Archive for the ‘Fiber Projects’ Category

Contrasts and Similarities

Wednesday, September 28th, 2011

I am back at Whitefish Bay Farm. Very few probably knew that I was gone. There were some exceptions: a few neighbors who did not see me doing chores; the sheep who were totally dependent upon Gretchen for pasture and food in the barn; Pussa, who lacked a breakfast companion and a lap upon which to sit; and Gretchen who had to deliver me to the airport and subsequently fetch me there. For the rest who did not know of my absence, I was in Denmark. As has become my custom, I travel to Denmark every other year. The trip constitutes my major vacation and only significant time away from the farm. It is an opportunity to visit friends and adoptive family. It is also my only chance to listen to and speak Danish. In a sense, it is like going to language camp. During the first few days there, my ears are not well tuned to the language and my mind does not want to function, except in English, consciously translating individual words here and there. That is an especially frustrating time, knowing that much of the language is locked somewhere in my head but the keys have been misplaced. Before the end of the twelve days I know that I am again thinking “på dansk”, albeit in a much simpler mode than years gone by.

When I left the farm, conditions were extremely dry. Pastures were turning brown and our gardens cried out for more watering. With the exception of Pasture #3 the sheep had grazed every other pasture that we could get them to and none of those pastures had regrown at all. In short, we were rapidly running out of fresh green food for the sheep. We had six large square bales of hay left over from the previous year. I set up the bales so that the sheep could feed upon them three at a time. Past experience taught us that three bales would last from three to four days. Once all six bales were consumed the flock would begin rotating through Pasture #3. The responsibility for assessing hay supplies, moving fences and feeding the sheep at night were totally Gretchen’s.

beech-knuthedlund

The contrast in Denmark was startling. The country had already experienced the second wettest summer ever recorded and the rain was continuing into the fall and my vacation. The words wet, green and lush best described what I found there. If you wished to grow mushrooms or snails, conditions were ideal. If you wish to combine grain crops or mow grass, conditions were a quagmire.

mushroom-dollerup

As I tend to do, I kept my eyes open for flocks of sheep. What I saw was that life was often not very pleasant for lots of extremely wet sheep.

sheep-thorning

At least toward the end of my travels the sun decided to come out for a few days. It permitted me to spend a day hiking the caulk cliffs of Møns Klint and another full day looking at and learning about the beautiful ships at the Viking Ship Museum in Roskilde. Much of the rest of my time in Denmark was spent dressed in rain gear outside or in drier conditions indoors, primarily in museums. Early in the trip I was extremely pleased to discover that a very dear friend from many years past had an exhibition of natural dying of wool and silk using wild mushrooms (Svampfarvning) at the Silkeborg Museum. The colors she achieves are breathtaking. If you happen to be in Silkeborg now and into early October, it is exciting to experience Kirsten Kielmann’s exhibit.

kirsten-yarn-1

Kirsten's mushroom dyed yarn

kirsten-yarn-21

Scarves from Kirsten's mushroom dyed yarn

Communication has changed so dramatically since I lived in Denmark in 1965-66. At that time, it took ten days for a letter to get from Denmark to the US. Phone calls could only be made by scheduling them a day or two ahead of time. Now with a cellphone I am able to talk with Gretchen every day that I am in Denmark. It was because of that communication that I was pleased to learn that after I had been gone a week that it began to rain here at home. In eight days we received over 4 inches of much needed moisture! Before the rain began, Gretchen and a friend, Sandy, spent a couple of intense days dying lots of wool yarn. They lacked Kirsten’s mushrooms, but instead got wonderful results using amaranth, madder, marigold blossoms, indigo and birch bark.

Gretchen's natural dyed yarn

Gretchen's natural dyed yarn

I have been home now long enough that the effects of traveling for nearly 24 hours are finally wearing off. It is wonderful to see how green things have become here. The contrast with many of the trees that are already turning to their fall colors is dramatic. I already miss my family and friends in my adoptive home, but it is extremely good to be back to my real home with the flock, Pussa and especially Gretchen.

Frantically chasing windrows

Friday, August 26th, 2011

The “Ewe Turn” has been woefully neglected over the last few weeks. Most of the blame can be placed upon the weather, which for most of July and August had been excessively hot and humid. Only during the last week or so has the temperature moderated and the humidity receded. As a result it is possible to actually get a few jobs finished without getting totally fatigued in a couple of hours. The narrative that follows will, hopefully, fill in these gaping blanks of times.

