I first shared photos and a sheep story in the November 9 blog post. The sheep were brought in to graze the alfalfa Across the Road November 4 and were there until December 14. Now I have another story to tell about this flock and the grazing operation, but I should at least finish the part of the story that was right across the road two months ago.
I often walk Across the Road with Ginny, but during this month I didn’t walk there very much. That was mainly because I didn’t want to cause any trouble with the guardian dogs that were on duty, but maybe also because that was the month it was so miserably foggy and dreary. It’s not foggy in this photo but it is a good example of how thoroughly the sheep grazed each paddock before they were moved to the next.
One morning I was checking the fence in our pasture when I saw the sheep being moved away from the main road back to where they had been farther back in the alfalfa. I assumed they had gotten out during the night and wandered out on the road and now they were being herded back. The next day I realized that I interpreted that scene wrong.
That morning, about two weeks after the sheep had first arrived I saw this scene from the southeast corner of our property. This wasn’t the same flock, but another being trailed up the road.
They had been grazing another property and were being moved to the one near us, as had the sheep the day before.
They turned the corner onto the road along the canal and were herded to a paddock further to the east.
This is the fencing that the herder moved to set up new paddocks when it was time for the sheep to move.
The three flocks were kept separate. I counted from about 180 to 220 ewes in the groups. That’s not counting the lambs.
That was from a distance with binoculars, but I later confirmed with the owner that was about right.
Eventually they moved to the alfalfa right across the road from us.
If I went to the mailbox the guardian dog came alert.
One of the flocks moved to south of the canal.
The other two were north.
My flock grazed just across the road. It’s a very different scale of management.
I wove these recently but they are from a warp I dyed several months ago. Can you tell that the warp was folded in half while I applied dye? Each half became a scarf.
These are the two pieces just off the loom before wet finishing.
These cotton shawls are also woven on the same warp. I used a lighter weight cotton weft for one.
This is a tencel scarf. There is another but I haven’t finished the fringe yet. The photo below gives a somewhat better idea of the iridescence to the pieces.
These are weavers at the end of the V-Shawl class I taught last weekend.
The exciting part of this shawl is the back so we always have to have that view. Fringes were left to finish at home. The shawl that is still on the loom in the photos is finished now! These are beautiful pieces.
This was another morning when I got up before the others and went for a walk. I headed south and saw flashing lights and road closures. There was a half- marathon scheduled to begin in about a half hour.
Screenshot
I thought I’d catch the start and headed south and east.
I like seeing these well maintained older houses. What I’d really like is to peek inside.
I took this photo from that small park that shows on the map. I realized that the traffic control people had disappeared and there was no sign of a race. I checked my phone and found that it started in Golden Gate Park.
I walked back in that direction. This is the NDGW Home where we were staying–not the one on the corner, but just to the left of the palm tree.
I started to see spectators. I was amused by this sign and asked to take a photo.
These runners came through before we saw the lead motorcycle and bicycle accompanying the first in the race. I learned something after looking up the logo on the yellow shirts.
There were more of the yellow shirts along the way. They are part of Achilles International, an organization made up of people with disabilities who want to be active and people who volunteer as guides. There were two guides with each athlete.The athletes I saw had signs that said blind or deaf or both. After watching awhile I went back to the Home to join everyone for breakfast.
We plan our Farm Club San Francisco Retreat for a weekend that is after shearing and before lambing. We were introduced to Native Daughters of the Golden West by one of the original Farm Club members who was also a member of NDGW. Members and their guests can stay in “The Home” designed by Julia Morgan and built in the 1920’s. This time thirteen of us gathered for the weekend and three others met up with us on Saturday.
Since Farm Club members are scattered around several counties we couldn’t all meet here to carpool. Four of us left from the farm and decided to check out SCRAP on the way. SCRAP is “a non-profit organization working at the intersection of arts, eduction, and the environment”.
This building holds an amazing amount of STUFF that has been donated–all things that someone could imagine using for an art or craft project, however wacky it is. There is a complete list on the website of what they will and won’t accept. I have included just a few photos here, although it is very difficult to portray what it is really like inside.
We spent a couple of hours here and then drove to our destination.
A feeling of serenity after the chaos of SCRAP. This is the room that I had for the weekend. We usually don’t spend much time in our rooms because we are gathered in the parlor, the dining room, or on an adventure of some kind in the city.
We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant within walking distance of the Home…
…and spent the rest of the evening in the parlor spinning and knitting and visiting. To be continued…
In the 2025 Weaving Recap blog post I included a photo of baby blankets still on the loom and said that warp had been on the loom since October. How about August? That’s what I found when I looked back for photos of warping this loom. Don’t ask me why I decided to wind a warp this way, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
I used a paddle so each pass was four threads and I made a 26 yard warp.
I have wound 20 or 30 yard warps sectionally using the traditional method for sectional warping or using the AVL warping wheel. But I got this idea of using two warping boards and thought, why not?
