I know, how could there be too many lambs? When there are too many it’s hard to get that perfect jumping lamb photo. There is always another lamb in the wrong place. Here are tonight’s attempts. (Thank goodness for digital cameras.)
This one is today’s favorite:
I hope that winter is not over for California because it barely started. Our water situation is dire. However that doesn’t mean that I won’t admire the fabulous colors of an early spring. I took all of these photos within about 30 feet of my house. 
The acacia tree in the front yard.
The almond tree near the driveway.
Recent rain (two weeks ago now) and warm weather bring out “the air force”.
In the pasture.
Shepherd’s purse in the pasture. In a pot in the backyard.
Western redbud near my shop.
This one is not the best photo but I love the colors.
These remind me of photos taken flying over Nevada at 30,000 feet.
But if that’s the case then this is scary:
These are from my last walk Across the Road.
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.
Thanks to all of you who told me that you like seeing photos from Across the Road. We have only 10 acres here so we appreciate being able to share the farmland that is across the road.
I took my macro lens to the repair shop this week and saw that they had used equipment for sale at good prices. So I bought a 70-300 mm lens. My other lens is 18-135 so this gives me a whole new perspective. What fun!
That is the base of the corn that was harvested a few days ago. There are photos of the harvest in Rusty’s blog.
Yesterday’s plowing makes beautiful patterns.
With this new lens I should now be able to get all those fantastic wildlife photos I’ve been missing. So I had my eyes open for wildlife. I was able to get a photo of a critter den just after they (muskrats?) plopped into the water.
The only birds I saw were crows and doves. Oh Oh. I forgot to touch up this photo to remove the spots. I found that I have the same spots on my blue sky with this lens as with my other one. That means that there is dust somewhere inside the camera. That can’t be good. I caught interesting spider webs…
…close up. 
Here is few of our property looking across the harvested corn field. This is with the old lens at 135 mm…
…and with the new lens at 300 mm.
Maybe no wildlife but I found other things in the trees. There are some great photos of Rusty and Maggie, but I let him use those for his blog.
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.
(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.
View behind the barn in the morning.
Cattle egrets roosting at the edge of the pasture.
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.
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 !!!”
I’m in Texas waiting for the birth of a granddaughter. My daughter and SIL live in the Texas Hill Country and this is some of what I see on my walks in the early morning and evening.
This is the road to the kids’ house.
I saw three of these when I turned out of the driveway early this morning and at first I thought it wouldn’t be a very long walk. They eventually meandered through the fence. 
Lots of deer in the area.
I don’t know what this bird is but it has a distinctive long tail. I need to google “bird with long tail in Texas hill country”. At Katie’s bird feeder there are a lot of cardinals and a very colorful painted bunting. 
I want to look this plant up also. It was full of butterflies and some giant bees the last time I walked by. MamaLu cooling off after a walk when Katie went with me.
View from the kid’s kitchen window. This is a Black Buck, native to Africa. There is a herd in the area.
What do you do when the baby is a week overdue? Let’s go wash the horses. Libby is the horse that Katie got when she was in junior high. Libby moved with Katie to Cal Poly, to TX, to VT, and back to TX.
Libby is not too crazy about baths, but her companion, Slim, loves the hose.
View through the oak trees.
Views from this morning’s walk before going to the hospital where we are waiting for a baby.
After leaving Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon we were heading home. There are a lot of landscape photos at 70 mph in this post. I could have left out the blurry ones, but…hmmm…then I wouldn’t have all the impressions that I want to remember. Sorry. It makes me appreciate other people’s very sharp photos that much more. 
The trusty green truck that Dan got for $5 when his dad moved to Hawaii. Landscape off Hwy. 97 in north-central Oregon.
Sunset over Klamath Lake in Oregon.
It was dark as we were looking for a place to camp along the road in California. I realized later that Dan had an ulterior motive for wanting to make it as far as Military Pass Rd., off of Hwy. 97 before it joins up with I-5. If you want to hike the north or east sides of Mt. Shasta that is where you find the trailheads and he wants to do that trip before he goes back to teaching in August.
We found a place off the main road, ate what was left in the ice chest, and went to sleep. This is what it looked like in the morning.
This is the view from our “campsite”.It’s always a thrill to see Mt. Shasta when you drive into California from the north. The peak is 14,162′ and Shastina to the west is 12,330′. 
We spent the morning driving the roads that circle Mt. Shasta to the east and finally join up with the highway to head south.
We stopped several times at campsites and trails along the beautiful McCloud River.
Finally on the last leg home. No more stops.
Passing Shasta Lake, indicative of California’s severe drought. This is only June and the lake should be filled with snowmelt.
Dry hills typical of the Mediterranean climate of California. Most parts of California have dry summers and wet winters. We depend on the winter rain and snowfall to fill reservoirs and replenish acquirers to be able to produce the abundant agricultural crops that California is known for. 
With irrigation this is what the Central Valley looks like. This is a rice field.
This land is usually brilliant green from about October into April. The brown landscape is normal for unirrigated land. However, last year we had an early rain (September?) and then nothing. What grass germinated died. Many ranchers who depend on the fall grass to feed their cattle and sheep had to sell their livestock. The next rains came in January and they were meager. There was not enough rain or snow, especially following other years of relatively dry conditions, to catch up. You can read about the affect of the drought on California’s farmers and ranchersat Voices from the Drought on Facebook.
Harvesting hay.
Sunflowers at 70 mph. The dry hills are typical of California in the summer. The valley crops are grown with irrigation water.
Well, I got sidetracked into a semi-documentary. These photos in Yolo and Solano Counties meant that we were getting closer to home.
Here is who greeted us when we pulled in (my camera doesn’t seem to be doing any better at 0 mph).
We had a wonderful trip but it’s good to be home.
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