The New Sheep

Posted on October 22, 2014 by Robin

New sheep have joined the flock. Ingrid and Alan from Puddleduck Farm in Oregon delivered ewes and a ram. The two yearling ewes went in with my yearling ram, Alex. The flock came to investigate. The two new girls are at the top in this photo. I’m not sure of their names. Ingrid is sending in registration papers and their names will be listed. After everyone else went about their own business Alex continued to follow them around. They weren’t too happy with Alex. “Maybe this guy is better.” “No, I guess not.” “I guess we’re stuck with this guy. At least he’s in the grass.”

Pocket Photos in the Pasture

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Robin

I like this idea of Pocket Photos. Not pictures of pockets, but just whip the phone out and take photos. These were taken in the pasture yesterday and today. Can you tell what that one is? Look below to see it from the other direction. That web stands out with the sun behind it. Sometimes these are face-height and you really don’t want to walk into that. Yesterday afternoon I mowed three paddocks that the sheep had grazed. I will irrigate tomorrow and I hope that by mowing the tall dallisgrass stalks that are left after I move the sheep it will give more opportunity for the annual grasses to start growing. The recent rain started some germination but I think that this last irrigation should bring up more. At one point the mower stopped working. Fortunately Dan had just got home. He doesn’t usually work on the tractor in teacher clothes–it’s pretty hard to stay clean around tractors and barns. Speaking of barns, see that cement? That used to be a wall that created a doorway in the ram pen. This small area with cement walls is the “whiskey barn” because we were told that whiskey was stored here during Prohibition. The only reinforcement in these cement walls seems to be a few strands of barbed wire running through them. No rebar. I don’t know if the rams pushed this by rubbing or if one of them hit it when he was fighting. The rams are feisty. This ewe is obviously in heat because she hung around the outside of the ram pen all day. This is the second day in a row that the rams have broken the electric wire that runs around the inside of their pen. That coincides with the second day that the ewes have been directly across the fence here. Tonight I moved the rams to a more secure location. We have to get through a couple more days without mishap. On Friday one of them will go to Lambtown for the sheep show and the other is sold and will be picked up this weekend. After Lambtown the remaining ram and a new one (as soon as I can get him) will be put with the ewes.

This afternoons’s job was to weed-eat the ditches in preparation for irrigating tomorrow. Not only will the water flow better for more effective irrigation but we are working hard with the Mosquito Abatement District to minimize mosquito propagation. That means getting the water off the fields and out of the ditches as quickly as possible once irrigation is finished. We recently bought a trash pump to help with that as well. This is the ditch at the north end of the pasture after weed-eating the north side of it (looking east). This is after I cleaned up the south side of that ditch (looking west). This ditch is at the south end of the property before (looking east)……and after (looking west). I used 3 tanks of gas and had to add more string to the weed-eater to get through this. The sheep don’t mind me working while they graze.

Photos in my Pocket

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Robin

What do I mean by Photos in my Pocket? From my phone, of course. These are photos I took in the last couple of days that I took only because I just happened to have the phone with me.This is the time of year when the dallisgrass gets away from me. The sheep can’t keep up as it gets taller and coarser. In addition the seed heads get sticky from a fungus and then adhere to the sheep. This is one of the BFL-cross March lambs. Cascade wearing dallisgrass.Yearling ewe named Ears. Everyone recognizes this spider that I saw when I opened the lid of the garbage toter. We’ve had some beautiful sunsets the last few days. And in the shop… handspun warp …this is a warp made of yarn in my stash, most of which my mom spun years ago. The weft is Jacob yarn.

New Perspective in the Pasture

Posted on September 13, 2014 by Robin

I took my new lens to the pasture. I needed to get current lamb photos for the website.Probably not the best place for photos where you can really see the sheep.But I found other things to amuse me. I found that with this lens it’s easier to stalk butterflies… …and other creatures. I get a new perspective on everything.

Farm Club Helps Again

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Robin

We had a couple of impromptu Farm Days–these are days when I have a list of things to be done and I e-mail Farm Club to find out who can come on which days. They come. We work. We talk. Everyone gets dirty and enjoys themselves. Win-Win. This time we set up two days.

On Tuesday Mary and Dona came. Thanks to Dona for most of the Tuesday photos. I usually forget to take photos when we’re all working together. First we cleaned the barn. Three shovels are faster than one! Next I wanted to sort out all the ewe lambs so I could make a decision about which lambs to enter in the Lambtown Sheep Show in October and make notes about which lambs to keep in the flock.

I called the sheep in while Dona took photos. An enthusiastic response. There was only a little bit of coercion by shaking a bucket of grain. We took a little time out for Lamb Cuddling……and selfies. After selecting our two show lambs and an alternate…

… we started halter breaking. It is amazing the difference a few days of 10 minutes sessions makes.

We had been having a discussion of show prep. One reason that I show Jacob sheep is that most often there is no show prep. You do your best to keep them free of VM (vegetable matter) but they are shown in their natural state without the primping that goes on with other breeds. However, having a show in October pushes the limits of being able to present clean sheep. Not only are the sheep in almost full fleece with a whole summer’s worth of dust, but there is the problem of the late summer grasses that go to seed. I coated the two yearlings and the three lambs that were chosen for the show, but I thought we could try a couple of other things too.This is Mae, a yearling ewe letting me know that she really didn’t want to be the guinea pig for this experiment. Jackie loaned me a blower. I have seen some people use blowers, particularly on Shetland sheep. There may be potential to remove the superficial VM, but it is not going to remove stickery things like foxtails that are deeper in the fleece. And if it’s used too close to the sheep it changes the character of the fleece. It may be worth experimenting with a little more. I don’t think it was a favorite of the sheep.

