No Time to Blog

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Robin

What do all these photos have in common? They are all topics that I want to blog about. But I’ve been from one adventure to another and am off again pretty soon. I hope I get to tell all these stories (including the rest of my Road Trip) before too long.

Maybe there should be a contest. Anyone who tells a story that incorporates all of these images (any order) can be entered. Write a paragraph and put it in the comments or send me an email me at robin@meridianjacobs. com (I can’t seem to make this a live email link) and I’ll either choose my favorite or do a random drawing for a prize. How about a Meridian Jacobs bag? Or a T-shirt? Go for it!!!

One More State Fair Post

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Robin

Before I get back to my Road Trip blogs I have a few more photos to share. No big surprises in this post like there were in the last one, but Dona sent me the great photos that she had taken of the show. And since I’m writing another fair post I’ll include a few others as well.

I didn’t see much of the fair besides the livestock area but I walked around briefly. Here is what caught my eye.

On the wall of the livestock office.

Another longhorn, this time with not-so-symmetrical horns.

A “corn-box” for children.

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This seems like a good idea for kids but I think I’d want it far from my house. It’s hard to tell in the photo but there are metal bars hanging at each station for banging “music making”.

I always like walking through “The Farm” to get ideas for my garden. I like these bricks that made the corners of the raised beds. It would be easy to change the location of the beds.

Back to the show ring. Rotor was sometimes reluctant at moving around the ring.

Here he is at the head of the class of Shetlands and Karakuls.

This is the Primitive Breeds Champion judging.

None of my other sheep did as well as Rotor. The judge preferred his fleece over that of my other sheep, although I think they are just fine. Meridian Honey, shown by my husband, had won Champion Jacob ewe at Black Sheep Gathering in June, but she was last in this class. That is part of showing any livestock, especially Jacob sheep. There is such a wide variety in acceptable traits in our sheep that it may not really be appropriate to judge them against each other. That is why Jacobs used to be judged by “card-grading”. Each sheep would get a “grade” based on the characteristics–not putting one of a similar grade above another. But that’s not how it’s done in traditional livestock shows.

These are my two yearling ewes, Meridian Honey and Meridian Zinnia.

This is the Jacob portion of the Primitive Breeds ewe lamb class. The two lambs without much color have a bit more on the other side. They are sisters and my friend, Mary, has bought one of them.

Here is our Flock entry in the Primitive Breeds Division.

Rotor’s debut on the photo stage after winning this show. See the previous blog for his other winning photos.

Big Wins at the CA State Fair – 2016

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Robin

We interrupt this blog series…

I am not even half way through sharing photos and stories about our recent Road Trip, but for the last four days I have been at the State Fair and I have to share that experience.

Every year I wonder if it’s really worth the time and effort to go to the fair. My friends and I go to Black Sheep Gathering because…hmmm…why do we go? It’s a Road Trip With Sheep. I just bring sheep, look at fiber, and hang around with my friends. That can’t be said for the California State Fair. Although it’s close to home, it’s a lot of work. I set up a big display booth and my Farm Club friends and I staff it all day. It’s hot (105 this year), dusty, and I stay every night until about 8:30 because there are so many people still in the barn. We are under pressure to keep the area spotless and be nice to everyone because we are in contention for a couple of major awards for the display.

For Farm Club member, Mary, who is also a new farm owner, this was a new experience. She has been here before but it’s different when you have your own sheep. Before we can put the sheep in the barn they are checked by the veterinarians.

Once the sheep are settled in their pens we start with the display.

There is prestige and a good monetary award at stake for the Marketing Program that “should be directed at potential customers and show case the exhibitors Breeding Program and Operation”. Here is the scorecard:

20% Display. Clearly demonstrates it’s purpose, message and/or image.
20% Effective use of display materials. Paper, wood, metal, plastic, plants, etc.
20% Use of color and signage. Graphics and signage to create impact and storyline, QR codes
5% Special Effects. Movement, sound, audio visual, participatory element
20% Effective Use of Handout Materials. Flyers, pamphlets, business cards, recipes, children’s materials, etc.
15% Craftsmanship. Well constructed, balanced and has an overall finished, artistic, visual appeal.

Here is the finished display.

I’m glad that I had the last minute thought to provide a Touching Table. That came to me when I was looking for something else in the barn and came across these horns. We’ll expand on this next year. I was especially glad I thought about this when I realized that I had forgotten to bring the A-frame that holds some of our other interactive display material.

In addition to the Marketing Program, there are Herdsman awards that are offered “to encourage attractive, educational, and high quality presentations of all livestock exhibits”. The Herdsman Award is judged on :

65% General Appearance
1. 25% Neatness/cleanliness of bedding and aisle
2. 10% Signage, banners, QR codes
3. 10% Creative use of plants and special exhibit materials
4. 20% Condition/cleanliness of animals
5. 10% Educational material, marketing, breed promotion)
25% Feed Alleys/Tack Pen
1. 15% Free of debris, not obstructed
2. 10% Tack storage
10% Conduct
1. 5% Exhibitor sportsmanship and cooperation with other exhibitors and staff
2. 5% Public interaction and accessibility

In addition there is Best Educational Presentation over all the species entered in the three week run of the fair.