It seems as if the summer was one continuous battle to cut and bale hay. In reality, it has been a long series of skirmishes frequently disrupted by excessive heat and/or largely false forecasts for rain. The usual scenario has been that attempts to cut hay were put off by threats of massive thunderstorms headed our way. If hay was successfully cut, the threats of rain only worsened the urgency to get the hay dried and baled. As the temperatures slowly but steadily increased, the threats of rain were replaced by oppressive combinations of heat and humidity. For a couple of weeks I finally gave up as it was health threatening to be trying to bale, load and unload 400 bales in a day or two. Over all we received less than .75″ of rain in August until we finally got a good soaker of .7″ early this week. The few small rains we did receive tended to wet the cut hay enough to require more drying efforts (and to reduce the hay’s feed value). To further our frustration some of the very hot days were also exceedingly windy. In those conditions, if the hay was raked into windrows, it would dry rapidly, but in doing so would blow all over the field. On two different occasions, I took the extreme solution of raking a single round with our small tractor and within minutes of finishing the single circumnavigation I would switch to the larger tractor already attached to the baler. Then it became a race to gobble up the windrow before it rolled across the field. From above it must have appeared as if the tractor was often out of control, haphazardly zigging left or right in pursuit of a living, and active windrow. It was ultimately a slower way of getting the hay baled, but at least I managed to get most of it corralled.

last-bales-2011

Finally, the last of the hay has been baled (luckily a day before the first heavy rain). Above is the last wagon of hay for 2011! The last wagons brought our total for the year to over 3000 bales (not counting hay also baled for friends). The 3000 bales have filled the barn and should see us in good stead through next winter. Our only current concern is that we will not get a timely follow up to the last rain.

2nd-crop-graze

The pastures have not grown back as I would like. The sheep will not have enough to graze through fall unless we receive more rain. Once we have grazed through all the pastures we will possibly be faced with having to dip into out winter baled hay to tide us through fall. As it stands the flock is currently grazing parts of our hay fields which were cut early enough to partially regenerate before it became dry. We usually do not put the sheep onto this part of our hay until mid-September. At least they seem content.

The heat also put a crimp on Gretchen’s summer dying projects. It was certainly not weather suitable for standing with your head over a steaming pot of hot water and yarn! Sales of our naturally dyed yarns have been robust this summer with the result that our inventory has been depleted. The cooler weather of the last week at least allowed Gretchen to get back to dying. Over the last couple of days she has replenished some of our indigo dyed stock. Besides the blues achieved with indigo she also over died some of the yellow yarn. The resulting greens have been especially vibrant. We were especially surprised by the intense green achieved by dying an otherwise dull yellow yarn which was the result of using birch tree leaves. It is the second green from the right.

birch-green

Hopefully life is returning to normal. We can turn our attention to more exciting and less frustrating endeavors.

Good and Bad

Tuesday, May 17th, 2011

To paraphrase from the famous line, yesterday was the best of times and the worst of times. We have gradually and finally emerged from the snow and cold. It has been warm enough to get the pastures growing, albeit slowly. The sheep seemingly can sense that it is time for them to be out on pasture and grazing. It has taken a while for me to get the pastures ready in terms of the fencing and watering systems. A couple of days ago I thought that the water lines were all set. I pressurized the entire line which runs, in total, at least a half a mile. Then I checked each connection for leaks and loose fittings from front to back pastures. Along the way I bled the air out of the lines and flushed any accumulated gunk. Pleased with the seeming lack of problems, I returned to the prime connection in the barn, only to find, to my chagrin, that the main line had sprung a leak and was trying to flood the barn. The leak was due to freezing of a section which did not get properly drained last winter. It took another day to replace the guilty section of pipe. The next day I got the electric fence tested, at least without the problems akin to the waterline. Yesterday was thus set for grazing.