I had to wind two bouts to accommodate all the yarn. My goal was to use up odds and ends of cones of yarn so the second warp. That meant the second warp would be different from the first, but I wanted the colors distributed throughout. I spaced the first one out in the raddle.
Then I added the second warp in the empty spaces.
I used two end sticks instead of trying to intersperse the two bouts onto one stick.
This looked good.
This side was a little messier, but it all worked out eventually.
Weaving in progress.
I had an order for blankets so I cut some off the loom early and didn’t get back to that warp until recently.
This is the warp I just finished before cutting anything apart. People always ask how long does it take to weave a piece. There are processes other than weaving that go into completing a project. In this case all blankets were machine stitched at each end before cutting them apart. Then some were hemmed. All are washed and then I sew on my label and add the hangtag.
There are multiples of some of these blankets. Those are stacked with two or three.
Another view of all the blankets. You can find some of these blankets on my website and here at the farm store. Others are at The Artery and some are on the Artery’s webstore (local pick-up for those right now). Next up will be a white warp so I can have a variety of colors.
Dan saw a report that we have reached a record of 22 days of tule fog. Cold and drippy. I think I can handle cold (sort of) when it is balanced by a bit of sun. At least the green pasture and fluffy sheep look cheerful.
This is looking northwest to the hills. What hills? Fog instead.
This is the second day grazing Paddock 17. There is still more feed out there, but I want to move them across the other paddocks.
It seems that two days is about right for each of these 30-foot strips. Notice in this photo and the previous one how well the sheep eat right to the edges. The fences are on the checks, the raised strips that channel the irrigation water down the pasture. I think they eat those closer because they aren’t trampled like the middle of the paddock.
This is another view of that paddock.
I moved the net fencing this morning and this is Paddock 16. .
Some of the chicory has red in the leaves and some does not.
We’re almost to the last check in the south pasture. Well, we are at it but that is today and this blog post is about yesterday.
This is looking south and Paddock 2 on the right. That is the one the sheep were just grazing for two days, after grazing Paddock 3 (left) for two days. You can see how this looked two days ago here.
Anther view of that same fence line.
Moving west, this is the fenceline between #3 and #2. I had to move that net fence from the division between #3 and 4 to the division between #2 and 1.
The fence line between #’s 2 and 1, neither yet grazed
The sheep were out when I went to the barn yesterday morning. The paddocks are numbered from west to east, 1 to 21. Every other check has a permanent 3-wire fence, visible in this photo on the left. In the summer I grazed two at a time and 4 days seemed about right. After we got measurable rain I noticed significant trailing down the border check between the two paddocks they were grazing. The check is a raised strip running north to south that guides the water when we irrigate. I thought I’d better put a fence along that check so that they wouldn’t impact it as much. So that’s the way I’ve been grazing for the last few weeks. When Farm Club helped to measured net fences to make sure I had the correct fences where I needed them (blog post here) I had left 3 lengths of e-net that we measured to be the correct length for just this need. You can see the net fence on the right of this photo.
The sheep grazed this paddock (#4) for two days. This is the third morning and they need to move to #3. The fence is on the border check and you can see how they have grazed right up to it. The fence is purposely tipped away from the grazed paddock because I think the 4-horned sheep are less likely to get horns caught when they graze near the fence.
The sheep were anxious to get to fresh feed.
I was able to move the fence that was blocking access to the next paddock and they all came around the end.
This is the view before I reset the net fence. I find it interesting to see how the sheep ate the leaves as far as they could reach on the chicory. By the way, the leafy plant that looks like we’re growing a crop of lettuce or chard is chicory. That was one of the three forbs in the seed mix we planted last fall. It didn’t grow as much as the clover until later in the summer, but it is sure evident now.
Another view of the fence before I moved it, and more chicory stalks.
The sheep are happy on this new paddock. This is quite a contrast from the one grazed for only two days.
View to the north after re-setting most of the net fence.
I always see Mt. Diablo when I walk Across the Road (unless there is too much haze or fog). I feel a sort of weird connection to it because of the road we live on, which prompted the name of our farm, Meridian Jacobs. I wanted to DO something on my birthday and fortunately the weather was perfect for a hike. We picked up my brother on the way and arrived at Mt. Diablo State Park a little after 8 a.m.
Wikipedia says: “The Mount Diablo Meridian, established in 1851, is a principal meridian extending north and south from its initial point atop Mount Diablo in California.”
I took a lot of photos but I have to narrow it down for a blog post. There are probably more in this post than there should be. It’s hard to portray the true essence of the hike in my photos.
I wanted to get to the summit. Not long after we started we spoke to someone who said the direction we were headed was very steep and suggested a different route.
We had a map that showed all the trails and decided to start on a different one than what we’d planned.
Double checking the location.
We’re still smiling!
