Muddy

The last couple of autumns/winters here have been relatively dry.  A bit of rain, but enough clear spells to keep the ground fairly dry for the most part.  So far this has been a wet month, more like what I've been used to.  There has been some bad flooding near us, but we are thankfully on the side of a hill and not very close to any rivers.

But the lawn is very sad right now, having been scalped by our numerous fowl it looks like small individual blades of (short) grass in a sea of mud.  I'm not letting those birds back on it for the foreseeable future.  People are not allowed to walk on it either:  we put down some boards from the patio to one of the chicken yard gates (the other gate has stepping stones already).

And the chicken yard is also sad now, with about a third of it just a mud bath--and let's be honest, most of that mud isn't actual mud:  we all know what it really is.  Three weeks ago we put down 3/4 of a straw bale which kept their feet clean-ish for two weeks.  They had to go an extra week on the not-mud while we searched for a new bale (our old feed shop has closed down), but we've got one and they have enjoyed tearing the it apart and spreading it around.  One chicken in particular needs straw as mud forms clumps on her feathery toes.

The husband went to do some more sheet mulching at the allotment and says he was just sinking in.  I definitely want soft soil there, but I don't want him bringing it all home on his boots!  Our plot is on a slight downward slope, but the ones across from us are lower and face a slope going back up, which means they're prone to standing water;  at least we're not that muddy (luckily they're not either right now).