How much time and energy do you spend making decision? Sometimes it seems overwhelming and it’s often about something trivial.
I’m helping with a new website. I’m not really helping, but being a guinea pig about how it all works for a non-tech person to enter things and helping to find glitches and things that are confusing. Is that a beta-tester? Or do you have to know more to have that title?
There is a place that asks for a banner across the part that will have Meridian Jacobs info. How to decide what photo? Sheep? Weaving? Yarn? The point of the website is to sell things. How do I choose one? The photo needs to fit the banner space. The software will supposedly take the appropriate size piece out of whatever photo you send, but I thought I should start with something the right size. I started with these below. Some were just experimental to see how they would fit the space.
A sheep photo? This is an older photo but I suppose that doesn’t matter as long as the quality of the photo is good enough.
I wanted to try something with more sheep and a background. This is not a good background.
This photo looks a bit washed out–maybe I can adjust that but at this point I was looking for any photo that fit the sheep into the landscape with a bit of horizon.
What about yarn or weaving? I’d sure like to sell blankets. Version 1.
Version 2.
Version 3.
I have a series of these photos that I have always liked.
I have used this photo (full size) a lot because it shows the difference between black and white sheep and lilac sheep. Townes, the lilac on the right, got the tips of the top horns caught in a fence two days ago and I found him dead.
Back to landscape photos. Here is one with a horizon and a lot of sheep and lush grass. The sheep are pregnant and recently shorn.
I walked across the road this morning and had just changed the fences so the sheep have this field near the road. That’s the view I was after. It is a narrow band but it shows sheep and the horizon. I like that this one shows our position in the Sacramento Valley. That notch you see in the hills is where the road goes to Lake Berryessa. Its a landmark for me.
This is a little different cropping of this morning’s photo.
A closer up view makes the sheep and the barn more prominent and removes the white fence on the right but cuts off the trees and my notch on the hills.
Back to yarn. This is what I did the last few days. Indigo on the left and Cosmos and Dahlia on the right.
But maybe I need black and white.
No decision made yet. Any suggestions are welcome…
This is a post I debated not writing. But it is part of my life. These photos are mostly from Friday. which was a full day…as are most days.
One of my regular customers wanted 8 lambs for Friday. This is the rack that Dan built for drying salted hides. It’s far better than having 9 pallets spread out on the floor. And even better, that orange netting like they use for construction work was given to us by someone who was cleaning up a property and didn’t want it.
I took these three hides off the rack so that I could fill it up with new ones. That is two Jacob sheep and the neighbor’s goat. One of my customers wanted to add a goat to the order and there happened to be one next door.
I have learned to take photos of hides before I send them to the tannery so that I can keep track.
This is the previous batch of hides…
…and the reverse side. This is what you get when a professional does the work. There are no holes and no big chunks of fat left on these. I sent these and the three above to Driftless Tannery in Wisconsin.
This batch went to Vermont. The tannery is up and running again after being sold. Why send these so far away? Tanneries are few and far between and I like the natural mimosa tan that is offered. There was a tannery in Idaho that did a great job for a year, but they moved and didn’t start up again.
Warning: dead sheep parts in the next few photos.
If I’m going to sell sheep for butcher then I want to use as much of the other parts as possible. The hide is an obvious option, but there is also a market for skulls with horns and horns by themselves. With the sheepskins all I have to do is salt them and then ship them to a tannery where all the work is done. I have to deal with the other parts. I’ll write a button post one of these days to explain the process I use to make buttons from the horns.
I have a hard time getting the skulls in shape to sell. I used to put the skulls out in back, wiring them inside a fence so they couldn’t be dragged off. After I retrieve them from “outback” there is still a lot of work to do. They are not completely cleaned and definitely not ready to list on the website.
One year I bought a “starter kit” of the kind of beetles that will do the work for you. But that is a whole other story and it’s not that simple. Also that was the year of my accident and I wasn’t able to keep the beetle colony working.
