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!

          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.

Spring is finally here at the farm. It has been a long time coming.We have be inundated with cold and  rain for  weeks and so many of us had not had a chance to till earlier. The green house is full of early spring plants that have had nowhere to go until I get a chance to till the ground. The frog leg shallots have been sorted and waiting for a  spot to go in.  I am heading out after late lunch to start the tiller  and see how the soil looks. We have a good strong west wind today  that is just what we need  The leeks in the picture  are so tall I  might be able to sink them in 4 inches when I plant  in the next few days.
     Thank God I have had fiber work that needed tending to keep me busy as I have waited for winter to give up it's fight and the ground to dry out. I attended the Iowa Federation Of Spinners and Weavers last Saturday near the Quad Cities. It was a very beautiful day with lots of spinners and weavers taking home  big bags of Fae Ridge Fiber. I have already begun two new blends and spent several wintery days in the studio washing fleeces and dyeing. Now that the weather has turned I sheared last spring lambs, Ebony, Milo and Trudy. I have their fleeces  on the skirting table just to admire them.  I love the tiny locks of these Blueface fleeces. They look so beautiful I can hardly
wait till next weeks "Processing a fleece class" when we will work our way through at least a couple of the spring fleeces. I am very happy with my hay feeders and how clean  the fleeces look.I had better sign off and go start the tiller.

The studio  filling up with screens of fresh fleeces, and indigo seedling sprouting  under the grow lights are inspiring  me to get out the calendar and start planning classes for the year.  I have  had several folks ask for a needle felting class.  In this class students learn all the basics of creating 3 dimensional creatures. Many or you see my woolie babies every year at New Pioneer co-op around Easter but I am posting a picture of some out at the store.
     I am planning to run this class on Sunday May19th. This class will be taught in the studio at my home. It will run from 10:00AM to 3:00 PM This class will be limited to 8 students. All of  the materials will be provided  and students will take home everything they need to keep making these fun creatures at home.  Class fee is $50:00
   

I am also planning a processing a fleece class for Sunday May 5th.  This class will be limited to 6 students and will  begin at 10:00Am and run through 4:00AM or 5:00PM. Class fee is $50.00.         This class will be taught in my in home studio space. This class guides student through the complicated world of choosing a fleece, and is designed to help build confidence to through every step of how to take a fleece from the sheep to spinning. Students are welcome to bring fleeces they have on hand.

This is always a fun class  and each student will take home a nice collection of ready to spin rolags in a wild variety of color.

I am also  posting my annual natural dye retreat  for August 24th and 25th. This two day retreat fills up fast as we immerse ourselves in a world of natural dyes.  Students stay at the farm  eating the bounty of the farms summer gardens.This retreat runs from 10:00 AM Saturday to 5:00 PM Sunday, and is limited to 8 participants. Room and board are included in the class fee of  $275.  We will  harvest plants from the farm dye gardens for most of our dyes. We will create  Echo Steam Prints and Happa Zomi  from the farms gardens. These are  two unique method of natural dye surface design.   

 All classes are filled on a first come first served basis. A 50% deposit is due upon class registration to hold your spot in these classes.  If you have any questions about any classes or would like to register for any classes please contact Janette at 319-643-5873 or at faeridgefarm@lcom.net  

I just got back from my annual visit to see the sandhill cranes  in Nebraska. The weather was very cold but the cranes  danced on  in all their splendor.  We cut wood for my friend and eat lots of amazing food.It was great to spend a few days with old friends under a sky of singing cranes
           It has been a super busy week here at the farm since I got back. Spring barn cleaning and shearing have begun. Wednesday I  got the barn lot all cleaned and swept then set up the shearing stand and sheared Hatti and Beatrix.  Spring fleeces are never as nice as those stunning fall fleeces but some of these are turning out very nice.
        A volunteer from kirkwood was out yesterday and together we cleaned most of the main goat barn. We hauled load after load to the compost pile. While I sheared one of the goats she topped the compost pile with wet hay the flock had spilled on the ground.
       I got back the new blend from the carder. It is stunning. I was so nervous about this one not at all sure it would turn out as I had planned but it did!  Here are a couple of shots I took. It looks a bit more orange in the picture. In real life it does look like a garden blooming in pinks and yellows.

       Last Sunday's natural dye class was great. Five students and we went covered over 15 different dyes. It was a busy day covering this many dyes in one day. Several people brought small skeins from home and  took home a rainbow of mini skeins.
       I spent yesterday cleaning up the studio. I pulled the overnight indigo samples out and they are darker than I think I have ever seen. I dug out a nice pile of  un-dyed skeins I have had around for a bit. I am going to use up there wonderful leftover dyes and have some natural dyed skeins out at the store. I combined our left over pots of Rabbit Brush, Marigold, and Osage Orange. I have two skeins in that pot simmering as I write this.  I can't wait to see how they turn out.  I  have two more skeins in the avocado pot and a couple in the walnut.

I am posting some picks of our samples. The top one is all the fun colors I got from Avocado skins. The center shows some of the amazing blue/turquoise from red cabbage, as well as osage orange and cochineal.The bottom one  shows  the red onion greens that are always one of my favorites.