Another Morning & More Sheep Photos

Posted on April 27, 2016 by Robin

This morning I was going to take three sheep to be shorn at a friend’s house. These three were born at the State Fair in July last year and I didn’t want to shear them at our early February shearing. So I went out to take photos of the ram so that I’d have photos in full fleece for registration paperwork. Then I got carried away with other sheep portraits. 15078 right This is the 9 month old ram. He needs a name. Nash This is Meridian Nash. These rams have the same sire so I don’t need both. I think this one will be for sale. Ringo Puddleduck Ringo is also for sale. I have used him for two seasons and he needs to move on. Rotor Meridian Rotor. 16002 Isn’t this a beautiful stylish ewe lamb? She was born a month before everyone else because the ram lambs weren’t weaned soon enough. Too bad I don’t know her sire. Her very cute baby pictures with her brother are in this post. 16041 Lamb in early morning light. Meridian Vanessa x Meridian Rotor. 16075 BFL-cross lamb. Love those BFL faces. 16046 I’m keeping this lilac lamb. Mud Ranch’s Foxglove x Meridian Nash.Not sheep, but the sunflowers Across the Road.

Random Thoughts in Photos

Posted on January 27, 2016 by Robin

Seen while driving in town the other day… lumber pattern I liked the patterns of the wood. I especially noticed the part that doesn’t show up very well here but the bottom right where the heartwood (I think) makes the half circles. Weaving ideas.Also while driving. I was on Pedrick Road east of Dixon. I really wanted a photo of the snow-covered Sierras. It’s been awhile since we’ve had that view. The lens on the phone makes the mountains too far away for that shot, but I like seeing the train.In this shot too.I may have shown this photo before, but I like this sunset view. It makes the mud and swampy “lake” worthwhile.And speaking of lots of water, this was a result of the last storm that came through. This is a very old fig tree that the kids used to play in a long time ago. Note the steps and the treehouse platform. The roots of this tree have been rotten for some time and the dogs often found something to bark at in the hole in the trunk. giraffe sculpture I’ll bet you didn’t know that we had giraffes in Solano County. These two are about a mile from here where I take Ginny to herding lessons.And while we’re talking about herding, this is Ginny working “her flock” at home.

Lambing Prequel

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Robin

Lambing season is due to start in a month, but there were early lambs yesterday, the result of not moving ram lambs out of the main flock soon enough. Yes, some 5 month old lambs are fertile. I saw one of these ewes being bred and the ram lambs were moved that day. So I don’t anticipate anymore lambs until late February.

When I went to the barn yesterday morning I moved the ewes to the back as I normally do so that I can feed hay without them near the feeders. I heard a baaa. It’s pretty crowded back there with full-fleeced ewes. I walked through the flock but didn’t see a lamb. Then I heard it again and looked back. This is a poor view of the sliding door at the south end of the barn.This is looking from the other end. This happened once before–a lamb stumbled into the opening between the door and the wall and then couldn’t get out. Fortunately it wasn’t wet or too cold that night.Here he is with mom, Dazzle, in the barn.

Farm club was here during the day, but that’s for another post. Afterwards, Dan continued with his work in the barn. We have new lights in the lambing area! IMG_8384-barn Dazzle’s lamb was a surprise although I didn’t have a breeding date for her, which was an indication that she may have already been bred. I went back out last night to check the ewe I expected to lamb.She was lambing and had nice big twins.These are some flashy looking lambs, especially the little ram on the right. If he grows up nicely, those markings would make him a very pretty show lamb. Too bad he doesn’t have a known father so he can’t be in the show. Maybe he’ll make someone a nice fiber pet if he’s wethered. dog eating afterbirth Ginny was just a baby at last lambing season and wasn’t out on her own much. Today it didn’t take her long to discover a dog’s favorite part of lambing time. I usually make sure the afterbirth is not dog-accessible but when it falls out of the wheelbarrow it’s up for grabs.

Random January iPhone Photos

Posted on January 21, 2016 by Robin

I am getting caught up on my photos and found some to share about life on the farm, life in the shop, and life in general (but not very profound).Its a good sign when the chickens start laying again. That means there is more daylight. I have 5 chickens, 1 of whom is old and the other is ancient. I don’t expect eggs from the old chickens, but it’s nice to know the young ones have kicked into high gear.Rain. That’s a good thing, although I’m never really happy about dealing with the mud on the way to the compost (manure) pile. mushrooms However, it’s good when the manure pile is wet through and through. It will become a compost pile much more quickly. I was going to try these for dye but I went out today and they are all shriveled up. Not very long-lived.My friends came and did a Shop Intervention. I need to drastically change some things and get rid of the clutter. I still haven’t dealt with that big box but that is all the newest Timm Ranch yarn. I need to get that on the website and start working with it. After the friends left there was room… LTW class …for a Learn to Weave class. Chris-birthday Mid-January always means that I’m getting older as my youngest son celebrates his birthday. That isn’t the full amount of candles he should have had, but it is bright enough!

