Author Archives: Robin

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About Robin

Owner of Meridian Jacobs, farm and fiber shop. I raise Jacob sheep, teach fiber arts classes, weave handwovens for sale, and manage the store.

View from my desk on New Year’s Day

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I should modify the title of this post. This is the view to my left and behind me. The view to the right is SOMEBODY sitting in the recliner with a cat on his lap waiting for football.

This morning our non-landscaped front yard seems like a wildlife sanctuary. I’m taking photos from the comfort of my house through the windows. Those are female pheasants.

We support the fattest quail!

And behind me:

I didn’t see the whole Rose Bowl Parade, but these were my favorite entries of what I did see. That’s a Brahma-cross steer he’s riding. The rider looks like a kid on that big guy.

This was such a beautiful float honoring wild horses.

Amazing.

My new toys

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Look at what I got for Christmas!

I don’t have a movie collection like my kids all do, but this is one that I wanted. Its a documentary of the sheepherding in the Montana mountains.

Wow! My son gave me the docking station for my ipod (which he gave me earlier in the year). He had let me use his in the shop when I wanted Christmas music for my Holiday Open House. I thought it was a long-term loan, but then he wanted it back. I guess he felt guilty so he bought me my own.

I asked Santa for this one and my husband followed through. Now I’ll be able to include videos as well as still photos…after I figure out editing.  I spent all day working with the new software that I uploaded for this. I actually really like it because there are features that Picassa doesn’t have, or at least I hadn’t figured out.

My daughter-in-law made this calendar with lots of family photos, including photos of people (and our dogs) on their birthday squares. It is really great!

I gave this to my husband, but I think it was for me. We finally finished our back-porch/mudroom/entryway remodel. It started when we talked to Mike Carson, the blacksmith who demonstrates at the CA State Fair as well as others. In fact, last summer his blacksmith shop was right near the Nursery at the fair and I talked with him when I went to check on my sheep and goat. I have always admired his work but don’t need fireplace tools, not having a fireplace, and can use only so many key-chains, etc.  I have bought some of his gadgets with horse heads, but this year he had a ram head on something. We got talking about doing some custom work and I said that I’d get back to him. Some time after the fair my husband started the remodel project. I have had all my food in laundry baskets all over the kitchen floor ever since because the new entry way was the old pantry. The end was in sight (with Christmas as the deadline) and I called Mike to see about getting this coat rack made in time for Christmas. I sent him photos of sheep and Mike delivered it to me at the Artery when I worked on Christmas Eve Day. Isn’t it fabulous?

These are all sheep from photos that I sent.

Here is the rack in use with hooks to spare, although since then I’ve added my headlamp, gloves, and hat to this. But there is still room!

 

Christmas photos

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I had this idea to take photos of a sheep and my dog with a Santa hat. The sheep were in the pasture yesterday, but I thought we’d try the dog since Jackie was willing to help. It’s not that easy to get a good photo.

Rusty is  not looking very enthusiastic.

Ok. Now he’s obsessed with shadows on the ground. Let’s try again.

In the meantime, Jacki’s dog, Mobi,  cooperated a little better.

Rusty, Take 3. At least he doesn’t look too unhappy when he’s watching shadows.

This is the best we could do for that day. Maybe I’ll try a sheep.

 

Holiday Open House

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Does it bother you when people call an event the  “First Annual…”? Well, we had such a good time today, that I can say that we had our First Annual Holiday Open House. We WILL do it again. Two friends joined me with their wares. Jackie’s business is Jack’s Wool/Isabelle’s Items.

This is one of Jackie’s signature paw-print felted bowls and a felted sheep.

How about a felted hot-pad?

or felted ornaments?

Diane’s family are commercial bee-keepers. She has recently explored local marketing of their honey and beeswax products.

Diane had sage, wild-flower, and clover honey. We sampled them and there are definite differences in the flavors.

Jackie and Shelby taught visitors needle-felting throughout the day and everyone took home a needle-felted ornament.

One of the best things about the day is that my shop is clean and orderly.

Thanks to Jackie and Diane for helping me with that. It is such a relief to have that done. What a pleasant place with Christmas lights sparkling and Christmas music playing.  This was our big advertised day, but I plan to be open again next weekend even though Diane and Jackie won’t be here. I really love my shop and it’s a great place to spend the day!

 

 

New Yarn

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Isn’t this a beautiful sight?

This is Jacob yarn and some black Rambouillet from a sheep rancher in Rio Vista.  The light gray Jacob in the lower corner is already sold!

This is white, lilac, dark gray, and black Jacob yarn, labeled and for sale .

Here is the Rambouillet. I  sent this batch to a mill that said that they could work with the fine, short-stapled Rambouillet, and they did a great job. It is very soft and I knit up a small sample on #6 needles. I don’t have this yarn on the website yet, but it’s available in the shop.

Here is some white yarn from sheep that live up the road from me. I can’t wait to start weaving with some of these yarns!

Re-establishing the pecking order

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This is ram jail, where the rams spend time  getting re-acquainted after being shorn and having been taken away from their respective groups of ewes.  Putting them in close quarters prevents the serious injury that could occur if they had room to back up and bash each other. The rams spent about 36 hours here and another 12 in the double-size pen.  This morning I let them out into their regular ram pen. There was still some tussling, but it was relatively mild.

 

It was obvious to figure out who was #1. Savor and Tioga are the yearling ewes and Savor has the top spot. He didn’t let anyone forget it.

Tioga didn’t put up much of a fight. If he acted as aggressive as Savor there would have been trouble.

Tioga protected himself but did not challenge Savor.

Savor thinks he’s hot stuff…

…but he’s not finished yet. Granite is the two horn ram lamb who is shying away from Savor’s  show of authority. Granite is #3 under Tioga but there were a few challenges between them. I think that Granite will be ready to try again for the #2 spot after he is a little bigger. Tioga comes from  mild-mannered ancestors. His sire, Ranger had his skull fractured by Houdini, a very aggressive ram I had a few years ago.  Ranger healed and was always a well-mannered ram, as was his father, Rocky.

Savor is still not satisfied.

Savor and Tioga are still tussling here. Notice that Granite is confronting Diego, another 2-horned ram lamb (in 4th place ranking). Do you see the lowest ranking ram? That’s the 4-horn ram lamb from Michigan. However, what the other rams don’t realize, is that Clint actually had the last ewe to breed to himself. While the rams were in “jail” one of the ewe lambs approached the pen wagging her stubby tail. I took Clint out and he took care of the job quickly before he had to go back in with the bullies.

Now it seems that its OK to hang out together. This reminds me of an article that I just read in Smithsonian magazine–it was all about he social hierarchy of male elephants. Lots of posturing. That avoids some of the bloodshed.