Does this haircut make my rear look big?
Does this haircut make my head look big?
If I don’t move she won’t see me.
Where did all those freckles come from?
I can finally reach that itch.
Overheard in the Ram Pen, after weaning the ram lambs born at the State Fair in July:
MOM !
Does this haircut make my …uh…horns look big?
Shearing Day was yesterday. What a wonderful time. Farm Club came through (as always) and handled all the various tasks of the day. (Except for Rusty’s job, which he describes in his blog so I am not duplicating his photos here). I am grateful to the great shearer who has come for the last few years. He does a wonderful job–the sheep look good and the fleeces look good. John is so fast that he finished with 64 sheep in about 2 1/2 hours.
One important job is making sure that the shearer always has a sheep to shear as soon as he finishes with the last one.
I took some videos too but it will take me awhile to get those edited. You can sign up on the Meridian Jacobs YouTube Channel and see them when they are ready.
This is the BFL/Jacob crossbred ewe. I probably could have started a bidding war on her fleece, but I’m keeping it.
A couple of people bagged fleeces after shearing and then each fleece was weighed.
Alison and Linda helped many new Farm Club members and other visitors evaluate fleeces at the skirting table.
The warm afternoon sun was welcome after the cold morning.
Good friendships and sharing the work make a day like this extra fun.
How exciting! Thanks to Dona, who photographed us, we made the Hug A Sheep Day blog with this photo of Farm Club.
It was a great day to Hug a Sheep and we hugged several! If you want to read about the other things we did yesterday (from Rusty’s perspective) read Rusty’s blog.
Look at what we woke up to this morning. Rain! I know I won’t be so happy about it by February or so, but it is a welcome sight now. There are months of dust and dirt to wash off of plants and sheep and this will get the winter grass to start growing.
Here is the beautiful sky across the road while I was taking the photo below…
…to use in a PowerPoint presentation I was preparing for a talk about Sustainable Fiber in San Francisco tonight.
A gorgeous sky in the city too. This is the view from the Ferry Building before it started raining again.
It’s been awhile since I wrote a blog post–at least on paper…well, on on the computer. But you know what I mean. I write a lot of them in my head but they don’t always make it here. So I was looking at my latest photos to see which in-my-head blog post to put here and these are the things that caught my eye.
The dye class that I taught last week.
The v-shawl class that I taught last week.
Socks that Jackie made for me but it hasn’t been the season to wear them.
The color wheel class that I taught at Lambtown on Sunday.
Georgia O’Keefe’s Purple Petunia which is now on the loom.
But when you think you’ve found the most fabulous colors of yarn, fiber, and dye, you walk outside and see this:
A sunset from last week.
I think I need to find yarn in these colors.
There is a green glow everywhere.
Four Farm Club members came today to help me sort out breeding groups. I told myself that using four rams was plenty but in the end I put ewes with six rams. I don’t have a very big place and by the time I save spaces for non-breeding rams (a few ram lambs left), non-breeding ewes (my State Fair ewes and lambs and a few ewe lambs that I don’t want to breed yet) and try to leave buffer spaces between breeding groups it gets tricky to find space for everyone.
Kenleigh’s Matrix, a ram lamb, was the first to go out with 14 ewes.
Meridian Loretta was obviously in heat, but we wondered if Matrix, smaller than the ewes, was going to manage the job.
Meridian Fogerty, a yearling ram, was next. He has 8 ewes.
Faulkner was happy to be given eight ewes.
Meridian Clapton, the ram who has been behaving badly wanted some of the action.
Clapton is temporarily in a small pen so he has just three ewes.
Puddleduck Sullivan has ten ewes.
When you first put the rams with the ewes they get a little carried away trying to find a ewe in heat and you may see random marks on some of the ewes. One of the Farm Club members asked how you can tell if the marks from the ram harnesses are the “real thing”. I told her that you can tell.
This is in Fogerty’s pen later in the day.
These are two of Matrix’s ewes. One is Loretta, the ewe in the first photo.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that I picked up the marker for the sixth ram harness so Meridian Miller (the ram lamb who was champion at the State Fair) didn’t get his 7 ewes until evening. He is in the pen right behind my shop.
You could say that the ewes were a bit stand-offish, but Miller didn’t let that deter him.
Where will you be February 21? I’ll be in the barn with new lambs.
I spent last weekend in Boonville at the CA Wool & Fiber Festival which is part of the Mendocino County Fair and Apple Show. I was a vendor at CWFF years ago but this the first time in quite awhile for me. This is a fun show but the hours and the drive make for a long weekend. I left home Thursday afternoon and finally finished setting up the booth about 10:30 that night. By the time I packed up on Sunday night it was 10:30 and I got home at 2:30 a.m. Monday. Good thing I had a good audio-book for the drive.
My 10 x 10 booth was packed full of my farm-produced items as well as retail equipment, kits, etc.
I entertained myself by needlefelting my first 2-dimensional piece…
…spinning on the new Country Spinner from Ashford…
…visiting with Jackie, who was a great help at the booth, and…
…watching people try on the fuzzy hats in the booth across the aisle.
I have been friends with Karin since 5th grade and she came for a visit. That’s her between the cowboys, who are also very entertaining.
I bought this very cool horse necklace from the Navajo ladies who had a booth across the aisle. I have worn the same earrings for about a year and I never buy jewelry, but I couldn’t resist.
Although it’s hard for some of us to understand, the world doesn’t revolve around fiber, at least the furry kind of fiber. This is the County Fair and APPLE Festival. After the fiber building closed in the evening I had a chance to see a few more things at the fair.
I enjoyed seeing the exhibits created by youth groups to promote local agriculture. Who knew that there was this additional use for yellow squash?
I found another old friend.
This is Freckles, who I sold a few years ago to someone with a petting zoo. What a good life for a sheep who would be culled!
Back to the fiber building.
On both Saturday and Sunday Charlie demonstrated his skill with his chosen fiber animal.
There is a rabbit in there.
An English Angora.
Charlie harvests the fiber with scissors.
He makes sure that there are no second cuts or short fibers in the prime fiber he saves. Too bad you can’t do that with sheep.
Fun friends, fun weekend, but long. I’m glad to be home and sleeping in a bed instead of the back of the truck. Oh, there was a sheepdog trial also. I’m going to let Rusty tell you about those photos in his blog.
How many of you have a big box of things that your kids brought home to you and were too special to part with? Here are some photos of a few mementos that are not in boxes but are around the house and shop.
From the late 1980’s?
1986
To Mama Jean (Grandma), 1999
Probably 1998 or so. Two of the oxen have the markings of my steers I was training to be oxen.
2012, Brought to me from the fire-line.
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