It May Look Pointless, But I Have My Reasons

Cabin fever makes you do strange things. Today, I shoveled a ten feet square patch of three feet deep snow off of my garden (that's 300 cubic feet of snow! Go me!) I didn't even get down to the leaf mulch layer, but I did make a level area that the chickens can stand on. 

Why, you ask, would I shovel off a section of the garden when there's no chance of growing any vegetables any time soon? I have my reasons:

Reason 1:

The kids and I had just finished reading through our lesson on Napoleon's campaign into Moscow when we heard a crazy cackling right outside the kitchen wall. When we looked out the door, we saw Buxtehude, one of my daughter's guinea hens, sitting in the only patch of grass in the whole yard - right in front of the dryer vent. The other guinea and the majority of the chicken flock were exploring the trails around the yard (my son had run the snowblower around the lawn to make paths for his airsoft wars). The poultry clearly needed somewhere to congregate that wouldn't be in everyone's way (and likely get them shot!)

Reason 2:

I always save our kitchen scraps for the hens, but the only spot other than the paths where I could put them out was right in front of the coop. This means that the hens all hang out in that one spot, leaving their messy (but fertile!) manure there. It would be much better to have that manure, and the compost from any of the scraps they didn't eat, in the garden.

Reason 3:

I need exercise. Cabin fever is definitely setting in. Plus it's a beautiful sunny day, and the thermometer reads 22 degrees (heat wave!), so I need to get outside (instead of staying in and munching on another bag of trail mix . . .)

Reason 4:

Remember that feed pan I mentioned in my seed starting post? It's still out there in the garden somewhere - I should really try to find that . . .

So I grabbed my shovel and went to work. I got my heart rate up, I made a space for the chickens to congregate to eat the kitchen scraps (and fertilize the garden while they're at it) - but I didn't find the pan (oh well; ya win some, ya lose some). It really wasn't something that desperately needed doing, but it was a good excuse to get outside and get some exercise on a sunny day!

And look how happy my chickens are: