I took my new lens to the pasture. I needed to get current lamb photos for the website.
Probably not the best place for photos where you can really see the sheep.
But I found other things to amuse me. I found that with this lens it’s easier to stalk butterflies…
…and other creatures.
I get a new perspective on everything.
Thanks to all of you who told me that you like seeing photos from Across the Road. We have only 10 acres here so we appreciate being able to share the farmland that is across the road.
I took my macro lens to the repair shop this week and saw that they had used equipment for sale at good prices. So I bought a 70-300 mm lens. My other lens is 18-135 so this gives me a whole new perspective. What fun!
That is the base of the corn that was harvested a few days ago. There are photos of the harvest in Rusty’s blog.
Yesterday’s plowing makes beautiful patterns.
With this new lens I should now be able to get all those fantastic wildlife photos I’ve been missing. So I had my eyes open for wildlife. I was able to get a photo of a critter den just after they (muskrats?) plopped into the water.
The only birds I saw were crows and doves. Oh Oh. I forgot to touch up this photo to remove the spots. I found that I have the same spots on my blue sky with this lens as with my other one. That means that there is dust somewhere inside the camera. That can’t be good. I caught interesting spider webs…
…close up. 
Here is few of our property looking across the harvested corn field. This is with the old lens at 135 mm…
…and with the new lens at 300 mm.
Maybe no wildlife but I found other things in the trees. There are some great photos of Rusty and Maggie, but I let him use those for his blog.
Do readers of this blog and Rusty’s blog get tired of photos from Across the Road? I find an endless supply of subjects to photograph, no matter how mundane. When I was walking the other day I noticed the different colors of the morning glories. I Googled morning glory and saw that there were over 1000 species. However this is field bindweed and when you give it that name it becomes a weed.
This is growing at the edge of the corn field. UC Integrated Pest Management Program states “Field bindweed, a perennial broadleaf, is considered one of the most problematic weeds in agricultural fields throughout temperate regions worldwide. It is abundant throughout California … is troublesome in many crops… It can harbor the viruses that cause potato X disease, tomato spotted wilt, and vaccinium false bottom.” Yikes! Nasty plant.
I was intrigued by all the different colors. Speaking of colors, these two birds, also Across the Road, have names with color even though from my photos you wouldn’t know it.
Green heron.
White faced ibis. (Thanks to my birder friends who gave me the ID on this one.)
I taught a Chenille Scarf class for the Hangtown Fiber Guild in Placerville on Friday and Saturday. Eight weavers and eight very different scarves. Each is beautiful. You can’t go wrong with chenille. 
Most of the chenille scarves are plain weave, but Joni used clasped weft (that’s where the purple and blue meet in a diagonal line) to create interest in part of the scarf.
Today I taught the second day of the new Spin to Weave class here at the farm. In the first session a few weeks ago spinners, most of whom had never woven before, had a crash course in weaving terminology and warping technique. They came today with handspun yarn and a sense of adventure.
This is dyed angora warp with a gray weft.
Amy used her yarn from space-dyed fiber from Fiber Confections for warp and a commercial wool weft. The idea was to choose a weft that did not detract from the warp. This one is perfect!
Chris warped with a Jaggerspun Merino yarn and wove a twill with her handspun yarn.
This photo doesn’t do Alison’s warp justice. The true color is purple and blue so I’ll have to get a daylight photo later. She warped 18″ wide at 15 epi in her handspun silk. We chose Jaggerspun Zephyr, a fine wool/silk blend for weft.
No words needed.
We had a couple of impromptu Farm Days–these are days when I have a list of things to be done and I e-mail Farm Club to find out who can come on which days. They come. We work. We talk. Everyone gets dirty and enjoys themselves. Win-Win. This time we set up two days.
On Tuesday Mary and Dona came. Thanks to Dona for most of the Tuesday photos. I usually forget to take photos when we’re all working together. First we cleaned the barn. Three shovels are faster than one! Next I wanted to sort out all the ewe lambs so I could make a decision about which lambs to enter in the Lambtown Sheep Show in October and make notes about which lambs to keep in the flock.
I called the sheep in while Dona took photos. 
An enthusiastic response.
There was only a little bit of coercion by shaking a bucket of grain.
We took a little time out for Lamb Cuddling…
…and selfies.
After selecting our two show lambs and an alternate…
… we started halter breaking. It is amazing the difference a few days of 10 minutes sessions makes.
