Category Archives: Farm life

Today on the Farm

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There was a lot I wanted to accomplish this morning before people came for a dye day. So when I woke up at 5-something I got up. I went to the barn for chores.

The sunset really was this intense this morning.

Every so often the Wednesday Weavers meet in person instead of just on Zoom. I know this isn’t Wednesday, but it was the day that several people could come for dyeing. I had planned to wind some warps to dye, but ran out of time after catching up with email and computer stuff and hemming Year to Remember blankets and photographing them.

This is a custom blanket for the birthday year and place of the recipient. Each color represents a 10 degree range of the high temperature for the day and I weave two threads for each 365 days of the year starting with January. This customer chose her colors.

These are three more blankets on that same warp. In this case, they represent 2023 in Vacaville and show how the stripe pattern will be the same for a given year and location, but the colors can be completely different. These will be listed on the website when I have time.

This is one of the three blankets in a “lifestyle” photo.

I think seven people came for Dye Day. I don’t do this for this group as an official class. They have all become friends and I can provide the space and materials to have a fun day. Fortunately we avoided rain today and even had a bit of sun at times. Usually we choose to do either protein fibers or cellulose because they use two different dyes and procedures. This time I got it all out.

I ended up dyeing some chenille warps that I found in a bag when I cleaned out the dye corner a month ago. These are four 7-yard warps of 4 to 5″ wide each. I think I must have wound these years ago to use up white and light colored yarns that I don’t usually use for my chenille scares. The narrow width means that I intended to wind solid colors to mix with these painted warps when they go on the loom.

After we finished I finally came to the house to sit awhile and immediately got a text from Dan to say that there was a sheep with a coat problem and the other sheep were all panicked. I found April with the coat neck behind one front leg with the rest of it wrapping around underneath. She couldn’t get her foot away from the part on the ground so obviously wasn’t walking correctly. The sheep would panic and run away from her. But she wanted to be with the rest, so she’d follow.

That is one reason that I am not a big fan of coats, but look at the fleece underneath. We are only three days away from shearing and I wasn’t about to risk this fleece at this point. I had changed coats a few weeks ago. The point of changing coats is to go up a size so that the fleece doesn’t cot (felt on the sheep). But I guess this one had a leg strap that was too loose and eventually April got tangled up in it.

I found another coat of the same size. I wanted to tighten up the leg straps. Here are the tools.

The solution is to tuck a small rock under the coat and hold it in place with an elastrator band.

Now the coat fits just right.

The day isn’t over. I need to do chores right away and then I’m presenting a slide show to a weavers guild over Zoom. Got to go.

Just Another Day (or Two) on the Farm

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I can’t think of a title for this post. Unplanned Tasks. Distracted by Other Stuff. Digging up Bones. What I did instead of weave or wrap presents. Sheep Skulls.
This is from two days ago. I remembered these sheepskins in the barn. We had three rams harvested in early December. I salted the hides and they cured like they are supposed to. But then I forgot about them. Last week we had a significant amount of rain and dampness for several days. The hides were in the barn and weren’t rained on, but the salt absorbs moisture from the air. These were very wet, including puddles of water on the skin where it wasn’t well supported. I took them outside and put them on racks that I tilted to help water drain. I knew if I put them back in the barn they’d be wet again overnight. I brought them to the house. Fortunately I have “the weaving house”, another house on the property that I have taken over for my projects. I spread them out there, and turned on the heater and the ceiling fan. I was going to box them and ship them yesterday, but decided that they weren’t quite dry enough to pack into a box since over the Christmas holiday there would be a delay before the box was open. I spread them out in the house again, but moved them into my sewing room (second bedroom) because my son and DIL just arrived from Idaho with their cats and dogs. They’ll be here a week. I’ll ship these hides the day after Christmas. The skulls on the upside-down tub are another story (below).

That evening I found a scrap of a sheep coat on the barn floor and knew that there must be more of the coat somewhere–hopefully not entangling a sheep with a fence or branch. I found SilverSun, the same lamb who featured in this post from December 6 with the same problem. The coat was around her middle so tight that it was difficult to get her front leg back through even bent at the knee. Eventually I got her out of the coat.

