Out of the Smoke

Thick smoke from the wildfires in Canada coated the state last Tuesday and Wednesday, stressing both animals and humans. Trucks ahead of me disappeared into a yellow haze as I drove to the farm.

The haze drifted into Thursday, and then came storms beyond powerful. Eighty-mile-per-hour winds socked the trees, and hail clacked against the windows. There was almost no warning of the system—a ledge of clouds lined with green sky appeared and then pounded Earth with fury.

Western Indiana lost power, telephone poles crumbling under the weight of hundred-year-old trees, electric wires across the road, all of the routes to the farm from our house impassable.

But the downed trees were quickly cut by travelers with chainsaws, opening the roads for Friday. More rain poured Friday and Saturday night, a blessing for the Christmas trees, and in between, the sun shone.

The sky visible and the air clear, this lone Black-eyed Susan in the Hillside Pasture shone with its own golden glow.

Thanks for Reading!

And I hope you feel refreshed and rejuvenated for the week ahead with this moment preserved in picture and prose. Consider:

• What’s your silver lining to a cloud that’s been lingering this week?

Share your answer and this newsletter with a friend.

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This Week on the Farm

We have new residents!

We decided to switch our focus with goats from horned Alpines to hornless pygmy goats. The doe in the picture above is expecting kids soon! The group is currently in quarantine before joining the sheep and llamas, and they’ve already been hard at work chewing on thistles and broadleaf plants.

Farm Shop

As we wrote about a couple of weeks ago, we opened a new Etsy shop, featuring quality fleeces for your next project!

And in this new section of Sylvan Sundays, we’ll share more about our farm’s bounty.

This week’s featured item is Dandelion’s lamb fleece (can you sense a yellow theme in this edition?). Click the picture below to view more details.