may16pasture

After making sure that the flock all had a good breakfast of solid dry hay, we were set. (One has to be careful switching from a dry hay diet to a lush green wet one. The major danger can be bloating and changing the balance of good bacteria in the rumen.) For the first day, only the ewes with lambs and their lambs got to go out. It is always difficult to get the lambs to venture out the barn door for the first time. The moms are willing and eager. Unfortunately they cannot take their children and calmly lead them by the hand where they have never been before. For the most part that duty falls upon the two of us. The vast majority of the lambs on the first day have to be caught and carried over the threshold. Once outside everything is “just fine” except for an extra bit of baahing needed to reconnect with mom. After a few hours on pasture, which included lessons on the forces behind electric fences, the lambs were seasoned pros. By late afternoon they were grazing green grass just like the adult ewes. We will repeat the routing the next day, with (hopefully) less shepherding and more voluntary lamb exits from the barn. The following day the “retired” ewes will get to rejoin them; the next day the same will apply to the yearling ewes. Then all of the ewes will be back together for the first time since January. It will be a happy time for all…almost.

Wendolyn with her lambs, Ashley & Ainsley

Wendolyn with her lambs, Ashley & Ainsley

In the midst of the preparations for grazing we were faced with a sick ram lamb, Abdul. He is Serena’s single lamb who had become quiet friendly very early on. He was growing extremely well. A week ago he acted depressed and began to swell up in an unusual fashion. Our vets were called in and were as puzzled by his condition as we were. We tried a couple of treatments and after a few days he seemed to improve. The swelling went down but he then stopped eating. He died quietly overnight, before everyone was to go onto pasture. Serena was lying with him the next morning. The bond between a ewe and her lamb can be very strong. Such was the case with Serena and Abdul. Serena was upset that morning, but she exited the barn with the rest of the ewes and lambs. Once on pasture she continued to look and call for Abdul.

As I usually do, once we have all the lambs out for the first time, I sit down in the grass in the middle of the pasture just to watch the ewes and lambs. Usually the friendlier ewes will stop by for a brief visit, as will the curious lambs befuddled by a crazy shepherd sitting on his butt in the middle of the pasture. Finally, Serena came over to me and stopped calling for Abdul. We spent a long time together, sharing quiet hugs. I have felt it before, but I still am amazed by the compassion and love these creatures can feel for each other. I am even more moved how in times such as these they can share their grief with us. My heart is with you Serena on this sunny, green day which should have been so happy for you.

***

This coming weekend (May 21st and 22nd) is the Door County Shepherds’ Market. We hope that lots of folks take advantage of the experience, especially if they are interested in things that are fiber related. There will be lots to purchase from a number of Door County fiber producers: everything from raw fibers to yarn to finished products. Gretchen spent the better part of two weeks with a couple of friends dying lots of our yarn with natural dyes, all in preparation for the Market. As time allows I will spend time with another blog detailing the project. But just to tempt you, here are a series of images of some of the yarn just after it came out of the dye bath.

reds

These are reds, using Cochineal on both white and gray yarns. Next up are, among other colors, oranges and blues, using indigo and Cochineal as an overdye.

orgblues

Pussa, had to inspect each separate batch of yarn as it was hung out to dry. Here she is passing approval on a batch of greens, the result of overdying indigo on onion skins, tesu and chamomile

pussagreen

The sheep could care less about dying. Toodles is just pleased to be outside and grazing. We will leave her editorial comment up to reader speculation.

toodlesmay16

A Peaceful Transition

Friday, November 19th, 2010

It is now the week prior to Thanksgiving. Compared to this time last year everything has been going well. There has been at least one snafu during the last few weeks, but it was manageable and now has been resolved. (More about the snafu in a little while.)

A year ago Ulmer (the ram) managed to severely sprain my right ankle. The rehabilitation set up a backlog of many tasks for us, some of which we still have yet to completely resolve. Nevertheless, the ankle is almost healed. Whatever remains of the damage could, potentially, be repaired surgically. The extended downtime resulting from such surgery would be as long and as disruptive as the initial rehabilitation. With it would come no guarantee of success. So this old shepherd has opted to live with the slight residual discomfort. At least this year, Ulmer was a proper gentleman during breeding. The two of us got along just fine!

Mid October to mid November is the month in which our ewes are (hopefully) bred. This year we had 58 ewes with five separate rams. This number of ewes is slightly smaller than last year’s. We now have quite a contingent of ewes who have retired from breeding and who can concentrate solely upon producing wool and providing friendship.

