A Sunny Sunday in February

Saturday we had a light dusting of snow on the ground and saw flurries on and off throughout the day. We still ventured outside (although it was short-lived) so the boys could run and play a bit.

Today; however, was a beautiful slice of spring. Packed full of sunshine, birds chirping, and bees bumbling around. We spent as much time outside as possible. Enjoying the organic vitamin D and the chance to run free without fear of cold fingers or toes.

I even got some garden work in, some preliminary prep for cold crops (still months away from being planted). But in doing so, our chickens and guineas were encouraged to help with the ’till’ job.

That’s the beauty of working with the land and the animals. If you plan things well, the animals will do quite a bit of the work for you!

There were still some large piles of leaves in the garden beds from Bryce adding wood chips and organic material this fall. Instead of spending all day raking and spreading them by hand, a light ruffle with a rake, some food scraps tossed on top and the birds knew exactly what to do.

Scratching.

Pooping.

Sifting through and finding grubs and beetles hiding down below.

Allowing the chickens to do a lot of the work for us is definitely something I plan on implementing even more in the coming years. Instead of spending the day working hard on one job, I was able to play with the boys and prune apple trees with Stirling.

Working with the boys is such a sweet, tender experience. It always takes *at least* twice as long to complete a job than if I were working alone. But I don’t ever want to discourage his heart for service and his inquisitive mind.

He carried the bucket and collected the small branches (which we gave to the rabbits to gnaw on) and peppered me with questions about the trees, which brings and why I was pruning, and when they were going to be big enough for him to climb on?

BONUS! We found our favorite silkie hen, Penelope, finally started laying! Silkies are a bantam breed (think mini-chicken). Just look at her tiny egg!

(Two eggs on the left are our standard large eggs, the silkie egg on the right is easily half the size!)