This one is not going on the repair pile. It’s not worth it.

I debated leaving her without a coat, but with only four weeks until shearing I hate to do that. None of the sheep are coated all year but she has worn a coat for several months.

I put this coat on her. I think it is a little snug and I hope that I don’t regret that, but I don’t want to risk her getting stuck in one again.

The skulls on the tub in the first photo are from the many skulls in the barn waiting for me to do something with them. I hosed those off and was letting them dry. Yesterday I decided to soak them in a peroxide solution to see if they would lighten up. That led to thinking about all the other skulls around. I have an email from someone who wants to find out about skulls AS IS without me trying to do all the extra work. I needed to figure out what I have and take photos.

I didn’t go into detail but this post of August 27 says that I found the ram, Townes, dead two days prior. There is a photo of him (alive). To be realistic about the farm as a business I need to try a salvage what I can from the sheep. A skull with four horns that size has real value–if it’s cured and cleaned properly. By the time I found Townes, it was too late to take his hide. We didn’t take the head at that time because it was so swollen I wondered if it would explode if I used a knife or saw. We buried the whole ram. I tied baling twine around a horn so I could keep track of where to dig later. I don’t have enough experience to know for sure how long bones should be in the dirt. I’m sure conditions of heat, moisture, and type of soil all have an effect. And this was more than bones–it was the whole sheep with skin and wool all intact. So that was four months ago.

Here is what the skull looks like after hosing it off. I was able to pull the outer horn off the bone. Now I have to figure out how best to thoroughly clean the skull. I have saved several recommendations. I think the first step is to make sure there is no more tissue–that may mean simmering (but paying close enough attention so it doesn’t come to a boil) for awhile first. That’s always challenging because I get distracted by doing other things. Even with a time set I may not pay close enough attention. This is the kind of thing that I’d be simmering outside and not on the kitchen stove. If that is successful, then there is degreasing in soapy water, then soaking in a peroxide solution. All of it will have to wait at least a week.

Then I decided to dig up the rest of the skulls I’d buried after harvest days throughout the summer. Many may have been in the ground too long. At least I should have pulled off the outer horns because they deteriorate faster than the skull. There is still tissue on some of these especially at the base of the skull. Some of the bones on the front of the face are missing. This is why I may sell them AS IS if someone else wants to tackle them. I feel like this is something that I should be able to do, but there is always something else I want to do too.

These two aren’t bad and I think I’ll experiment to see how well I can clean them.

Here are two more that are in worse condition.

I have many more in the barn from earlier in the year and there are still a few out back that I did not bury. I guess I should check on those.

Random Farm Photos

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This post is just what the title says. You may have seen some of these on Instagram if you happen to notice them among all the others that bombard you.

Ginny on her bed. She likes to take things out of the recycle bin on the back porch. That’s why the oil bottle is there. That moose has been a favorite inside toy since she was a puppy. Amazing that at age 9 the moose is still here with only a couple of repairs.

Four Jacob rams with hills in the background.

The rams that are still here after the last culling. Left to right: Meridian Blizzard, Meridian Typhoon (both born in March 2023), Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, and Fair Adventure Horatio (both born in 2021). There will be lambs sired by all of these rams in February.

Devil's claw seedpods dried out so they are open. Pasture and trees in the background.

Devil’s claw pods. I have these listed for craft or decorative use on the website. I had an order the other day so I thought I’d take more photos while I was gathering them. Not only do they get tangled up with each other, the points on those claws are very sharp. These are not a good plant to have around when you’re raising fiber animals. If I see them on the sheep side of the fence they are removed. I gather these from places where there are no sheep.

Across the Road with Ginny yesterday before the rain. There is hardly any water in the cement ditch now, but what is there is stagnant and slimy and muddy. Ginny was hot from chasing the ball and thought it was a good idea to lie down in that.

Border Collie focus.

This morning’s look at the rain gauge. It’s about time we started to get some real rain.

Most of the flock after feeding in the morning. I think I count 40 sheep here…and a goat.

There are eight sheep here so there must be a few at another feeder. The hardest question to answer is “how many sheep do you have?” I think there are 53 ewes, 2 wethers, and 5 rams now.