We had been having a discussion of show prep. One reason that I show Jacob sheep is that most often there is no show prep. You do your best to keep them free of VM (vegetable matter) but they are shown in their natural state without the primping that goes on with other breeds. However, having a show in October pushes the limits of being able to present clean sheep. Not only are the sheep in almost full fleece with a whole summer’s worth of dust, but there is the problem of the late summer grasses that go to seed. I coated the two yearlings and the three lambs that were chosen for the show, but I thought we could try a couple of other things too.
This is Mae, a yearling ewe letting me know that she really didn’t want to be the guinea pig for this experiment. Jackie loaned me a blower.
I have seen some people use blowers, particularly on Shetland sheep. There may be potential to remove the superficial VM, but it is not going to remove stickery things like foxtails that are deeper in the fleece. And if it’s used too close to the sheep it changes the character of the fleece. It may be worth experimenting with a little more. I don’t think it was a favorite of the sheep.
However, it is fun to make cool designs in the wool!
Next we tried washing half each of two sheep to compare the two sides later on. I have been told that cheap hair conditioner used 30 days before the show works well. We chose two non-show sheep for the experiment. 
Again, the sheep were not impressed and I wasn’t either. I think I didn’t use enough conditioner and should have used a spray nozzle.
On Sunday, several Farm Club members were able to come. Amy, Stephany, Alison, and Joy were here. There are not too many photos of this day. We started by catching all the ewe lambs again and weighing them. We gave more halter lessons to the show lambs and a few of the others that I am going to keep. After that Rusty brought in the ram lambs.
We had only a slight mishap because as we put them in one gate of the barn I realized that the other was still open. They mingled with all the ewes and we had to sort them again. It’s not hard at this age because the horns make it obvious which are the ram lambs. We selected two rams for the Lambtown show and discussed which ram lambs to keep for next year’s breeding. More on that in another blog post. Those rams had halter lessons and then went back to Ram Lamb Land…away from the ewes.
We caught the big rams, looked at their fleeces and discussed the breeding line-up. Then we took many wheelbarrow loads out of the ram pen.
Thanks to all of you who were able to come and help.
The last few mornings I have seen a family of swallows on the wires near the house.
The photo above was taken through the window. The rest of the photos were taken tonight after getting back from walking the dogs. There were four young swallows wanting to be fed. The photos aren’t great, but I enjoy the series.
I took my camera with me to change the pasture fence this morning. I shouldn’t do that if I have things to do. I get distracted by things like dew drops and butterflies and flowers.
I didn’t realize how many different butterflies are here because I usually pay more attention to warm-blooded creatures. 
I thought I’d google “butterflies of Solano County” so that I could identify these. There are dozens on the list (without photos) so I guess I’ll just enjoy them without names.
I also didn’t know how hard it is to sneak up on a butterfly before it flits away. How do they know?
It’s easier to take photos of flowers.
Have you seen the rare Wool Flower? It occurs only in fields where sheep have grazed.
The sheep were not amused while I was in the pasture and they were not. That’s Athena on the left and Phyllis on the right pawing at the gate.
Fanny was one of my favorite sheep, not because of personality because she wasn’t very friendly. But look at those horns. Striking horns for a ewe.
Here is another photo of Fanny.
This is Fanny’s daughter, Fran. She is 6 years old now.Here is Fandango, Fran’s daughter, now 2 years old. I hope her horns continue to grow as well as her mom’s and grandmother’s horns. This is Fandango’s daughter, born in March.
(Note: I don’t know why the photos imported smaller and the spaces between text and photos are so large. I don’t think I did anything different than usual. Sometimes this computer stuff drives me crazy.)
I have plenty to do but when I take my camera with me life slows down.
View behind the barn in the morning.
Cattle egrets roosting at the edge of the pasture.
White-tailed kites in the tree at the other edge of the pasture. I’ve been hearing a lot of squawking out of them the last few days. The one on the left with the brown feathers is a juvenile….”Dad, pulleeze let me have the keys.”
Views from the pasture.
This is the ewe lamb born last at the State Fair.
BFL cross ewes.
Hay truck whizzing by. Won’t you stop here?
One of my favorite flowers because it is so good in the pasture. Birds foot trefoil.
Mockingbird behind the barn.
Phyllis is the oldest sheep here.
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