We got through breeding with few problems. A new brand of marking crayon insisted upon falling out of the harnesses worn by a couple of the rams. This left us with a short period for each ram when we could not verify his performance.

One morning found Ukiah’s group split up between three pastures. Most of the ewes were where we had left them the previous night in Pasture #1. Ukiah, and three of his girls were in the next door Orchard Pasture, luckily across the temporary fence from Ulmer and his group. And one ewe, Whosits, had somehow ended up in Pasture #2, in with Stud Muffin, and his harem. No one seemed the worse for wear. We got Ukiah and all of his girls, minus Whosits, back together in #1. Whosits spent the remainder of breeding in with Stud Muffin. We can only speculate on the overnight cause of panic. Ukiah’s group was in the area of #1 which includes the apple trees. While there were few apples left, the deer still insist on visiting, in the hope of one more apple. One or more deer  jumping multiple fences into Ukiah’s pasture in the dark of night was the probable cause of the chaos.

All of us managed to survive a three day period of intensely strong winds. The storm was likened to the storm which sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald. Luckily for us no trees blew down in the pastures and no sheep blew away in a strong gust. (The storm was a few days prior to the scattering of Ukiah’s group, so we cannot blame it for the re-shuffling of sheep.) Our few hours without power were manageable and were not nearly as long as some outages in northeast Wisconsin.

All in all, breeding went well. Toward the end, the weather calmed a bit. For many days, when the skies permitted, we have been treated to spectacular sunsets. This image is of Ulmer’s group on one of their last nights out. (By the way, the green eye reflection indicates the lack of Moorit genetics. That is Ulmer, with the white nose spot, looking straight on.)

sunset-2

Each day from November 6th onward, we brought a breeding group back into the barn. Once there, the marking harness was taken off the ram. He had his hooves trimmed and was perhaps fitted with a larger jacket. The ram was then reunited with his buddies. (A week or so of semi-violent re-acquainting followed.) The incoming ewes also had their hooves trimmed and jackets replaced where necessary. By noon on November 10th everyone was back in the barn.

Part of the time when the rams were out with the ewes, Gretchen was off attending SOAR (the Spin-Off Autumn Retreat). She came home re-energized with all sorts of spinning ideas. She was especially inspired by her class on natural dyeing with Demetrio Bautista Lazo. One of the things the class inspired her to do was to assemble and standardize all of her samples from her natural dyeing projects from the last few years. Below is a photo of the collection. The image does not do justice to the colors, yet it is exciting to see the assembled colors (most of which were derived from plants, either wild or cultivated from Whitefish Bay Farm). Job well done, Gretchen!

dye-sample

Turning the Corner into Autumn

Saturday, October 9th, 2010

It hardly seems that over a month has passed since we witnessed the great Monarch butterfly spectacle. Within a week of the peak of their assembly, they had virtually disappeared, aided, I am sure, by more northerly winds and spurred on by falling temperatures. Since their departure we have experienced a continuation of the unusually heavy and steady flow of rain across Wisconsin. The first week of October brought especially heavy amounts of moisture. Luckily we were spared the serious flooding that much of the central and western portions of the state experienced. Interestingly, I am still seeing a few Monarchs every day, nearly always heading south. I suspect they are the late hatched brood, many of whom were mere caterpillars when the big exodus occurred five weeks ago.

Early morning grazing

Early morning grazing

The rain has kept the pastures green. It has been a phenomenal year to be a grazier. We finally gave up trying to cut and bale hay. This was in part due to the fact that the barn was nearly full, and partly due to the fact that with shortening hours of day light and continued downpours of rain, it was evermore difficult to get the hay to dry sufficiently to be able to bale it. However, the sheep took over for us. Since the second full week of September they have been grazing what is normally our hay field. They have made a dent in the excess amount of hay, but they will never finish the entire field. As it is, they (and they shepherd) now have an extremely long hike to make it out to pasture every morning. In two more days they will be on the northern edge of the field, just across the road from our neighbor, Pat. That distance will just about exhaust our supply of portable electric fence and posts. In addition it will be at the very edge of our permanent water supply which, even with extra hoses, is a long way to pump drinking water for them.

The rams are ready!

The rams are ready!

