Does this haircut make my rear look big?
Does this haircut make my head look big?
If I don’t move she won’t see me.
Where did all those freckles come from?
I can finally reach that itch.
Overheard in the Ram Pen, after weaning the ram lambs born at the State Fair in July:
MOM !
Does this haircut make my …uh…horns look big?
Shearing Day was yesterday. What a wonderful time. Farm Club came through (as always) and handled all the various tasks of the day. (Except for Rusty’s job, which he describes in his blog so I am not duplicating his photos here). I am grateful to the great shearer who has come for the last few years. He does a wonderful job–the sheep look good and the fleeces look good. John is so fast that he finished with 64 sheep in about 2 1/2 hours.
One important job is making sure that the shearer always has a sheep to shear as soon as he finishes with the last one.
I took some videos too but it will take me awhile to get those edited. You can sign up on the Meridian Jacobs YouTube Channel and see them when they are ready.
This is the BFL/Jacob crossbred ewe. I probably could have started a bidding war on her fleece, but I’m keeping it.
A couple of people bagged fleeces after shearing and then each fleece was weighed.
Alison and Linda helped many new Farm Club members and other visitors evaluate fleeces at the skirting table.
The warm afternoon sun was welcome after the cold morning.
Good friendships and sharing the work make a day like this extra fun.
How exciting! Thanks to Dona, who photographed us, we made the Hug A Sheep Day blog with this photo of Farm Club.
It was a great day to Hug a Sheep and we hugged several! If you want to read about the other things we did yesterday (from Rusty’s perspective) read Rusty’s blog.
There is a green glow everywhere.
Four Farm Club members came today to help me sort out breeding groups. I told myself that using four rams was plenty but in the end I put ewes with six rams. I don’t have a very big place and by the time I save spaces for non-breeding rams (a few ram lambs left), non-breeding ewes (my State Fair ewes and lambs and a few ewe lambs that I don’t want to breed yet) and try to leave buffer spaces between breeding groups it gets tricky to find space for everyone.
Kenleigh’s Matrix, a ram lamb, was the first to go out with 14 ewes.
Meridian Loretta was obviously in heat, but we wondered if Matrix, smaller than the ewes, was going to manage the job.
Meridian Fogerty, a yearling ram, was next. He has 8 ewes.
Faulkner was happy to be given eight ewes.
Meridian Clapton, the ram who has been behaving badly wanted some of the action.
Clapton is temporarily in a small pen so he has just three ewes.
Puddleduck Sullivan has ten ewes.
When you first put the rams with the ewes they get a little carried away trying to find a ewe in heat and you may see random marks on some of the ewes. One of the Farm Club members asked how you can tell if the marks from the ram harnesses are the “real thing”. I told her that you can tell.
This is in Fogerty’s pen later in the day.
These are two of Matrix’s ewes. One is Loretta, the ewe in the first photo.
It wasn’t until the end of the day that I picked up the marker for the sixth ram harness so Meridian Miller (the ram lamb who was champion at the State Fair) didn’t get his 7 ewes until evening. He is in the pen right behind my shop.
You could say that the ewes were a bit stand-offish, but Miller didn’t let that deter him.
Where will you be February 21? I’ll be in the barn with new lambs.
Even after the lambs have been weaned Moms and their daughters hang out together.
Lola and Lila
Moon & Sonata
Alison & her lamb, as big as she is.
And this is Amaryllis and her mom when Amaryllis was still a baby. Isn’t she cute? (Thanks to Marianne and Bob for sending the photo.)
The sheep show is during the last 4 days of the CA State Fair although my ewes with lambs were there for the whole three weeks.
Mary is a 5-time veteran of the Livestock Nursery.
My main focus of the sheep week is the award given for the Marketing Program. This is a stiff competition that is awarded for the display in the sheep barn. I didn’t change last year’s display very much but I tightened up some things that I wasn’t happy with last year. I also learned to make a DVD with several of the videos that I’ve been working on (some of which are on YouTube) so I had a 45 minute loop that included lambing, lambs playing, and Farm Club.
I wasn’t sure how people would react to the lambing video but it certainly caught their attention and most people were in awe.
My friends and I demonstrated spinning and drum carding and that meant that we had a crowd around the exhibit most of the time. In fact this year we were given an area where we could expand into the wide alley.