This is my new method which is not yet perfected. Last fall I buried several heads and left them for the winter. There was so much rain for so long, that there was plenty of insect and/or microbial action. When I dug the skulls up I found that they were still not perfect, but much better than the “outback” method. They mainly need some work on whitening, after turning brown in the dirt, and there is a risk of the horns deteriorating faster than the bone. I don’t know how long these need to stay in the ground and I don’t know how much difference it makes if I add water occasionally. There are some heads under the dirt pile in the middle of the photo and there are some under the black tub. There are some IN the black tub as well. The last few that are buried have baling twine tied to the horns so I know where they are. The new ones in the foreground have baling wire around the horns that sticks up through the dirt when they were covered.
When I make buttons I need just the horns so I cut them off the skull. There is a bony core that is attached to the skull. You have to soak the horn or otherwise allow the tissue between the horn core and the outer part to deteriorate or be eaten by something so that you can get the outer part off.
This was a ewe lamb with horns that tipped forward. One was so wobbly that it didn’t seem attached to the skull. You can see here that it wasn’t. I think that would be an example of a scur.
Friday’s harvest was fast. The farm harvest guy dealt with all those sheep within two hours and did a great job with the pelts. After I finished salting hides I spent the rest of the morning sorting and organizing sheep coats. I don’t coat a lot of sheep, but usually have about five coated through the summer and up until shearing. These are usually the sheep that go to Black Sheep Gathering and/or State Fair. Right now there are only two with coats. I’d rather see my sheep without the coats and it adds work to keep up with changing coats as the fleeces grow out. You can see that there is also a lot of coat repair to keep up with.
The coats I have always used are those lined up in the middle and the left. I recently bought a new brand of coats that was recommended when I was at the Jacob show in Estes Park. My original coats are sized by number. The new ones have a color tab that indicates size. I matched them up to the old coats to figure out where they fit as far as size and I added the numbers to match the others. The coats on the right are the new ones. I guess I didn’t get the sizes I’ll need as the fleeces grow out.
As you know I like to take photos. I think that most of them (at least the ones I share) are decent. I know the basics of photography and am familiar with the importance of exposure, focal length, white balance, etc. But its one think to know ABOUT the concepts. It’s another to put them into practice.
When you base most of your business on online sales, obviously the photos are very important. I really need to update all the products on my website and there is soon to be a launch of a new website with some of my pieces. I NEED to have decent photos.
I am writing this post as a tool to analyze what I’m doing and share the info with some people who might have advice. Comments are welcome.
I have used that white (but not really white) board for a couple of years. Dan put wheels on the edge so I could store it upright and roll it around to where I need it. It is cut the dimension to match the photos when I use my Nikon. That was very helpful since the template for my current website uses horizontal photos for the product pages. However I have had to provide square photos for other websites and that is what the new one will use. So I have to keep that in mind when I’m photographing products. The request for the new website is that all the main product photos have a consistent look as far as color. White? Gray? Wood? Purple??? I have to choose one. I have to choose one that will help me take good photos.
The part I struggle with is white balance. That means that the backgrounds look like what I’m seeing in real life and the products are represented properly. I am not going to try and include all the photos I took here. I tried four backgrounds with each product–the white (not quite white) board, a gray piece of fabric to decide if I want to paint something gray, a piece of raw plywood, and the deck in front of my shop. I took photos of each product on each background with my Nikon and with the iPhone. I am disappointed that I have a harder time getting the color right, at least on the white background, with my real camera. Most of these are with the iPhone. My goal is to take photos that are correct and not have to spend time with post-processing on the computer.
It would be simpler if I could put all these photos side-by-side or at least in a block of four, but I can’t make that work. Besides maybe when you look on a phone that would make it more difficult.
This herringbone scarf looks most natural on the wood of my deck. At least the color I see on my computer looks like the scarf. The background isn’t a good choice for smaller projects however. It’t the spaces between the boards that are the problem.
My so-called white background. The whole thing looks dingy and the scarf is not the true color.
The color of the scarf is better here, but that gray looks darker than it should and there is a blue cast. (I know its wrinkled–it is a stand-in for a painted board.)
The color of the scarf on the natural light plywood is wrong.
The next two photos are taken with the Nikon.
This is without editing. The exposure is too dark. I lightened it on my computer and it was OK.