And 4 chickens. The rooster is a new addition.

I’ve been finishing up some weaving projects. I usually weave rayon chenille scarves, but decided to weave a series of shawls. These are two different shawls on the same warp with slightly different weft colors

This is on the same warp with a different color weft, but stitched together to create a poncho of sorts. I really like how it came out. Even though the sewing adds a bit of work, I think it takes far less time than twisting all those fringes. I hope that this style is popular because I’d like to make more of these.

Today on the Farm

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Who says we don’t have fall color? I’ll count blue as one of those colors too.

Today we were holding a class in the front part of the garage and I needed to organize the corner where I’d been piling natural dye plants, pots, walnuts, torn sheep coats and more for months. The reason it was on the table is that the shelves along the walls were filled with STUFF–the stuff that accumulates when you don’t have a space to put it and you think you might want it someday…maybe. Or at least you can’t throw it away because maybe it’s useful. I don’t have a photo of the BEFORE. But here is part of the AFTER. I feel so much better after that. I think I should go do some dyeing. Notice those stainless steel containers on the top shelves on the right. My Dad had a lab at UCSF a long time ago. He used those in his lab. They never wear out. Some still have his name on them — R Pratt.

I opened a bag in a cupboard and found all of these bags of various mordants or dye aids and natural dyes that I don’t grow. The two with clothespins are ones I collected (madder root I grew and osage orange across the road).The rest were purchased by someone. Maybe me many years ago. This is the kind of thing you find when you get into deep cleaning. I don’t have a photo of the table full of stuff that Maybe My Kids Will Want. Fingers crossed.

I found these warps of rayon chenille waiting to be dyed. I don’t know how long they have been there in the garage.

So I felt very productive today all the while getting the place organized for the class. Farm Club member, Siobhan, taught her Vegetarian Sheepskin class to five people. they came from Auburn, Pleasonton, and Oakland as well as more local. We sure lucked out on the weather. It was cold but not rainy or windy.

We had roving and fleece for everyone and Siobhan supplied other needed supplies.

Participants arranged the fiber on bubble wrap and netting.

They applied soap and hot water.

The table is a good height for working on the fleece.

Lots of pressing and rubbing…

…followed by rolling.

Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of everyone’s finished pieces. Hopefully they will share photos later and I can include them in another post.

Siobhan spent the previous night here so we could get organized for the class.

She found this book on the Farm Club shelf. I’m not sure where I got it. It’s possible it was donated by another member. Imagine Siobhan’s surprise when she recognized the author’s name.

She recognized the author as her husband’s relative, but wasn’t sure the relationsihip. I gave her the book to take home and it turns out that this author is Shiobhan’s husband’s great-great uncle. How random is that?

I finished the day with a walk Across the Road. That is a view of Mt. Diablo from a spot where i take a lot of photos with the intent of showing the year progression in this field–I just never get around to putting it all together. That didn’t really finish the day. I worked on one of the looms with things I’m trying to finish before Christmas. I’ve been at the computer since just after dinner. I’m ready for bed, but right now hearing a party going on well across the road or up the road or somewhere. That’s unusual. It’s almost always very quiet here.

Week in Review – SF, Sheep, Weaving

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So much for my one blog post every day routine. It’s been a week. I think I had a set back last weekend. I often work on the computer in the late evening. Last Friday I went to bed earlier than normal because I had to get up early for the next day’s event. That backfired. I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.

Charlene (Integrity Alpacas, creator of Gardener’s Gold, and my down-the-road neighbor) and I left at 5 a.m. for San Francisco to be part of the Fibershed booth at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market.

We arrived at dawn and some people were already setting up. It had been raining and continued to rain and drizzle off and on all day.

This is the opposite view from our location.

A few Fibershed producers arrived, and we finished setting up in time for the market to open. There were twelve producers represented at the booth.

Do you recognize any fabric here? Gynna (creator of Soil to Soil Market is using some of my woven pieces to create earrings! (FYI – Soil to Soil Market is open, there are still only two of us listed while there is more behind-the-scenes work.)

