picture by Audrey Pavia
A perspective of the horse stalls on my small urban farm .
Whenever I turn on around the equestrian community where I live , I get a severe typeface of property enviousness . Some multitude around here manage to score anywhere from 3 to 5 acres for their urban farms . I , on the other hand , make due with a bare 1/2 Akko .
A 1/2 acre is a great deal of land in suburban Southern California . My friends in condos think I endure on a immense spread . And I suppose I do , compare to the stamp stamps they call backyards . But when you have farm animals , a 1/2 Akko is reasonably tight .
When I first moved in here , I had all kinds of fantasies for my urban farm . It was the first metre I ’d lived anywhere you could legally keep livestock , so my mental imagery ran wild . I ’d havehorses , of course , and alsogoats , chickensandducks . perchance I ’d even have a sheep or aminiature donkey . Why not ? I lived on a farm now , after all !
But it was n’t long before realism set in . I shortly notice that my 1/2 acre was made up of a important amount of unserviceable side . It also had a huge detached garage thunder in the centre of the backyard . This surely limited the amount of workable land I had at my disposition . Then we needed a patio , so some of the space was allot to that . After that , we had to put in a lawn for ourCorgi , by nature . ( He grew up with a lawn and would n’t experience where to pee without one . )
When all was said and done , my 1/2 Akka came to a lot less than that . I had room for three 12 - by-24 - foot organ pipe corrals for my horses , a wash wheel , small mainsheet shed and a tinychicken coop — so much for goats andsheep . And what was I run low to do with a miniature Equus asinus back there ? It ’s not like he ’d have a big grazing land to swan in ; he ’d be cooped up in a tiny stall all the time ; it did n’t seem right .
After get the horses and the chickens , the yard all of a sudden seemed jam-packed to the branchia . I did n’t need to be like some of the other tribe in my townsfolk who had so many beast obturate onto their small oodles that it looked like they lived in a zoological garden rather than on an urban farm . timbre of life was important — not just to me , but to my animals .
I decide to limit my animal crew to three — now two — sawhorse and a handful ofbantams . The dog has mess of room to run around ( and a lawn for pee ) , and thecatsand thebunniesstay in the house .
This arrangement works well . I ’m not overwhelmed with animals , and my property is able to handle the wear and tear of this small group fairly well . Of course , I still dream of the day when I ’ll have enough land for all the barnyard critters I want , but until then , I ’ll bump a direction to be contented with my 1/2 Akka . After all , it sure beats living in a condominium .
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