Aside from all the physical limitations, the calendar is also catching up with the flock. Next week the younger ewes will get divided into smaller groups and will get to meet and spend the early fall with the ram of their dreams. Breeding season is nearly upon us. The rams are definitely ready as is evident both from their behavior and their smell. Exciting times are soon to be upon all of us!

Despite the advance of the fall season, we have yet to experience a truly hard frost. We had one night in early October in which the vegetable garden was effectively “put to bed” for the season. We did have a hint that frost was to come, so that the last of the tomatoes, peppers, melons and squash were harvested the afternoon before. The annual flowers that are out in the open have also been frosted out, but nearly everything growing near the buildings has, to date, been spared. marigolds-1Besides harvesting the vegetables, we also picked nearly all the marigold blossoms and sorted them into three different shades. The dye pot and dyer have since been busy. The result has been a growing collection of lovely shades of dark to light yellow skeins of yarn. It is also artichoke season; every meal of artichokes also produces enough dye stuff for a skein of light green yarn.

logan-crk-1

Gnome canopies

Thanks to the nearly constant high levels of moisture it has also been a season of tremendous numbers of wild mushrooms. A few days ago we took time off to walk through the Logan Creek Sanctuary (which is just a mile or so away). The volume of mushrooms was only made insignificant by their diversity. It was literally impossible to take a few steps before coming across another variety more beautiful or bizarre than the next. After an hour in the woods we began to expect a group of gnomes to appear amongst the fungi.

Gnome territory

Gnome territory

Sadly, they remained too allusive for us to see. We need to consult with the sheep since we know they have regular contact with the gnomes. Perhaps next trip into the woods….

Gnomes in hiding

Gnomes in hiding

Sloggin’ through the Summer

Sunday, August 8th, 2010

It seems that some folks are wondering if we are still here. Rest assured, we are still alive and kicking, albeit with a little more sweat on our brows than normal! It has been an “interesting” summer to say the least. A spring that threatened to be extra dry has transformed into a wet and warm summer. Rain has been a regular occurrence throughout June and July. With it has been a steady stream of warmer than usual temperatures. At least the sunflowers seem happy!

sunflower-1From a farming standpoint, the warmth and moisture has presented us with the ultimate challenge of trying to cut and bale quality hay for the sheep for this winter. We have only miss-guessed once and had  newly cut hay heavily rained on. Luckily it was not too much hay. Nonetheless it baled into about 65 bales of nutritionless bedding instead of lush, green hay. We usually need three straight days of dry weather to get the hay cut, cured and baled (although we have managed a few successful two day “windows”). Our greatest problem has been getting Mother Nature to allow us those three straight days with any frequency. We have been cautious and have not had the cut hay rained on too much, but our caution has slowed the entire process down excessively. Some of our caution has also been based upon the fields often being too wet to support our tractors and equipment without leaving significant ruts across the field.

The sheep have had their own challenges with the hay. Their problem has been having too much to eat. The pastures that they grazed just a few days previously begin to regenerate rapidly. As a result, by the time they return to the same pasture it is once again deep, green and lush. This picture perhaps summarizes our “plight”.grazing-augThe sheep are belly-deep in lush green pasture while just beyond the fence are some of our hay wagons partially full of hay in the main hay field with yet more hay to be cut.

The wet conditions have at least allowed us some time to wander at bit. The water in this picture is not one of the larger puddles in one of the hay fields. It is, however, quite close to us, just down the road a mile or two. It is Lake Michigan, along one of the rockier portions of the shoreline in Whitefish Dunes State Park, our next door neighbor.whitefish-dunesInland in the woods, just a few feet from the shoreline is further testimony to how damp it has been. Everywhere seems to be mushroom heaven.mushrooms-augIf we cannot be outside working at least there things to be done with wool. Gretchen’s naturally hand-dyed yarn does eventually find its way into finished products. The warp of the nearly complete shawl is a mix of natural white and gray yarn dyed with mullein leaves, buckthorn berries, and eucalyptus leaves. The weft is undyed white. Of course, it is a given that all the yarn is made from the wool of our sheep.

weaving-shawlWe continue to slog onward. Perhaps when I get around to returning to the Ewe Turn we may even be done with haying!

Rams and Ewes, oh my!

