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.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 3 – MDSW

Posted on May 11, 2017 by Robin

Saturday was the first day of the Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival. This was the reason for our trip to Maryland. We spent Thursday evening with our Ravelry / Spinzilla / Tour de Fleece friend, Adrienne, and Friday exploring Harpers Ferry. But we were all excited about the Main Event. Adrienne had given us tips for our first MDSW–bring chairs, bring food, bring toilet paper, where to park, and, most importantly, join her and the TPCMDSWAT (Timonium Presbyterian Church Maryland Sheep and Wool Adventure Team) for a tailgate breakfast.

Adrienne’s trunk was open and there was a big pot of steel-cut oats as well as fruit, yogurt, maple syrup, and more. We chatted with new friends.

Adrienne and Dona strategized.

The line stretched far from the gate and the cars kept coming. The skies were threatening and it was cold and windy.

But fiber enthusiasts are usually a happy crowd. There was no pushing and shoving, just a lot of anticipation.

The gates opened.

First vendor. I saw someone buy this hat from Centari Wool.

I wasn’t ready to shop. In fact I didn’t really plan to shop because what could I buy when I have a fiber shop already? (I found some stuff…that’s for later.)

Fist stop was the Fiber Arts show where Kathleen and I (and Alison from afar) had entered items featuring Meridian Jacobs’ wool. Kathleen won 5th and I won 4th in a crowded blanket class. Kathleen’s blanket is all handspun and dyed Romney yarn. Mine used Timm Ranch wool warp and Jacob weft.

My woven handspun (Marilyn and Raquel) scarf.

My comercial yarn Cormo scarf.

My sheep pillow entered in “Handweaving-other”. I didn’t get a photo of Kathleen’s fabulous 3rd place handspun Jacob (Cassandra and Mae) sweater (“knitted with handspun, dyed”) but you can see a glimpse of it in this photo and you will see it in a later post when she was wearing it.

Alison took first in the “knitted with natural colored handspun garment” category with this wonderful vest using 4-ply Jacob (Summer).

I took photos of some of the winners and meant to come back for more. I got so distracted by all the other things going on that I didn’t make it back to the building.

I moved on to the sheep barns to check in with Royal Unzicker, a Pennsylvania Jacob breeder who has asked me if I’d help show that afternoon.

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Royal’s yearling rams.

Roy Deppa’s yearling ram.

After I spent some time catching up with Royal, whom I see occasionally at the annual JSBA meetings) I went out to see more of the show. That will be another post…or two…or three.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 2 – Harpers Ferry

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Robin

Here is Day 1–getting to Maryland. On Day 2 we woke up early with places to go, things to see. Our plan today was to take our fiber entries to the fairgrounds and then go to Harpers Ferry to explore some of the Civil War history of this area. QPAC4753

Chris drove and I got into my usual Road Trip mode–Map Book and phone.

Here is the destination. Harpers Ferry is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, where Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia meet. It is the easternmost town in West Virginia.

We were driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains and every time I said the name Shenandoah I felt like breaking into song (John Denver style). Wikipedia says: “The Blue Ridge Mountains are noted for having a bluish color when seen from a distance. Trees put the “blue” in Blue Ridge, from the isoprene released into the atmosphere, thereby contributing to the characteristic haze on the mountains and their distinctive color.”

Also from Wikipedia: “Isoprene is produced and emitted by many species of trees (major producers are oaks, poplars, eucalyptus, and some legumes.”

Harpers Ferry

We were looking for Harpers Ferry National Historical Park.

The whole town is in a National Historic District, but it is the lower part that is the National Historic Park.

The Park is spread out in non-contiguous sections and we did cross state lines a number of times.

West Virginia

We finally found the headquarters and Visitors’ Center where I got my lifetime pass to all the parks, monuments, etc in the National Park System. (That’s the only good thing about the last birthday.) Kathleen and I bought the National Parks Passport book that shows all the parks and historical sites region by region and has places to include commemorative stickers and “postmark” stamps. We took a shuttle to Lower Harpers Ferry where there many restored old buildings, some preserved as museums and others with modern shops inside.

One of the buildings on Shenandoah Street houses a bookstore and the others are set up as they would have been in the 1800’s or as museums.

We climbed the path past the ruins of the Episcopal Church…

…and the Catholic Church that was built in 1833.

