Pinwheel Farm

Foraging friends: Rain (finally) is bringing out mushrooms. Some logs are available for purchase, or just pick em. Turkey tail and wood ears love this weather!

Local folks: LOTS of fresh colorful eggs available at my farm, or at Cottin's Hardware Indoor Farmers Market tomorrow from 4-6, or at the Downtown Lawrence Farmers Market Saturday rain or shine. PM to make appointment or reserve or arrange home delivery. Farm is right on City Limits in North Lawrence.

Plan now to be a Priority Customer for winter!

New batch of lamb and young mutton also available. SALE on old stock soup bones! It's broth season!

Weather trick-or-treat: Monday: Near-record high. Tuesday: 60 mph wind; still extra hot for October. Wednesday: big rain (hoping!) then down to near frost Thursday morning.

October is fire prevention month. Smoke detectors are essential! Even hard wired ones often have batteries.

Checking mine, I realized some units are expired. There's a date on the back; look for it.

They want special batteries, not just any 9 volt. What kind? It's embossed in microscopic letters in the battery compartment. I used a highlighter and phone camera to be able to read it. Then will write in big letters with permanent marker for next time.

PERFECT yarn chicken score! Exactly the right amount to comfortably weave ends!

Pinwheel Improved Half-Mitten, knit in natural colored handspun from Pinwheel Farm sheep, using Magic Loop method, working from both ends of the yarn ball.

Stranded design made up as I knit. Any name suggestions?

This is WHY I work from both ends.

For a few minutes this evening, the light was spectacular. These trees aren't actually turning yellow yet...just the setting sun.

Rain is moving off, it's lovely at Market now! Come see us!

Very, very happy tonight!

No matter how much crap there is on social media tonight, a truly amazing thing happened out on the farm this evening! I found a bucket-list plant that I thought I would never see anywhere...let alone on my sheep pasture.

Lady's Tresses is a native orchid! It's just a few inches high...a leaf or two...among the tangled grape vines and Golden Plume grass (formerly known as Indian Grass) that are invading my most heavily grazed pasture. It's kind of a miracle that I even noticed the tiny thing.

I was setting up a sheep fence, so I looked to be sure there wasn't any on the side to be grazed. Sure enough, 3 more! I didn't hesitate to walk hundreds of feet back to the golf cart to get the string trimmer, to cut a new fence path around the patch.

How came it to be here? This field was in continuous crop cultivation for probably a century or more prior to me transitioning it to organically managed sheep pasture. The dust-like seeds must have blown in on the wind, or been carried on a bird's feet that perched in the small elm above them.

So special!

What next?????

This tree back by the barn...the "dessert-quality special you-gotta-taste-this-one"...was just doing its normal tree thing hovering above the lane gate at 6:30 this evening. When I got back at 9ish and walked out to finish chores, a huge branch was down, blocking the gate.

I reorganized a bunch of fences to run the sheep in on it overnight. Will be much easier to cut up after they gleefully desolate it, and so healthy for them!!!

It's Saturday morning! Farmers Market is on my mind!

Come on down while it's still cool and cloudy! There's plenty of sunshine in natural dyed silk scarves, scrunchies, and wool products.

Gorgeous morning! Come on down to the Lawrence Farmers Market!

I did a dye day yesterday, so there's fresh silk scarves in abundance. AND new natural dyed silk product--hair scrunchies!