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.”

Five Months to Lambs

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Robin

Monday was Sorting Day (but not like at Hogwarts, although I know that some of you could probably come up with some Harry Potter analogies). It was also the first day of the Spinzilla competition. Spinners from Team Meridian Jacobs were going to gather here in the afternoon but some of the team members are also Farm Club members. Several of them came early to help with sorting ewes and rams into breeding groups.Faulkner, the BFL ram, was first to get his girls and they happy to meet him. I knew that Athena was ready because she had been hanging out next to the fence. But so were Delight, Delilah, and Shelby. Four of the seven ewes with Faulkner were bred yesterday. (The red on the ewes’ rumps is the mark from the crayon in the ram harness.)

Next up was Crosby, a lilac ram lamb. I wasn’t going to use him this year because it’s hard to split the flock into too many groups. But transport for the ram that I am buying is now delayed so I thought I’d give Crosby a shot.He just got back from Lambtown where he won Champion ram of the Primitive Breeds division. It was a small show, but a win is a win, right? The judge loved his fleece and so do I.The girls, however, were not as impressed. It seems that ribbons aren’t everything.To Crosby’s credit he tried hard… …he didn’t give up… 14052 Crosby (1) …but to no avail. None of the four ewes wanted much to do with him. I don’t have a photo but I did see him finally lying down by the fence looking exhausted and dejected.Alex was ready for his ewes. He is a yearling ram whose fleece is beautiful. I didn’t try to use him as a lamb last year because he had bluetongue in the fall. Even if he could have bred, he likely would have been sterile from the high fever. Out of his group of 14 ewes, Alex found only one ewe who was interested. Poor Celeste. With no one else interested in him, Celeste got all Alex’s attention. Good thing that I moved Shearing Day to January. Hopefully rain will wash out some of this color.

The rest of the flock is waiting for a ram to show up in a few weeks. Lambing season will be a bit longer this year.

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 !!!”

Sheep Grow Up

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Robin

I didn’t get around to registering most of the lambs that I kept last year. JSBA was in transition from me being the Registrar to having an outside organization handle it. So I waited. Why add more workload? Besides, the applications can now be submitted electronically (no more printing lots of photos for each sheep) and photos will show up on the registration certificates. Here are the sheep that I submitted, now yearlings. Meridian Santana = Puddleduck Sullivan x Genesis Farms Belinda Meridian Alex = Kenleigh’s Matrix x Meridian Alexandria Meridian Lana = Meridian Fogerty x Meridian Loretta Meridian Raquel= Meridian Miller x Meridian Rosie Meridian Cascade = Meridian Miller x Meridian Sierra Meridian Mae = Meridian Miller x Meridian MaryMeridian Sophia = Kenleigh’s Matrix x Meridian JazzThis is Marilyn who was registered last year so I didn’t get a new photo of her. This photo is before shearing her as a lamb. Marilyn = Meridian Miller x Meridian Hot Lips.This is some of Marilyn’s wool. I am spinning her fleece now during the Tour de France as part of Meridian Jacob’s unofficial Tour de Fleece group on Ravelry. Join us!

Who will the 2014 keepers be?This is one. Meridian Ginny = Meridian Hendrix x Mud Ranch’s GinsengMaybe this one shown with her mom. Not named yet = Meridian Miller x Meridian Vicki. Meridian Miller x Meridian JaneMeridian Hendrix x Meridian Alison

Vacation Interlude – Back to Work

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Robin

I’m on Day 4 of describing our wonderful vacation to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last week, but I will insert a post of what I am doing now that I’m back home. This is the north fence of the pasture. This is AFTER grazing. The sheep don’t venture in this far once the combination of dallisgrass and blackberries grow so thick. Access is hampered since there is an irrigation ditch just in front of this mess (the left part of the photo). There is a fence under there. This was yesterday morning’s achievement. I dumped the branches in the corral and the sheep were happy to work on defoliation when it was easier.However I’m not happy that the branches get stuck in their wool. This morning’s task was to finish the job. There are plenty of these still on what is left and they will be easier to get to. With my luck though they will all ripen just about the time that I go to Texas for the birth of my granddaughter.

By the way, you’d think that I’d come up with another solution to this problem. See this post from just over a year ago. Maybe some strategic fencing to hold some sheep right at that fence line.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Yellowstone!

Meet the Sheep

Posted on April 14, 2014 by Robin

Our annual spring open house on Saturday was a huge success. This event couldn’t happen without the help of Farm Club members and, this year, the Davis Spinners’ Guild (DSG). Farm Club members were here on Friday for set-up and showed up early Saturday for last minute touches. There are a variety of sheep related displays.But the biggest attractions are the animals and the demos.

Julie’s 3-week old Angora bunnies were very popular…

…as were the lambs. FC member, Mary held lambs for people all day (and suggested that next year we use smaller lambs!).

Jazz Jazz, mom of the triplets that were out for people to pet, made herself just as popular, calling to people to come back and continue petting.

As popular as the animals, were the demonstrations scheduled throughout the day.This is Farm Club (and DSG) member, Alison, showing her passion for…cleaning fleece with a fermented suint vat. Vera, of the Davis Spinners’ Guild, demonstrated use of the blending board…

…and spindle spinning.

Kathleen, FC and DSC member wove with an audience all day.Many people brought their wheels and spent the day spinning.

FC member, Lisa, always has a carrot for Amaryllis. She and Dona (who took some of these photos) demonstrated needle felting.

Dona, Jackie,and Colleen offered items for sale.

Of course my shop was open and there were even sheep inside!

There was much more going on and many more people helping then I have in photos here. Thanks to all of them. There are no photos of Rusty in this post but he wrote his own and you can find out what he thought of the day here.