However, it is fun to make cool designs in the wool! Next we tried washing half each of two sheep to compare the two sides later on. I have been told that cheap hair conditioner used 30 days before the show works well. We chose two non-show sheep for the experiment. Again, the sheep were not impressed and I wasn’t either. I think I didn’t use enough conditioner and should have used a spray nozzle.

On Sunday, several Farm Club members were able to come. Amy, Stephany, Alison, and Joy were here. There are not too many photos of this day. We started by catching all the ewe lambs again and weighing them. We gave more halter lessons to the show lambs and a few of the others that I am going to keep. After that Rusty brought in the ram lambs. herding We had only a slight mishap because as we put them in one gate of the barn I realized that the other was still open. They mingled with all the ewes and we had to sort them again. It’s not hard at this age because the horns make it obvious which are the ram lambs. We selected two rams for the Lambtown show and discussed which ram lambs to keep for next year’s breeding. More on that in another blog post. Those rams had halter lessons and then went back to Ram Lamb Land…away from the ewes. Farm Club We caught the big rams, looked at their fleeces and discussed the breeding line-up. Then we took many wheelbarrow loads out of the ram pen.

Thanks to all of you who were able to come and help.

Swallow Silhouettes

Posted on August 24, 2014 by Robin

The last few mornings I have seen a family of swallows on the wires near the house. The photo above was taken through the window. The rest of the photos were taken tonight after getting back from walking the dogs. There were four young swallows wanting to be fed. The photos aren’t great, but I enjoy the series.

Stalking Butterflies

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Robin

I took my camera with me to change the pasture fence this morning. I shouldn’t do that if I have things to do. I get distracted by things like dew drops and butterflies and flowers. I didn’t realize how many different butterflies are here because I usually pay more attention to warm-blooded creatures. I thought I’d google “butterflies of Solano County” so that I could identify these. There are dozens on the list (without photos) so I guess I’ll just enjoy them without names. I also didn’t know how hard it is to sneak up on a butterfly before it flits away. How do they know? It’s easier to take photos of flowers.

Have you seen the rare Wool Flower? It occurs only in fields where sheep have grazed.

The sheep were not amused while I was in the pasture and they were not. That’s Athena on the left and Phyllis on the right pawing at the gate.

Family Resemblance

Posted on August 18, 2014 by Robin

Fanny was one of my favorite sheep, not because of personality because she wasn’t very friendly. But look at those horns. Striking horns for a ewe.Here is another photo of Fanny.This is Fanny’s daughter, Fran. She is 6 years old now.Here is Fandango, Fran’s daughter, now 2 years old. I hope her horns continue to grow as well as her mom’s and grandmother’s horns. This is Fandango’s daughter, born in March.

An August Morning

Posted on August 16, 2014 by Robin

(Note: I don’t know why the photos imported smaller and the spaces between text and photos are so large. I don’t think I did anything different than usual. Sometimes this computer stuff drives me crazy.)

I have plenty to do but when I take my camera with me life slows down. Sheep behind barn

View behind the barn in the morning.

Cattle egrets roosting at the edge of the pasture. white tailed kite, adult and juvenile

White-tailed kites in the tree at the other edge of the pasture. I’ve been hearing a lot of squawking out of them the last few days. The one on the left with the brown feathers is a juvenile….”Dad, pulleeze let me have the keys.”

Views from the pasture.

This is the ewe lamb born last at the State Fair.

BFL cross ewes.

Hay truck whizzing by. Won’t you stop here?

One of my favorite flowers because it is so good in the pasture. Birds foot trefoil.

Mockingbird behind the barn.

Phyllis is the oldest sheep here.

Sheep Portraits

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Robin

The sheep bed down around the barn at night and this morning took their time about moving to the pasture.Here are some sheep who posed for portraits (and, for those of you who care, some ancestry info). 5-year old Moon (bide a wee Yuri x Hillside Luna’s Harvest) Yearling, Sophia (Kenleigh’s Matrix x Meridian Jazz) Yearling, Cascade (Meridian Miller x Meridian Sierra) Yearling, Mae (Meridian Miller x Meridian Mary). She must have been looking in the mirror when she wrote the number on her tag? 5-month old BFL cross who I am keeping. No name yet. (Faulkner x Dazzle) 5-month old lamb who may stay here. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Vicki) 5-month old lamb who I want to keep (Meridian Hendrix x Meridian Alison) Someone is hiding behind the dallisgrass. It’s the wether, Jimmy…who I may just rename to Jake, because I tend to call all wethers Jake.This is two year old Onyx, a BFL cross. This is one of the newest members of the flock. (Meridian Miller x Meridian Donna.) Six lambs were born in July at the State Fair. This is her brother. This is a gorgeous lilac ram lamb (Meridian Alex x Meridian Phyllis), just what I’ve been waiting for….except those horns on his right are growing together and his horn set will be horribly asymmetrical. He won’t be registrable. Out to the pasture. “Mom!”“MOM !!!”