My favourite place #8

This is a weekly feature for readers to show us their favourite place at home. This week's photos are from Caroline in Ontario, Canada and Jan in Victoria, Australia.

Let's start with our friend Caroline, who writes:

Thank you for the opportunity to share our special places! I really enjoyed the last time that you ran the photos and we could get a glimpse into the lives of other people and realize just how very different, yet alike we are.

I live in Ontario, Canada and every summer for 10 weeks I live on an island out in Georgian Bay. When our children are older we hope to live here for half of each year. My inlaws bought the property back in the '60's, and 5 years ago my husband built our modest home here. We are completely off of the grid, and utilize solar panels and propane to power our daily lives. Life is simple and slower than back in the city and every year we work towards our goal of spending more time here. I enjoy numerous crafts, baking and spending time here with my family. Georgian Bay is a part of the Great Lakes and can be very temperamental weather wise. One needs to watch the weather carefully in order to plan trips to town for groceries! After September, we try to come for weekend visits, but after late October, it is much too cold and then time to get ready for another Canadian winter. Sometimes if the ice is thick enough in February, the family has snowshoed over to spend a chilly night or two with the woodstove going non-stop.

I have recently begun blogging at www.offthegridneedlearts.com and would be pleased if you would visit. I have admired your writing for many years.

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And now we have Jan, who just loves her chook house:

I'd love to share my favourite spot in our yard. Our chook house :)

My very clever husband built this out of our daughters old swing set. He's made self waterers and feeders out of polly pipe and they have a run out under our apple tree. My 4 Isa Brown ladies (Fiona, Princess Penelope, Charlie and Nigella) look out over the vegie garden and are put out to free range when we can keep a watchful eye on them. We live in Southwest Victoria, near the coast and at the moment are in the midst of a wild winter. Our girls are held in the timber section of their house at night and I can access the eggs from the outside - you can possibly make out the little box on the left - it has a pull down hatch for ease of getting the eggs and cleaning. They have their roost in there and so far the cold hasn't stopped them laying 4 beautiful yellow eggs a day. I just love this addition to our simple life, I never dreamed it would be such a wonderful thing but couldn't imagine my life without chooks now. Being able to collect eggs everyday is such a treat I'm not tiring of. They also provide me with a laugh at their characteristics and antics. When the weather is better, I sit out with a cuppa and watch them - it's strangely quite soothing and peaceful.

http://agluttonouswife.blogspot.com.au/