Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[RoyalChick]

Ok have pics, with notes on them. View attachment 2811592
Rough sketch of property shape. Works better landscaped for shape. Pics will start with the NE corner moving clockwise around the property line until down the drain field track, then up over hillside to north south line on west side. Then onto deck on SE side of house.
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Stepped just inside the fence for next one.
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Good view of garage and carport...size reference?

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Next pic moved down to suburban from pic 1
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Fading fast, so going to finish pics from north edge, post this, do another post sometime tomorrow continuing the tour.View attachment 2811606View attachment 2811612
Last pic along north edge. and that's the easy side.....
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Ok, 3 more pics, taken in pivot from below the coop, on the easement road just a bit uphill from the Rusty mark. Forgot to hit the button twice (once to get rid of keyboard, once to actually post.)

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OK I am getting a much better picture now.
I have some ideas forming in my head and may try and sketch them for you (if you don't think that is too obtrusive of me). This is the kind of project I love thinking about so just stop me if I get carried away!
One thing that would help a lot is if you could add to your first sketch with the rough location of the main trees that the chickens like spending time around and which will give them shelter from hawks. I think that is the Siberian Pea and Russian Olives - I have a better idea of where they are now from the photos but a rough marking on the sketch would really help.

 

[rural mouse]

Round 2: the southern property line (more like a squiggle)
Startwwith the cliff

the creek runs through the field on the other side of the pasture, clips the opposite corner from where my tour started, and the bank broke upstream a couple of years ago. To fix, a culvert system was put in to reroute the water back into the original streambed as it was trying to carve a new channel....right through the middle of the pasture and out their driveway. They used the easement access a lot that year (apologizing like crazy; we told them USE IT, we'd only be mad if they tried their driveway and ruined it/got stuck before the creek bank got fixed)

Next pics are fromt he track heading down to the drain field

On the drain field track looking at the house

West side will post later (after work)

 

[BY Bob]

OK I am getting a much better picture now.
I have some ideas forming in my head and may try and sketch them for you (if you don't think that is too obtrusive of me). This is the kind of project I love thinking about so just stop me if I get carried away!
One thing that would help a lot is if you could add to your first sketch with the rough location of the main trees that the chickens like spending time around and which will give them shelter from hawks. I think that is the Siberian Pea and Russian Olives - I have a better idea of where they are now from the photos but a rough marking on the sketch would really help.

I'm going to let you take the lead on this project and I will add any thoughts I might have after your done. This is much more similar to your environment than mine.

 

[RoyalChick]

I'm going to let you take the lead on this project and I will add any thoughts I might have after your done. This is much more similar to your environment than mine.

My mind is whirring with ideas already. It breaks my heart to think of a dog running amok among the chickens all over that area.

 

[BY Bob]

My mind is whirring with ideas already. It breaks my heart to think of a dog running amok among the chickens all over that area.

I picture chickens just wandering all day like at @Shadrach place in Spain. Idyllic until the pack of killer dogs arrive.

This event just shocked and scared me. I had to spend time with mine to just chill out and recover.

 

[rural mouse]

OK I am getting a much better picture now.
I have some ideas forming in my head and may try and sketch them for you (if you don't think that is too obtrusive of me). This is the kind of project I love thinking about so just stop me if I get carried away!
One thing that would help a lot is if you could add to your first sketch with the rough location of the main trees that the chickens like spending time around and which will give them shelter from hawks. I think that is the Siberian Pea and Russian Olives - I have a better idea of where they are now from the photos but a rough marking on the sketch would really help.

Opposite sides of the property, ok maps, of 20 acer plot followed by zoom in

Demonstrates how old maps is showing. Carport is not on garage, was when we bought it, and we've been here 4 years.

 

[rural mouse]

I picture chickens just wandering all day like at @Shadrach place in Spain. Idyllic until the pack of killer dogs arrive.

This event just shocked and scared me. I had to spend time with mine to just chill out and recover.

Shad's terrain is very similar. Climate.....not so much. Usually get a dip in winter to -20- -35 below (Not going to translate that to Celsius because -40 ist he same either way). thermometer is on a yoyo: paired with the sun. 30 degree differences between heat of day and just before dawn are normal, borderline desert: cactus and yucca grow well with the sagebrush. 100F inthe summer is upper end. Usually gets up into the 90s. Nights in 50s-low 60s. Spring/fall we swear the national weathers device is staffed by monkeys it'sso unpredictable. it's possible to get snow somewhere in the state all 12 months of the year. doesn't typically happen in the same year, but 2018 did. Mostly dry snow, except late feb-may. Wind chill bigger problem than damp chill. Natural predators/problem critters: weasel, skunk, porcupine, rattlesnake, fox, coyote, wolf, bobcat, mountain lion, black bear, grizzly bear, raccoon, peregrines falcons all the way up to bald and golden eagles, Turkey buzzards, burrowing owls up to great grey owls, horned owls and long eared owls (have seen a snowy owl here too). this list doesn't include insects and wandering livestock.
Plant climate zone 3-5 across the state. My bench is mostly low 5. Last frost around mother's day, first frost early/mid september. We appreciate the weather as it helps keep idiots away.

 

[rural mouse]

Not a chicken tax, but....taken this morning....

The chickens aren't the only ones who like the pea tree. Pheasants do too but are much more skittish.

 

[rural mouse]

And I thought quilting was done by hand - I guess that disqualifies me!

That's one way. takes longer, but is still being done.

 

[rural mouse]

I finally made it to 2021! Still 3000 pages behind, but now I'm in this year. maybe I can be wholey caught up by the end of the year....