Welcome to our "Homestead". We invite you to enjoy a beautifully appointed Colonial Farmhouse with updated amenities including strong WiFi. This is a great opportunity to experience New England at its best. Enjoy the activities of a working horse farm. Imagine yourselves collecting fresh eggs from our hens after sipping coffee in the garden. Visit our horses, walk around our idyllic property, dip in the pool, eat under the stars and sleep peacefully in comfy beds. Read on & enjoy our pictures! The space After an easy drive in from route 101, you will arrive at the farm gates and turn in the driveway where the Stage Coaches once rumbled in their arduous route between Boston and Montreal! Enter in through the Stage Coach Waiting Room, then into the spacious Living Room with its huge fireplace, where the families' meals were once prepared. Take a look at the cupboards where the ink and medicines were stored and the old crane which held the simmering pots back in 1754. This elegant old farmhouse style homestead is charming! Happily many of the unique features of the building have not changed over the years. Only five families have ever lived in this house for its 270 year long history. It has been well-loved and cared for all those years! Thanks to a recent major restoration, you will find a large, fully appointed kitchen, dining room, living room with a piano, beautiful sunroom, and six bedrooms. The space is decorated in a traditional style with many lovely period pieces. The Homestead has many unique historic features such as the original School Room, Built-In Shutters, Wainscoting and lovely wide pine board floors. Best of all, it has an original hand painted Stenciled Room, believed to be the largest remaining intact room of its kind in New England. This room was recently featured in a documentary created by The Center for Painted Wall Preservation. The Board of Directors was happy to report that the quality of the preservation is still amazingly high. If you would like to hear more about the Homestead, just ask the Owner or the Stepping Stones team to get a fun, special tour to learn more of it's history! The kitchen has new appliances and is stocked to serve up to 16 guests. It comes with a full set of informal and more formal dishware, as well as glasses of all kinds. It also has its own silver service. A dishwasher is at the ready, and a full compliment of cooking pots and pans make it fun for the whole gang to dish up a great meal. You will also find a gas grill to help you create outdoor delights. Tables can be brought out to the garden during the warmer months for you to dine under the twinkling lights on a lovely summer evening. The Homestead sleeps up to 16 people and is handicap accessible via the front entrance ramp. Two bedrooms are on the first floor as well as a fully handicapped accessible bathroom including a wheelchair accessible shower. The second floor has two full bathrooms and three bedrooms. The former school room is a large room with a Queen bed and two twin beds . The Overlook room, named because it looks out to the main barn, has two twin beds. The crowing jewel of the house is the historic hand Stenciled Room with a Queen bed. A sixth bedroom, called the Owl's Nest is above the kitchen. It has two twin beds and a twin bed with a Trundle, allowing for 4 guests to sleep in comfort with a half bath. All bedrooms have either a free standing A/C unit or a window unit for guests' enjoyment. We have pedestal fans in common rooms. You can enjoy an an in-ground swimming pool just outside the Homestead. A screened-in Gazebo with deck overlook the pool which is fenced and surrounded by gardens. While this is not a 'country club' pool, it sure does cool you off on a hot summer day. Chairs and 2 lounge chairs are available for guest use. We also have pool noodles and inner tubes for kids. A back board and ring buoy are at the ready for guest safety. The Homestead is located on a working horse farm. Currently, 16 horses call Stepping Stones Farm their home. You can enjoy watching them grazing out in the fields or being enjoyed by their owners. The horses all love people and are friendly. We ask that guests do not enter the barns or fields without a staff member. Yet another amazing feature of this property is the 3 story Bank Barn which is home to the horses. It is the largest intact Bank Barn this side of the Mississippi River! It can be accessed on ground level on each of its 3 stories because it is built into an earthen bank. It is really something to see during your stay! Better still, we offer four rooms on the second floor of the barn. These rooms can be reserved for breakout meeting rooms, Yoga space, art projects or simply gathering spaces. These rooms are heated and can be used during all, but the coldest weeks of the year. Ample seating, tables and space are available to our guests during the daylight hours and at additional fee. Please connect with the owner to reserve your space. The house is surrounded by perennial gardens and has rolling lawns for games, carefree play, tree climbing and good family or friends' time together. Enjoy an old fashioned game of Horse Shoes or try your hand at Corn Hole, Crochet, Volley Ball, Badminton or Bocce. In the yard, we offer a Fire Circle with wood provided where you can gather at night to watch the moon rise and the stars twinkle. Enjoy the Miniature Horses right out the front door, listen to the birds sing in the early morning with a cup of coffee, savor fresh eggs from the Hen House for your breakfast or grab