The last three years I went on a hike on my birthday. Dan, my brother (Dave), and I went to Mt. Diablo in 2025. It was also Dan and Dave for Lynch Canyon in 2024. Matt and I hiked in El Dorado NF in 2023. I wanted to go somewhere this year too. Dan’s feet are bothering him, so he begged off the hike and spent his time on the tractor doing work that needs to be done before the forecast El Niño.
Dave suggested Lagoon Valley and the surrounding open space, because we would not have to spend much time driving and he is very familiar with the trails. I had never explored those trails although we pass Lagoon Valley anytime we drive on I-80 west of Vacaville.
It is hard to see. but there are cell towers on three of those hills. We walked to two of them, but first we headed towards the lake.
On the way there is a grave surrounded by a crumbling stone wall. There is a sign with QR code that links to a video in which the speaker explains that there are other burials in the area but they are not publicly recognized to avoid vandalism. This marker was broken and parts removed, but now is surrounded by concrete to preserve what is left.
A view of Lagoon Valley Reservoir.
We walked around the lake first to see how many birds we could identify.
Great EgretGreat Blue Heron
Then we headed for the hills.
View looking back down on the lake. The white line below the hills on the right is I-80.
This is the next tower we visited. The point of the hike is, of course, not visiting cell towers, but to get to the top of the hill.
This is the view from that high point. That’s the State Prison in the foreground.
Heading back down the trail we had views of the new housing developments that are filling the valley. The map in the first photo shows private land south of the reservoir. It was open space until just a couple of years ago and is being destroyed (developed) quickly. That’s discouraging, but we can still enjoy the remaining land.
Thanks for the hike, Dave, and for the lunch that followed.
Saturday I wrote a post about Hug a Sheep Day and left a teaser at the end. This is Part 2. The group of friends who were still here in the middle of the afternoon after we put the sheep away were sitting outside and spinning or knitting. I told the story of my Squirrelinator purchase. The Squirrelinator is a ground squirrel trap that I saw in use at a recent event I attended.
Let me back up and tell you that ground squirrels are a serious problem here. They have built underground cities and have moved enough dirt out of their tunnels to make huge piles in the corners and along the walls inside the barn. Those tunnels are under the concrete floors which makes me wonder when the floors are going to collapse. They have made tunnels in the drain field of the engineered septic system for the second house on the property. The drain field is a newer version of an old leach field and is a long mound with layers of sand, gravel, stones, and pipe. At one point we found that they had dug into the layer of stones and had pulled dozens of 3″ stones out of the tunnels.
So, when I saw the Squirrelinator and heard success stories I ordered one. I put the trap on that septic mound and sprinkled some grain in the trap. It took about three days before I caught my first squirrel. I was surprised that the trap was moved about three feet from where I placed it, but didn’t think much more about it. A few days later I walked back to where it was and I couldn’t find it. Keep in mind that this is a wire cage about two feet square by 4″ high. How can a two foot square cage disappear? I searched all around the area. There are thick tangled black berries on the west, fences on the west, south, and north, and a structure on the east. Tangled tree branches reach the ground on the north. There are old trailers, and old tractor, broken pallets, piles of wire, and all the STUFF that accumulates on a farm because you never know when you’ll need something.
The group of Farm Club members were intrigued and decided that they would find the Squirrelinator. I was dubious, because I couldn’t imagine how an animal (coyote or dog?) could have moved it so far, and I had searched all over and at the edge of the neighbor’r orchard to the north. This photo shows the west end of the septic drain field. There are squirrel holes under the blackberries and at times when I walk past this to get to the irrigation valves further west I have counted 10 squirrels running to their holes.
Katie stomped through the blackberries and found the Squirrelinator!
I went to the barn for clippers to cut away the blackberries and a rake to clear the path. It was under the branches where you see a hole in this photo.
I thought that we should have a photo mimicking those you see of hunters with their prey.
The garbage can lid became a tray for the owl pellets we had found on our quest.
Have you ever picked apart an owl pellet to find out what’s inside? Most of you probably know about owl pellets. A google search tells me: “Owl pellets are compact, tightly bound masses of indigestible animal parts—such as fur, bones, teeth, and feathers—that owls cough up or regurgitate.”
We found some tools with points (forceps and scissors) to start poking and pulling the pellets apart.
Doris found a picture of squirrel anatomy so we could identify the bones we found.
Each pellet had at least one skull and several hip bones, among dozens of others.
Here is a collection of what we found. The plastic skeleton is one that Rachel brought to celebrate the day.
