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.

Dreaming, wobbly, what’s on my head?

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No one is in the house and the computer is free. MY TURN. I know that Robin set up this blog for me, but she said that she’d need to help me with it…

Things are fuzzy. Spinning. I’m up. Chasing rabbits through alfalfa fields...walking around in the kitchen…can’t see to the side...daisies…

I remember getting in the car with Robin. We went to the sheep vet’s place…

Little pink sheep floating through the sky…drool is running out of the thing on my head…biting the old tire swing and flying, flying, flying up in the air…pawing at the plastic thing on my head.

I like the vet when she comes out because it means we’re doing something with sheep. I don’t like going to her place. She had funny things sticking in her ears and she touched my side with the end of it. I had to walk past a scary horse to stand on a wobbly platform. “55” they said.

…1 UPS truck, 2 UPS trucks, 3 UPS trucks, 4 UPS trucks, Fed Ex, 5 UPS trucks…I keep running into things…chasing herons and eagles out of the canal…Pawing the plastic thing.

The vet shaved hair off my side and stuck me with needles. Then Robin carried me into the house and the cat came over to bother me. Now this plastic thing bothers me.

...running around sheep, away, come by, away, come by…I remember I helped Robin catch the big ram named Hudson. I think I did it very well and she could get a halter on him to give him medicine. He stays away from me like he is supposed to.

OK. I hear Robin talking to me but I can’t see her unless I turn my head and then I bump into something. I give up.

 

Boys will be boys

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You saw the photos of the new girls in the flock and how they ran out to greet the rest of the sheep. I brought home two ram lambs as well.

This is Puddleduck 337 (needs a name) and his fleece is below.

This is Ruby Peak Linden.

I put 337 and Linden in the pen with Faulkner and his little buddies (4-horn April ram lamb and 2-horn wether). I figured that there wouldn’t be any issues because the lambs are still on the young side.

Linden, however, thought that he could take on the big guy.

 

 Faulkner finally had enough of the pipsqueak and decided to put him in his place.

One more time for good measure.

That should do it. Now they can be friends.

Wonderful awards

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This is the “official” photo of me with Meridian Vicki and the judge, Martin Dally. (Thanks, Shannon.)

This is a close-up of the award.

Shannon Phifer created needle-felted awards for the Champion Ram and Champion Ewe of the show. I am so pleased to bring this home. Did Shannon have some prior insight? We think that the sheep on the award looks very much like Vicki.

But there is more! The winning sheep was also awarded a halter with a personalized tag!

New sheep in the flock

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When I went to the Jacob Sheep Breeders AGM I took 9 sheep with me. I came home with 10. That was not the original plan. However, five of those sheep are new to the flock.

I don’t have all the right paperwork yet so I don’t remember what Karen named this little girl, but she is from the bide a wee farm in Oregon.This is bide a wee Jewell. Karen and I were going to trade lambs and when I couldn’t decide between the two lambs, they said that they would trade for both. They have beautiful fleeces and I can’t wait for shearing day! Another new face is this pretty ewe lamb from Mud Ranch in California. I am waiting for her paperwork too and I don’t remember what Joan named her.

This is a preview of the Mud Ranch lamb’s fleece.

This pretty lamb is one of my flock. I feel kind of guilty for not trading or selling her, but not guilty enough that I can’t be glad to have her in the flock. This is the little ewe who almost won Best Fleece in the sheep show. (Is it OK to spend the rest of your life saying I “almost won”? I’m proud of that because she was second to the Kenleigh Acres ram who has consistently won everything he has been entered in (and deserves it).This is my little ewe’s fleece. I guess I need to name her now since she is staying here. Her dad is Tioga and her mom is Zip (out of Zelda, whose mom is Zena). How about Zippy? I don’t know if that has quite the image that I want for her.

The three new girls plus Z— joining the rest of the flock.

I brought home some boys too, but i think they deserve a post of their own.

More from AGM

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Yesterday was a busy day at AGM but I didn’t get many photos as I was involved in many of the events.

I did not have room to bring rams to AGM so took a few photos of the ram show. This is Shannon and Joan with their ram lambs. Shannon’s ram, who is going to live with Joan, won Champion Ram.

Rams are sometimes challenging to show.

I will have to wait until friends send me photos of the ewe classes. My yearling ewe won Champion ewe. I was also pleased that the ewe lamb I entered in the Best Fleece class almost won that class. The judge looked at my ewe lamb and Shannon’s ram lamb, went back and forth between the two, talked about them both, and then gave the award to Shannon (whose ram is truly beautiful). Even though in the real life of livestock production awards don’t mean anything (and some of the best producing sheep would never win a ribbon) it’s sure fun when you do win!

