When doing chores this morning I saw these ewes that I assumed would lamb during the day.
Summer didn’t show much interest in breakfast.
Laura looked uncomfortable.
This is Summer again, looking even bigger. No lambs yet, but I’m going to the barn now for the last check before bed.
The rams are jealous of the ewes that got to go out in the pasture. That is Hudson, Clapton , and Clint.
I spent the day in Sacramento at the annual Open House. I took my new extra wide Ashford drum carder. Wow, is it a workhorse!
I washed two fleeces last night so that I’d have something to work on and I carded half of each.
I love this new carder and I can’t wait until I have time to spin this wool.
Summer is waiting, but that’s not the season. It’s Summer, the sheep.
This is Summer on January 5.
January 17.
This is today, February 5. I don’t have a breeding date for Summer but I don’t think she lost any time after I put Clint in with her group. About a week ago I started giving her a little grain at feeding time, along with Paulette, who I know is pregnant with triplets after an ultrasound.
They both have to share their grain with the chicken who now comes running when she sees me get the grain bowls out.
I took these photos a couple of weeks ago after our one and only January storm.
Dina
Lola
Hot Lips
Stephanie
Faulkner
Amaryllis
TNNA is The National Needle Arts Association. I have just been at the winter trade show in Phoenix. This is where wholesalers show their newest lines of yarns, accessories, and gadgets and retailers make selections while trying not to max out their credit cards.
Sunrise over Phoenix from the 6th floor of the Hilton. I stayed with my good friend, Irene, owner of Cotton Clouds.
This is the inside of the Hilton looking down from the 6th floor. I reminded me of the space-age Jetson’s. (I know this dates me.) The Hilton was a nice hotel, but the internet was down for the last night we were there. That was frustrating as I wanted to work on my new newsletter (stay tuned) and the blog. But there were other things to keep us entertained.
Inside the Phoenix Convention Center.
I took a class on Thursday afternoon and in the evening went to Sample It where retailers can purchase selected items from the vendors so that they have something to take home. Look at what I got!
The show opened on Friday with an Apache blessing.
This is the first show since the Spinning & Weaving Group became a part of TNNA. Their debut was marked by some fun garments in the fashion show…
…and a beautiful blanket.
Irene and I spent time discussing new weaving projects and choosing items for both of our stores.
Someone who will remain nameless pretending that she is not in a booth full of wool.
Irene and I have been friends for 31 years. We had a great time together and I am grateful to her for helping me with things relating to my business. (I’m also grateful that she had a car in Phoenix and is willing to ship all my clothes home to me because I couldn’t take them and my new books and fun samples home on the plane.)
There is a photoshoot next week for the Fibershed Marketplace and I have wanted to get some new items ready for it. I have boxes of yarn that I have intended to use and have just never got to. Now is the time. In fact, my goal is to use up all of these boxes by the end of the year.
First box–Single ply Jacob yarn spun years ago at Yolo Wool Mill.
Three scarves in a plaited twill. They feel nice, but have a few issues. They curl at the edges because this is an unbalanced twill–warp emphasis on one side and weft emphasis on the other. Besides that the center stripe turned out to be something else. It probably has some llama fiber in it–it has less elasticity than the rest so it puckers. Are these design features? It serves me right for keeping yarn for so long that I don’t remember what it is.
Second box. Full of funky, slubby, heavy handspun yarn, mostly spun by my mom–that means it was many years ago. It will make wonderful throws.
Here it is going on to the loom.
I wove two blankets using the handspun as warp and the finer singles yarn from the first box for weft. Handspun yarn has such a nice feel to it–I don’t think you can duplicate that with millspun yarn.
Third box–heavy 2-ply mill-spun Jacob yarn.
On the loom.
I was going to make ponchos, but I took this off the loom and decided that it was a great shawl (and if it was a shawl it was finished–no cutting and sewing). It is very soft with wonderful drape.
Three boxes started. I haven’t counted how many more to go.
Lambing won’t start for 4 weeks but there are some ewes that look as though they shouldn’t wait that long, especially when you realize that 70% of total fetal growth occurs during the last third of pregnancy.
Sparkle was bred as soon as I put her with the ram. She is due February 18, a month away.
I don’t have a breeding date for Summer, but she is obviously pregnant.
