I talk repeatedly about seasons. Lambing Season. Breeding Season. Spring, etc. There is another. Baby Bird Season just ended.
This is one of several Brewer’s Blackbirds’ nests in the barn. This one is on a convenient shelf just over my lambing calendar. I’ve read that Brewer’s blackbirds eat seeds, grains, and insects.
However, our blackbirds do quite well on the mulberry tree that overhangs the ram pen and is loaded with mulberries right now. 
This bird hatched on April 30. Anytime we walk in the barn, the parents harass us relentlessly.
This photo was taken two days later on May 2.
May 6.
May 8. They grow quickly.
This is May 9. The first baby is 9 days old.
May 12. Out of the nest. There is a day or two when I find babies out of the nest. The parents are frantic. Maggie needs to be restrained because she is truly a varmint dog. She things that anything small and alive is fair game for her.
Now the birds are out of the barn. I don’t know if there will be a second crop. Last year I felt as though Baby Bird Season lasted a lot longer.
We took another trip in 2013 and again in 2015. I still have this truck.
…although last Christmas the Explorer wasn’t adequate to get up the driveway. (That could have been because, knowing we were going to sell it, we hadn’t got new tires.)
Found it. I needed to get it on 
1999. Flash, my first Border Collie, who helped with dairy cows, and Benny who we got as a puppy when we first moved to our current location.
A gorgeous wedding day in Vermont.
Amaryllis.
A line-up of the girls plus Faulkner, the BFL ram.
Rusty moving sheep.
My tent when backpacking on the Lost Coast a few years ago.
Taken 4 years ago. Look who got in with the big boys!
Speaking of big boys, this is a bear that Dan and came across when hiking in Grand Tetons National Park. She has a cub nearby and didn’t back down. Black bear or grizzly? We were never sure. We assumed it was a black bear but some people who saw they photo said grizzly.
My granddaughter taken about a year ago. That’s the “little chicken”. Could that be the same one as in that photo with the sheep?
I took this photo in December when we were with all my kids and their spouses in Hawaii.
…and was inspired to change to my 40 mm micro lens. Then I walked around looking at things through that lens. Some are tiny and some not so tiny, depending on the view.
Grapes just forming.
The rope part of Ginny’s Toy.
Dried up “cone” from sheoak tree.
That “cone” on the tree.
Can you guess this one? Answer below the next photo.
This is the new growth on the redwood tree. That photo above is the joint in a ram skull.
Rose.
This bottlebrush is covered with flowers this year.
This is what is left from last year’s flowers.
Chain.
I took the camera Across the Road too. This is a blackberry flower.
Hoverfly on a blackberry leaf.
Grass flowering.
Buckeye flowers.
This is the 9 month old ram. He needs a name.
This is Meridian Nash. These rams have the same sire so I don’t need both. I think this one will be for sale.
Puddleduck Ringo is also for sale. I have used him for two seasons and he needs to move on.
Meridian Rotor. 
Isn’t this a beautiful stylish ewe lamb? She was born a month before everyone else because the ram lambs weren’t weaned soon enough. Too bad I don’t know her sire. Her very cute baby pictures with her brother are in
Lamb in early morning light. Meridian Vanessa x Meridian Rotor.
BFL-cross lamb. Love those BFL faces.
I’m keeping this lilac lamb. Mud Ranch’s Foxglove x Meridian Nash.
Not sheep, but the sunflowers Across the Road.
Ginseng and BFL-X lambs.
Fandango with lambs.
Hot Lips and lamb.
Alexandria and her lambs.
Isabelle with lambs.
Melinda and lambs.
These were the last ones born this year.
Amaryllis.
Sheep looking hopeful as I climb back over the gate.
This was taken on the first walk a few weeks ago. The dogs are on the leash until we get off of Meridian Road.
The field was bedded up and planted about two weeks ago.
Can you see the sprouts when you look at one of the lines almost right in the middle of the photo? Those are sunflowers.
The most exciting thing for the dogs is that the canals were filled about a week ago.
On the last walk I noticed that Rusty spent more time than usual in the water. He usually just goes in when he’s hot and gets out again, but this time he spent time cruising (the best way to describe his half walking/half swimming) up the canal. I think his hips are bothering him so much that it felt better to move that way.
He also needs help getting out now. Last year I helped Ginny out. This year it will be Rusty. 
Wet dog.
The alfalfa has been cut and baled once already and is now being irrigated.
Here is another week’s growth of the sunflowers.
The best surprise for Ginny I think is that she got to chase the Toy into the water again. Rusty will have more of these photos on 
Kind of like 
I got home from Modesto and went to the barn about 8 p.m. These lambs had been born within the hour. I don’t know why this ewe took so long. She was marked as bred during the first week of lambing. I suspect that she miscarried and it took her 6 weeks to cycle again. Faulkner was the clean-up ram so all the last lambs are crossbreds.
This is my lambing board. I’ll have the stats figured out at a later date.
This photo doesn’t do justice to the pile of stuff. Most of them are still out in the aisle. A couple of people stopped by and were amazed that I actually fit it all in. What you don’t notice in the photo because of the black drapes are the 16 gridwall panels that create the booth. Those get heavier every year.
I got to Modesto about 4:30 p.m., worked until 8:40 on Thursday and then from about 9:30 to 1:30 today. The show opened at 2. Here is a tour of my booth:
Rusty’s Yarn faces the aisle.
On the 3-grid tower in the middle I have the Meow and Woof yarns…
…Sprout yarns…
…and Mountain Meadows, all fingering weight yarns with sample scarves.
Around the inside of the booth is the Timm Ranch yarn with blankets I wove and Mary’s beautiful shawl. There are Jacob sheepskins too–only a few left.
Moving to the left there is the Jacob yarn and Imperial Yarn Company’s “Anna”, a wool/cotton yarn that weaves up quickly (at 5 epi).
Going around the back wall I have rigid heddle looms from Ashford and Schacht and the Ashford “Katie”, which is a wonderful very portable 8-shaft table loom.
Purl & Loop Stash Blaster looms and Swatch Maker looms are brand new. Next to them are the Zoom looms with the critter kits that use squares made on the them.
Coming around the corner I have photo notecards, buttons, and Meridian Jacobs bags and aprons.
I have added to the horn buttons. My son helped finish off another batch.
Last there is Cormo Sport yarn dyed by Sincere Sheep. You can see one of the samples that I wove. It is incredibly soft and spongy (not a good wool term, but is it better than squishy? I probably need a different adjective, but it’s late.) I brought Power Scour, etc with me but barely found room for a few bottles.
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