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

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

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

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

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.

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

Chickens inside the coop, going after mealworm treats:

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

Ducks in the pond by the floating island:

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.

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

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

Flock Friday for August 20

It’s the penultimate Flock Friday.

Peeking though a nesting box at ducks eating in their house:

Ducks eating

Chickens awaiting treats:

Chickens

Ducks on upturned pot islands:

Ducks

More chickens with treats:

Chickens

Ducks on the lawn:

Ducks

And in and by the pond:

Ducks

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

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

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

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

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