This route happens to be part of the Appalachian trail so we were able to stamp our passport books with the Appalachian Trail stamp!

The shops on the left in this photo are all occupied with modern businesses, mostly souvenir shops or cafes.

I saw this in one of the windows. As creepy as it is, it’s not nearly as bad as a doll in another window that looked like a crime victim or a participant in a horror movie. I took a photo but am creeped out enough by it to not want it in my blog post. Some of the people in this part of town have an interesting sense of humor.

This is a detail of the stone wall in the photo above.

The town became an industrial center between 1801 and 1861 with the construction of the U.S. Armory and Arsenal. Below is a detail of the sign in the foreground.

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Just below (in relation to this photo) is where the Shenandoah and Potomac Rivers meet, the Potomac cutting through a slot in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

This is the confluence. There is a railroad bridge here and now a foot bridge that across the Shenandoah River. The foot bridge is part of a system of trails including the Appalachian Trail, the north-south route along the crest of the Appalachians, and the 184-mile C & O Canal trail. From the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal NHP site: “Preserving America’s early transportation history, the C&O Canal began as a dream of passage to Western wealth. Operating for nearly 100 years the canal was a lifeline for communities along the Potomac River as coal, lumber and agricultural products floated down the waterway to market. Today it endures as a pathway for discovering historical, natural and recreational treasures!”

This is the view from the western end of the bridge showing the old towpath and here is a link from a bicycling guide which states “the canal’s towpath remains a favorite of hikers, joggers, and bicyclists”.

The overlook from the eastern side.

Mary and Chris are not checking their stock portfolios here. We have a group of friends back home who want to travel with us vicariously. We all have been sharing photos and updates.

We drove to another part of the park to see the Civil War battlefields and another view of the town.

Tulip poplar

I noticed this flowering tree.

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Green flowers are so unusual. This is a tulip poplar which is actually more closely related to a magnolia than a poplar.

We spent only a few hours at this park where you could spend days exploring. But we made this trip for the FIBER. Next stop was a yarn shop in the town of Frederick where there was a sale promoting some well-known yarn dyers.

Mary found one of her favorite indie-dyers there…

…who dyed these yarns. While she stood in line (a very long line) to make her purchases the rest of us walked around the area.

I enjoyed this window scene more than a couple of those in Harpers Ferry.

Preview of the next day.

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD-Day 1

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Robin

Almost a year ago I told my Farm Club friends that I had always wanted go to to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. And here we are in Maryland and the Festival is this weekend.

Five of us made the trip. That’s Mary, Dona, and Kathleen. Chris was in a different row.

Coming into Baltimore. Lots of green.

We just signed for the rental car, a mini-van (although the clerk tried to steer us away from the soccer-mom look)…

…and we were able to choose from several models. This one had enough space for our luggage and comfortable seating.

With me at the wheel and Chris (and Siri) handling navigation we made it to our first stop, about an hour from the airport. We had arranged to visit “opallady” who is an avid participant in the Meridian Jacobs Spinzilla and Tour de Fleece teams on Ravelry.

We had never met Adrienne in person but she had invited us to her beautiful home for dinner.

Here we also met Rana Kitty, who plays a supervisory role in Adrienne’s spinning endeavors and is quite popular on the Ravelry threads.

Adrienne invited us to try out her wheels. This is a double treadle wheel with two flyers! That means that two spinners can spin at a time

Most of the wheels live downstairs…

…where Rana Kitty spends a lot of time.

We could have spent more time but wanted to get to our AirB&B before dark. We’ll see Adrienne again at the festival. We thought it would be a good idea to figure out where the lights and wiper switches were before getting on the highway, but had to get out the manual to know for sure about this brand new van with an automatic headlight feature.

We made it to our house near the town of Frederick where we found complimentary wine and fruit waiting for us.

Stay tuned for more adventures tomorrow!

An Urban Hike

Posted on April 29, 2017 by Robin

A few days ago I spent the day in The City with a friend. If I want to go for a hike, San Francisco is not usually the first place I think of, but hiking was the plan for the day.

After picking up sandwiches at a nearby deli and eating them in Glen Canyon Park we began our hike. I didn’t bring my camera so used the iPhone for all these shots.

On the way up Twin Peaks you start to get a feel for the view.