Saturday, October 17th, 2009

It has been three weeks since my return from Denmark. Since Nanoo Nanoo has stolen my thunder and already touched on what she thinks I think were the highlights of that journey, I will not try to elaborate further. I will only add that it is always special to be able to be with my Danish family and my  Danish friends. Jeg vil gerne sige rigtig mange tak til Axel og Kirsten, Jens og Kirsten, og Søren og Pige for de hyggeligste besøg. Det var dejligt at igen bor hos jer Susanne og Per, Dorte og Nils. Finally thanks to all the Danes who make my adopted “home” such a special place. Tak allesammen!

last-day-in-3

The final day in pasture #3

As was expected my return home to Whitefish Bay Farm did not allow for much time to catch my breath. A day after I got back the last of this years lambs went to market. We are now down to our “winter” population: this year it is 129. Immediately after selling the lambs we had to begin preparing the pastures for the fall breeding groups. While I worked on the other pastures the entire ewe flock was together for one last period of six days in pasture #3. At least they were spared having to be out there during the heavy rains of the previous two days. They had beautiful fall weather to be together as a group. The ash, birch and maple were starting to show nice fall colors and there was still plenty of grazing left in #3.

As September and October tend to be one of the most attractive times of the year to visit Door County due to the fall colors, we also have been exceedingly busy in the Art Gallery and B&B. Gretchen especially has spent hours in the Gallery. Yarn and finished fiber products have sold especially well this year, for which we are always glad. The pace has, however, been frantic at times. It will be very nice to finally close the Gallery for the season in a couple of days. Gretchen finished up spinning fleeces from Nutbread and Ruby while she manned the Gallery. cosmos-1In addition we continued with our dye project with the cosmos flowers from the garden. It is truly amazing the lovely yellow color they produce considering the intense red and violet shades of their flowers.

The results from all three projects are pictured here: Nutbread’s yarn on the left, the Cosmos dyed yarn in the middle and Ruby’s yarn on the right. fall-yarn

In the midst of all the other activity, we devoted an entire day (as we always do in October) to sorting the ewes into breeding groups and getting them together with a ram, each in their own separate pasture. This year we decided to cut back on our breeding numbers. There are 63 ewes currently with 4 rams (that is a drop of over 20 ewes from last year). While we plan to retain about the same size adult flock next year there will be more ewes who are “retired” and whose sole major job will be the production of wool. We are scaling back significantly our emphasis on selling breeding stock. As of October 13th Rhett, Ulmer, Stud Muffin and Vermicelli have their own pool of ewes. So far breeding appears to be going well. With less than a week gone over 50% of the ewes have already been well marked, despite often miserable rainy, cold weather.

This year we also decided to try to keep the breeding groups as close to home as possible. It is the only time of the year when the sheep (at least the breeding flock) does not come into the barn at night. It is physically impossible for us to keep all of the groups separate and also bring them inside each evening. Throughout much of the summer and into fall we have had what sounds like a pretty good size pack of coyotes in the neighborhood. Their howling has been rather intense most nights. While we have yet to experience any loses to coyotes we do not wish to loose any sheep to them. Hence, our breeding groups are all as close to home as possible. They are hopefully protected by as many layers of electric fence as we can possibly set up for them. We will not be really comfortable until everyone returns home in a little less than 4 weeks.

In order to not end on such an ominous note we would like to present the following view of the farm as the fall colors began to appear. fall-20091

Heading into fall

Monday, September 14th, 2009

The seasons are definitely beginning to show signs of changing at Whitefish Bay Farm. There are touches of reds and yellows already appearing in the sugar maples. After bountiful and very timely rains in August, September has remained sunny every day, save for dense ground fog nearly every evening and into early morning.

sept-graze

The August rains did give our hay fields and pastures a good kick in the pants. They put on a phenomenal spurt of growth which was very welcome. Earlier we were concerned that we would not have enough hay for the sheep to make it through the winter. Suddenly we were able to cut and bale hay that a month earlier was non-existent. Between what we baled ourselves and what we were able to purchase from neighboring friends and diary farmers we are now comfortable for the rest of the year with the barn nearly full.