Rachel decided that the bones should have a place in her flask and then be a fixture in the Weaving House.
After evening chores I set the trap up again, but this time chained it to a fence so it couldn’t disappear.
The group of us shared a lot of texts that evening and, after Rachel found a reference to CSI-SVU (Special Squirrel Unit), Amy got creative with this AI-generated description. Maybe the squirrel shouldn’t look quite so happy.
It’s a good thing I added a chain to the trap. This is how I found it this morning. Next I want to set up a trail camera to find out what’s going on after dark.
Yes, Hug a Sheep Day is a thing, celebrated on the last Saturday of October, which just happens to be Halloween this year. Days of the Year says: “The day has a heartwarming origin, starting as a tribute to a beloved sheep named Punkin, the first sheep owned by the “Crazy Sheep Lady of Equinox Farms.”Punkin’s friendship with her humans sparked a tradition to honor and spread love to all sheep, wild and domestic.”
Here is Amy with Jade, our most huggable sheep. She doesn’t need to be bribed with food to enjoy hugs.
Katy, also with Jade. We started with five sheep in the pen. Sparky is our next most huggable sheep, but she got bored and started to beat up the others when she wasn’t getting attention. She had to go back to the barn.
Rachel brought her Halloween spirit (and treats) and spent time on her card weaving project. She is wearing a beautiful v-shawl that she just finished.
Dan even made a brief appearance. Notice the hat.
This is me with Corri 3, one of the Corriedale sheep I got last fall.
Here is a peek at her fleece!
People who came today are mostly Farm Club members, but there were a couple from one of the fiber guilds I invited. It was cool in the morning, but the sun showed through the clouds and it warmed up nicely. It was a great day to sit outside and visit with our fiber friends.
This is the group of us before some people had to leave.
I just looked back at my website blog (that I don’t keep up with very much) and here is a fun post from 2020 about hugging sheep and not just on Hug a Sheep Day.
There is more, but I don’t want to add too many photos here. Stay tuned for Hug A Sheep Day, Part 2. Here’s a teaser.
We were invited by my son to visit his current workplace, the Placerville Airport. That is where the helicopter and pilot Matt works with are stationed right now, although that changes every few weeks or as fire activity changes. I wanted to describe his job and when I looked up HELCO I found Hawaiian Electric. When I added fire to the search words I read that HELCO “has frequently been associated with utility-related power line and transformer fires”. You never know what you might learn when you read my blog posts!
I finally found what I was really looking for: Matt is the Helicopter Coordinator (HLCO) who “coordinates helicopter mission(s) and incident airspace, manages incident air traffic, and is the link between ground personnel and incident aircraft. The HLCO is an airborne firefighter who coordinates, assigns, and evaluates the use of aerial resources in support of incident objectives.” In other words he is air traffic control over fires.
This is the helicopter Matt has been in lately. The dogs aren’t part of the crew, but they were extra visitors on this day. Ralston lives with Matt and Kaleena and is a qualified First Responder Therapy Dog. He has his own Instagram account @ralston.furriestresponder .
This is what Matt’s office looks like. He monitors six radio frequencies at a time as well as several different layers of maps on a screen. On this day he demonstrated the IR sensor that is used to find hot spots when in the air. On the ground we identified that the hottest spots on the dogs were their noses and mouths.
We walked across the airport to see the Sky Crane.
This is a huge helicopter. Notice the people in the foreground and fuel truck in the background for scale.
Looking up Sky Crane: “a twin-engine, heavy-lift helicopter famous for its distinctive, skeleton-like frame instead of a traditional enclosed cargo cabin…Built around a narrow central backbone for maximum strength and minimal weight.” Where ever this helicopter is stationed, the fuel truck and the maintenance trailer and truck (in the photo above this one) go with it. Three mechanics are part of the staff and one accompanies the two pilots on each flight. The water tank can carry 3000 gallons (I think).
Sign on the door of the service trailer.
A close-up view. I don’t know what to call any of this, but I was fascinated by how complicated it all is…and this is just one small part of the whole system.
We were invited inside.
There are seats for two pilots in the front and a third seat that faces backwards with a clear view of the ground to watch as while lifting or placing cargo.
Besides all the controls in front of the seats, look at what is above! Can you imagine learning to use all of this?
A family photo.