Celebrate Hug a Sheep Day

Posted on October 31, 2015 by Robin

Yes, it is Hug a Sheep Day and we’ll be celebrating it here at the farm. Anyone can join us. So that those of you who have never hugged a sheep can get a feel for this I thought I’d share some sheep hugging photos.

The photos above are all of Farm Club members. If you join Farm Club you will have plenty of sheep hugging opportunities.My granddaughter on a visit out here last spring. This is another cute kid, the age my granddaughter is now, at Fiber Fusion. Chickens deserve hugs too. And baby goats. Now we’re getting into the archives. This is my son about 10 years ago. Another sheep hug. Running with sheep. I love this photo. A couple of these girls are in college now.While I was searching photos I found this one. Doesn’t have to do with hugging sheep, but it’s two of my kids waking up in the dairy barn at the State Fair back in my dairy cow days. My mom drying off a newly born kid.But today will be all about hugging sheep.

The Week Following Dental Surgery–rams, Lambtown, Fibershed

Posted on October 15, 2015 by Robin

Not a very good title… and it doesn’t describe what I want to share in this post, but dental surgery was the event on Monday that set the tone for the week.

I stayed on the codeine less than 24 hours because I don’t like feeling so…well, drugged. I didn’t feel too bad on Wednesday and some Farm Club friends came to help me set up breeding groups. It is always a challenge to find enough places to put the groups where there is no fence-line contact between rams.I left Faulkner in his area but expanded it to include the run next to it.

Ringo Ringo got the most ewes so he had the pasture.Rotor, one of the lambs born in March, went with his ewes to the horse pasture. We wondered if he’d be able to reach those ewes, but he’s had no problem. I don’t have a photo of Nash, the lilac ram. He went to the field behind the shop. Crosby and Alex were left in the ram pen.The non-breeding group includes the ewes to be bred in February for lambing at the State Fair, their lambs, some of the ewe lambs that I’m keeping, other ewe lambs for sale, and this year 4 ewe lambs that are sold but haven’t left yet. It’s a lot of sheep to keep away from the rams but I barricaded them in the area around the barn. white-tailed kites Our resident white-tailed kites, seen from the barn.

One of the adult rams, Alex, was picked up by his new owner on Thursday so I put the few remaining ram lambs with Crosby to keep him company for the day. On Friday I took 7 sheep, including Crosby, Nash, and Rotor to Lambtown for the sheep show on Sunday. Normally I am a vendor at Lambtown but this year there was a conflict with an event I had really wanted to attend and where I knew that I’d sell well. So I took sheep for the weekend but attended Fibershed on Saturday. It’s a good thing. I probably should have stayed home entirely but at least the Fibershed event was easier than doing a full vendor booth at Lambtown.Here are two of the sheep pens at Lambtown and my meager display.Saturday was the Grow Your Jeans event that was the culmination of over a year’s planning and work by the Fibershed team. There are photos and a description of the work involved in growing cotton and indigo in the nearby Capay Valley and the dyeing, weaving, and pattern-making of these locally produced jeans at this link. The Grow Your Jeans event featured these jeans as well as “grass-fed tops”, the shirts and accessories worn with them on the straw-bale fashion show runway. The new felt banner was made by FC friend, Jackie, of Sheep to Shop.

Prior to the fashion show attendees could shop at the vendor booths and eat fabulous local food. (At least it looked fabulous. I stuck to my yogurt and cottage cheese.)I brought handwoven pieces, horn buttons, and lambskins. I did very well as far as sales, but, unfortunately by this point, I was not in the best of shape. I just wanted to be home on the couch. These pillows are stuffed with local wool in an cover of organic cotton. They both sold. This is my “grass-fed top” on the left. It is Timm Ranch wool woven in 16-shaft huck lace. The weft is dyed with osage orange from across the road.The fashion show took place in an old dairy barn. Prior to the show, Rebecca and the others involved in creating the jeans told about their parts in the project.I stood just outside to get a photo of the model wearing my shawl. I stepped back inside to see the last part of the show. Two of the models came out carrying this flag.Along with all of the other aspects of Fibershed that Rebecca spearheads, she has also been involved with the re-introduction of hemp as a valued agricultural crop in Kentucky. It’s a long story and you can read some interesting articles here. This is one of five flags to be woven from the veteran-grown hemp project. They use Sally Fox’s California grown cotton for warp and Kentucky hemp for weft. The first flag went to Farm Aid and this is the second one. I thought it was a fabulous way to end the evening’s program. Kind of gives you chills.

