First outing for my Christmas Fork

I used the Christmas Spade at the end of last week, today is the first time I have used the fork. 
I have one serious problem with both of them, they are beautifully made (just look at the wood work in the handle) and clean. Using them will make them dirty. I am sure its something I will be able to get over in time.
I was preparing the potato bed. Over time there has been a gradual change of use around the garden. The raised beds have now been given over to flowers and the Graveyard (named because it looked like the ones in every old western) will be shared between sweetcorn and sunflowers this year. The greenhouse end of the garden is now completely fenced in and is officially "the Allotment", exclusively for vegetables.
Potatoes take up a lot of room and need to be rotated to prevent disease etc. To accommodate this I am now using a patch of land behind the shed and the chicken orchard. This has be waste land, one end having the poo pile, the other has years of accumulated grass cuttings. It does not sound very promising but I manured it last autumn, turned it over today and started spreading straw on top. The straw comes from the hen tent so is a bit wet and has lots of little piles of "nutrients" in it.
It was not easy collecting the hay. Every time I uncovered the old layers four hens descended on me to investigate. I started by using a rake, moved on to getting on my knees and using my hands and finally just chatted to the ladies and ignored what I was supposed to be doing.
It had been a busy day so I enjoyed the conversation, I had not finished but there's always tomorrow