One of several peaks on the way to our goal. The sign say elevation 2369. I thought about adding a 1 in front of the 2. That’s sort of how it felt since we live in the flatland and lately all the walking has been flat. This was about 10:30.
I took this photo around noon. That point on the mountain is our goal and Dave thought that we should get there by 1 p.m. to make sure we had plenty of time to get back before dark.
This is where that arrow points.
Pipestem Clematis
Not many flowers yet, but things are greening up and showing promise of a beautiful spring. We did see a lot of this vine that I recognize from other oak-woodland hikes.
There was a point where we had a choice to take a one-mile “short-cut” to the top (steep, we were warned by someone coming down) or another two miles with ups and downs. We split up here. Dan took a different route that Dave and I would follow later back down the mountain. Dave and I went to the top.
Since you may not be able to read the sign I’ll repeat it here: “Mount Diablo, sacred to Native Americans who lived and worshipped there for over 5000 years, became a critical reference point for Spanish explorers in the 18th century, and American trappers and early California settlers in the 19th. In 1851 Colonel Leander Ransome established the crossing of the Mount Diablo base and meridian lines from which most of California and Nevada are surveyed.”
In the days before electronic navigation the light on top of the rotunda (once on a 75-foot tower) served as a crucial route-finding aid. It was turned off after the attack on Pearl Harbor amid fears that it could guide the enemy to an attack on the mainland. It is now dark except when it is lit on December 7 as a memorial to those who died at Pearl Harbor.
This is inside the rotunda.
View north-northwest.
View to the north. If I can see this mountain from where I live it seems as though I should be able to see my house from the mountain. I guess not. It’s out there somewhere. You can make out the windmills that are south east of our farm and we think what you can barely see left of center under the horizon is Travis AFB.
This is the view of the rotunda on our way down the mountain.
View to the east.
We saw a little bit of fall color. I took few photos on the hike back down. It was the most challenging part of the day. We followed a dirt road that is used to access communication towers on another mountain top. Downhill and a road. Sounds easy, right? It was so steep in parts that if I hadn’t had a walking stick to brace against I would have been slipping the whole time on those parts. Even with the stick it seemed treacherous. I hadn’t thought to bring walking sticks, but Dan and Dave had. On the way down Dan had left one of his with me. Once I started hiking this road I realized that his trip would have been extra challenging with his new knee joint and using only one stick.
We got back to the car before dark.
I had turned on my Map My Walk app before starting (blue dot). Somehow it turned off not long after we started and only started up again when we were sitting on the top eating lunch. So these stats are only half of the hike. We think our hike was 13 to14 miles. A good day.
This morning’s view. I walked across the road to take this photo.
Back on our side of the road, this is the group of sheep with Hornblower, the 4-horn ram farthest back on the photo. They don’t need to be fed when they are on this pasture, still in great shape in late October. If you’re new to this blog and want to catch up on the pasture renovation start at the October 3, 2024 post and find 13 others titled Pasture and Irrigation Renovation and later 8 posts titled Grazing and Irrigation starting with this one in May, 2025.
On my way to the barn I stop and feed Tiger and Tippy. These are Dan’s garage cats, but I started feeding them in April after his knee replacement surgery. Now feeding cats is on my chore list, because they expect to be fed earlier in the day than Dan will come out. Each of these cats showed up here at different times (dumped or stray?) and now live here.
Breeding Season gets complicated because there are several groups of sheep. The next stop is the group of sheep with Clancy, the BFL. There are two significant points of this photo. One is the blue rear of the ewe in the back. She was the first marked September 27 but re-marked with blue at the next heat cycle. Also notice all that green behind the sheep. That is all new growth after that 2″ rain we had just 9 days ago.
At the barn there are multiple groups. These are non-breeding sheep. Jade, in the back near the post, is the oldest sheep here and will live out her live as a pet. There are six others in this group. Sparky and 5 other lambs (some Meridian and some KJ Royalty, Kirby’s flock name) are here because I want to may want to choose some non-nursing yearlings next year if we decide to go to any shows.
This is another breeding group that has access to the north pasture.
Elvis is the ram with this group.
These are two young rams that I did not use to breed this year. The two horn ram is Meridian Dynamo. The four-horn is bide a wee Peregrin. He came from Oregon in September, was still on the young and small side, and I was able to get Starthist Hornblower, the adult 4-horn ram with the group in the pasture. So these guys will be in the line-up for next year.
Hunter is the two horn ram in the middle. He has six ewes.
I had two adult rams here, but one has been sold. Meridian Blizzard is hopefully sold and there is a ram lamb here that is the last of this year to be harvested for a customer.
I am ready to be done with Breeding Season, but when I look at the calendar I see that it has only been 3-1/2 weeks. I look forward to being able to put all the ewes back together and having them on the pasture together. There are challenges in putting the rams together, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now they are all in separate places.
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