Dan and I went for a hike today not too far from here. The loop is about 4.5-5 miles with spectacular views.
It’s been dry this spring, and the greenery won’t last long, but there are a lot of wild flowers right now.
Also a lot (A LOT) of poison oak.
I love the effect of my new lens with the shallow depth of field, but it’s sometimes hard to work with, especially when I’m trying to snap photos quickly.
“I’ll catch up…Just taking photos.”
Western Redbud is one of my favorites.
Today I hosted a field trip of 4-Hers led by Carol of Joshua Farm Shetlands. They came to talk about Jacob sheep, pasture management and the fiber business and to do a felting project. 
The morning started in the pasture. Most people that come to see the farm want to spend time with sheep, but it is very important to understand that we should think of ourselves as “grass farmers” first. I couldn’t possibly have the number of sheep that I do without irrigated pasture and intensive grazing management.
We discussed sheep, facilities and ended the livestock part of the tour by looking at the Dead Zone (I just thought of that name). There are ram skulls in that fence in various stages of decomposition. As we explained to the kids, we want to sell every part of the animal we can. 
We came back to the shop for lunch and then a felting workshop. The idea was to felt a sheep.
Some of the sheep had morphed significantly into other life forms:
Snail.
Duck.
Aren’t these cool?
Before they left the 4-H group was gracious enough to help my son out with his photography assignment. He is supposed to submit an interpretation of Social Awareness and decided to stage a family picnic in which it is obvious that everyone is more involved in their electronic devices than each other.
No one seemed to mind the time for this, but the girls crowded around the iPad kept asking for the password.
I’ve thought about titles for this post for a couple of days, but I’ve been too busy and/or too tired to write it. It Takes A Farm Club to Run a Farm. Or Farm Club Experiences Life and Death. FC met here on Saturday. I am so appreciative of everyone in FC. I know that they are getting experiences they wouldn’t otherwise, but I am benefiting tremendously as well. There was a lot going on that day.
My day started with a ewe that I though might have milk fever. I treated her with calcium gluconate and put her with her lambs in a pen so I could watch her. The first FC members arrived as another ewe, Onyx was lambing.
Lambing pens …
…and the rest of the barn were cleaned while we kept an eye on Onyx.
Onyx is a BFL/Jacob cross bred to a Jacob. She had a black lamb and a Jacob-looking lamb while FC looked on. I’m glad that she lambed in the barn. If she had been in the field I would have been looking all over for a Jacob ewe missing a lamb.
Look at the horns on that lamb. Ouch!
It’s unheard of to irrigate this early in the year, but we have had almost no rain since December. The irrigation district charged the ditches so I put in a call for water. Gynna and Lisa helped by clearing debris from the ditch.
We checked this ewe lamb’s broken leg.
I showed FC members my bone-yard ( a pen where I put skulls that are in various stages of decomposition). 
Shelby sat with the ewe who later died (not of milk fever, but a metabolic problem similar to pregnancy toxemia, according to preliminary necropsy results).
Then we had to bottle feed her lambs. (The day before I had just grafted the bottle baby I had onto a ewe. Now I have more bottle lambs.)
And there are always plenty of lambs to hold. 
We checked all 70 lambs for split eyelids and number of horns and I gave them all BOSE injections. I don’t have photos, but a guest of a FC member worked on my buttons–sanding buttons that I had cut out months ago. 
We can’t have Farm Day without Donna’s brownies…and now Lisa’s sheep cookies and Mary’s O’Henry bars.
Thank you to everyone who came and helped and then shared the warm afternoon sun.
Here are some of the things that have filled this week:
These are 8-9 pound triplets. The third was already up and nursing. I pulled these. 
This is the lamb list so far. Purple for ewes, blue for rams. 
I have a lot of new things for the shop, but haven’t had time to play with them or get them on the website. Electric carder, blending boards, and batt rollers (and other spinning gadgets) by Clemes and Clemes. I also have new DVD’s, books, felting kits, and gadgets.
I had a big weaving deadline that coincided with the first week of lambing (which also coincided with my tax appointment). This is just a preview of an item that will be in an upcoming issue of Handwoven magazine.
And a new dog added to the workload. You can read Rusty’s blog to learn more about Maggie.
There are still more ewes to lamb. I’m on my way to the barn now for the last check tonight.
Eight lambs today brought us to 22 lambs in five days since lambing began. It was hectic today. I had a Lambtown Fiber Committee meeting scheduled here from 1 to 3. One ewe (Delilah) lambed with twins and I put another ewe (Belinda) in a lambing pen just before the meeting started. One of the participants in the meeting brought her kids and the kids needed something to do. They were charged with the task of telling us if Belinda started having a lamb. About half way through the meeting the kids told us that a different ewe had just had a lamb. That was Terraza and I brought her into the barn. By the time the meeting was over there were 5 more lambs (2 for Terraza, 2 for Belinda, and 1 more for Delilah, giving her triplets). 
The morning began with finding Summer’s lambs. Unfortunately one was dead. (This is not a very good photo but it is of the live lamb.)
The third of Delilah’s triplets. Look at those horns.
This is Belinda. It’s no wonder that lambs and ewes get mixed up when lambing in a confined area. Belinda was desperate to have a lamb, any lamb.
Delilah and her triplets.
Terraza and twins.
