Up at 4:00 with the latest round of thunderstorms.The cats are joining me for a glass of wine and blogging as we wait the passing of this round of weather..  Ruby dog is in for the night since she is growing more and more terrified of thunder as she ages. She and  I woke up about 3:00 with a pounding rain, and I with a wet dog nose to my cheek. As I laid in bed I heard a tiny bit of the distinct tick tick  tick of hail and gave up on sleep. Thank goodness it stopped and I am not out checking basil with a flash light in a panic. We have made it through the last two weeks of storms unscathed. So far not even a small tree down on the fences, or gully washers enough to take out the latest basil seedings. The fist light of morning will let me know if we have once again dodged a weather bullet. I will see what direction this latest has come from and check the fence lines.  I have several rows of  tiny basil seedling to check on.  I am sure my  nearly perfect stand of green manure crop  will be laying flat in the morning, but that is a very minor consolation for  thunder rain filled with nitrogen.
         Most of my neighbors got their first cutting of hay safely in the barns in the last two weeks of dry weather.  My winters hay is sitting high an dry in Dave Hahn's pole barn on hay racks awaiting delivery over here in the next week or so.
      I am of to work on the heal turn of a sock. The perfect thing to work as the last  claps of thunder pass overhead and I wait for quiet and a return to sleep.

Summer solstice is just a few days away, and I am not at all sure where the time has gone.  The weather has finally settled into summer. I am struggling to keep up with weeding, but all the amazing shades of  greens,  backed by perfect blue skies make almost every inch of the farm look wonderful.
 I spent the first weekend of June at the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival. Once again it was a fun weekend  with other fiber  folks. I entered Ebony's fleece in the fleece contest and was happy to get third place with lots of other nice colored fleeces in the running.  I took the two new blends I just had carded up and almost ran out of the Sparkling Sapphire but brought a few home to the store.  I  also brought home three very nice Blueface fleeces, and a  beautiful chocolate colored Cormo lamb.  He has adjusted very well becoming fast friends with Bonnie and Teddy. After several days of playing with names I think I have settled on Onyx.  I like they way Ony sounds in the list of  sheep and goats names when I am calling the flock up for their evening grain. grain.

It seems to be a good year for Poison Ivy, along with lots of other  nasty weeds. I have extra lavender oatmeal soap on hand  and  lots of friends keep telling me it is their favorite  helper in the annual battle with poison ivy. Speaking of summer battles, I was out early this morning fully dressed from head to toe  pulling wild Parsnip from  the road ditch . Tomorrow I start on the prairie. I carefully bag it up to move to the burn pile. I am posting a picture of it  to help people identify this nasty and dangerous  weed. This plant has juice that has a  photo synthetic reaction on skin. If you or your poor puppy dogs get the juice on you and then go out in the sun it raises huge painful welts that often leave scars. It is relatively easy to pull right now when it  is flowering. Be careful  keep all your skin covered and wear gloves. I take a shower as soon as I am done  pulling it just to be extra careful.  

  I  harvested and packaged lots of herbs for the co-op today and the whole house smells great.The thyme is showing is  tiny pink blossoms, and sage is the most beautiful green in it's burst  of new growth. This is the first day the dill has been big enough to harvest, and it looks like  the first basil harvest will be thursday.  Basil loves this hot humid weather. With a good watering once or twice a week it is  totally convinced it is living  in a tropical paradise. Let the sumer begin!