[craftytam]

Originally Posted by Ponytails

We're on the outskirts of town in an area that's mainly larger horse properties. We have five acres and are surrounded by trees in the back and one side, which blocks any view of the neighbours on that side, and the way the house and barn are situated we can't see the neighbours on the other side either. Our frontage is mostly our horse pasture area. Behind us is a massive (1000+ acres) of forest and park space with trails for riding and walking (and bikes are not allowed) so it's pretty much bliss. We absolutely love it here! We get quite a variety of animals travelling through and a ton of birds. We mainly see rabbits and squirrels, but we've had chipmunks on occasion. The squirrels like to nest inside the wine barrels that we use as table bases on the back patio area. We've had the odd deer come through the yard and there's a coyote pack that lives in the park behind us. They come into our back yard quite frequently but always run off when they see us. As for birds... there's a whole variety there. A lot of robins and flickers, as well as crows. We have a bald eagle breeding pair that nests in woods not far from us, and lots of owls which can be quite vocal in the evenings. We even have a pair of ducks that like to nest in our front ditch every spring, and we see the little ones with them waddling off. We had a rooster show up and hang with the horses for a few weeks one year, but he had an untimely end when one of the eagles ate him (I scrapped a page about that one... posted below.) Like I said, we love it here... total privacy in the back yard, a quiet street that gets as many horses as cars going by, and our horses in the front.

This is my oldest and youngest exploring the creek that runs through the woods out back and marks the boundary between our property and the park space beyond.
And the rooster murder... (of course I had to take photos and scrap it!)

This is one of my favorite layouts! I tell people about it all the time