Spring is moving right along. We had two very cold nights this weekend. I dug out lots of buckets and flower pots to cover the tomatoes and eggplants. Cold still nipped three of the eggplants and I don't think they will make it. I just hope this is the last of this wild weather.
        I have been spending all the cold nippy days in the dye studio working on blends for the Iowa Sheep and wool Festival.  I  have washed and dyed over 20 pounds of fleeces  in the past few weeks. I am  getting ready to send new blue and green blends of to the carder. On May 4th Greg and Gabriel   helped blend a 14 pound blue blend. Next saturday we will be working on the green blend. This blend is almost all merino and Blueface fleeces with silk and alpaca tossed in for extra soft fiber.
     All the early crops are in, the leeks are growing bigger every day in the cool weather. I can even see their  blue green  leaves standing tall and straight  in-between  the golden  mounds of straw mulch. This should be a  big crop of leeks so watch for  leeks in the store when the cool weather comes next fall just in time for soup.  The green manure crop  planted in the west garden is coming up and looks great I can't wait to see the field peas in bloom as they climb the long stems on the buckwheat.
         I have two sets of chicks this spring. A dozen new Australorp  chicks are just beginning to venture out to the real world in their  safe  pen. These girls will be laying eggs for us starting next fall. Australorps are such a nice breed of chicken. They are calm  and lay nice big eggs, they forage well and  can be very good mothers if I want to give them the chance. The second batch of  chicks this year are Freedom Rangers. This is a wonderful cross between a cornish rock and a red French heritage breed. They are out in the brooder house by the store and will be roaming around when they get a bit bigger. I will have a few dressed birds for  sale  in August.
Time to sign off and go do evening chores.