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.

Spinning on the Farm

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I spent yesterday at Spinning on the Farm, an event hosted by the Sonoma County Fiber Trails. Beautiful location, great weather, fun people. It’s hard to know what to take to an event like this. It’s only one day and it takes a lot of time to take apart my whole shop, box it all up, load it, set up the booth, take it all down, load the trailer again, put it all back in the shop. Is it worth taking it all? I find that there is usually no one big seller and I usually sell a little of everything so that’s what I take.

 

Isn’t that a beautiful backdrop for a booth? I brought dyed Merino roving, silk/merino fiber and scarf kits, latchhook pillow kits, notecards, and books…

…WoolPets felt kits, Thomas Joseph notecards and buttons, and spinning tools…

…wool socks…

…yarn…and much more.

Spinners get their gear  to and from the parking lot by tractor hay-ride.

What group of spinners gets together without thinking of food? As always, the potluck was delicious.

Spinners spend the day spinning, knitting, eating, visiting, and shopping in this beautiful setting above the Russian River.

 

Something is up there that shouldn’t be.

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There are only two reasons that I know of that Rusty doesn’t want to go to the barn. One is THUNDER, which we don’t have very often. Here is the other:

 

Now that the rain has stopped (and, by the way, it is supposed to be in the mid-90’s next week) this is Balloon Season. I had another Border Collie who was also afraid of the balloons. I’m not afraid of them but I resent them. If some of you like the romantic idea of floating around in a balloon then stop reading this. I don’t want to tarnish your image of them and spoil your fantasies.

Ant Farm. That’s what I feel like when there are balloons overhead. Am I supposed to look up from what I’m doing in the yard or the pasture and wave and smile for a photo? Or do I go about my normal work so “they” in the balloon can observe what we do in our natural setting? I tend to go in the barn and stay there until the balloons are far away.

This morning’s balloons never made it that close, but for Rusty it’s enough to look to the west and see this huge floaty thing that hisses and doesn’t belong in the sky.

Silk Challenge-Part 2

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When I have new fibers or yarns and am trying to figure out how to use them my first step is to sample. Sometimes this is a full-sized sample. For instance I go ahead and weave a blanket or a scarf, etc and learn as I go how the yarns work together and decide if I like it or if I should change something next time.

The silk challenge poses a different problem for me. I don’t have any idea of how these yarns will work and I don’t really have an end project in mind although a scarf is one idea. By the way, the responses to the last blog were good ideas

  • color and weave effect
  • accent colors on woven sheep as in  some very cool sheep paintings that Dona sent
  • fabric for the “squares jacket” that Diane brought to WWW
So my first step was to wind a narrow warp and experiment with weft. I started with the heavier red silk yarn at 6 epi.  I used the sari silk yarn, silk rags and bamboo yarn in various combinations of fiber and weave structure. Interesting but nothing jumps out at me.
My next sample was to use the sari silk yarn for warp. I was hesitant about this because it is so “hairy” I thought that it might not work well as the warp. At 6 epi it worked fine in this narrow sample and I like the results better than the first warp. I will have to evaluate all these different sections as to drape, durability, etc and decide where to go with this project.
These are the samples. One thing that I don’t necessarily like about using the silk strips is that the colors become blocky–weaving 3-4 inches of each color. If I wove a wider piece that wouldn’t be as much of an issue but it will be in a narrow scarf.
In this sample I alternated colored strips so that one color blends into the next. I also beat more tightly. This wouldn’t be very good for a scarf but would be a great jacket or mat.
I like this part. I alternated the strips with the sari silk in a twill. This is beat more loosely so there is better drape, but it could be considered sleazy if the fabric was to be used for something that needed firmness.

A Silk Challenge

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These are strips of silk. You can see the iridescence in some of them.

 

 

Here is another set of silk strips.

And this is the challenge. Choose a yarn for warp (choices are thin bamboo or a heavier silk) and weave something from these strips. I’ll report back when I have something. Any ideas?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday

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In a round-about way I figured out how out how to find my photos that are resized for the blog. I will probably learn a better way later.

My friend, Jackie, had asked me to check Rusty’s social calendar  for Wednesday because she needed help moving her sheep into the shelter in preparation for shearing a few of them today. What a difference a dog makes. Poor Rusty didn’t get to do much because once he showed up the sheep WANTED to go in the shelter with the llama.

Back at the shop, here is what UPS delivered today. This is silk/merino sliver in several colors. Soft, ready to spin.

And this is soft Merino fiber. Now I need to get this posted on my website.

Learning curve

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I have a new computer! Yippee! I’ve been thinking about this for a year. I debated desktop vs. laptop. Laptop won. I debated PC vs Mac. At first I decided that I had to stay with the PC but Mac eventually won out. I’m having a good time with it, but I don’t have any of my “work” on it yet. No Quickbooks. No Office. I have been playing with photos, but still don’t know how to resize them to put them here. If I figure it out before this post is done there will be a photo. If not, I’ll wait until I visit my DIL who is going to help me or I go to the class at the Apple store.

Experiments with Fire

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Faithful readers of this blog will have read my whining about medusahead in the pasture. Medusahead is a noxious annual grass, unpalatable due to high silica content. Due to it’s later date of maturation, it is noticeable on the hills as the light green color when the other annual grasses have dried out. After it has gone to seed it leaves a dense litter through which nothing else will germinate. Medusahead covers part of one of my paddocks and is increasing in area. During my visit to Jepson Prairie (see pretty pictures in last post) I read the signs about how they had used prescribed fire to control medusahead. “Fire is usually 100% effective at controlling medusahead if done before its seed heads shatter.”