Workshops were scheduled after the sheep show. I taught a rainbow dye class to about a dozen women.

Shannon taught wet felting…

…and needle-felting.

We enjoyed excellent meals and company and meeting new people and a lot of sheep changed hands. I had a full load on the way back (in fact one more sheep came home with me than I took north) and didn’t dawdle on the drive. The temperature hit 100 by the time I was in Redding and didn’t go below 90 until I was about 45 minutes from home. (I have A/C, but the sheep do not.) I think this was the fastest trip I’ve ever made back from the Eugene area. It was about 7 1/2 hours (including my 9 minute nap at the Rogue River rest stop).

Back in California.

JSBA AGM in OR

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What is that title–alphabet soup? No, it’s the Jacob Sheep Breeders Association Annual General Meeting in Oregon. That’s where I am right now. The AGM is hosted this year by my friends, Shannon and Tony Phifer of Kenleigh Acres Farm. I drove here yesterday with 9 sheep and a truck full of fleeces, dye equipment (for a workshop), etc.

Most of the activities are at Shannon’s neighbor’s place. There is a wonderful barn with plenty of room for all the sheep and people.

Jacob breeders came from as far away as Pennsylvania and Missouri.

Before the official start of activities Karen Lobb of bide a wee Farm gave some pointers to people who had brought fleeces to enter in the wool show.

It could be said that Karen really gets into her job. What do you think? Maybe it was this touch that helped present the winning fleece of the show, exhibited by Joan of Mud Ranch Jacobs.

This is Doug Montgomery evaluating fleeces in the wool show.

“What about Me?” says Rusty

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“I just read that last post that Robin wrote and the most important face wasn’t there! I’ll take care of that.”

“This is me when I first came to live with Robin and her family.”

“I remember this day. Robin was taking picture of baby lambs and this one just didn’t understand that I’m in charge here.”

“Who ever heard of a lamb in the house? I don’t know why those people think lambs should be in the house. A lamb in the house…Geeez! (By the way, I think this lamb now lives with my friend, Mobi. I hope Mobi’s mom doesn’t bring the lamb in the house.)”

“This is where sheep should be and this is what I should be doing about 20 hours/day.”

“Sometimes I get to go for runs across the road. Not quite as good as herding, but when there are no sheep around, it’s OK.”

“Robin and her crazy husband took me on a 14 miles hike. I don’t know why they didn’t cool off in the water at the end.”

“Here I am keeping the Farm Club in line and making sure that lamb doesn’t escape.”

“Do you like hearing from me? This is kind of fun. Maybe I’ll sneak to the computer again sometime.”

Faces on the Farm

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 A ram lamb with a nice horn spread.

Hudson surrounded by the young rams.

A ewe lamb.

Amaryllis

 

More amaryllis

Paulette and her lambs born at State Fair.

 Just another pretty face.

Stephanie.

The youngest ram lamb born in the spring and Clint’s only son. He would have gone to the State Fair except that he injured his mouth and lost three front teeth the week before.

 Faulkner.

 

Gravity is our friend

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Gravity is a big help when it comes to moving 30 tons of hay into the barn.

Chris moved into “favorite child” status as he spent the day moving part of my 6 stacks of hay into the barn. I spent most of the time moving accumulated stuff to make room for the hay, moving pallets, and using gravity at the top of the stack, but I got to take a 2 hour break when I had people here for a weaving class.

This is Chris on top of the fourth stack.Here is what 10 tons looks like in the barn.

Gravity is a big help for my part of moving hay, but Chris gets to do all of the anti-gravity part. He moved about 17 tons of hay today…only 13 to go!

 

 

Photos on the farm

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I needed to get photos of lambs to update my website. It’s hard to sell a 5 month old lamb with photos taken when it was 2 months old. I sorted lambs, took photos and then somehow between the camera and the computer the photos were gone. They disappeared off the card. Take 2. Now the sheep were out in the pasture. I had moved the portable electric fence so that the sheep would graze the ditch in anticipation of irrigating this week.

The dallis-grass is heading out. At this stage it’s hard to get the sheep to eat it all. They don’t like the stalks and the leaves are getting coarse.

It’s kind of hard to get photos of sheep in this jungle. The flowering part of the dallis-grass is also sticky. The sheep get sticky grazing here and then the dirt sticks to them. It will take a good rain to clean off the fleeces.

Amaryllis doesn’t seem to mind the dust and dirt.

In fact, I think she likes it.

It’s easier to get photos of sheep back in the corral area.

Do you suppose it’s time to wean some lambs?

A pretty pose.