I took these photos with my i-phone last week. As I was looking into the phone I didn’t think that the phone’s camera was catching the brilliance of the sunset. I snapped them anyway, but then forgot about it. It was only when I saw the photos on my computer that I realized how amazing that camera is.
I just wrote a post using photos that I took Across the Road from our mailbox. I started that to document the changes in the field that we see from our house everyday. The photos themselves are kind of boring and not all that attractive. Here is some of what I see when I walk Across the Road. (And here is Rusty’s version.)
Last year the main crop was sunflowers but there is a corner of land owned by someone else. Last summer’s crop on that parcel was corn.
Hot dog.
Irrigating the sunflower field.
Pollenating the sunflowers.
Stickers in someone’s fur.
Sometimes our road seems like an alfalfa highway.
Swarm of bugs.
Another hot dog. 
Irrigation water. This sure looks appealing when it is 100+ degrees.
Signs that I’m not the only one Across the Road. 
Hope of the next harvest.
We don’t have very much acreage, but across the road is a much larger parcel. We appreciate living here and being able to walk, run the dogs, and just a enjoy the view across the road. In 2013 I planned to take photos from the same location, of the same view, and at the same time each week to document the changes through the year. You probably don’t mind that it didn’t work because who would want to see 52 photos of the same thing? This field has been planted to alfalfa for several years but in 2013 there were sunflowers. Here is the year Across the Road:
January 10
January 25
January 31
March 7
March 26
April 4
April 11
May 5
May 21
May 28
June 13
July 4
July 12
August 8
September 30
October 10
October 18
November 24
December 31
There you have it. I stood at the mailbox for each photo. But the photos are obviously now always the same view or even using the same camera.
The most striking thing in my mind is how dry it was last year. The Central Valley of CA enjoys a Mediterranean climate which means hot dry summers and cool wet winters. We rely on winter rainfall to replenish aquifers and reservoirs to provide the water that keeps the valley from being a desert in the summer. This link shows graphs of the average precipitation and temperature for our area. According to accuweather.com the average annual rainfall for Sacramento is 18.5″. We have had only 30% of that (5″ in all of 2013). The hills (and the field across the road) should be green right now with the growth of the annual grasses that germinate from fall rains. Grass started to grow with each of the two (only 2) rainy days that we had but has mostly dried up.
On the bright side, I’m not slogging through calf-deep mud when doing chores and we don’t have to run the sump pump to keep the the water heater in the basement from flooding.
Hoping for a wet 2014!
Rusty has never been a willing partner in taking cute holiday photos.
His friend, Moby wasn’t much better. 
Nor was Ozzie.
Maybe it would have worked with a smaller hat.
Some of the sheep are OK with it. This is Noel.
Here is Paulette. But now we have a new star.
Spinners’ Day Out was yesterday. Most of the people here were part of Farm Club (which, by the way, anyone can now join as an e-Farm Club member) and they were willing (more like insistent) on getting photos with Amaryllis. Dona and Mary took these photos.
“Would you get that thing away from my eye?” 
It may take me years to use up the yarn in the studio part of my shop. But I’m hopeful. Here is an attempt at one box.
I dumped the box of chenille on the floor and arranged the colors. I posted this photo on Facebook and then decided to have a contest. How many scarf warps could I get out of this pile of yarn?
The guesses ranged from 17 to 50 (well, there was one outlier at 502–maybe a typo). I had a good time winding these warps. For me winding warp is the creative part of weaving–at least for chenille scarves. The weave structure is almost always plain weave so all the design comes in choosing colors and arranging the order. This actually became a challenge here. I rarely weave chenille scarves in those light colors. Also, it’s hard to tell in this photo but there are a lot of variegated yarns there. I like to use those, but usually as accents with solid colors. As I worked my way through this pile it became more difficult to put together pleasing combinations. Because I had set up this contest I didn’t want to add in yarns off the shelf–that seemed like cheating. All of the first several warps were long enough to weave 2 or 3 scarves. As I worked my way through the pile I had less yarn in any one color so I made warps for single scarves. I finally got to this:
All those bits and pieces got me three more scarf warps.
It may not look like much but those warps will weave 44 scarves! I wish that I had time to weave them all and then take a photo. Instead I will start weaving but will be putting some out for sale at the Artery as soon as I get them finished. ‘Tis the season…to be selling chenille.
By the way, the winner of the contest lives in Placerville and will be getting a chenille scarflet in the mail!