The view to the north east from Twin Peaks.

The view north. It’s hard to tell but the Golden Gate Bridge is just above the trees in the middle of the photo. That’s Sutro Tower on the left, a 977-foot radio/TV antenna tower.

We headed that direction and walked through the woods around Sutro Tower. Seeing the tower made me think of a combo of the movies, Jurassic Park and StarWars.

The woods were striking. We meandered out of these woods across a city street and onto a back portion of the UCSF campus where there were more woods.

There were amazing plants to be seen all along our walk, but I photographed only a few.

I was fascinated by these huge flowers. Each flower is about a foot long!

One of Stephany’s favorite landmarks.

On the side of a bike shop.

We made it to Golden Gate Park where we walked it’s length…

…until we got to the ocean. The wind was blowing hard and the sand was swirling so we didn’t spend time on the beach but contented ourselves with Happy Hour at the Beach Chalet Brewery and Restaurant.

It was late in the afternoon and we had somewhere else to be at 6:30 so we took a Lyft car back to Stephany and Ians’s house. What a great way to spend the day with friends and get in a 7+ mile walk.

Farm Shots

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Robin

Yesterday was the first day in several days that I didn’t have someone here or that I didn’t have to be somewhere else. These are random photos taken during that time.

Walking with the dogs Across the Road. Beautiful green fields and blue sky.

The irrigation water is on and the ditches are full. This is Ginny’s first jump of the season.

On Thursday I presented a program to Black Sheep Handweavers Guild that meets in Woodside, south of San Francisco. I figured out why the guild invites their speaker to meet for dinner prior to the meeting. If you get together at 5:30 that means that means that the speaker is actually there and ready for the talk at 7:30. If a speaker tries to get to town at 7:00 chances are that she will never make it on time.

I allowed more than the 2 1/2 hours shown on my phone but traffic kept moving. That got me there ahead of schedule (even with a 9 minute nap in my car when I just had to pull over) and I had time to investigate a “vista point”. After driving through the Bay Area traffic I was pleasantly surprised to see this view.

Back on the farm the next morning…take a look at where I just took the electric net fence down.

Read,Zoe,Judy

I taught a Learn to Weave class on Saturday and Sunday. These are these new weavers first projects.

Yesterday I got back to skirting fleeces. Fandango’s fleece struck me as really nice. I’m loving the softness and loft, as well as color

This morning the sheep went onto fresh pasture again.

The weeping willow tree is always a favorite.

It’s amazing what a little (or a lot) of rain will do for plants. I hope that when I start irrigating I can keep up the current momentum of this pasture. If the weather does as predicted (getting into the 80’s) I’ll need to irrigate soon.

Meanwhile… Over at the barn, Catalyst started bashing this fence after I put a wether on the other side.

Then the three rams decided to bash each other.

In the chicken house. These are the little ones. I still need to name them.

Don’t you think that this one deserves a name?

Shearing at the Timm Ranch

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Robin

Yesterday was Shearing Day at the Timm Ranch, in the hills west of my place. We lucked out with weather because it rained last week and it’s raining now, but the rain stopped long enough for the sheep to dry out and to stay dry through shearing. I have been using this wool for a few years now and I love it. I posted about last year’s yarn in this post and shearing in 2015 and about some of the weaving I did using the wool in 2014.

My goal was to skirt and sort wool and to finish with 200 pounds because that is the amount that I need to send for processing. After last month’s experience at the Anderson Ranch shearing (which I thought I wrote a blog post about but I guess I missed) I realized that is easier said than done and I was concerned that I wouldn’t get enough sorted before shearing day was over and the crew packed up and left for the next job. An ulterior motive of skirting at the ranch is that: #1 The job is done and I don’t have all that work to do at home another day, and, #2 The crew will bale it for me which will much simplify shipping. Fortunately a few friends came along and helped out.

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We planned to arrive just after the crew had started shearing, but instead we followed their van into the ranch and it took awhile before shearing began. That left some time for photos. I was amused by the adornment to the top of the van. Take another look and you’ll realize that those are two different species represented there. Shearing crew with a sense of humor.

Sheep portraits:

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Tis is Bonnie, the 9-month old Border Collie who found delight in rolling in the piles of wool and draggin away what she could.

