Author Archives: Robin

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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.

Dallisgrass revisited

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I have  posted several times about dallisgrass in the pasture. It features in this post a few years ago, this this post about burning it, this post in August 2011 and this post in August 2012. Please ignore the fact that I have spelled it differently in several of this posts. It is dallisgrass and here is a definition: “a tall tufted tropical South American perennial grass (Paspalum dilatatum) introduced as a pasture and forage grass in the southern United States”.

This came up in an e-mail conversation last night. Why don’t I shear before breeding season to avoid the blue and red and green markings on the wool?

Good question and that is a discussion for another post. I was thinking about pros and cons of shearing before breeding–sometime in September. I was explaining that the dallisgrass grows so tall and develops seed heads in the late summer. At some point in the cycle the seed heads are very sticky and the sheep (and Rusty…

…and my pants) are covered with sticky goo that catches dirt and the seeds that come off of the grass. After a few weeks the sticky part goes away and then fall rains clean the sheep. I thought I’d look this up to see why the seed heads are so sticky. I was surprised to learn that the goo is actually the result of a fungus that is common on dallis grass and is toxic to cattle. Who would have thought? That doesn’t change anything, but I find it interesting. So this morning I wanted to see for myself.

This dallisgrass looks “clean”.

This one is infected.

The dry grass here is dallisgrass.

See how tall and thick it is? Some of the leaves are still green, but they are so coarse that the sheep will choose to eat the dallisgrass only after they have eaten all the grass and clover that they prefer.

A few sheep photos. This is Sierra.

This is Aurelia, the ewe I got from Kreutzer Farms  in Nebraska.

Onyx, the Jacob x BFL cross. Notice the ewe in the top right corner of the photo that is almost invisible in the tall grass.

And while I’m talking about fungus in the pasture, what about this one?

 It is huge.

Overheard in the Pasture After Shearing

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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

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rain

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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.

Color Everywhere I Look

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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.

 

 

Breeding Season is Here

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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.