Farmers often have their own unique way keeping track of major events on their farms, "the year the barn burned, the drought year, the year we lost the newly planted corn when we got the eight inches of rain." Patty Reedy, owner of the Rainbow Fleece Farm in the Town of New Glarus, has her own unique way of explaining the year she purchased her farm. "The day I moved in was March 4th of the year (1978) of the really big snow!"

And a big snow it was. In a recent interview marking her fortieth anniversary, she relates, "the snow was so deep that year the township had to use the big wing plow to get through the roads in the neighborhood. The snow banks on each side of the road were at least 10 feet high!" All one can say is, what a great opening scene it was for the young, single farmer.

Reedy purchased the 22-acre farm after having owned a tiny farmette in Pine Bluff, WI. A native of Buchannan County, Iowa, Reedy had graduated from college and came to UW-Madison to attend graduate school in fiber arts. During this time, she also served as the Dane County UW-Extension 4-H youth agent.

This move to New Glarus came because she wanted to get into sheep farming in a bigger scale that her small acreage in Pine Bluff provided. She needed enough room for her plans of a specialty sheep operation. To supplement the income needed to support the farm in the beginning she envisioned, she took a job as a milk tester for the Dairy Herd Improvement Assn., which she said gave her a good block of open time during the middle of each day.

As the farm became more successful, she was able to quit the full-time job to spend more time working with her growing sheep, wool and yarn business, supplementing her income with part-time jobs in the New Glarus area. During this time, she began focusing on selling breeding stock, consumer education and giving farm tours to small children from area schools and daycare facilities.

Today we think of the local foods movement as a 21st century phenomena, but Reedy was one of a sparse number of future-thinking farmers who saw the benefits of locally grown food, fully a generation ahead of the current local foods movement.

There is a nagging question as it pertains to the name, Rainbow Fleece Farm - how can it be called a rainbow fleece farm? Everyone knows that sheep come in only two colors, almost all are white sheep with a black sheep or two from time to time. But if you look at Reedy's flock of sheep you will see many variations of colors, ranging from pure white to coal black, and not a one of those colors are the colors of the rainbow.

Much of the wool her sheep produce is sold as fine knitting wool to artisans specializing in multicolored natural colors, none of which are found in the RoyGBiv (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet) color wheel we memorized in grade school.

In 1980, Reedy held her first Spring Shearing Day, at which she invited had spinners and the public to her farm to watch and take part in the annual spring shearing of the sheep. By this time, her reputation for raising excellent art wool, her annual shearing day brought out not only artisans looking for new varieties of wool, but also towns people hungry for a farm adventure for their children but also their parents.

During the first years, Reedy had to ship her wool to various carding mills to be processed into usable wool. In 1998 she and her husband, Andy Wersal, found a 1915 Shepherd and Miller carding mill at a Ripon, WI, mill that was going out of business. Andy suggested, "that's what we need," and they purchased the carding mill, which is now set up in their garage.

The couple had one funny incident while trailering the four-ton machine home to New Glarus. "We were just about to cross a bridge on our road and noticed the sign stating no vehicles over four tons. We hit the gas, and quickly made it across the bridge with no damage to the bridge or carding mill."

In addition to the sheep and wool business, the couple also has a large selection of ready to use yarns in various colors of the rainbow. In addition to pure wool carding, they often do mixed blends of select fibers of angora, rabbit and alpaca. Essentially, they can make almost any blend their customers are seeking. In addition to just wool products, the couple also sells frozen lamb, other produce, and many other associated sheep and wool products.

Like all farmers as they reach retirement age, Reedy and Wersal are giving serious thoughts to "how do we keep the farm going when we can no longer do the work?" To that end, they are looking at a couple of options. One option they're considering is scaling back some parts of the operation to make it easier to manage and keep the operation going, but at a slower pace.

The second option being considered involves working with a younger couple interested in taking over through a co-existence agreement. In this situation, the younger couple would live on the farm or perhaps build a second house on the farm and slowly work toward ownership. "Our goal is to pass the farm on to someone who will love the farm as we love it and continue to care for the land."

Each year the farm holds three public events: Spring Shearing Day, where customers can pick the fleece they want and watch it being shorn, shearing demonstrations, and a look at the young lambs frolicking in their section of the barn. Autumn Fiber Extravaganza, which stated in 1990, and the upcoming Cabin Fever Yarn on the Farm which will be held this coming weekend March 3-4, and again the following weekend Saturday and Sunday, 11:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

The farm is located at W7181 Hustad Valley Road, New Glarus. For further information, please call (608) 527-5311.