The Yellow Cottage Homestead

The Yellow Cottage Homestead has been sold, and the sale has now closed. With it closes another chapter of our lives, as we prepare to begin the next one, touring the country full-time in a luxury motorhome. Follow the new Sinclair Trails blog to see pictures and information from our new adventure.

With the closing of the house, I am also closing down this blog. It will remain permanently for future reference, but I don’t plan any further posts after this one. (Of course, I may decide to follow up later, so you never know.)

I thought I’d conclude this blog with a guided tour around the homestead.

Let’s start from the logical place, the driveway into the property:

Driveway and house

The front lawn and house:

Front lawn and house

Going around the back; the deck, gazebo, and gardens, with a glimpse of the swimming pool:

Deck, gazebo, gardens

Looking to the right, the upper falls pond:

Upper falls pond

Continuing on down the path, looking back at the house, deck, gazebo, and bird feeders off to the right:

House, deck, gazebo, bird feeders

Nearby, the stream leading from the upper falls, and one of its two stone bridges:

Stream and stone bridge

After crossing the bridge, looking over the stream towards the cat house:

Stream, stone bridge, cat house

Further down the path, the small pond, and cat house:

Small pond, cat house

A closer look at the cat house:

Cat house

The nearby fountain garden:

Fountain garden

Behind the fountain garden are flowerbeds:

Flowerbeds

Flowerbeds

The white gazebo:

White gazebo

A peek back at the gazebo through the arbor into the field:

Arbor

Apple trees in the field:

Apple trees in field

Arbor and the pond deck:

Arbor and pond deck

On the pond deck, with a view of the pond:

Pond deck and pond

A view from the pond deck of the ducks coming to see me:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

From below the pond deck:

Ducks in the pond

Over the other side of the pond, with the duck house, and the pond deck in the background:

Duck house and ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks in the pond

A weeping willow by the path from the duck house:

Weeping willow

Standing at the end of the duck house path, looking at the brown gazebo and chicken coop:

Brown gazebo and chicken coop

The new and old chicken coops across the back lawn:

New and old chicken coops

Chickens in their run:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Beyond the chicken runs, the veggie garden:

Veggie garden

The berry cage part of the veggie garden:

Berry cage

The greenhouse behind the berry cage:

Greenhouse

The hoop house next to the veggie garden:

Hoop house

Beyond the greenhouse and hoop house, the beehives and bee shed:

Beehives and bee shed

Near the beehives:

Beehives

I hope you enjoyed this tour of the homestead, and the many blog posts over the years. Thank you for reading, and all the nice comments.

Feel free to follow my personal posts on my Dejus blog, and the new Sinclair Trails blog of our RV adventures.

Cat update for week ending August 28

Welcome to the last ever Caturday on this blog. The outdoor feral cats adopted us in August 2017, and we’ve enjoyed watching them around the homestead ever since. But as with the ducks and chickens, it’s time for someone else to look after them, as we begin our new adventure in a motorhome.

So let’s take a last look at some of the cats. Here are two outside their house:

Two cats

Spud sleeping in a cabin:

Cat in cabin

Cat outside the feeder:

Cat outside feeder

And inside the feeder:

Cat inside feeder

Porcini relaxing in a garden:

Cat in garden

A cat eating, and another waiting outside:

Two cats

Spud in a cabin again:

Cat in cabin

Cat in cabin

Finally, lets finish with an animated GIF of cats at their house:

Cats GIF

We will miss watching the cats. But we’ll still have our pet cat Paladin, so cat pictures will continue on my personal blog.

Cat update for week ending August 21

Please enjoy the penultimate Caturday.