This was a cold, wet day. Thankfully we were able to pack up when the market was over at 2. When Charlene went to the parking garage to get her truck she found it, along with six other vehicles, had been broken into. Her rear passenger side window was shattered and the truck had been searched. The next day after, a night of freezing temperature, the front passenger window had shattered and you could tell where it had been hit first but hadn’t yet broken.

I didn’t feel warm until that night in bed (early). I’m ready to stay home.

Back to farm life.

This is SilverSun, one of the March 2023 lambs. I changed coats a couple of weeks ago. Its always a gamble to figure out which coat is big enough to give room for more wool to grow but fits well enough to stay in place. I had bought some new coats last summer and I they fit a little differently. She had probably got a back leg out of the strap and then the front was loose enough to get a front leg through. Eventually the neck opening was around her middle and she was trapped with the coat dragging underneath. The other sheep were harassing her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

Here she is in one of the old style coats that has been patched. That’s a better fit.

Ewes (and a goat) in the small field behind the shop.

I’ve been focused on weaving…all the weaving that I wish I had done earlier in the year to be ready for the holidays. These are three wool shawls now at The Artery in Davis.

I’m also creating other pieces using odd bits of handwoven fabric. These pillows are at The Artery.

At Spinners Day Out on Friday a friend who had harvested our pomegranates brought me a treat of pomegranate soda!

Also at Spinners Day Out, our youngest friend, daughter of one of the original Farm Club members, went to the barn to visit with Jade. (That’s a stuffed kitty snuggled in her clothes.)

Back to normal work–weaving, website, sheep, etc.

Today on the Farm – A Day of Random Projects

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Could I actually write a post a day? This is two in a row. I don’t want to bore anyone who clicks here, but I think I could always find photos to write about.

I shared this photo on IG this morning. This is me trying to stay warm while looking at IG before getting out of bed. The woven piece has meaning. After I had the major accident in 2019 my Farm Club friends got together at one friend’s house and wove this shawl/blanket using handspun yarn they had all brought. I think some weren’t even weavers, but Mary had the warp on the loom and guided them all through it. I have my own woven blankets around here but this one always makes me think of friends.

By the way if you go to that link in the last paragraph you’ll find lots of typos. That is because my small motor control still wasn’t very good and I couldn’t type very well.

I have been harvesting my walnut crop. When the wind blows the walnuts off the tree a lot of them are still in husks. I can’t throw all those husks away when I know what great color they give. I had a bucket of husks that had been soaking for a week and decided to use them this morning.

I also decided that its time to do something about the skulls that are in various stages of progress in the barn and the garage. I never get them as beautifully white as most you see for sale, but I still sell them. This one needed a little glue.

Dan’s project for the day was to pour concrete in an area where the concrete walkway is being undermined because it’s a low spot and holds water once it starts raining.

This was the first load.

He ended up getting two yards of concrete for this patch.

This is at the north end of what we call the corral, out of sight behind the tractor in the photo above. The disturbed part in the center above the black tub and in the foreground are where I have buried skulls. There are some in the tub too. The baling string in the front is tied to horns so that i can figure out where they are and how many. When I dig up the others I have to be careful because I don’t know exactly where to dig. When the ram, Townes, died Dan buried him in the mound at the very top of the photo in front of the burn pile. You can’t see it but there is a string on his horn too so I know where to dig eventually. At the time of his death he was so bloated, even his head, that I didn’t want to try and salvage it then. It seemed to likely to explode. [Some of you probably don’t want to hear this stuff, but it’s not always pretty on the farm.]

I spent the afternoon at the Weaving House working through a box of handwoven pieces that I had put aside and never got around to finishing. I think that three were destined to be ponchos–at least that’s what they are now.

I spent a long time going through all my weaving notes to figure out when I wove these and what fiber I used. This one is handspun weft. I don’t know if I meant it to be a poncho–maybe it was just a very short blanket. It’s a gamble to choose how it will sell best. It looks like an awkward size, but if it’s worn at an angle I think it will be good. I need a photo on a mannequin.

The third poncho of the day. I don’t know if these will make it to the website. I think one will be at The Artery and two may go with a friend to her Bay Area sales.

