Taking a break from describing the new pasture to share weaving classes the last two weekends. Last Saturday and Sunday I held the Weave a V-Shawl class.
This class had five students. You can see why I can’t take any more than that. #1 all my looms were in use and #2 There is no more room. I didn’t take many photos but will share the few I did get.
The v-shawls are woven with two fronts as independent layers and then ]oined to create a w-shawl.
One of the finished pieces.
And another.
Rachel found a unique way to control her two shuttles…although later she learned that she could weave more quickly and efficiently with shuttles not placed in the pocket.
Rachel came back today to finish her shawl. This is a unique idea. She used the Caterpillar Cotton (which I just realized is not on my website; hopefully I can get that working tomorrow). Rachel used two colors to Create a plaid. It’s hard to see because the colors both share the white yarn.
Here is the back of the shawl.
Today’s class was all about weaving on a rigid heddle loom. Students wove short scarves while Rachel finished her shawl..
I was gone for four days and my brother had finished setting up fences in the north pasture. This is how the pasture looked where I was to remove this fence and let them into the last part,
As described in the previous posts most of this tall grass is annual rye, not a species in the seed mix we planted.
The challenge was to graze it enough to not only feed the sheep, but to remove the cover from the clover growing beneath.
This is the opposite view from the first photo, but the same location where that net fence had been.
Dan took the tractor into the south field and mowed on top of the checks (the raised borders that control the irrigation water)–not so low as to impact the clover, but to top that grass and make the checks more visible and make it easier to set up the fences.
The previous post showed how this looked when the sheep went in. The growth of the annual rye was so fast at this time of year that we needed to move them through fairly quickly.
Here is another view of that same area (left) before removing the fence to graze the next section.
The sheep trail out from the barn to access that field.
It was a challenge to set up fence and graze this with the grass so tall. Thanks to my brother for coming to help set this up.
This was the last day before I had to be gone for four days. Dave came every day while I was gone to get the sheep out on new pasture.
Way back in January I wrote the 14th Pasture and Irrigation Renovation post. I like my posts to be in order, but now I have skipped some important updates. Too many photos. Too confusing. Too much other stuff going on–lambing, teaching, deadlines, etc. The whole point of this renovation was to feed sheep and make it easier and more efficient to do so. If you look back at that linked post you’ll see plants growing, but they are small and there is a lot of bare ground. Fast forward past winter rain, warming temps, and 3 months. I’ll change the name of this series to Grazing and Irrigation.
The original plan when we applied for funding was that we might not be grazing for a year. It was evident by April that the pasture needed to be grazed NOW. I was committed to a teaching gig at the end of April and was going to put off grazing until I got back. Dan was not able to work on this only two weeks after a knee replacement. My brother, Dave, knowing how important it was to get started with this, offered to help set up the grazing before I left and handle it while I was gone.
A major problem was that all the permanent interior fencing had been removed at the beginning of this project. We would have to rely on electric net fencing. We gathered all the lengths of net fence that were stored in the barn.
We spread these out to figure out what we had and in what condition it was.
Dave made a plan and laid out fence, beginning in the northwest pasture, the one we call the Horse Pasture. Grazing started April 20.
This gives an idea of how thick the grass was. The seed mix we used had three forbs (clover, birdsfoot trefoil, and chicory) and three perennial grasses. There is a lot of clover and a moderate amount of trefoil. I don’t identify any chicory and all the visible grass is annual rye.The seed already in the soil completely overwhelmed any perennial grasses that might have started to grow and was covering the clover as well. This is one reason we needed to get going on the grazing.
Dave made strips going north-south and we blocked the sheep into a portion of the first strip. The idea is to get them to eat one area down more thoroughly before moving them to the next.
With no fences left in the pasture Dave had to create a lane to direct the sheep from the barn to where we wanted them.
You can see in this photo how the tall grass is trampled more than eaten.
This ewe may have not got the message about eating the grass instead of wearing it.
There is no drinking water in the pasture so at some point the sheep go back to the barn for water. This is something we have to work on.
Most of the lambs came as planned during the month of March. There were some late lambs, also expected, but not originally planned. That is because I unexpectedly acquired a ram in late November.
Ginger Lynn’s Eli was sired by a Meridian ram that I sold a few years ago.The breeder of Eli sold him to someone who unexpectedly needed to re-home him due to a move, so we drove to the Redding area to pick him up. When I got him here I decided to put a few ewes with him. We hadn’t bred the whole flock this year because of the pasture renovation project that has been described in other posts. A 5-month gestation means lambs in late April or early May.
Here is Eli after shearing in January. He is not here anymore because I returned him to the breeder who wished she had not sold him to the other person. I hoped for some nice lambs.
This is lamb # 2555 born April 27, the only ewe lamb from this group. Ginger Lynn’s Eli x Meridian Belle. Belle is my granddaughter’s sheep and this lamb is sure pretty, so she will stay and I’ll let Kirby think of a name.
Jasmine was next to lamb with a ram lamb but I can’t find a photo right now.
Bide a wee Hallie is ten years old and these will be her last lambs. These are two ram lambs, one with 4 horns and one with two.
Here are the last entries for the Lambing Board. Hallie’s lambs were 12 and 10 pounds!!