The hay crew and the last 98 bales in 2009

The hay crew and the last 98 bales of 2009

Our poor vegetable garden has become totally confused this summer. Much of our crops have struggled to reach maturity. All our tomatoes are still generally green. Melons and onions are as they would be expected in early July. This spring we planted an entire package of cosmos seeds in a corner of the garden. (They were one of the “free” packages that we received with one of our seed orders). cosmos-1Our intention was that we would harvest the blossoms for use in our dye pot. Initially they refused to germinate. Once they finally did sprout all they produced was a solid, tall wall of foliage. The late summer rains have now done the trick. The vegetable garden is now at least a visual treat. The cosmos seem to be blooming faster than we can pick and freeze them. In the future we will report on their dying project.

cosmos-2

The Art Gallery is now in its final exhibit of the season. As part of the International Year of Natural Fibers, we are featuring the work of all of our current fiber artists, plus additional work from fiber artists who have exhibited with us in the past. Besides some lovely finished pieces, we have a wonderful selection of yarns, both hand spun and mill spun. Serendipitously, the fall issue of Door County Living Magazine has featured the Gallery with a wonderful article and photos. The magazine is available free through out the county. We wish to thank Madeline, Paige and Dan for the wonderful job they did. The article will presumably also appear online when the winter issue is published.

Lest it seem that we never get away from the farm (after all there is little reason to leave), we did spend a lovely, sunny afternoon hiking with old friends at Whitefish Dunes State Park. A lovelier day could not be asked for!

Whitefish Dunes State Park

Whitefish Dunes State Park

Sensommer

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

The Scandinavians have a term that describes the transitional period from late summer just before the arrival of fall. In Danish it is “sensommer”. Like so many words in different languages a literal translation does not always capture the true feeling of the word. Thus it is that “sensommer” conveys something more than merely “late summer”. Quite often it seems to be a time of year that we only briefly experience in the upper Midwest. This year seems different. At the moment we are in a period which more closely resembles the Scandinavia season. Days are cooler than normal and alternately blessed with sun or rain. Nights are cool, but not uncomfortably so. Fall is not here yet, but one senses that it could either arrive soon or dally around a long while before making an appearance. In many ways I truly sense that we are experiencing sensommer.

Buckthorn

Buckthorn

Gretchen has been busy with the dye pot of late, taking advantage of some of the late summer flowers, berries and mushrooms. As I write, the first batch of yarn has just been removed from a dye-bath of Buckthorn berries. Buckthorn is an alien, invasive scrub which grows to tree size. Its presence is not appreciated and we make a concerted effort to limit its spread. But we can have the best of both worlds: use the berries as much as possible and still try to eradicate the plants. Having said this, I must point out that its berries make a wonderful dye. The resulting color is usually a deep avocado green, which is extremely surprising when the berries appear quite purple at picking.

3 ecalytus dyes

Three dye baths of eucalyptus

On the future dying agenda is a large mushroom which rapidly appeared in the front lawn after our first heavy rains of the summer. Dye color is unknown; it may be a total waste. The wild Goldenrod is starting to bloom in full force. It is always dependable for a good dying session or two. We are also in the midst of dying with leaves from a couple of species of eucalyptus tree. No, we are not able to grow eucalyptus in our climate. However, one of our good wool customers from California provided us with a collection of dried leaves from two different types of trees. Since the leaves are dried, we have been able to dye with them whenever the time was suitable. So far they have yielded three different shades of orange, the last batch being the most intense.

cardinal-24Of late we have been able to visually experience “reds” that one can never expect to reproduce with a natural dye. As I was attempting to bale hay between rain storms last week I noticed what appeared from a distance to be a red survey stake in the 20+ acres of woods just west of our large hay field. I thought it strange that someone would be placing a stake in the woods because: 1) it is our land and no one had contacted me about it, and 2) the woods is a wetland, primarily an semi-open ash and cedar swamp much of the year. I promised that once the hay was baled I would return to investigate this intrusion into our domain. When I returned I discovered cardinal-26that the “marking stake” was actually one of many Cardinal-Flowers (Lobelai cardinalis) in bloom. For our area it is a relatively rare flower which blooms in late summer usually along the edge of dry seasonal creeks, one of which borders our woods. I am used to seeing their blooms along the creek, but this was the first time I have seem them in the middle of our woods. Once I slogged my way deeper into the woods I discovered that the flowers appeared to be everywhere where the deepest pool of water stood in early spring. If there ever was a sign of Sensommer, this was it!