I am not doing justice here to the whole event. Everything that Fibershed puts on is exceedingly well done and the message is so important. I am grateful to be involved in this movement even in a small way.

It was a long drive home to Bolinas that night and then there was still Lambtown the next day. I had a ride to and from so started in on the codeine. On Saturday Farm Club friends had been on the winning Sheep to Shawl team. This is the fabulous blanket that they spun and wove.

After the sheep show I doubled up on the codeine and waited for my husband to come drive the sheep home.

Meet the Sheep — Part 2

Posted on April 6, 2015 by Robin

Dona took all the photos in the previous posts (this one too) because I was in the shop most of the day. Here are a few that I took when I made quick trips to the barn.Colleen brought roses for all the tables……and set up a booth with her felted creations and dyed yarns.Observed in the parking area.Speaking of parking, here is the Parking Attendant, who doesn’t get much attention in my blog, but is a Very Important Person behind-the-scenes. Bunnies in the barn were a big draw. Lisa worked on her Cricket loom all day and sent interested customers to the shop.

Alison led a Sheep Portrait class.

Feeding the bottle baby drew a crowd.At 4:00 everyone pitched in and sheep were put away, pens moved, and signs stored for next year in no time. Wow! What a crew! (What I haven’t talked about in a blog post was the huge help that Farm Club members were during the last week when I had severe tendonitis and couldn’t use my right arm at all. They did all the pen cleaning.) I think we got the whole Farm Club crew who was here (except for Gynna) in this photo.

Don’t miss Rusty’s story about Meet the Sheep.

My Weekend in iPhone Photos

Posted on February 16, 2015 by Robin

What a beautiful weekend we had, although I’d rather be able to say that it’s been raining and cold like winter is supposed to be. I wonder if this is the future. That will take some major adaptation. Regardless, here are photos from warm, sunny Solano County.

I usually don’t put the ewes out on the main pasture until late March when it has dried out. However, this year the water has drained away and I will take advantage of the grass growing now. If it doesn’t rain more this will be it until (and if) we get irrigation water.Waiting for me to change the fence.Rear view of one of the ewes due to lamb in about 2-1/2 weeks.More rear views. These ewes won’t lamb for a month or more.

Thatch left over from the overgrown dallisgrass last fall. Nothing grows under it–at least not useful for sheep. mushrooms This was growing inside that pile.While walking around the pasture I saw something (rodent) scurry across this obviously well-used path from one clump of grass to the next.

Speaking of rodents this is a view I see every morning when I go in the chicken house. Well, not this exact view. There are always new holes and new piles of dirt. There are only 2 chickens and I think I am feeding a whole colony of rats. I posted this photo on FB and was surprised at the number of responses. The overwhelming suggestion was to get terriers. Three dogs is enough and I won’t get another. If Maggie gets a chance she will kill rodents but she will also kill chickens, which is why they are in the chicken house. Next suggestion was the old-fashioned snap type of trap. I have used those for mice, but for rats it sounds disgusting. I think I will get some though. I tried a sticky trap under that garbage can but they just covered it with dirt. Faulkner. I sent photos to someone who has been asked to supply rams to participate in a Year of the Sheep celebration in San Francisco this week. I suggested Faulkner because he is easy to handle (relatively). They want horned rams so I sent more photos….but probably not with spots. They are still discussing it and I haven’t heard the final word. Isadora and Foley Even if the rams don’t get to go to the city, some of them are having fun. It’s time to breed my ewes that will lamb at the State Fair. This is Foley and Isadora yesterday. Today it was Crosby and Clover. I hope that this will be one answer to another rodent problem. This is a trial straw bale garden. The gophers have made it impossible to grow anything successfully in this part of the garden. Last summer I put two bales out here and started watering them the way you’re are supposed to. Then I went to Texas to wait for my granddaughter to be born. I gave up the garden idea until now. I have planted lettuce and carrot seeds in this one and chard in another. We’ll see what happens.

