My mother gives me gifts of
bagged autumn leaves, which she captures from the curb in her city on
trash day.  This winter, I’ve set most of them aside for adding,
one at a time, to the chicken coop to keep the deep bedding
fresh and manure-free on the surface.  When I headed out last week
to put in a new bag, our flock was ready to help.



All I have to do is
empty the leaves into a big pile in the middle of the coop and the
chickens go into a scratching frenzy.  I assume there are a few
seeds and bugs hidden deep in
the leaf pile, or at least the birds think there’s something in
there.  Soon, the leaves are nicely scattered throughout the whole
coop.  Good job, girls and boy!  I wish all of my farm chores
were that easy.

Over
on our homesteading blog, I explained how I’ve been
using the speed of snow melt to pick out the sunniest part of the
winter yard. 
The spot pictured here may look pretty wintry, but keep in mind that
our entire farm was under a coat of snow for the month of December and,
when the picture was taken, I couldn’t see bare soil anywhere
else.  This patch of sun is where I plan to build our next chicken
pasture, which will double as a chicken moat to keep deer out of our
garden. 



Winter is one of the
best times to understand patterns in your garden or on your farm. 
I highly recommend that you head out with a camera and map to document
your own sunny spots.  There’s no need to wait for a snow
(although the results are more dramatic that way) — even a light
frost is enough to show you which parts of your yard melt first.