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.

Flock Friday for August 27

Welcome to the last ever Flock Friday on this blog. It’s been quite a run, with the Flock Friday posts every week since June 2019, and chicken-related posts since early 2017. But now that we’ve sold our homestead, and will soon be moving into a motorhome to tour the country, it’s time to start winding down the Yellow Cottage Homestead blog, with this last Flock Friday, and a last Caturday tomorrow. I hope you’ve enjoyed these posts as much as I have.

But don’t worry, the new owner of the homestead is keen to take over looking after the ducks and chickens, plus the cats and bees. So they will be in good hands.

Let’s start with ducks eating in their house:

Ducks eating

Betty on the brick patio next to the duck house:

Duck

Ducks in the pond:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Chickens inside the coop, going after mealworm treats:

Chickens inside the coop

Chickens inside the coop

Chickens inside the coop

A bunch of colorful eggs in a nesting box:

Eggs in a nesting box

Several pictures of the chickens in their run, with tomato treats:

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Chickens in their run

Ducks in the pond by the floating island:

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

Ducks in the pond

One last picture of the ducks, pond, and duck house:

Ducks in the pond

We will miss the pond and ducks. But I’m sure we’ll get to enjoy other ponds and other ducks in the future.

Flock Friday for August 13

This week on Flock Friday, I bet you can’t guess what we have… yes, that’s right, pictures of ducks and chickens! Surprise! Plus a fuzzy picture of a hummingbird, for a bit of variety.

Some ducks on the pond:

Ducks

More ducks:

Ducks

A couple with their heads underwater:

Ducks

Lots of ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Standing on one leg on an upturned pot island, and the floating island a little flooded:

Ducks

A zoomed picture of a hummingbird resting on a twig:

Hummingbird

On to a bunch of pictures of the chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Flock Friday for July 30

Since we’ve sold our homestead, how many more Flock Fridays and Caturdays will there be? Probably four after this one; I plan to discontinue this blog at the end of August… assuming I get around to setting up a new one for our new adventures. So enjoy the posts while they last!

Some ducks on the pond:

Ducks

Sonja and her ducklings in the shade near the base of the waterfall:

Sonja and her ducklings

Ducks on islands:

Ducks on islands

Ducks on islands

Chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Flock Friday for July 23

Welcome to Flock Friday.

Last week I found the cupboard doors of the duck house wide open; I suspect a house viewer opened them and didn’t close them properly. I thought you might enjoy seeing inside. The jug holds food that drains into the feeder tube:

Duck house

Ducks on the pond:

Ducks

Ducks

Chickens enjoying rice treats:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Ducks on and near the bank of the pond:

Ducks

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

Ducks and Rory:

Ducks and dog

On the lawn again:

Ducks

Flock Friday for July 16

A focus on the chickens for this Flock Friday, including a couple of fun GIFs.

I noticed some chickens grabbing raspberries through the fence:

Chickens grabbing raspberries

Here’s a GIF of one jumping up to grab raspberries from a high branch; see how she turns her head back and forth to judge the distance:

Chickens grabbing raspberries

Another GIF of pulling a branch through the fence:

Chickens grabbing raspberries

That was hard work; nap time:

Chickens roosting in their run

Some photos of chickens with tomato, lettuce, and zucchini treats (the zucchini are starting to take over the garden):

Chickens with tomato, lettuce, zuccini treats

Chickens with tomato, lettuce, zuccini treats

Chickens

Chicken with lettuce treats

Chickens

We can’t have a Flock Friday post without any pictures of the ducks — here’s a token one from the pond deck. Betty’s ducklings are almost full-grown now, and Sonja’s are catching up fast:

Ducks

I haven’t spent much time with the ducks this week, due to our trip to Ashland and my subsequent illness, but I’ll be sure to get more photos of them for next week.

Flock Friday for July 9

Ducklings in the chicken run?!

Ducklings in chicken run

I have no idea how they got in there, but I heard their distressed peeping, and went over to let them out:

Ducklings in chicken run

Reunited:

Ducklings reunited

Betty’s ducklings are getting quite big:

Betty and ducklings

Sonja’s ducklings are still small, but growing fast (here some are snuggling under her):

Sonja and ducklings

More ducks:

Ducks

Two broody chickens in a nesting box:

Two chickens in a nesting box

More chickens:

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Chickens

Flock Friday for July 2

A little later than usual for Flock Friday, as we were out all morning while the house was inspected. But I wouldn’t want to miss sharing the fun pictures of our chickens and ducks!

Let’s start with some chickens with a head of lettuce from our veggie garden:

Chickens with a head of lettuce

The pond, with ducks and a bird flying low over the pond, to dip its beak for a drink:

Pond, ducks, bird

Another shot of a bird diving for a drink, plus Sonja on the island sitting on several of her ducklings:

Pond ducks, bird

A couple of ducks enjoying some shade:

Ducks enjoying some shade

I love that shiny green head:

Ducks

Hot chickens; chickens panting on one of the really hot days this week (don’t worry, they have flowing water to cool off):

Hot chickens

Hot chickens

Hot chickens

Sonja and ducklings:

Sonja and ducklings

Ducks on and near the island:

Ducks on and near the island

Betty and her ducklings:

Betty and ducklings

Sonja and ducklings, and more ducks on the island:

Ducks

Sonja and ducklings:

Sonja and ducklings

Ducks on the lawn; Betty and her ducklings on the left, others in the middle, and Sonja’s ducklings on the right:

Ducks on the lawn

Chickens roosting in their run:

Chickens in their run