I lightened the exposure and shifted the white balance in the computer on this one, also taken with the Nikon.
Light gray yarn on the wood deck. The lines are definitely distracting as are the speckles that weren’t as noticeable in the photo that wasn’t as close.
Even without the wrinkled cloth, this color doesn’t do much for me as a background.
It bothers me that the background looks dingy here. This is the same skein of yarn in all four photos. It sure looks darker here than in the first one, which is more correct.
The yarn color looks even darker here. I thought about having several skeins of yarn in one photo–I think that would help with the color. However, it has to be really clear that a purchase is for only one skein of yarn, unless the customer chooses more.
This is the iPhone photo from above with exposure adjusted in Lightroom.
I think the color of the blanket is the best on the wood background.
The color is a little darker here and the gray fabric is darker.
The blanket looks more black white or at least dark gray than it really is.
Here is that “white” background. The blanket still looks darker and the background has a blue cast.
This was taken with the camera. The exposure was wrong and the background looked dark gray. I lightened it and shifted the color temp from the blue side to the yellow side. But now this looks browner. The colors of the first photo in this series look more true, at least on my screen.
I have this set of grayscale cards, but just because I have it doesn’t mean that I can use it properly. That white one is true white, but I don’t think it looks true white in this photo. It does show how far off the board is. Some of that may be the photo though. If you look at the very first photo with the sheepskin you can see this set of cards on the board and it looks different there.
While mulling this over I saw my white truck right there. That is the truest white so far. This photo was taken in the sun and all the others were in shade.
So where does this leave me? I think that I should be able to use a white background but I’ve never felt successful with that. I think it’s easier to get true color on the wood deck. Is that because the camera is sensing more variety of color and contrast than when you use just a solid color? What if I stained a piece of plywood to have it lighter than the deck, but with some variation from grain?
Last night I experimented with ways to remove background from iPhone photos. I used one for which I didn’t have to use an app. Some look OK but it’s not foolproof.
The edges don’t look right here.
Definitely a problem here. It couldn’t distinguish the fringe yarns. I think that dark line is from the deck space.
As I type this my screen lags behind the keyboard. In addition to the photo issues my computer is full. Now what? I thought using iCloud would help but I don’t understand enough to set it up properly. As I’ve said before, where’s a millennial when you need one? Or even a 12 year old?
No, you didn’t miss the first, second, and third days. I haven’t had time to sort photos or write anything. So I’ll start with the last day which was our show day.
We tied our sheep to the outside of the pens while waiting our turn so we could get the straw off the bellies. We had 11 sheep at the fair this year. I was missing a yearling ram because I sold Turbo at the Estes Park show. My show string consisted of 2 ram lambs, 2 yearling ewes, and 2 ewe lambs. Kirby has sheep that are the descendants of the ewe I gave her in 2019–I don’t give her sheep each year for the show. Kirby had twin yearlings (ram and ewe), and three lambs (two ewes and a ram) to show. I just looked at the blog post I wrote after the 2019 State Fair. There are some of my favorite photos of Kirby there, and you’ll see some of the same other characters in 2019 as in this post.
Kirby with the yearling ram, KJ Royalty Thorn, twin to KJ Royalty Rose. It’s the breeder’s prefix that is part of a registered sheep’s name, and Kirby’s prefix is KJ Royalty. She was the owner of Meridian Belle when she was bred. Now all the offspring of Belle and Belle’s offspring will have that prefix. There is a theme here for some of the sheep names. You’ll pick up on that if you’re a Disney fan.
Thorn was the only entry in the Yearling Ram class and the judge gave him high praise for conformation and fleece.
It is too bad that there are no other breeders showing up for the Primitive Breeds sheep show now. Pre-pandemic we had some Shetlands, Icelandic, and other breeds so there was competition. Now it’s just Kirby and me as separate breeders. This is the Champion drive for rams. That’s Thorn as the yearling. My ram lamb, Meridian Cyclone (weather theme for 2023 lambs) was first place ram lamb and Kirby’s Gusgus was second. Thorn was given Champion Ram and Cyclone was Reserve.