As if wanting to add to the late season color festival, the Monarch butterflies are on the move. It seems that it has been a good year for Monarch, based at least upon our casual observation. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for most of our usual species of butterfly. Their absence has been significant this summer. The last Monarch generation of the year is now emerging and intent upon stocking up on energy as they begin their flights to Mexico. The Purple Coneflowers in our garden have been a special favorite for them this year. Here’s wishing this fellow and the rest of his tribe a safe journey to the south. monarch-1

June routines

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

It is now the middle of June and we finally seem to have passed the threshold into more summer-like weather. Our apple trees are dropping their blossom petals after retaining them for a wonderfully long period. It has been an extended and beautiful show for them. Everything benefited last weekend from a couple of days of steady and significant rain fall. The vegetable garden is almost completely planted. Until this week the soil temperatures have been too cool for the squash, cucumbers and melons. The cool hardy seedings have finally begun to germinate. The peas, at least, have loved the cool weather. For the peas we are now into the defensive mode of warding off the marauding deer. Electric fencing is up and the motion sensitive sprinkler is aimed at the peas area. Now all I need to do is avoid getting sprayed by inadvertently walking in front of it.

Yes, there is the more sinister aspect of the little spotted guy of the previous post. If he or she makes it to adulthood, it will mean just one more mouth in an excessively large population of deer to over-browse the native trees and flowers, not to mention the plants that we try to grow. I have nearly stepped on a fawn a couple of times since my first sighting. It is impossible to tell if it is the same one. If it is, mom is moving the fawn all over our pastures. It has become much more mobile and more inclined to flee when I accidentally stumble upon it. The next big deer challenge will be to avoid any and all fawns in our hayfield as I start cutting hay in the coming weeks. Avoiding the turkey nests in the middle of the hay will be next to impossible.

Kassia and friends in clover

Kassia and friends in clover

The sheep are now grazing in the pasture we have named “The Orchard” (the site of our cherry trees of some years past). Hopefully they are all quite happy there. It is high ground for our farm, which means that it tends to catch any breezes that blow and make it a bit more tolerable in terms of both temperature and biting insects. Last spring we “renovated” the forage in “The Orchard” and the results this year are staggering. The renovation consisted of broadcast seeding two types of clover in the pasture just ahead of the sheep. As they grazed it was hoped that their hooves would help pack the clover seeds into the ground where, with a bit of rain, they would germinate. Last fall it was evident that the seeding had taken. This spring the growth of clover is tremendous and lush.

Clover: tomorrow's on right, yesterday's on left

Clover: tomorrow's on left, yesterday's on right

It is also easy to see where I did not quite overlap with passes of the spreader, i.e. narrow strips of grass without any legumes. The clover provides excellent grazing and nutrition for the sheep and also is an excellent natural source of nitrogen fertilizer for the soil. It is too bad that they will just about finish grazing the area when the clover was just about to be in full bloom. The smells would have been sweet!

Sadie

Sadie

The Gallery has now been open for about three weeks. Currently it is featuring photography from Tom Bast and Gale Wandke, plus the accumulation of the last year’s handweavings by some fellow the sheep (and others) refer to as that grumpy old bearded shepherd guy. The Gallery is open from noon till 5PM every day except Tuesdays.

Opening the Gallery for first day of the season

Opening the Gallery for first day of the season

Gretchen has been busy with a bunch of natural dyeing  projects. Earlier this month we picked a couple of buckets of Dandelion blossom for dyeing. The most recent project used the leaves from Common Mullein.

Mullein growing in #4

Mullein growing in #4

It is an alien weed with large, flannel textured leaves. Later in the year it will produce tall yellow spikes of flowers. It seems to like thin, poor quality soils, which means that it thrives in the eastern edge of our #4 pasture. For whatever reason it is one of the plants that the sheep refuse to graze. So rather than just pulling up the offending plants and casting them on a compost heap we cooked down some of the leaves into a dye solution. They yielded a number of lovely shades of yellows and browns.

4 Mullien dyed skeins on left, 2 Dandelion on right

4 Mullein dyed skeins on left, 2 Dandelion on right

Eventually the resulting dyed wool and yarn will work their way into our spinning, knitting or weaving projects. If you visit the Gallery, you may see the big, red crock-pot bubbling away on the back porch. It is getting a good workout. Just ask to see “what’s cooking”; it can be quite interesting.