I took a quick trip to Sacramento Weavers Open House to pick up the things I had on display there. These are a few of my blankets. This is the first year in many, many years that I did not spend the weekend there demonstrating weaving. It felt odd to show up at the end.A friend’s purse that uses my horn buttons for the closure and to secure the strap.I tried this AVL loom with the e-lift. One step on the button and the shed changes. No lifting 16 (or in this case 40) shafts with leg power.

Water and Fire and Water

Posted on December 4, 2014 by Robin

One of my friends was leaving at the last Spinners Night Out the Friday evening before Thanksgiving. She came back into the shop to say that she was sprayed in the face by water and asked if there a sprinkler on. I went out to look and found that the pressure tank for the well was spraying water from a rust hole. We turned the water off and the next day Dan welded a patch on the tank. That was enough to get us through the weekend (turning the water off at night because it was still leaking), but was not a permanent fix. After the welded patch–better than before, but only a temporary fix. I picked up a new tank in Sacramento. It’s nice to have a son-in-law who is in the well and pump business and could get me a good price on a tank. He wasn’t here for the installation but gave tech support on the phone. That evening I came home from a meeting and found Dan watching to make sure there were no leaks. On the Friday after Thanksgiving conditions were right that we could burn the brush pile that had been getting bigger all summer and Chris came over to do that while I was busy with other things. It was too big to burn in place so we pushed it behind the barn where it was farther away from structures. This is the aftermath of that pile. As that one was smoldering Chris set the blackberry pile on fire. He lit a palm frond on fire to get the pile burning. This one was getting a little scary. We really didn’t want that palm tree to catch fire. Good thing Chris is a professional. This was a HOT fire. I wondered if our two garden hoses were enough to keep it in check. It didn’t take long to get to this point. Chris dug a line around it and we let it smolder all night. This is the next morning. The other pile was smoking even two days later and after a light rain. Saturday night I heard a leak in the cellar. (This is a low-ceiling room beneath the house with access from the outside. Before the drought years this basement would flood 3-4 feet in the winter and we had to keep a sump pump running so that the water would not flood the water heater.) It turns out that the old water heater was leaking, probably as a result of the higher pressure that our new pressure tank was providing to the house. I won’t show a photo of what this room looked like before I cleaned out all the junk that was along these walls because that is embarrassing. Believe me that it was not pretty considering what kind of critters spend time in basements and the fact that it has flooded periodically. Fortunately this incident was on the weekend and Dan was able to install a new water heater on Sunday. This photo was taken this morning (Wednesday). Notice the water in the basement. sump pump That is why we have to keep this pump set up in the winter. It wasn’t used the last couple of winters, but we woke up to this: The water level was at 2.0 inches since the evening before. We haven’t seen that in a long time.

Close to Home…Interrupted by Orange Kitty

Posted on November 19, 2014 by Robin

I think I’ve written 9 blog posts about my show, Close to Home. There are more to go but I have to interrupt the series briefly.

About five days ago the dogs were barking at something in the yard. Well, Maggie is always barking at the squirrels outside the yard but this time it was an orange cat who had it’s back up and was hissing. I got the dogs in the house but the cat was gone when I went back outside.

Monday I was teaching a weaving class and Maggie wouldn’t stop with the barking. I brought her in the shop with us but she started to bark when I let her out again. Rusty was no where to be seen which is unusual. I found him in the garden area staring (as only a Border Collie does) under the house. It was evident that the dogs had been digging there and that someone (my guess is Maggie) had been chewing at the wood beam that holds up the house. I blocked off the area so that at least our house would remain intact. Tuesday before the weaving class started up for the day the dogs were at it again but this time in the cellar access. I went down there (with all the cobwebs and other creepy things) and found the orange cat. I donned leather gloves and caught it. The class was going to start so I put it in a crate in the barn for the day. When I went out later I discovered that it was a “he” and he was a young very grateful-to-be-petted kitty. I didn’t want to leave him in the small crate in the barn all night so I thought I’d put him in a larger crate in my shop. That didn’t last long. After I got back from a Board meeting at the Artery I brought the crate in the house and the kitty spent most of the evening in my lap while I sat at the computer. Note Ozzie who blends into the darkness on the windowsill.I

This morning I put up a fence and let the kitty on the back porch where there is a litter-box. (Did you know that WordPress corrects cat box to read hatbox?) Everyone watched.

Ozzie could come and go but remained skeptical. I spent longer than I should have, not watching kitten videos, but taking kitten videos. Later I put the kitten back in the crate while I was outside. Tonight I let him out on the back porch again with the fence to keep him contained.I guess that was a short-lived solution to keeping him in a safe area.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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