On the one hand there was the blur of Christmas, New Year, a good friend’s birthday and a few other social functions all rolled together. On the other hand there is the tight timeline of the ducklings almost hatching (hopefully) and the chicks that need to get out of the brooder to make space for said ducklings. So between the high days, holy days and holidays there were some serious work sessions squashed in to get the free range area on Dreamland prepared.

Fortunately the beach weather was pretty ordinary over this period – we took the kids body boarding once, and I went surfing twice. The rest of the time I could take gaps between the festivities, combined with a lot of 5am starts and in between irrigating and tending chooks (they are growing up real fast – more about that in another post), I finished the fencing for their free range area at Dreamland.

It was my first time installing gates, and I had to fit 6 of the things! And meters and meters of trellis which I use as fencing. But instead of a long story, I’ll let the photos tell the story. The cover photo is the entrance to the Dreamland forest garden, where most of said chooks will roam. Why “savannah”? Our design is not a dense shady canopy forest, but more an open design with some sunny spots, interspersed with fruit trees and patches of forest-like bush and shrubs.

This is the “truck entrance”, where occasionally big trucks and sometimes our trailer have to come in to collect stuff or drop off mulch or compost.

This is the “shed entrance” where we will one day access the forest garden from the tool shed. The shed is to the left off the picture. The renovated coop is tacked onto this shed.

This is the entrance and area to the back of the house, right close to the entrance of the renovated coop.

This is the side entrance, between the forest garden (on the right) and the market vegetable garden (on the left) where said chooks will only roam on assignment.

Interesting – when I mapped the area on Google Earth – said chooks will have 2500m² to roam! (It’s a pity it is such an old image – I would love to see a more recent image.)

And with that, happy new year to all – may your days be as free as our chooks will be!