There were three Farm Club members helping on this day and it took all of us to make sure the sheep were where they were supposed to be and Kirby had an adult helper so we don’t have more photos of the show. But we have photos of After. Thorn’s sister, Rose was awarded Champion Ewe so Kirby made out with the banners.
Fair week is always exhausting and Kirby’s four fair days were at the end of being away from home for six weeks. Her birthday was the previous day, and there was a lot going on then as well.
After the show we were back to educating (entertaining / enlightening?) the public. I am grateful to the Farm Club members who came to help. Siobhan was there Thursday and brought a local friend to help also. Lisa came Friday and Saturday. Marina, Beth, and Doris were there Saturday and Sunday. I couldn’t have done this and stayed sane without them there.
This entertainer showed up in that 2019 post.
He rides all over the fair and makes balloon characters for kids. This is a dinosaur that Kirby plans to take home to her brother. Hopefully it will survive a road trip back to Texas.
The last event of the day was the Supreme Champion show. Both of Kirby’s Champion sheep needed to be in their respective classes. This photo shows Rose and Thorn together. I don’t have photos of the Supreme show because I was in the show ring with Kirby. Afterwards they announced the Herdsman and Marketing awards.
We did it! First in Herdsman and first in Marketing. These awards have more meaning for me than the sheep show awards because there wasn’t competition in the sheep show ring. Actually there wasn’t that much competition this year for these, but there was some and we really worked for it.
If you look at that 2019 post you’ll see that this is the same crew as then, with the addition of Kirby.
While we were loading the trailer and my car I let Kirby watch one last horse performance if she stood at the corner where I could see her (easy in the bright green shirt). When we finished loading I joined her.
There hasn’t been time or focus for a blog post with a specific subject, so you get Random Farm Photos.
This is how 4th of July looks with a very gun-shy Border Collie. Ginny is next to Kirby’s bed and Kirby covered Ginny with her “special” blanket.
Part of the dye garden. These dahlias are taller than me.
Cosmos in the dye garden.
There is a gate and a driveway under those wild grape vines. This is the result of a truly wet winter.
Sheepskins that were just sent to the tannery.
Skulls that have been buried. Some will need more time to get really clean.
Kirby is here for another three weeks. A couple of nights ago she wanted to make dinner. She described her process and we just got out of the way (and handled the iron frying pan).
Baby blankets almost ready to come off the loom. The same style that I’ve made since 1980.
View Day 1 and Day 2 of this adventure. The only thing I had to think about on Saturday was showing sheep in the afternoon and Spinners’ Lead in the evening. I’ll share scenes from the farm booths and around the vendor hall.
Karen of Liongate Farm always has an array of unique needlefelted pieces at her booth.
She was awarded the Black Sheep Cup for this piece. The detail is amazing.
Here is another Black Sheep prize awarded to a different fiber artist.
I was glad to see the Black Lamb Cup awarded to a youth entry. We need to encourage the next generations to be excited about sheep and fiber.
The perfect shoes to wear to a sheep gathering.
This is an impressive display that was just outside the vendor hall. I hope that everyone took a look.
There are dozens of different sea creatures in a variety of fiber arts represented here.
A closer view.
Back at the barn, a little clean up was necessary. Jazzie had been wearing a blanket but I took it off because I’d rather see the sheep than a blanket. Jazzie is a black and white sheep and Lenore, behind her, is a lilac.
We were the only Jacob breeders who entered the show this year so we had to show in an All Other Breeds division. This is for sheep registered in their own breed associations, but without enough sheep or breeders to show in separate divisions.
Ram lamb, Meridian Bridger, won Champion ram of this division.
We also had best Young Flock (one ram lamb, two ewe lambs). This isn’t the typical photo you’d take of your winning sheep group, but I mainly wanted to have one of Farm Club members who were there and helped out. This is Brenda, Lisa, Beth, and me. Doris was taking the photo. Other Farm Club members were there too. Ryan had his own Heritage Fiber booth in the vendor hall, Stephany was helping with the Mendocino Wool Mill booth, and Lyn was visiting. Did I miss someone? I kept running into people I knew all day.
The collection of ribbons and a trophy.
I think Lisa took this photo. I was told that this should be my new profile photo on all my social media pages. What do you think?