Sunday was Shearing Day and we sheared 71 sheep (61 ewes and 10 rams and wethers). I said “we”. Not really “we”, but John, my fabulous shearer. The sheep looked great, the fleece looked great and he finished shearing in two and a half hours! Shearing was finished by 11:30.
Here are sheep ready to be shorn.
Clover.
Mary.
John started with the rams…
…and moved on to ewes.
Farm Club members were the other wonderful helpers who made it all work.
Alison spent the morning at the skirting table explaining skirting and helping buyers skirt their fleeces.
Shelby and Gynna were our sheep wranglers, making sure that there was always another sheep for John to shear.
Mary and Carol bagged fleeces while Anna swept and Jackie worked the exit gate.
Linda weighed and recorded fleeces. Other members helped too but I didn’t get photos.
What would shearing day be without chili…
…and Dona’s brownies (and Lisa’s Jacob sheep cookies, Jackie’s corn biscuits, Mary’s wonderful tangy chicken and fancy rice krispie treats and more).
After shearing the sheep look so much thinner. This photo looks as though it was stretched vertically, but it wasn’t.
Lila.
Cascade.
Gynna looks happy with her Farm Club fleece.
And look at this gorgeous one!
After shearing we (Farm Club again and other friends) did demos of all kinds of spinning and fiber prep, but that’s another story, especially because it’s too late to write more.
I made all these buttons this week.
Here are better photos.
I think I have a new audience for my buttons….
…How about using them for sorting practice for little kids? You can sort by shape, color, and size. You can arrange them in order of size. So they’re not just for sweaters anymore! But at $6/button this would be a pricey sorting kit.
We really need rain, but I must admit that the weather is sure nice. I spent an hour in the pasture yesterday morning enjoying the fall color.
It’s not just the trees that are colorful:
Red and yellow and green are pretty…
…but black and white are two of my favorites.
I usually have my i-phone (camera) with me but was glad I took the real camera to the barn this morning.
That is Celeste in the doorway.
Alison
Summer
Roxi
Ventura and Sonata
Laura is the third oldest ewe here. She is not really that old at almost 7 years.
Phyllis is an 8 year old lilac ewe.
This is Ears, the second BFL-cross that I have kept.
Here is Faulkner, the BFL ram. He gets to be “clean-up” ram and is out with all the breeding flock now.
I used red the first two weeks of breeding (starting October 1) and green the second two weeks. Almost all the sheep are marked with red and maybe a 6 or 8 with green. Faulkner has been with them for about 5 days and there are 3 yellow marks so far. 
Marilyn is my favorite of the lambs I’m keeping this year.
Amaryllis
I am always behind, but this year I feel more behind than ever in the weaving department. I read the blog of a production weaver I know and she commented that any weaving she does now through the end of the year is “extra”. Everything for this season’s sales is finished. What? I should have woven my scarves and blankets LAST January? I thought about it. I also thought about it in March and July and August and September. I knew that I’d get to it in October. What have I been doing when I should be weaving? Here are a few examples beside the obvious sheep farming, Lambtown, etc.
Last week I hosted a field trip of middle school home-schooled kids and their families. We spent a couple of hours in the barn and at the shop. After lunch I guided them through a needlefelting project.
They all made up their own designs. This is one student’s work. Cute, huh?
I taught a Learn to Weave class a couple of weeks ago.
Here is the scarf woven by a brand new weaver. She used Zephyr Jaggerspun yarn and doubled it in warp and weft. It turned out great!
One of the students couldn’t come back on the second day of the class and she finished her scarf today. This is a close-up. She used Jaggerspun Maine-Line yarn.
I taught three students in a Rigid Heddle Scarf class, which, by the way, I will offer again once in December. No more other classes until January. 
This is the blackberry jungle growing (for those of you who know the farm) just north of Faulkner’s pen–in fact part of this IS the fence-line for Faulkner’s pen. There is an engineered septic system under those shorter blackberries that is supposed to be maintained and inspected every year. 
This is what I did on Sunday after working another several hours on the final Lambtown reports and finances. There is still a lot of blackberry work to do but at least the septic guys can get to the valve covers.
Farm Club was here all day on Saturday and helped with the list of chores on the clipboard. We didn’t get to all the barn cleaning, but did a lot of other stuff. Maybe I’ll ask Rusty to write a post about that since he hasn’t done much writing lately.
It’s the time of year that the pomegranates need to be picked or they will split (if we ever get any rain that is).
When I take the dogs for a run across the road I see all the black walnuts going to waste. Here is what to do with them.
Boiling black walnuts.
Add white yarn.
End up with brown yarn.
Maybe I’ll get to the loom tomorrow…after I take my kids to the airport.
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