This has nothing to do with HLCO, but Matt and Kaleena took us to lunch at Tommy’s Brown Bag in Placerville. Described on-line as a “quirky sandwich shop” and a “creative sandwich shop serving unique flavor combinations and generous portions”, both of those descriptions are correct. We each ordered a sandwich and traded halves. Mine is on the left. Guess the ingredients! See below:
PB&J&B&TP&CTC&HB!!!
PB&J
Peanut Butter
Strawberry Jelly
BACON
Toffee Peanuts
Cinnamon Toast Crunch
HONEY BUN!!!
on TEXAS TOAST BRIOCHE
Believe it or not, this was a fabulous sandwich. I would order it again, except that I think I should try some of the other quirky choices!
Foxy’s Fall Century is my annual bike ride. I say this with equal parts of sarcasm and regret. Years ago I rode regularly or at least enough to consider myself a recreational cyclist and to maintain a level of fitness that comes from cycling.
Dan and I bought a tandem when we were first married forty years ago, and we rode it in several (or a few?) Double Century rides. Now it’s the annual Foxy’s when we ride it. We always get remarks that are similar to what I would expect if I still had my gold ’67 Camero with the black stripe across the front. Here’s a photo from 1973.
Dan got the tandem out a couple of days before the ride and pumped up the tires. A couple hours later one of the tubes exploded he bought new heavy duty tubes. We took the bike out on our training ride the afternoon before the ride. The goal was to make sure the gears and the brakes were all working. Everything seemed fine. We got to within about 20 feet of our driveway and one of the tubes went flat. It turns out that the valve stem was faulty. So Dan replaced that tire and the other one as well.
Chris got here from Boise on Friday night because he was going to ride with us. Dan and Chris went out in the morning to load the bike. The white truck wouldn’t start. This was the same truck on which we had just replaced the radiator because it failed not far from home. At least we’re lucky these episodes aren’t happening far out on the road. They loaded everything into the green truck–the one that had failed us big time on the road a couple of years ago and now won’t make another road trip, at least not with me in it.
That truck made it to Davis safely and we checked in. This is the map of the metric century since we’re not doing the full century and the climbing it involves. For perspective our farm is right about where the “D” in Seventh-Day is in this map. That’s why it was easy for Chris to leave the course and go home for forgotten water bottles, meeting us as we got to the rest stop.
Leaving Davis with the sun low in the sky. Since this is a tandem I can take a few photos along the way.
This is not my normal view because I’m really looking right at Dan’s back and can see off to the side. The phone could see this view if I held it up.
Here’s the view behind me.
Dan told Chris that if he wanted didn’t want to be bored while we took so much time getting up the hill on Gibson Canyon he could go ahead to find Cantelow Road, turn off the course and ride to the top to get a good hill work-out. He went ahead and met up with us later at Rest Stop #2.
Rest Stop with 20 miles to go back to Davis.
Riding through the orchards east of Winters. This is the view I’d see if I could make my eyes go wide-angle.
This is Stevenson Bridge, locally known as the Graffiti Bridge, connecting Yolo and Solano Counties over Putah Creek. It is over 100 years old, had been closed since May for retrofitting, and just reopened a week ago. The Solano County website reports, “The bridge is a rare example of a reinforced concrete through tied arch in California and is the oldest bridge of this type in California and possibly the United States. Often referred to as “Graffiti Bridge,” it is also the only bridge of its type that will remain from its era.”
The bridge connects popular cycling routes west of Davis. After crossing the bridge we were only eight miles from Davis where we had lunch and then came home
We are so glad that Chris made the trek from Boise to share this event with us!
I have skipped over so many ideas I have had for blog posts, but was out of time. So this is a random glimpse of some of them.
Lambtown was a week and a half ago now and it took me several days to get the shop organized again. I went into deep-cleaning mode and now everything is as organized as I can get it. For those of you who are local, the shop is open during Spinners Day Out (usually first Friday, but check the website) or if you call/text me and I’m here!
Last Thursday and Friday we irrigated. The irrigation season is over as of this week, meaning that there will be no more water available from the irrigation district. This was the smoothest irrigation yet this season because we finally figured out the best combination of amount of water (2 acre-feet) and time (noon to noon). The goal is to have enough water, but not so much that it stands on the field too long or we pay for so much water running off the field. And it’s easier to plan around the timing of mid-day turn-on/turn-off and I can do nighttime irrigation of 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Speaking of the pasture, thankfully the mosquitoes are gone now but there were periods of time this summer, including a week ago, where they were awful. This is my mosquito garb, trying to be as completely covered as possible.
I ungloved long enough to take this photo. Later I marked all the mosquitoes in the photo.