a book from our library and just relax. The farm is surrounded by many dirt roads which encourage both gentle strolls, longer walks, bike rides and runs. Exercise your body while enjoying being surrounded by the peace of nature! In winter, there are great places to snowshoe and cross country ski right on the farm. In the spring, enjoy watching the gardens start to come alive again and find where the birds are making their yearly nests. In summer, al fresco dining and the pool awaits. The fall is perhaps the most spectacular of all with the glorious fall foliage and beautiful pheasants strolling around. Watch the geese fly south as the horses grow their fuzzy winter coats. The farm is magical in all its seasonal dress. The farm is located in the quaint town of Temple. It is a beautiful rural and agricultural small town with a stunning Common, steepled Church, Town Hall and Country Store. You can listen to live music as you dine on fabulous fare at the local favorite restaurant, the Birchwood Inn. For those who want to ski, cross country, snow shoe, bike, dine out or shop, there are many wonderful opportunities within easy driving distance. The Monadnock area features a variety of places to stroll, walk, hike and climb. The area is filled with so many interesting and fun things to do and see. Two local farms sell milk, ice cream, cheese, maple syrup, honey, and all kinds of meats. Visit the dairy farm to see the cows and have the best fresh ice cream. We even have a local glass blower just up the road. Let us serve you as "Country Concierge" to help you customize your stay so you can enjoy as much, or as little adventure and activities, as you wish. We also offer a complete 'What to do in the area' guide for our guests. We are pleased to also offer extra 'add on' services to enhance your stay. These services include the following: *For corporate groups, we have presentation equipment which includes a large Smart TV with appropriate hook up, Easels, Podium and large White Board. We also have Break Out Rooms set up in the historic barn that allow for productive meetings or lecture style set ups. *Local Chefs who can prepare a special meal for you and your guests. *Personal & Party sized Charcuterie and Meal Prep delivered to your door *Listing of all the best regional restaurants with differing price points. *List of recommended , 'tried & true' caterers for meals delivered to you. * Fully licensed massage therapists that will bring their table and relaxing experience ,to you during your stay. *An experienced child care provider that will come to the farm to watch the little ones so Moms and Dads can go out to dinner, take a nap or go on a hike to get some time together. *Offsite limo transportation is available locally. *All add on services, listed above may be provided for an additional fee. Upon booking your reservation for the Homestead, our team will send you a detailed Welcome Package to help you plan your stay. This packet includes the names and contact information for the providers listed above. You will then contact them directly to arrange their services and pay them directly. Guest access We go 'above and beyond' for our guests. As the owner, I live in a little Cottage right on site. I love greeting all guests and making them feel right at home. We also have other team members who serve as the Point of Contact for your stay in case you need help or directions to local attractions. We also have our groundskeepers nearby should your car not start or the power go out! A Key Code box with keys to the Homestead and the pool is ready for your arrival. We provide the code prior to your arrival. Ample parking is available right out your door. Other things to note This is a beautiful property that has been a working farm for the past 270 years, 57 of which has been in our family!!! We are a third generation on the farm. It has undergone extensive renovations over the last year to make it into a successful rental located on sustainable and environmentally responsible farm. We continue to make improvements to enhance our guests' experience. We Love opening our doors for families and friends who want to stay together when they are gathering for such milestone celebrations as Weddings, Baby Showers, special Anniversaries or Birthdays. We also welcome those people who wish to have a private and intimate End of Life Celebration of a loved one. Please note however that we are not an event center for the actual wedding or reception. The Homestead is also a great place to host a retreat. We have enjoyed hosting many types of retreats over the years which include wellness weekends, meditation retreats, Equestrian Vacation Stays or Clinics, writers' workshops, veterans' retreats, cooking weekends, yoga retreats, and spiritual church retreats. We love to provide a warm and welcoming space for important learning to take place! The Homestead is also a great venue for Corporate Off-Site Training Retreats. The farm offers excellent meeting and planning space that are private and invite connection. Let us help you advance the mission and vision for your organization here in a lovely, welcoming and professional space. Temple is the Gateway to The Monadnock Region in southern central NH. Home to Mt. Monadnock, the most often climbed mountain in the world, this region is brimming with fabulous restaurants, unique shops, art and music galore...it truly boasts of having 'something for everyone'. We will send you all kinds of links and suggestions in our Welcome Packet so you can plan a great stay!