AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

We live at the edge of town, just far enough from our neighbors to feel like country. Our 2.8 acres are long and narrow, bounded on the north and south by roads, on the east by a strawberry field and on the west by a large pasture. The pasture is about in the center of the first picture and we're just to the right of it. The first picture dates from before our barnyard was built - maybe 1998. The second and third are definitely after 2001 - because that's when I roofed the duck pen. From the golden color of everything that's not irrigated, it's probably late summer. It's easy to see where the strawberry field's irrigation runs off over our property.

In the last picture, our pasture is at the top. Our barnyard is in the upper left corner. The blue tarps on the left side are part of the duck pen roof. The white shed and the shed immediately behind it house chickens. We've also built a lovely new barn just behind them (not in this picture). The upper right corner is fenced for the sheep. Otherwise they eat all the chicken food and could kill themselves that way. Between the barnyard, the pasture and the house is our orchard area. There are a couple mature trees, plus an assortment of baby fruit trees we've put in. Also visible are our raised beds. This year we had the front yard fenced so the kids have a safer place to play. We watered and mowed our weeds, and amazingly enough, it turned into a pretty good lawn.

We had the most beautiful double rainbow one day. And it truly did have gold at the ends - black gold (our compost pile on one end, the sheep pen full of future compost on the other).