This is on the south side of the Weaving House. The vegetable garden is done and the indigo that was left is all shriveled and dry after the frost. It’s almost December and a couple of the hollyhocks I use for dyeing still have flowers! What’s with that? Do you know I have packages of these flowers for sale with directions on using them for dye?

Decisions…This Time it’s a Banner

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How much time and energy do you spend making decision? Sometimes it seems overwhelming and it’s often about something trivial.

I’m helping with a new website. I’m not really helping, but being a guinea pig about how it all works for a non-tech person to enter things and helping to find glitches and things that are confusing. Is that a beta-tester? Or do you have to know more to have that title?

There is a place that asks for a banner across the part that will have Meridian Jacobs info. How to decide what photo? Sheep? Weaving? Yarn? The point of the website is to sell things. How do I choose one? The photo needs to fit the banner space. The software will supposedly take the appropriate size piece out of whatever photo you send, but I thought I should start with something the right size. I started with these below. Some were just experimental to see how they would fit the space.

A sheep photo? This is an older photo but I suppose that doesn’t matter as long as the quality of the photo is good enough.

I wanted to try something with more sheep and a background. This is not a good background.

This photo looks a bit washed out–maybe I can adjust that but at this point I was looking for any photo that fit the sheep into the landscape with a bit of horizon.

What about yarn or weaving? I’d sure like to sell blankets. Version 1.

Version 2.

Version 3.

I have a series of these photos that I have always liked.

I have used this photo (full size) a lot because it shows the difference between black and white sheep and lilac sheep. Townes, the lilac on the right, got the tips of the top horns caught in a fence two days ago and I found him dead.

Back to landscape photos. Here is one with a horizon and a lot of sheep and lush grass. The sheep are pregnant and recently shorn.

I walked across the road this morning and had just changed the fences so the sheep have this field near the road. That’s the view I was after. It is a narrow band but it shows sheep and the horizon. I like that this one shows our position in the Sacramento Valley. That notch you see in the hills is where the road goes to Lake Berryessa. Its a landmark for me.

This is a little different cropping of this morning’s photo.

A closer up view makes the sheep and the barn more prominent and removes the white fence on the right but cuts off the trees and my notch on the hills.

Back to yarn. This is what I did the last few days. Indigo on the left and Cosmos and Dahlia on the right.

But maybe I need black and white.

No decision made yet. Any suggestions are welcome…

Catching up in the Barn

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I had plenty of catching up to do after the Estes Park trip described in the last 4 blog posts. These photos were all taken last Wednesday, two days after we got back.

Culvert in pasture with irrigation water just starting to flow through.

We really needed to irrigate. We were about 2 weeks behind because we didn’t want to irrigate before the trip. The water comes into our property just off the top left near the blackberries. In this photo it is running down the ditch and just starting through the culvert.

Veterinarians examining a Jacob sheep in the barn.

The vets were here to issue CVIs (Certificate of Veterinary Inspection) for the sheep going to Oregon the following week (now in two days). I asked them to look at a couple of other sheep while they were here. Jade was noticeably skinny even before lambing–a time when many of the sheep are putting on weight. Dr. Urbano thought that maybe her teeth had sharp points that irritated her mouth so she didn’t spend as much time chewing her cud as she should.

Veterinarian holding a sheep's head while another uses a rasp to file her teeth.

She rasped Jade’s teeth and we’ll see if she starts to put on a little weight.

After the vets left I spent most of the day finishing up with fleeces so I could deliver the wool to the mill for processing. I have a few fleeces and a few one-pound lots listed on the website now. I need to check the barn because I lost track of the paper where I wrote which fleeces are still out there. So there may be more to list, but I’d better check first.

Large bags of wool labeled and ready to deliver to the mill.

These are the bags I delivered to Valley Oak Mill on Thursday. The wool is sorted into black, white, gray (mixed fiber that I can’t separate), and britch.

Bags with small amounts of raw fleece.

These are some 3/4 lb and 1 lb lots that I saved for Siobhan’s Vegetarian Sheepskin class to be held at Lambtown in October (look under Saturday classes) and later in the year here. I will also bring back my felted wool wreath class so some of the wool is saved for that.