Back to Lambtown. I was finally able to access the photos and videos that were taken during the Lambtown sheep show and I listened to the judging. Thanks, Doris! Farm Club members showed the sheep while I was in the vendor hall. There was one other Jacob breeder with two ewes and a farm showing Karakuls. Sparky still wants her turn to say something so there will be another post at some point.
Last weekend I taught Learn to Weave. Here we have two new weavers!
Breeding season is going on behind the scenes. After Lambtown I ended up with one ram lamb that needed a companion. I sent three ewes his way and they were all bred within two weeks. These marks are so extreme, as were marks on some of the other ewes, that I decided to not change the markers as they wear out. I don’t want to see the wool looking like this.
A friend was using this ram lamb, Gus, to breed some of her ewes. When she wanted to bring him back I needed to figure out where he would go. So I pulled the other two lambs from their ewes to put them all back into one area and not have to deal with reintroduction more than once.
The lamb on the left is Farley who was with those heavily marked ewes. You can still see some blue on his legs. The other is Helix who was at Lambtown. Now all are together, but I’ll still have to deal with the big rams when breeding season is really over.
You were warned by the title of this post that these are random photos.
I am writing this post just to be complete with the Lambtown story. I need to include my booth if for no other reason for my own record.
The booth looks a bit cluttered. That may be an understatement. That’s because I have so much STUFF. The right side was all farm produced items, starting with handwoven pieces on a rack you can’t see in this photo. Then there were horn buttons and shawl pins, locally produced yarn from my own sheep and Timm Ranch, including natural dyed yarn. I included farm photos and notecards on the table. In the corner there are skulls on top and dye plant packets on the bottom. Sheepskins are on the other half of the table and Jacob fiber is on the center back wall. Notice that there is a big obstruction. I have had this space for a couple of years now and I have learned how to work around that big wood support beam
Notice also the number of people in a small booth. It was that way most of the weekend. The left half of the booth has Schacht and Ashford weaving equipment and commercial yarns that I carry.
By the end of the first day I had sold all but one of the skulls in the corner, so I filled in the space with some of the bandanas I had dyed. Most were hanging on the backside of the booth. Because I’m at the end of the row of booths, I have some flexibility about what can hang outside the back wall.
While I was talking to handing sales and talking to people all day, the Farm Club crew was showing sheep. I think Sparky may have something to say about that but she has to wait her turn at the computer!
Here is what my shop looked like when I got about half way through organizing everything. That was yesterday and tonight it still looks like that.
Lambtown is the largest Sheep and Wool event in California and it is only ten minutes away from here. Lucky me!
Lambtown is open to everyone on the weekend. Before Lambtown officially starts there are full day classes on Thursday and Friday. I taught on Thursday because I spent all day Friday setting up my vendor booth and bringing sheep to the fairgrounds.
These are five of the nine students in my Clasped Warp and Clasped Weft class. They learned to dress the loom with clasped warp and spent the afternoon weaving a variety of ideas using the clasped weft technique.
The only time I have to see the Lambtown vendors and sheep is before the festival opens in the morning. On Saturday I parked near the vendor hall and walked to the barn to feed my sheep that we delivered the previous evening. This is a sheep who lives at the fairgrounds permanently.
This sheep came just for the weekend.
There are numerous events going on through the weekend.
We brought sheep to the barn Friday evening. Farm Club members set up the display early Saturday morning. They also showed the sheep on Sunday because I was in my vendor booth. There will be another blog post when I get photos.
There are a variety of breeds represented. The show for meat breeds was on Saturday and for wool breeds on Sunday. These sheep have Jacob markings on the face (sort of) but are Kerry Hill, a breed I had never seen.
The Dorper is a hair sheep.
Shetland sheep and California Reds shared a pen.
I did not have time to walk around the whole barn. From knowing some of the people showing I think there were a lot Corriedales and Merinos represented, but I don’t know which other breeds.
I had to get back to the vendor hall and was able to visit this booth in the barn only while they were still setting up. This is the tannery that is tanning all my lambskins now. Now that Lambtown is over I will list more on the website soon (I hope).
There is plenty of shopping in the Vendor Barn and two buildings. There was plenty of dyed fiber to spin or felt.
And of course there is plenty of wool yarn.
I will share photos of my booth in another post, but for now I’ll show that shoppers come in all shapes. (This is my booth, but you can’t see much.)
Cosmos flowers are gorgeous and the cosmos dye is one of the most reliable and easy-to-use natural dyes I have found.