I spent many days (weeks, months?) working towards going to CNCH (Conference of Northern California Handweavers) as one of the teachers at this retreat-style conference held at Asilomar on the California coast. I have taught Learn to Weave many times and can do it without thinking, but the prep is different when I am not teaching at home and when there will be so many people in the class. This is a class presented to people who may have some weaving experience but not enough to warp a loom themselves, people who may have woven long ago but need a refresher, and those who have never woven anything. Many don’t have looms or at least not looms that are portable.
Fifteen people signed up for this workshop. Five of them were bringing looms, five looms were borrowed from local guild members, and I provided five. That’s not just the looms–five warping boards, benches, and all the equipment that goes along with winding warp and weaving. I also supplied yarn, and not being someone who wants to tell people they have to choose only one or two colors, I brought plenty of choices…and in wool or cotton–their choice. This is where I staged what I was to put in the trailer. It doesn’t include the grid wall that was already in the trailer. You’ll see that in use in some of the photos.
I got the classroom set up by Thursday evening. Many thanks go to the person who organized the conference and made sure that I would have two helpers. My two requests for teaching the class were space (this room was great!) and another person (I had two!). With a beginning level class there are a lot of questions along the way one person can’t provide all the answers in a timely manner. There was also the issues of unfamiliar looms getting them set up to work with the class.
Samplers in wool on the left and cotton in the center. On the right are some of my shawls.
One of the perks of teaching this class was staying at Asilomar. My room was at the end of this building.
We set up grid wall to hold warping frames on this side of the room.
The looms were near windows on the other side.
These are only portions of the samplers people could weave.
The workshop was Friday and Saturday with finishing up on Sunday morning.
This is a photo of most of us. Thanks to all of the participants and the helper weavers! I hope to do this again. When I teach this class here at the farm I take three to five people. The class is described here.
Part of the prep for this workshop was planning for farm chores. My husband had a knee replacement only a few weeks before and there were limits to what he was supposed to do. Thanks to a good friend and my brother who handled a lot of that.
When I got home Sunday there was a new lamb which was not a complete surprise, but that’s another story.
I’ve been trying to get the lamb pages on the website updated, so most of the photos I’ve been taking are of individual lambs…and trying to make sure I can read ear tag numbers. If I go out earlier in the morning I sometimes find lambs bedded down next to their moms. There were five sets of triplets this year.
This is Janna with her three lambs–two rams and a ewe.
Bide a wee Trista also has two rams and a ewe. You can’t see the ewe very well–she is mostly black and behind the two spotted lambs.
Sweetgrass Tranquility with triplet ewe lambs.
Addy with her lambs, the first of the season. Addy is a BFL/Jacob cross.
Patchwork Amara was the other ewe to have triplets, but Sparky required intervention and became a bottle lamb. Her story is here and she features in several of the posts since then. Her brothers are 2527 and 2528 on the ram lamb page.
It was a busy over the last week. (Well, it’s always busy, but last week I was scheduling other people into the routine.) On Friday I hosted a field trip of 26 third graders as well as a few other visitors. On Saturday Kira K led a Knitters Retreat, and on Tuesday about 15 homeschoolers visited. These aren’t great photos but I said I’d take photos where the kids are mostly not recognizable.
Jade is in the middle of all those kids and loving it!
These two were glad to have me take photos. The fifth grade boy taught himself to needle felt watching YouTube videos! He came here to buy fleece for his next project and is ambitious enough that he plans to wash the fleece and then felt with it.
Two people from Kira K’s Knitters’ Retreat. A big part of the retreat is going to the barn and cuddling lambs. That’s Sparky on the left and another lamb I’ve been partially bottle-feeding.
Sparky getting her 1 p.m. bottle.
Kira describing the knitting and crochet patterns the attendees were given.
The weather was great and everyone sat outside at the picnic tables the whole day.
Here are some examples of beginning the knitted cowl. These are both naturally dyed Timm Ranch yarn. The yarns are dyed with cosmos, madder, and hollyhock.
I took photos the first day the grandkids were here and shared them in this post. The focus for the next few days was the barn and lambs.
The kids traded off feeding times for Sparky–at least the two mid-day feedings.
No one volunteered for early morning or late night.
We went to Fairfield to have lunch with by brother and sister-in-law. Dave makes sure the GREAT part of Great-Uncle Dave is not forgotten.
On the Sunday of the kids’ visit we went to Jepson Prairie for a docent-led walk through the reserve. The docents scoop aquatic creatures from Olcott Lake prior to the tours and share the containers with the public.
Kasen is looking at a Pacific Chorus Frog.
The view is filled with a flower called Butter and Eggs .
The view to the south shows Mt. Diablo which features prominently is my photos take Across the Road. The clumps of flowers are California Golden Violet.
It is notable that the grass and other plants don’t grow as tall as at other sites. This area dries out quickly and plants have adapted to a short season.
Back at home some of the cousins from Sacramento came to visit.
The weather was nice enough for a snack on the deck.
More lamb feeding.
This photo features Jade and Sparky. I can tell that Sparky will someday replace Jade as the farm’s most friendly sheep.
Meridian Jacobs' Blog 