The Angora goats showed on Saturday also.
The day ended with Spinners Lead. I had told Ryan that he should definitely wear his handspun handknit sweater using fleece that he got at his first shearing day from Jacob ewe, Columbine.
He led Jazzie, whose fleece matched the spots really well.
There were 15 entries (no photos unfortunately), and the two of us won the top placings in the show. Ryan was first for non-sheep-owner and I won for the sheep owners. Great fun! I’m so glad that we did this.
Usually we show on the Friday of Black Sheep Gathering. Unfortunately I was the only Jacob breeder this year so I was bumped into sort of an All Other Breeds class on Saturday. That meant that Friday was a free day. I had books and magazines and a crochet project with me. What did I accomplish? Nothing, because everywhere I turned there were people to talk to and things to see. Sometimes its the best thing to have a break from “accomplishing” something.
The morning activities began with the wool show. I listened for awhile because there is always something to learn. The Jacob class was #12 so I decided there was time to buy a BSG t-shirt before that started.
This has nothing to do with the t-shirts but it is what caught my eye at the t-shirt table. A women had an 8-day old kitten with her. She is feeding it every two hours.
Back in the barn, there were vendors as well.
The barn vendors have their booths near their pens of show sheep. I have not been a vendor because that would mean there is more organization required, more things to take, and I’d be tied down to staying there the whole time. I was having fun wandering everywhere.
Back to the wool show. There were 8 fleeces in the Jacob class. Four were mine. I placed first with Brady (ram), 2nd with Janna (ewe), and fourth and sixth with two others. The first two sold there. I’ll have the other two on my website.
Wandering through the vendor hall I took photos of just a few things that caught my eye. My friend, Karen of Bide a Wee Farm, came up with unique products–lamb tail keychains and ram horn earrings!
She also does a much better job with ram skulls than I do. Mine are still brown and somewhat nasty looking.
A friend from Davis is selling goods from India, including this box of wool samples from sheep I’ve never heard of.
An Oregon sheep breeder has started producing panels for use with sheep.
I met a new vendor from my area who creates art yarn from leftovers.
Last but not least, it’s a rainbow batt from my friends, Roy and Henry Clemes!
Three of us traveled together to Black Sheep Gathering in Albany, Oregon. My friend, Vicki, used her truck to pull my trailer with my 10 sheep. She brought fleeces to show and sell. Another friend, Doris rode with us. We left about 7 a.m. on Thursday.
I don’t remember the last time that I saw Shasta Lake full.
Glimpse of Mt. Shasta.
Another view of Mt. Shasta.
Two of the sheep I brought were already sold so we did a parking lot transfer of those and then settled the rest of the sheep in the barn by late in the day.
Vicki slept in her camper, but Doris and I set up tents for the weekend. This became a gathering spot for some of our California and Oregon friends.
I took photos of a few of the less common breeds. These are Horned Dorset, a sheep with spots that can make them look like Jacob sheep to people who don’t see the more subtle differences. The horns have a quite different look than my sheep with two horns.
There isn’t much to this post, but I need to write it to finish the story. In the last post we had driven through Wyoming and eventually stopped in Utah to sleep awhile. I gave the sheep alfalfa and joined Dan in the cab to try and sleep for a few hours.
We were on the road by about 5:30.
We made it to this part of Utah about 7:45. I looked this up online. “An abstract artistic sculpture called Metaphor: The Tree of Utah stands off the edge of I-80 on the barren Bonneville Salt Flats west of Salt Lake City. Swedish artist Karl Momen created the 87-foot high tree between 1982-1986. He financed the project himself to bring bold color and beauty to the stark, flat, salty landscape. The sculpture is made of 225 tons of cement, almost 2000 ceramic tiles, and five tons of welding rod, and tons of minerals and rocks native to Utah.” …
“The concrete trunk covered with tiles holds up six spheres coated with natural rock and minerals native to Utah…The sculpture is surrounded by a fence to protect people from falling tiles.”
I find the whole idea strange–that someone can decide to install something like this in the middle of what I assume is public land. I haven’t found the explanation. This article from Roadside America gives a different perspective about it.