I have grown cosmos in my dye garden for at least three years. I don’t plant them now. They are already growing by springtime, and at that point there are so many that I need to thin them aggressively.
I pick off the flowers every three days or so to keep them flowering. I use some myself and I dry the rest to package for sale.
I wanted to do as valid a test as I could for this year’s cosmos collection. The three pots have two skeins each–Brown Sheep Co. Nature Spun wool yarn and Timm Ranch wool yarn. Nature Spun is U.S. grown and spun and Timm Ranch is even more local, five miles away.
These are the yarns in no particular order after hanging them to dry.
I’m glad that I kept such good track of the yarns and the process because I was surprised by what I found. Each pair of yarns in this photo were in the same dye pot. The darker yarns are Nature Spun and the lighter yarns are Timm Ranch. They all had the exact same treatment. In fact I had tied each pair of skeins so they stayed together through the whole process including the final rinse.
Every time I picked flowers I weighed them fresh and dried. I used all those values to calculate the ratio of dry to fresh flowers and found that dried flowers are 18% of the weight of fresh flowers. If I want to use 100% WOG (weight of goods) I would use 10.2 grams dried flowers for a two ounce skein. To dye with 75% WOG, use 7.65 grams, and to dye with 50% WOG, use 5.1 grams dried flowers. I wound 210 yards from cones for each skein, based on the yards/pound of Nature Spun yarn. The actual weight of each Timm Ranch (TR) skein was 2.3 ounces for 210 yards. I used the actual weight to calculate the amount of flowers for each pot.
Here they are grouped by type of yarn. I can’t see a difference between the 100% WOG and 75% WOG dye pots. The third skein of each group (50% WOG) is somewhat lighter, but not by much. That dye pot had little color left in it at the end. It looked as though there was still dye in the 100% WOG pot and after I finished rinsing these six skeins I added a four ounce skein that was already mordanted.
That four ounce skein is the one at the top right in this photo.
For more fun with cosmos try shifting parts of the skein with a dip in base or acid. This was a previous batch that I dyed. These are all TR yarn and the skein on the left is right from the dye pot. The middle two were dipped in a dilute lemon juice solution and the two on the right were dipped in a solution with the addition of washing soda. Yay!!!
The previous batch of cosmos dye flowers are sold out. I will have the new ones at Lambtown and on the website sometime next week.
It’s been over two months since the last newsletter (through the website, not this blog) and I have too many items to share in the newsletter I need to write. I think it makes more sense to write a blog post and link to that. It’s important for me to get a newsletter out before Lambtown in Dixon which is a week away. Besides there are other things I want to share here.
Last Saturday was Open Farm Days in Pleasants Valley, just north of Vacaville. Seven farms were open and some hosted other vendors. I was at Brazelton Ranch.
I will have all these things and more at Lambtown. I have twenty new sheepskins back from the tannery. I will have the 2026 roving after I pick it up from the mill next week. I also plan to package up more dye flowers.
I will have handwoven blankets, towels, shawls, and scarves with me.
I have been dyeing and I’ll have those yarns and more at Lambtown. This will be the last of the 2025 Timm Ranch yarn and caps and I’m not sure when the 2026 yarn will be finished.
Speaking of Timm Ranch yarn, a visitor came to the farm and bought yarn a few days before this event. She came to this farm on Saturday and showed me the headband she had knitted. Isn’t it beautiful?
Speaking of headbands–that could be to keep your ears warm or to hold your hair in place. That makes me think of these horn rings I make from the Jacob horns. I label them as shawl pins, but maybe if I had long hair one of these would work for that too. I will have a whole new batch for Lambtown.
Other horn products are the buttons and skulls.
Here is a new product. I have been dyeing bandanas and will have about forty with me. What fun! They are listed on the website. I should do a blog post of all the ways a bandana could be useful in your life.
This space was near mine. There were eight painting students. They started with a lesson in preparing the background on the canvas and were guided through the color of the sky before I took this photo.
I got a kick out of looking over occasionally and seeing mountains…and then later, trees. It turns out that the teacher is a Bob Ross, Inc certified instructor who lives just up the road and leads painting parties and gives lessons. I remember Boss Ross from the PBS show, but had no idea that there was a business based around his work. The students all walked away with a finished painting that afternoon, and a t-shirt.
I thought I’d throw in this photo. It reminds me of what I say in weaving classes. Anytime you use a new yarn or draft it’s an experiment, even though you may not think the accidents are always happy, at least at the time.
Back home that evening, with Jade who wanted a selfie.