A couple of months ago I bought a fire-breather tool (I can’t remember the real name) that is attached to a propane tank. It is sold for use in weed control, particularly when weeds are small. It’s intended use is to heat the  plants and burst the cells rather than actually setting them on fire. I thought I’d experiment in the field. Having just irrigated (in addition to unexpected May rain) the plants were wet and there was even standing water in many areas of the pasture. I wasn’t worried about starting any wildfire.

On the way to the medusahead I saw a thistle. Normally I’d just dig this up, but having a propane tank  rather than a shovel, I blasted it with fire. You can see the singed leaves.

This is the thistle the next day. It may not have killed the whole plant, but you can see how it destroys the part that was heated. If the plant was very small that would be the end of it.

I didn’t really have a plan but started burning various parts of the medusahead covered area. Because of the moisture content, I wasn’t seeing much fire, but I was singing off the bristly parts of the seeds and burning a little of the litter. Then I noticed this.

Notice the forbs growing under the medusahead. I don’t want to kill those plants. I want to encourage them. This made me wonder if it would be effective to just burn (or superheat) the tops of the medusahead. This brought up several questions.  Would super-heating it stop the seed from developing? Are the seeds already viable even though the plants life cycle isn’t complete? If I heat the top of the plant enough to burn off the outer part of the seed head will it kill the seeds? If I do this will the plant produce more seed heads? I decided I needed a test-plot.

I used fiberglass fence posts to make 5 plots. The two upright fence posts mark two corners. They are hard to see, but trust me, they are there.

My plots are:

1. Flame (superheat) the tops of the medusahead long enough to burn off the outer halo of the seed heads.  Are the seeds already viable? If they aren’t, will this stop their development. If they are viable, will this kill them. I don’t know.

2. Flame the tops of the medusahead longer than in #1 so that I can see more damage done to the seed head. Same questions as #1.

3. Flame the stalk of the plant in between the base and the seed head. If the seeds aren’t already viable will this stop the development?

4. Flame the base of the plant to damage it.

5. Burn the whole *#@&^% thing.

Remember that the plants are wet from rain, the plants are still green, and in some places there is plenty of ground moisture if not standing water. If this were “normal” conditions I’d probably be starting a fire. And it may be that FIRE is the best answer. Even if I succeeed in reducing the seed produced by the medusahead, in much of the area there is still that heavy thatch which probalby needs to be burned off. And maybe I need to completely remove the plant and it’s seed by incinerating it.  But that’s another issue.

There are too many photos to post here, but I’ll give you an example of what I did.

Here is Plot 2 before burning.

This is a close-up of the tops of the plants after burning.

This is a view of the plot the next day.

This is Plot 3

This is Plot 3 after burning.

Plot 3 the next day.

I don’t know what all this will tell me. I didn’t set this up so that these are permanent plots and I think I want to burn everything to be sure. But I have raised some questions for which I want to find answers. I know a couple of people to ask. I’ll report back if I learn something.

Jepson Prairie

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I wasn’t sure if I had missed most of the wildflower show at Jepson Prairie Reserve but I thought I’d go see this morning. Jepson Prairie is a natural area owned by the Solano Land Trust. The website says:

The reserve protects one of the best few remaining vernal-pool habitats, which are found only in the western United States and few other places in the world, as well as precious remnants of native bunchgrass prairie that once covered one-fourth of California.

Today’s weather is a bit crazy for May. The reserve is just about 10-15 miles southeast of our place and I was watching the black clouds as I got closer.  As I got out of the car I saw lightening and decided to wait it out for awhile (in the car). So I drove down the road through the reserve.

I can’t find my bird book so I’m going to count on my best birding friend (I was going to say Claire, but now there are more birding friends out there) to chime in here.

No that’s not snow in the background. It’s the hills that are drying out.

As green as it is in my pasture and in the surrounding farm land, the Central Valley would be a desert without water. So the prairie is drying out and I missed a lot of the wildflowers for the year, but not all.

The flowers that are blooming now are the ones that can handle the drying conditions. Now I don’t have the excuse of “I can’t find my wildflower book.” I used to know most of these flowers and now I can’t remember them. But I still enjoy them.

I think I remember this one –  Calochortus, Mariposa Lily.

Even the dry grass is pretty since I’m not worrying about foxtails here.

Here is the spectacular show. The rings of flowers around the lake change as the lake dries up later in the spring.

I think this is Gold Fields.

When you look closely you see another flower. Downingia comes from the recesses of my brain, but i don’t know if that is right.

Farm Club Comes Through Again

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I sent an e-mail Friday  to the Farm Club  in which I said I was going to vaccinate lambs today and did anyone want to help? Dona and Tina were already planning on being here for a spinning class in the morning so they said that they would stay. Jacki, Shelby, and Allison came too.  Wow! What great response with only 24 hours’ notice.

I bought a new tool. For years I have been vaccinating with single dose syringes. That means that you have to reload the syringe each time you give an injection.

I just never thought about doing it differently, but I was at Higby’s Country Feed Store (my favorite store) and saw this syringe. There is a bit of a learning curve (remember to tighten needle, make sure you depress the handle part all the way, don’t drop because the barrel is glass–OOPS!), but what a huge difference it will make after I replace the glass part that broke about a third of the way into the job.

I appreciate all the Farm Club members (who are now friends) who show up for projects like this. Shelby manned the camera, as well as caught lambs and played with the loose chicken.

Alison, Jackie, Tina, and Dona all helped catch and mark lambs and…

fill syringes (after the unfortunate incident with the new one).

Shelby took the following portraits.

After vaccinating I let all the sheep out but then needed to catch one more lamb.

So Rusty had a chance to get involved also.

Thanks to all of you for helping. Wait until you hear about the next unscheduled Farm Day. I think it’s coming up soon.