We made it to Nevada around 8 a.m.
Interesting erosion patterns in the rock.
There seemed to be road construction almost the whole way to Colorado and back.
This was about 2 p.m. The Welcome to California sign was on the ground.
It was cloudy in the Sierras and it began to rain.
There is still snow lingering on the peaks.
This is the last photo I took on this trip. We made it home about 4 p.m. Good to be back.
I left off with Saturday’s events at the Estes Park Wool Market. Sunday began with the Estes Park Wool Market Classic Sheep Show. Saturday’s show was specifically for the JSBA annual meeting, but this one could include several breeds. There were a few other sheep, but it was mostly the Jacob sheep that had shown on Saturday. This is Lamb 2329 that was heading to Pennsylvania following the show. She won her class.
Here she is in the champion line-up. The judge spent so much time looking at her and coming back to her that I thought she would take a ribbon, but Grand and Reserve went to some of the older sheep. The sheep in the back being shown by Royal (standing) is Meridian Quince, second in the Yearling Ewe class.
Royal helped show in all the classes while Dan was watching over the sheep that were tied to the fence waiting for their turn. This class is Young Flock, a ram lamb and two ewe lambs.
Best Four. The trick for this class is to pay attention to what the judge has said and choose the ones that she liked best. Ours was first place.
This class is Best Flock. That’s one ram, two ewe lambs, and two older ewes. We chose one of the ram lambs for this class because this judge gave him better comments than she gave Turbo, the yearling who was Champion Ram on Saturday. First place for this group.
A Sheep Lead class followed the sheep show. This ram and his companion are ready for the office!
I wore almost a repeat of the previous day, but substituted a pinwheel shawl that I had just got back from the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival where it took the award for the Best Jacob project.
Turbo and I were given the top place in this event. I sure like that ram. He was going to stay behind because one of the organizers of the JSBA meeting purchased him for her flock. However I wouldn’t go home empty-handed.
Her ram, Fair Adventure Horatio, was to come home with me.
The show wasn’t over yet. The Jacob fleeces were judged in the afternoon. It was frustrating to listen to comments but not know whose fleece was being discussed. I tried to recognize bags, but the best I could do was to tell that some bags were NOT mine. I could also tell the difference between coated and non-coated fleeces. When we picked up fleeces after the judging I found that I had won a first, second, and third. Those weren’t all in the same class because large groups had been split into smaller classes. These same fleeces will go to Black Sheep Gathering this week.
I finally spent a little time walking around the vendor booths. This is the only photo I took. I thought these mittens were certainly photo-worthy.
By about 4:00 the barn was almost empty. I was torn about leaving Quince and her lamb behind. I really like that ewe, but I know I have too many sheep and one of the reasons to go all the way to this show was to sell sheep if possible. I’m glad that these sheep will be with a serious Jacob breeder.
We loaded fewer sheep for the return trip. The ram, Horatio, joined us as did a couple of ewe lambs I brought home for a friend. But we left behind Turbo, Quince, and 5 lambs.
My phone showed that if we drove straight through we’d be home at almost 8 a.m. That of course is not possible.
The first point of interest, just a few miles out of town. There were a couple of places where people had pulled off the road to see elk.
On the windy road between Estes Park and Fort Collins.
Now we’re back to drive-by scenery photos like in the first couple of posts about the trip.
I was still in the passenger seat, but now we’re going the other direction so the scenery is different.
Dinner on the road.
Wyoming. We should have paid attention to Siri. The phone told us to take a detour but we didn’t see any reason to. Eventually we came upon a huge back up of trucks and cars and it took us over 90 minutes to go 10 miles. When we got to the problem it turned out to be a big-rig trailer that had caught fire.
In the meantime the traffic was stop and go and the sky became more ominous. I entertained myself with taking videos and isolating the lightning shots.
We also noticed the spinning wheel in this truck when we were both stopped on the freeway. We both had windows down and we asked if he’d been at Estes Park. Yes, he had.
I took this photo and the next from some of the videos I recorded while waiting on the freeway.
We drove until some time after midnight and stopped at a rest stop in Utah I think.
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