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I didn’t get this one’s name. There are three Border Collies, this Dalmatian and a guardian dog on the ranch.

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In previous years there were two shearers but only one this time. That made it easier for us to keep up with evaluating fleeces and skirting. Timm Ranch shearing 4-2017-15

My crew: Vicki, and two Farm Club members, Kathleen and Mary.

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This is some of the lovely wool we saw. Last year’s wool tested at 21.8 microns and I expect about the same of this. We were strict on the criteria for the wool we kept–no vegetable matter, no weak spots or breaks and good length. Every year a ranch’s wool clip can be impacted by weather. After several years of drought I think I saw the effects of a bit too much rain in some fleeces–the wool on the back seemed more fragile and shorter in some fleeces. But timing was right for shearing this year in terms of vegetable matter. We found a small amount of filaree seeds with their corkscrew-like ends but no foxtails or other stickers. Timm Ranch shearing 4-2017-21

Sheep after shearing.

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Lambs were outside the shearing pen waiting for their moms.

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Vicki caught a pair of twins that escaped and were looking for a way back to mom.

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Beautiful rooster that walked by.

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It was late in the day and we had skirted 197 pounds. We had fleeces piled up to look at, but then it was time to shear the rams.

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Those ram fleeces were gorgeous and put me over the top.

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The crew was baling the wool and we kept sorting.

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We stopped at 215 pounds… Timm Ranch shearing 4-2017-39

…and just in time for my wool to be baled. My bale is only 215 pounds instead of 400 which is what they usually bale, but having a bale will make shipping it much easier than if I had to cram all that wool into boxes. Now I just need to finish skirting and sorting all the Jacob wool so I can ship it all at once. What am I doing sitting here on the computer?

Chickens Grow Quickly

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Robin

I brought these chicks home February 21.

By last week they had outgrown their dog crate and needed to get out into the chicken house. I left them in the crate in the chicken house for a few days, hoping that would help the big chickens accept them. I checked on them the first night out of the crate and saw them roosting on top of it.

I took the dog crate out today because they are now roosting on the perches. Here are their two-month-old portraits.

I need to find some names. So far this is White Chicken.

Black Chicken.

Brown Chicken.

They are actually fairly tame since I’ve been handling them since the first day. Brown Chicken was very interested in my phone and kept pecking at it.

Watching a Sheepdog Trial

Posted on April 10, 2017 by Robin

Last week a few of us went to Rio Vista to watch the third day of the McCormack Ranch Sheepdog Trials.

The ranch is located in the Montezuma Hills, just north and west of the Sacramento River. The most striking feature of the modern landscape is the huge wind turbines scattered throughout the hills. This landscape is immense. It’s hard to put the size of the wind turbines (and the sheepdog course) in perspective. There is a group of sheep and a handler on the hill that is just in front of the only trees. The handler and his dog put a group of sheep on that hill and keep them there until the competing dog begins his run, coming from near where we were watching, about 650 yards away.

You lose sight of the dog while he makes an outrun that comes up behind the sheep. The dog brings the sheep toward the handler and is supposed to get them through the first set of gates in the center of the course. Then the dog brings the sheep to the pole where the handler is standing, around that pole and drives them through a set of gates to the west and a set to the east.

After that the dog brings the sheep towards the handler. Once the sheep are past the marked mounds of dirt (red in the background of this photo) the handler can leave the post and help the dog to sort out three of the six sheep. This is by far easier said than done. Besides the fact that the sheep don’t want to be split up, it has to be the right sheep. Two of the sheep have red marks on their heads and they have to be part of the three that are split off to then be put into the pen. Not very many dogs and handlers that we watched accomplished this in the given time.

I felt kind of out-classed watching these photographers. Not only had I left my longer lens (still much shorter than this one) at my brother’s house, I had to substitute a plastic bag for my lens cap that I lost in the pasture last week. I definitely did not get close-ups of dogs working sheep out on the course.

This is another dog bringing sheep to the first set of gates…

…and splitting the six sheep into two groups.

Once the handler has opened the gate he/she can’t get any farther away than the end of the rope that is attached to the gate.

I don’t remember but I think that this dog didn’t quite make the time limit.

After the sheep are in the pen or the horn blows the dogs make a beeline for the black tub full of water. That dog waits there until the next competitor is finished and moves those sheep to a holding pen out of site and sound of the competitors while the last dog takes over the spot in the water tub.

