just look at those sunflowers and coneflowers! I noticed that she even snuck a little clover in there in honour of the farmhouse’s name, Cloverhill

I put it front and center on the bar we set up. It looks a little wilted in this photo from sitting in the sun, but it perked right up after a big glass of water. The “eat” sign used to hanging in our apartment kitchen and I just haven’t found a new home for it yet. We used some old worktables that we found around the farmhouse for the makeshift bar.

Our beverage bucket was the same galvanized tub that the chicks grew up in. When we carried it outside to set it up before the party, Whiskey got all excited because I guess he thought we had more chicks in there. Sorry bud, it’s just pop.

All our company was a good excuse to clean up the inside too. That’s one of the best bonuses of having people over – you get to have a tidy house for at least awhile afterwards. We’re still miles away from having the house finished on the inside, but I’ll be posting some progress pictures later this week as a sort of house tour.

The party was potluck and our friends brought some amazing dishes. Our fridge and freezer are jammed back with leftovers, and that’s even after we tried to send stuff home with everyone!

We picked up our favourite home-style burgers from the butcher in town and a bunch of local corn too. Funny enough, we buy our corn from two little kids who run a roadside stand and they’re the grandkids of the farmer we bought our house from!

Years ago a family friend gave my mom this huge hand stitched bug net from South Africa and she lent it to us for the party. It worked out perfectly for keeping the flies off all the corn! We still had way too much corn left over at the end, so I cut all the kernels off the cobs (at 3am!) and frozen from to use in the winter. The remaining uncooked cobs were sent home with all our friends, as a kind of goodie bag. And we still had some to take over to our friends’ house last night. I may have been just a wee bit too enthusiastic about how much we would need.

There was so much good food that was brought – dips, salads, crackers and cheese, chips, veggies, smoked pork, toppings, sides, desserts, fresh fruit – you name it! I made Dill Bean Salad – one of my favourite fresh summertime salads.

We started a big bonfire out back and the fun continued on into the night. We had a blast and hopefully this will be the first of many good times with friends out at the farmhouse. We’ve already started talking about the next one!