Snow is a storybook that we write in with our feet

We have had snow on the ground for a couple of weeks now and it is a good time to see the natural traffic patterns in our yard.

I see deer and rabbit highways.

I see where I go, at least in the winter.

That is useful information from the standpoint of planning "zones" as defined by "permaculture".

Practitioners of permaculture suggest that it is rational to place enterprises that are high-maintenance and high-output close to the paths you walk daily. For example, you might put everbearing berry bushes long the path between your kitchen door and the mailbox or the hen-house. Gathering enough berries to dress up your breakfast or lunch does not require any additional steps and consequently are more likely to get picked than if your berry patch was a 100 yards away.

Gardens and chickens both thrive with daily attention so it makes sense to put them close together from the standpoint of labor. They offer symbiotic opportunities in terms of nutrient cycling, especially if you have a station for cleaning your vegetables next to the chicken run. Toss the "seconds" over the fence and "BOOM!", recycled with no composting required.

Everybody is going to do things a little bit differently because we start with different property. Some are loath to cut down mature trees. Others are ruthless.

Rough guidelines 

Zone 0: Inside of your house: Looms, spinning wheels, work benches, kitchen, pantry, herbs on window sill. 

Zone 1: Several times-a-day to daily visits: Inside the "yard". Porches, gazebo, kitchen/salad garden, everbearing berry bushes/trees, BBQ pit, swings, arbors, sandbox, flowers, barns, dog-kennel, hen-house, driveways, garages, water spigots

There will be blurring of zones. The milk cow is staked out in the pasture every day but the pear tree on the left side of the frame might only be harvested once a year.

Zone 2: Daily visits to 3X week: Garden with crops that require less care (potatoes, sweet corn, winter squash). Orchards. Pastures grazed by milk-animals.

Zone 3: 2X a week-to-every 10 days: Pasture grazed by meat animals, some kinds of orchards, intensive coppice.

Zone 4: Every 10 days to every 2 months: Hedgerows for seasonal fruit and mushrooms, a spot for fishing.

Zone 5: Less frequently than once very 2 months: Forest crops like poles, firewood, nuts. Places to trap. Marshland hay-field.

Another flexibility involves NEED. In times of famine you will be walking the pasture of your meat animals collecting dandelions, chicory, and other greens every few days to take pressure off of your garden. You will be bird-dogging the hedgerows to beat the birds and squirrels to the edibles. When you have high needs, what was Zone 2 is promoted to Zone 1-1/2 and Zone 3 is promoted to Zone 2.