Hey, fellow URWers.
This looks kind of funky, because I pasted together several screenshots, but you can see I'm almost ready for winter.

On the north side is my cottage, with the fireplace in the center to maximize smoked meat placement ;p.
On the south side is my animal pen, and you'll notice that the pen is made of pits and also that access to my cottage is blocked by pits. This is a reflex from earlier versions of URW, where deadly enemies had a tendancy to pop up a lot.
The building to the south is my smokehouse. Those pits to the north of it have sharpened stakes - when it comes time to slaughter an animal, I leash it and bring it over here, then let it go and cover the traps. Easy meat, and a handy cellar right there.
II'd like to see some pics of your homesteads - everyone has a different way of playing the game.