Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun

The "bottom" half of our yard looked like this when we bought our house.  I call it the bottom half because it sits down off the retaining wall that runs along the right side of this photo.  Behind the privacy fence is a glorified ditch that usually has a small stream of water running through it, and our yard extends beyond this ditch.

This space has come a long way with the real transformation being once we decided to turn it into the animal yard.

We now house rabbits and chickens in this yard. It has worked out wonderfully for this purpose because it keeps the chickens out of the top half were the majority of my garden is located. But I'm always looking for ways to utilize our outdoor space to its full potential.

For several years we've talked out taking down the privacy fence to be able to fully see our yard. I would garden there, but the ground slopes down to the creek, it receives shade most of the day, and the oak tree roots are practically throughout the whole area. So, recently we decided the best way to use this area of the yard was to expand the animal yard and give the chickens even more space to free-range since we've denied them access to the top half. We ran fencing and took down the privacy fence that separated these sections. It basically doubled their space, and I think it turned out great!

Our dilemma was how to bridge the "creek" as we call it. We ended up spanning a 2x4 and then buiding the fence across the 2x4. After that, we used some of the old privacy fence boards to run the span of the creek to keep the chickens from running all over the neighborhood. The last thing we did was attach a piece of hardware cloth to let the water flow. Since the flow is never heavy, it won't be hard to keep that flow-through area clean.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think the flock likes it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy homesteading,

 

Candace