Dona came for the meeting and she took some photos. I like to weigh the lambs so I have an answer when people ask me “how much do they weigh when they are born?”
Here are the official Lamb Watchers of the day.
This is one of Eliza’s lambs, born a couple of days ago.
Hot Lips and one of her lambs.
The Lambing Board.
Lambs were due on Thursday, 148 days after the first breeding date. I’ve started watching for early arrivals. Last night I went out at about 12:30 a.m. (after finishing bookkeeping for the night) and found two ewes with four lambs. I brought them into the lambing pen area and tried to sort out moms and babies. I finally assigned two lambs to each ewe and they all seemed happy. In the light of day I realize that the sets of twins are split up. But that’s OK as long as each lamb has a happy mom.
This is a beautifully marked ram lamb. Meridian Celeste x Kenleigh’s Matrix. The two parents are both lilac (the color of this lamb) and they should have lilac offspring. 
This is his adopted twin, but he is black so I think belongs to the other mom. (Meridian Zoey x Meridian Fogerty)
Here is a lilac ewe lamb (although in the photo she looks black) so this is the twin to the first one. 
Meridian Loretta lambed with twins in the middle of the day. I put Loretta in a pen and came back an hour later. No muss, no fuss. Twins clean and nursing. This is a ewe lamb. Meridian Loretta x Kenleigh’s Matrix.
Here is that first lamb again. I usually just number the lambs and let buyers give them names. This lamb is tempting me to name all my lambs. I don’t have his name yet, but I’ll think of one. 
Lambing season has started.
The Sacramento Weavers and Spinners Guild hosts an Open House in February. This year’s theme was Weavers Gone Wild. Here are a few photos.
One of the people in last summer’s Color Wheel class created this display from the fiber that she blended in class.
Triaxial weaving.
Navajo weaving.
Weaving with wire.
Spinning om a cardboard “wheel”.
Paper weaving–a great “make it and take it” project. 
I demonstrated weaving all weekend. I wove 2 chenille scarves using the warp I wound at Thursday’s Art as Inspiration class.
After I finished the chenille I put a Shetland wool warp on the loom and wove 4 scarves for a commission.
The last warp was all Jacob. I wove one and will finish the other at home. Seven scarves in a weekend isn’t bad.
This is a close-up of the last one just because I still have my new macro lens on the camera.
At the request of a nearby weaving guild I developed a class about using favorite artwork and photos as inspiration for weaving designs. This was based on the show that I had at the Artery a few years ago and that was the subject of a Handwoven article. 
This is the publicity photo we used for the show. Our model is wearing my Red Canna (Georgia O’Keefe) chenille shawl and Julia’s felt hat.
Participants in the class brought favorite photos or artwork to use as a basis for designing weaving projects and used…
…colored pencils and…
rayon chenille for their designs. Here are some of the plans:
Won’t it be fun to see these projects when they are finished?
TNNA is The National Needlearts Association. The annual winter trade show was in Long Beach and I spent the weekend there with my friend, Irene, from Cotton Clouds and thousands of other yarn store owners, designers, and fiber lovers. This kind of a show has a different feel than the typical shows where I go as a vendor. Part of that is certainly because I’m on the fun (buying) side of the table instead of the work (selling) side. But it is also because this is where the manufacturers and producers go to sell their fiber, yarns, patterns and accessories to yarn stores and other retailers.
Irene and I always look forward to this weekend because, although we collaborate on the phone and by e-mail all year its nice to be face-to-face (and share a room at the hotel). 
There are a classes offered and I had fun making this needle felted bird. It’s good to find out how other people teach topics that you already offer.
This is a crocheted coral reef in the lobby.
There are autograph sessions for authors with new books. Mom wrote this book, but it features Ava (aka Annie), who knitted the scarf, and also signed every book.
Isn’t she adorable? Reminds me of Katie.
For the most part photography is not allowed on the show floor, but usually vendors don’t mind if you are going to buy their things. Here is a glimpse of some of what UPS will be delivering soon.
Are you as excited as I am? Make sure you sign up for my e-newsletter so you will know when these new items (and more) arrive!
Baby blankets still on the loom.
Baby blankets off the loom and finished. I put on a 21 yard warp and wove 14 blankets. 
I hemmed some this time instead of leaving short fringe. I’ll be interested in seeing what buyers like best. The rest are shown on this page.
I taught several classes this week.
This is WWW (Weekly Weaving Workshop), sometimes known as Wednesday Weavers Workshop, or Warped Women Weaving, or….It could go on. It is a drop-in class and we usually discuss any questions that people bring up about anything weaving and yarn related. (Some people come for a therapy session with friends.) Last week I said that I’d teach how to read weaving drafts. Those are the “recipes” for weaving patterns. This week we’ll look at drafts for “color and weave” effects.
On Friday I taught a rigid heddle weaving class. This is Tanda with her beautiful new scarf woven of Jaggerspun Zephyr yarn on her rigid heddle loom.
On Saturday and Sunday I taught a spinning class. I can’t believe I didn’t take photos. That was followed by an interview about Fibershed for a well-known (in the fiber world) magazine. You’ll hear more about that when it’s published.
When I’m working in the shop or at the computer all day, instead of in the barn, I try to make sure I go for a walk or a bike ride with Rusty. That’s good for both of us. I’d probably get more exercise if I didn’t take my camera because I always get distracted by the view…
…whether it’s close-up or…
…in the distance.
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