The real reason to be at the fair is the sheep show. I gave Fogerty to my husband to show because that ram is so strong and I didn’t want to risk him getting away from me. However, Sullivan didn’t cooperate too well. We switched places and Sullivan followed Fogerty without trouble. Fogerty placed 3rd in this class that included Shetlands and St. Croix sheep.
The best placing of the day was my young ram who placed first in his class…
…and then Champion Ram of the Primitive Breeds show.
The most exciting awards for me were presented at the end of the four days.
I finally won the 1st place Marketing Award (that’s one of the leather banners) and Best Educational Presentatation in the Sheep Show and overall for all the livestock divisions at the fair! Should I retire while I’m ahead?
But that’s not all there is to the fair. Here are some other photos I like:
Farm Club members, Mary and Dona, cutting up temporary tattoos for give away.
Here is how the tattoos look in use.
There were other animals with horns in the barn.
And other animals with nice fiber.
Animals that combined horns and fiber.
But look at the Supreme Champion Merino ram owned by Terry Mendanhall…
…and see his fantastic fleece.
It simple math. If I had 65 sheep last November and want 65 sheep next November, but 81 lambs were born, that means that I need to sell 81 sheep before November. So out of all the lambs that were born I need to be very selective about which ones I will keep. Here are the chosen lambs so far.
This is Sonata, daughter of Meridian Moon and Sweetgrass Clint.
Lila, a lilac ewe, daughter of Meridian Lola and Mud Ranch’s Hudson.
Fandangle, daughter of Meridian Fran and Sweetgrass Clint.
Kenleigh’s Isadora who came from Kenleigh’s Acres in Oregon.
Mud Ranch’s Foxglove and …
…Mud Ranch’s Ginseng, both lilac lambs from Mud Ranch in Lewiston, CA.
There are plenty of other pretty lambs, but most of them will need to find homes elsewhere. I have my eye on one appealing ram lamb:
Axle, son of Meridian Tina and Sweetgrass Clint.
I almost forgot someone:
Onyx, daughter of Sparkle and Faulkner.
This is Fogerty, a ram who was born last spring. He is one of the rams that I will use for breeding this fall. Here is another photo:
It’s that time of year again.
We’re off to the CA State Fair Livestock Nursery.
Mary is a veteran of the fair. This will be her fifth time lambing here. Don’t worry Mary. It’s just the camera angle that makes your rear look so big.
Mary brought novices with her. That’s a yearling ewe, Toffee, lying down and a three year old ewe, Shelby, standing. Shelby is one of the ewes that we “rescued” from a foreclosure last year. (Yes, it’s still camera angle, Shelby.)
The State Fair opens tomorrow and runs through the last weekend of July. That’s when I’ll have more sheep there for the sheep show. In the meantime these three ewes will be well taken care of by the staff and students of the UC Davis VMTH (Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital). We look forward to lambs in the next couple of weeks.
I drove to to Mud Ranch Jacobs today, west of Redding, to trade lambs. One lamb is going to Kenleigh Acres in Oregon and the other is staying at Mud Ranch. My Kenleigh lamb came a couple of weeks ago when she was able to hitch a ride south with a friend. Meet Kenleigh’s Isadora:
She is the great-granddaughter of Fanny, a favorite ewe of mine.
Isn’t she a pretty girl?
The drive to Lewiston was over 3 1/2 hours one way, but it’s a pretty drive if you enjoy scenery and I was listening to a good book. (The book is set in modern times in England and, although it doesn’t have anything to do with the story-line, the family of the main character raises Herdwick sheep. There are interesting comments about the breed and how they relate to what we would call agritourism.) Anyway, that doesn’t have anything to do with my story but it did keep me awake on the drive both ways.
This is Whiskeytown Reservoir and I am amazed at how full it is. I am not a big fan of reservoirs but this is sure pretty (and looks very inviting).
Back to the sheep.
Joan had the lambs sorted out and the lamb for trade was easy to catch and put in the truck.
This is Mud Ranch’s Foxglove, a pretty lilac ewe.
But what’s this? Is she looking in a mirror?
No, it seems that Foxglove couldn’t come without her friend, Ginseng.
Here are the sires of these two lambs:
Foxglove’s sire is Kenleigh’s Lancelot.
Ginseng’s sire is the 2-horn ram in this photo, Tristan.
Welcome to my 3 new lambs.
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