Here’s Spud:

Spud

Looking at a bird:

Cat looking at a bird

The mushroom girls, Porcini and Portabella (aka Bella):

Two cats

Relaxing:

Two cats

Porcini and Spud:

Two cats

Porcini sleeping inside the cat house:

Porcini sleeping inside the cat house

Pommie watching me from behind the cat house:

Cat watching me from behind the cat house

Cat watching me from behind the cat house

A cat in a cabin; they haven’t been in there for a while, but it’s a little cooler at present:

Cat in cabin

Porcini watching me from under the bench by the small pond:

Cat under bench

The mushroom girls again:

Two cats

A cat in the feeder:

Cat in feeder

Cat update for week ending August 14

On Caturday this week, Porcini has been enjoying sleeping in the cat house, though didn’t enjoy a raccoon briefly visiting her. Plus the others hanging around a bit, and a new kitten at the feed store.

Here’s Porcini sleeping in the cat house:

Porcini sleeping in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Pommie in front of the cat house:

Cat outside

Bella:

Bella

Porcini in the cat house again:

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Porcini in the cat house

Two cats:

Two cats

Just hanging out:

Two cats

Porcini in the cat house, briefly visited by a raccoon. Went away after a moment:

Raccoon and Porcini in the cat house

Might be hard to spot, but here’s Porcini by the edge of the small pond, with the cat house in the background:

Porcini by the small pond

Porcini again:

Porcini

Our local feed store got a new as-yet-unnamed kitten; they have free-range cats living in the store to protect the goods from rodents:

New kitten at the feed store

Spud:

Spud

Bella relaxing on the deck:

Bella relaxing on the deck

Cat update for week ending August 7

Also starting the last month of Caturdays. Since people have asked, fear not, the new owner of our homestead will be caring for all of our animals: the feral cats, ducks, chickens, and even the bees.

A relaxed Bella on the deck of the cat house:

Relaxed Bella

Two cats at breakfast time:

Two cats

Porcini watching me walk past:

Porcini

Spud and Bella:

Two cats

Bella on the deck again:

Bella

Bella and Spud again:

Two cats

A GIF of a stretch and scratching the tree:

Two cats

A still image from then:

Two cats

Two alien cats at night:

Two alien cats

Bella by the water dispenser:

Bella

Cat update for week ending July 31

Counting down the Caturdays too….

Here’s Porcini waiting for food in the feeder:

Porcini

Porcini and Bella:

Porcini and Bella

Porcini closeup:

Porcini

Waiting for breakfast in the comfort of the cat house:

Cat inside

Another Porcini closeup:

Porcini

Our dog Rory sitting on the driveway, oblivious of a cat laying on the path:

Rory with cat on path

Cat on path

Two cats at breakfast time:

Two cats

Cat update for week ending July 24

It’s Caturday!

Spud in front of the cabins:

Cat by cabins

An alien orange cat visiting the feeder:

Alien orange cat

Followed ten minutes later by an alien black cat:

Alien black cat

Bella and Spud by the feeder:

Two cats

Two cats

Pommie:

Pommie

Spud and Porcini in the cabins:

Spud and Porcini

Porcini waiting for breakfast inside the cat house:

Porcini

Porcini in a cabin:

Porcini

Cooling off out front:

Porcini

Good stretch:

Porcini

Two cats arriving together for dinner:

Two cats

Two cats

Bella waiting her turn:

Two cats

Cat update for week ending July 3

It’s Caturday. This week, I spotted an alien orange cat in the feeder:

Alien orange cat

Plus of course the regular neighbor cat visitor, Paladout:

Paladout

A nice picture of Pansy in the back of the shop:

Pansy in the shop

Jenn said my girlfriend was out front. Yep, there’s Porcini:

Porcini

Porcini

Spud hunting in the tall grass beyond the grove:

Spud hunting

Got something:

Spud hunting

Two cats at the cat house:

Two cats

Porcini about to jump onto the camera housing:

Porcini about to jump onto the camera housing

Pansy on a chair in her nest area of the shop; I’m going to have to rearrange that sometime in preparation for our estate sale at the end of August:

Pansy in the shop

Have a pleasant and safe Fourth everyone!