Schmidt Farm

02/23/2025

I spent most of the day giving Rigby his spring haircut. He looks a little ridiculous with his legs shaved so short, but we have to be prepared for mud season!

02/20/2025

It's been all about owls for me lately, but .... L❤️❤️K at these adorable jackets I "fun-a-fied" with leather!I'm so excited about how they turned out. I only use my own designs and develop each pattern to be unique and one of a kind! Luckily, I don't make them in my own size or I would probably keep them all 🤣

02/18/2025

-18 on the thermometer this morning. All of the littles were out of their shelter and strategically positioned warming up in the morning sun. Snickers was supervising from across the gate. Tinker and Luna had to run up to me to give me a closer look at their icy eyelashes. (Pic in comments)

02/08/2025

Natural dyeing results from this group are in! Sage has a beautiful gold tone, curly dock and hollyhock have a similar earthy tone, sumac gave the deepest color. Each started as a white skein of yarn and mordanted with alum. Happy to get color from each one, now will need to test color fastness.

02/07/2025

Nature, science, art and farming all rolled up together today. I'm doing natural wool dyeing experiments with plant matter from our farm that I saved (dried or froze) last year. I'm using a 48 hour process so the wool will come out of the dye pots on Saturday. 😊 Stay tuned!

02/06/2025

I've been working on unique and one of a kind creations for the International Owl Festival coming up in March. Here I've upcycled some leather jackets by sewing leather owls on the backs. I've also made some fun leather owl themed bags and, after taking a recovery break, I'll be getting some owls needle felted with my wool. We are fortunate to have the International Owl Center in SE MN and I'm looking forward to being a part of the 2025 festival March 8-9.

02/05/2025

Farm Connections, a MN PBS show, came to our farm a couple of weeks ago and interviewed Paul & Devan about our farm. I (Karen) wasn't available that day but I think Paul & Devan both did a great job. The segment was planned to be 12 minutes long but it ended up being the whole 30 minute show, so plan ahead for the commitment to watch the whole show. 😊

In this episode, we travel to the Schmidt family farm outside of Preston to discuss developing different revenue streams and adjusting expectations while rai...

02/02/2025

When you ask a farmer if they are enjoying the unusually warm weather, we will definitely say yes, but not probably for the reasons that you expect. A few days strung together above freezing means some things have thawed enough that we can get in and do some deep cleaning. Today, Chuck the giant rabbit and the other Schmidt Farm bunbuns got to enjoy exceptionally clean cages. PS Chuck says Hi!

01/28/2025

My coddiwompling weaving adventure has landed this floor loom on Schmidt Farm. It's about 5' square so takes up a fair amount of space. It's specifically made to make woven rugs. (The Ashford loom I've been experimenting with "can" make rugs, but it's definitely not made for it and would damage it if I really put it to work. I plan to use that loom to weave shawls from my llama fiber.) This floor loom will need a few boards replaced by my maintenance department 😉 but it was originally hand made so it can be done without having to find original replacement parts. All things have a season here and my weaving season (January) is coming to a close. I look forward to weaving next January on this one. Next up for February: experimenting with natural dyeing wool ☺️

01/20/2025

And done! This is my first rug off of the Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom. I used a variety of my Icelandic hand spun yarns so it is a "sampler" that I can reference for future projects. It's a very rewarding feeling to get it finished. Hopefully I'll be able to have a few ready to sell later this year at the Rochester Farmers Markets.

01/15/2025

My coddiwompling has led me here, thus far. I'm experimenting on this Ashford Rigid Heddle Loom with my hand spun wool yarn. It's an enjoyable process and I feel like the time investment in this weaving method yields a rewarding result. I'm excited to finish this one and see what it looks like off the loom. 😁 My goal is to create a "functional" product out of my Icelandic wool for my customers.

01/10/2025

I picked up this very old braided wool rug for cheap. I had a backup plan if I determined that I could not repair it for indoor use. Today, I put that backup plan in place. It will now be a smother w**d barrier for next year's native garden! And it looks cool. 😁

01/03/2025

A vital step in making hand spun yarn is soaking the freshly spun skein of yarn. I soak for a few hours in a hot water bath, then gently squeeze out the water and "snap" the skein to help reshape it. This step helps relax the energy (see the tiny twists), sets the correct twist, removes stubborn bits of hay and gives you what is now what you recognize as a finished skein of yarn. This is a single ply 100% alpaca/llama blend of all of my beautiful animals.

12/30/2024

My next upcoming event will be the Annual International Owl Festival in Houston, MN in March. While I'm experimenting with making tapestries from my hand spun wool yarn, I'm going to keep an owl theme. hoot hoot!!! And as a side note, we regularly see the large Barred Owls on our farm. Recently, we have also been treated with seeing a pair of Small Eared Owls near our native prairie!
https://www.festivalofowls.com/

12/27/2024

"coddiwomple"
(kod'ə wom pəl) (v.) To travel purposefully toward an as-yet-unknown destination.
It seems I'm CODDIWOMPLING into a new fiber art! And this is why I love winter 😊

12/24/2024

Merry Christmas and welcome to spinning season!