I’ll be surprised if she doesn’t have triplets.
Jimmy is out there with the ewes and he is a very luck sheep. Most males that do not make the cut as breeding rams end up in the freezer. When he was a young lamb, I thought Jimmy had breeding potential. In fact I had a buyer for him. She was very disappointed when, after taking a closer look at him at about 3 1/2 months of age, I would not sell him for breeding. I was knew that his lower horn on the left would be a problem, but what was not obvious until I looked more closely was the freckling.
In this photo you can’t see the freckling, but when I parted the fleece I could see it. Freckling in a young lamb is a disqualifying trait for Jacob sheep registration. It increases with age and it is almost as if a spotted sheep turns into an overall gray sheep. Jimmy has a beautiful fleece (although not appropriate for a breeding ram) so I decided to keep him as a wether. The horn issue was dealt with when he was castrated because, without testosterone, the horn growth slows drastically.
Why keep a wether? When you have to separate a ram for whatever reason, he needs a buddy to keep him company. Sheep do not do well by themselves. The other wether I have right now is Jerry (nice fleece, but too much black for a breeding ram)…
…and he is Faulkner’s permanent buddy.
Wow! Look at that grass!
This photo was taken a few years ago in early February.
Here is another that shows the edge of the pasture.
This is the same field as in the first photo and the larger pasture is in the background. Why the difference? No rain.
The Central Valley of California has a Mediterranean climate–hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. We count on the winter rains (and snow in the mountains), starting some time in October or November and continuing through April or May (and last year, into June) to fill reservoirs, replenish aquifers, and to grow grass. Normally the annual grasses start growing when it rains in the fall and when it gets warmer in the spring the grass growth takes off and we get the kind of growth as seen in that first photo. The annual grasses dry out in the spring, but can still provide feed through the summer when properly managed. The cycle starts over with the next fall rains.
I have irrigated pasture. I usually have the best of two worlds. I take advantage of that lush spring growth of annual plants…
Grazing annual ryegrass as some of the other annuals are drying out.
…but I start irrigated in May or June. Through the summer, when livestock on dry land eat dry feed, my sheep eat perennial forages that include clovers and birdsfoot trefoil.
Birdsfoot trefoil
Clover
The perennial plants drastically slow their growth in the winter but rely on winter rain to grow strong root systems and be ready to support new growth in the summer. Look at the next photo taken two weeks ago.
Annual grasses that germinated after the good rain in November have since died. Some plants are still trying valiantly to hang on but there is virtually no growth. The dry grass in this photo is the remnants of the late summer growth of less desirable yellow foxtail and bermudagrass.
This photo is behind the barn. That clump of grass in the foreground is under the place where any moisture (fog, dew) drips off the roof. Had there been normal rainfall the whole place would look like that.
Let’s hope we see the rain that has been promised for this week so we can look forward to this scene soon.
I made new buttons this week. This is a multi-step process and after each step I know that I have not priced my buttons too high. If I were to show all the steps the first photo would be the head of a sheep (butchered for meat). Then there would be the photo of cutting the horns off the dead head. (Lately this step has been done by the person who butchers sheep, but I used to have to do that myself.) The next step is letting the horns sit in a bucket of water for a week or so. The hotter the weather the better, because the slimy parts that are between the bony core and the outside horn get rotten and smelly and then I can pull the outer horn off. Then I’m left with this:
I use a band saw to cut the horns into button shapes. That was a huge improvement over the table saw. I could easily cut a finger off with the band saw but it is probably not as likely as with the table saw. These are pieces that are ready for the next step:
I still need to drill holes and sand these buttons. Then I finish each button with polyurethane.
Rounded buttons.
Squarish buttons.
Shawl pins (without the pin part).
These are for sale on my website
What did I do to deserve such good friends? Look at my Christmas present from Jackie.
These are four placemats. Jackie bought fiber from me, then spun it, knit it, felted it, and then needlefelted the designs. (Is that little red hen in the corner Jackie’s self-portrait?)
Here are close-ups:
Amaryllis
Hudson is the lilac ram so he is on a mat of lilac wool.
This is the bantum chicken that hangs out in the barn.
Stephanie
Thanks so much, Jackie. This is an amazing gift.
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