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There was a break in the trial to award prizes for the previous two days’ winners.

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Scores are kept on a board where everyone can keep track of the progress. Some of the competitors:

Notice the platform built onto the four-wheeler.

After the awards we watched a few more dogs. This dog was so close to getting the sheep in the pen but they weren’t cooperating. It was getting hot in the afternoon and at one point the dog broke from the sheep and ran to lie down in the water tub. You know a dog is hot when he leaves his sheep to do that, but this isn’t something that you can do with a dog that doesn’t love to work. A quick cool-down and the dog was back.

This photo was taken from where we parked. You can see the river in the background. The canopies and trucks are at the top of the hill where the course started and the outrun was made towards the river. The sheep in this photo are the ones who were already used for one run and brought to the back to be out of sight and earshot of the other sheep and the dogs.

I sort of feel bad that my dogs will never have a chance to work sheep on this scale. If Ginny had to run that far to get her sheep she probably wouldn’t be so wound up we were trying to do the close-up work.

Farm Shots

Posted on April 9, 2017 by Robin

Most of these photos were taken with my phone during chore time in the last couple of days.

My chicks have outgrown their dog crate and needed to get out in the chicken house. I checked on them the first night and found them roosting on top of the crate. (This photo was taken by the light of my headlamp.)

Rain gauge

We woke up Friday to another inch and a half of rain (with another 3/4″ the next day).

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This one was taken after feeding the bottle babies.

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This morning I noticed the wild eyebrow of one of them.

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Speaking of bottle babies…this one followed me right through the 3-strand electric fence…

…while I was setting up fences so that I could move the ewes.

Seen in the pasture.

Also in the pasture.

Jade

We have had several field trips during the last couple of weeks. This was a group of home-schoolers. Can you tell that there is a sheep in there? Jade loves to be petted. What an amazing sheep.

And how about this amazing sheep? I think Mary is going to take her home.

Tonight a friend took this photo while I was feeding these two.

Meet the Sheep

Posted on April 8, 2017 by Robin

Meet the Sheep is our annual spring open house event. That was last weekend. Rusty already shared his story but here is mine.

I rely heavily on Farm Club to make this event a success.

First was getting pet-able sheep into pens. This is Jazz who is a big pet and has twins, one of whom I’m going to keep and is now named Jasmine.

Amy, Mary, and Sumi ready for visitors.

We had vendors. Colleen, with Fiber Confections.

I offered space to Farm Club members this year. Gynna brought knit caps and other goods. Here is her website.

Brenda has sheep-shaped soap and other items. Here is her Etsy store.

Jackie with Sheep to Shop brought a new item–plant boxes made of felt!

This is another felted piece using Jacob wool.

Carol of 2NFrom brought hats and these fabulous new pouches. After Farm Club members saw this there were only two of the sheep pouches left.

Many visitors come just to look at sheep. But there are other things happening as well.

Rigid heddle demo by Lisa.

Blending Board demo by Roy (of Clemes & Clemes who makes the blending boards as well as carders, etc)

Great Wheel demo by Deborah. By the way, this Great Wheel lives at my house and I have no room for it. It is for sale but I don’t have it listed on the website yet. Contact me if you’re interested.

Laura demonstrated inkle weaving.

Alison sketched sheep off and on — in between spinning — and left her finished product with me at the end of the day.

Julie is the person who many people look forward to seeing year after year. She brought her dyeing demonstration, but also…

…bunnies. Oh boy, were those bunnies a hit!

Julie also brought a couple of Karakul lambs and an Angora kid. They all had plenty of attention.

I can’t believe I got through the day with hardly any sheep photos (although I did spend most of the time in the shop and when I got out I tried to get photos of all the other things going on). That’s Jade who is our best pet sheep ever.

And this is my bottle baby who found a new mom to take him home.

This is most of the Farm Club crew who made this possible. Thanks, everyone!

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

Author Archives: Robin

About Robin

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 3 – MDSW

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD – Day 2 – Harpers Ferry

MJ Adventure Team Goes to MD-Day 1

An Urban Hike

Farm Shots

Shearing at the Timm Ranch

Chickens Grow Quickly

Watching a Sheepdog Trial

Farm Shots

Meet the Sheep