These are fleeces I brought back from the Estes Park show because I wanted to show them at Black Sheep Gathering. I took them out of the bags and reorganized and rolled them up again. These are some really nice fleeces. I may have to bring one back home with me!

Bag of fleece with green and red marks from the rams' marking harnesses.

A small bag of wool that I’ll wash here and then dye if it isn’t clean. The color in this wool is left from the marking harnesses the rams wear during breeding season.

Palm of hand covered with dirt after skirting fleeces.

Here is what my hands looked like after working through all this wool.

Sheep skulls in various stages of preparation--all in separate containers.

Unfinished business. I have lots of skulls to try and clean up better before selling the. That’s a whole other story.

Brand new white sheep coats arranged in size order.

I brought back new sheep coats from Estes Park. I got several different sizes to try them out. These are from Rocky Sheep in Colorado.

I’ve been doing a lot more catching up but it wouldn’t be a very good blog post to just show photos of me at my computer all day…that’s where I’ve been.

Morning on the Farm

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Four horned Jacob ewe in pasture with other sheep in the background.

View after putting sheep on fresh strip of pasture. This is Columbine.

Four horned Jacob ewe with grass in her mouth standing near a fence.

Eilwen with a mouthful of grass.

Mulberry tree with red and black berries.

This mulberry tree is growing at the edge of the pasture. Last year I used the berries for pie, but I don’t know if it’s worth the effort. It seems a shame to not harvest these but they don’t have much flavor, especially compared to the mulberries that I had in Santa Barbara while staying with my friend last weekend.

Wild turkey with two babies walking through grass.

This turkey hen was in the pasture also, calling to her two babies to keep up with her in the tall grass.

Four horn ram lamb, lilac coloring.

This is a nice looking lilac ram lamb. He is out of one of my granddaughter’s ewes and I may keep this one to see how he looks as a yearling

Five Jacob lambs in a pen.

These lambs were weaned just a few days ago. They will be going to the Estes Park Wool Market next weekend where we’ll be showing sheep.

Two four horn Jacob ewes wearing halters with one lamb behind.

These sheep will also go to Estes Park. The Jacob Sheep Show has a class for a family group that is a ewe, her daughter, and her granddaughter. That’s Quora on the right, her daughter, Quince, and Quince’s lamb.

Hot air balloon over the pasture.

We’re used to seeing hot air balloons overhead, but they don’t usually land close by..

Hot air balloon landing just across the road.

This one landed just across the road–on the dirt road, not on the newly planted tomatoes.

Yellow, red, blue, and white hot air balloon just after landing with power lines in front.

I was surprised that they landed so close to power lines.

Hot air balloon after landing with balloon lying on ground before collapsing.

I guess they know what they are doing and the balloon collapsed in the right direction.

Staple Gun to the Rescue

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I haven’t finished my posts about the trip to MD, but that’s because I have so many photos to sort through. I’ll take a break and do a farm post or two.

Yesterday I gathered sheep to show a buyer and saw this:IMG_7176          Stacy’s face was split open to the bone. I called my vet and she said that if I wanted her to come it would be a couple of hours, but I could fix it myself. She told me what to do.IMG_7177                    I thought that the hardest part might be getting the old goat clippers to work. I found them in the tool box and after oiling they worked fine. That showed that the wound was longer than it appeared with hair over it.IMG_7179             Then I scrubbed with betadyne.IMG_7180                     Fortunately I had bought the staple gun (meant for this purpose) a long time ago. I had forgotten about it until the vet suggested using staples. She barely flinched throughout this.

IMG_7187            Nancy also suggested putting some kind of cover over this for a few days just to protect it. Since I haven’t worn pantyhose in more years than I can remember so it was lucky that there were some in the back of a drawer.IMG_7189              The most stylish sheep are doing it!IMG_7190                While I’m at the barn, here is a photo of the long-awaited work on the southwest corner where a lot of the wood is rotten.Foxtails               And speaking of veterinary issues, these are foxtails I pulled out of Rusty’s chest this morning. You can see on a couple of those how they had worked their way into the skin.