Has anyone heard of this??????

[spector]

Rural is wonderful, but I do sometimes miss being able to walk to the store, and unfortunately, where I live, no one has heard of a book store. The closest one is a 45-minute drive.

I used to live in midtown Sacramento, and I would walk to the organic food co-op daily to pick up my groceries, and spend my weekends walking around to either the downtown mall, one of several used book stores, or going to one of the many unique local stores in the area.

Now I have to pick up my groceries on my way home from work, and I spent this weekend avoiding ticks while I cut and burned brush! Of course, it is nice to not have to worry about whether you'll get fined for having your trashcan out where others can see it! <g> And if I had to choose again between having to leash up my dogs in order to get them any exercise, or let them run free on the property, and between buying my eggs at the co-op, or collecting them fresh from the straw in my hens' nestboxes, I guess I would choose the latter.

[sunnydove]

Wow Sally...26 acres. Lucky you!! I only have 2 1/2 acres in the country. It is a subdivision (with HOA) and all properties here are between 2 1/2 acres up to 18 acres. The HOA is not very effective though. They don't collect much annual dues ($45) and don't have monies to make enforcements on any violaters - they just send out letters with nothing to back them up. We only moved here a year ago. I love the peace and quiet here, but at the same time, some folks don't ever mow the chest-high weeds down and their yards literally look like the dump/junkyard. Some even have 30-50 goats in small pens in their front yards (there are restrictions on the limits of livestock).
Oh well, you have pros and cons, no matter where you live. Just wish more people would take "pride" in what they own.
We have Barred owls that roost in all our trees here in the late afternoon and into night. They will sit in different trees (oaks) and hoot back and forth at each other. You know which is the female and male by their calls. For that reason, my 3 cats get locked in at night. I don't want them to be an owl's next meal.

Judy

[tursiopschic]

I would gladly deal with threats of hawks, owls, or whatever critters to live in that much space. (I would probably end up getting my falconry license anyway and have my own hawk).

*sigh*

[hilljack13]

Enough of all this land talk...my measley .6 is all I have ...I would love to have 26 acres of finch cages....

[Hilary]

Oh man, can you IMAGINE cleaning 26 acres of finch cages!

[Nipper06]

I'm replying to a post almost a month old but, in case anyone is interested, I actually did have a hawk fly into my screen porch and he did so by flying right into the screen and tearing a hole into it.

I came home from work one day and, as I often do, I was just about ready to release my white dove in the porch for exercise. Luckilly, I noticed a hawk was in there! It was trying to get out - so I manovered around it and opened the door to the outside and then kind of drove it out the door - once it was out in the backyard, it just flew away.

I think the reason it flew into the porch was that I had a hanging bird feeder just a few feet outside of my porch. He was probably dive-bombing some birds at the feeder and he flew right into the screen. He must have hit it hard because the screen was cut almost in the shape of his body, with 2 large sideways slits where his wings must have hit. The hawk was uninjured and the screen he broke was the oldest screen in the porch so was probably the weakest.

Anyway, it can happen! From then on, I never let my birds fly out there unattended. The idea to make a porch into an aviary is a good one but I agree with whoever made the suggestion to leave the screen (to get rid of bugs) but to also put stronger aviary mesh on the inside - to keep animals and hawks from busting through the screen.