Farm Club members help to set up the display and come each day to staff the area and answer endless questions.

This is the crew that was at the fair on Friday.

I think they worry that I will forget to eat. On $2 Sample Thursday (all the fair food booths have to include a $2 item on their menus) they returned with this treat for me. I have a good photo of all of them eating their selections but they wouldn’t let me use it.

Other faces in the barn include:

This Lincoln across the aisle from us.

Suffolk ram that was just down the aisle.

Longhorn steer at the other end of the barn.

This is one of Mary’s new lambs who seemed delighted with the attention.

The yearling ram, Meridian Rotor, standing behind the “DO NOT PET THE RAMS” sign.

We spent the four days answering questions

Q: Is he normal? A: Yes, Jacob sheep can have 2 or 4 horns. (And that info is on the other sign right in front of the ram.)
Q: Where are the pigs? A: Out there (pointing).
Q: How do you get get it from this (wool in bucket) to this (carded sliver that I’m spinning)? A: We explain. Next year I will include the carders and carded batts, etc to more easily explain that.
Q: What happens if it breaks (fiber I’m spinning)?. A: Demonstrate how to join it.
Q: Where are the cows? A: Longhorns are at the other end of the barn. The dairy cows were here last week.

I spun three skeins of singles yarn while I was there.

But it’s really supposed to be all about the sheep show.

Mary and Russ practicing with their sheep.

Dona, Mary, and Amy prepping sheep for the show. We don’t do all the fitting that other breeds do. That morning I had taken each sheep to the wash stall to clean their legs and feet. We wiped their noses and cleaned the grime off the eartags. Then we pretty much just brushed off the straw and were ready to go.

The show started with yearling rams and I was thrilled when Rotor was placed first in his class and then awarded Champion Ram of the Primitive Breeds Division. The judge was not as happy with the rest of my sheep and they were interspersed with or at the end of the line-up of Shetland and Karakul sheep that were also in our division. Even Honey, who was champion Jacob ewe at Black Sheep Gathering, was placed last in her class.

The breed show was Saturday. On Sunday champions from all 14 Divisions compete for the award of Supreme Champion. Rotor lo0ks pretty small in that line-up. (Some of those smaller sheep ahead of him are ram lambs that won their divisions.) As the judge went down the line he stopped and scrutinized him more than the others.

He was one of four rams pulled out of the line-up to be in contention for the award.

Thanks to Dona who got these great photos of us in the ring. In this photo the judge is discussing the four rams and said that although he wouldn’t ever want a Jacob (at least I think I heard that) he was very impressed with Rotor.

He awarded Rotor Supreme Champion Ram of the State Fair!!!

Here is me right after with all my loot.

Oh yeah, some of that is for the Herdsman and Marketing awards. Usually that is the highlight for me because I don’t expect to win with my sheep.

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From right to left: Supreme Champion Ram (banner and buckle); Best Educational Presentation (Herdsman); Best Program (Marketing); Third Best Educational Presentation over all the species for the three weeks of the fair; Second in Herdsman; Best Marketing Program.

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Of all the years showing in 4-H and later with our dairy and then with sheep, I’ve never had a belt buckle! I guess I need some Wranglers to go with it. And maybe some boots. I realized after the show that I hadn’t even changed into my (work) boots for the show and I was wearing those sandals through the whole thing. The excuse is that it the show was at 5 p.m. in the afternoon of a 105 degree day. (I was wearing jeans though. This picture was taken later at home.)

Road Trip to CO – Arches #2

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Robin

We had only one day to spend in Arches National Park, but we took advantage of it all, hiking/walking/driving. I posted a lot of photos here, but there are more.

We spent the first half of the day hiking a 7-mile trail. After that we drove to various points of interest or overlooks where there were shorter trails to more arches.

We ended up hiking about 12 miles that day.

The scenery was all spectacular.

This is looking back at the parking area from the trail to Delicate Arch.

Much of the trail is walking across the slickrock.

Then the trail becomes almost a shelf that winds around the side of a cliff.

When you get the first view around the corner of that cliff you’re almost blown away (literally as well as figuratively). What a site! It’s absolutely amazing. I mean we saw a lot of arches and cool rocks and cliffs earlier in the day, but there was something about this one that is stunning. Maybe it’s because you see it suddenly as you turn the corner. Maybe because it stand alone with no other features near it.

Maybe it’s because of it’s size. In this photo there are people. Do you see how small they look?

In fact, there were a lot of people. It took some patience to get a photo of the arch with no people. That’s Dan sitting on the rock while others venture towards the arch. At this location the wind was so strong that it felt as though you could be blown backwards off the cliff.

Wind effect in my hair. It’s not standing up just from the sweat and 2 days of camping!

As is the case with most hikes, the trip back to the truck took a lot less time. At the bottom there are petroglyphs. These images of a horse and rider, bighorn sheep, and dogs were carved between 1650 to 1850.

We continued on the road through the park. This is an overlook across the canyon from Delicate Arch. You can see it right there in the center of the photo. The trail we took came from around the rocky cliffs at the left.

It was getting dusk when we got to the trails to see the last arches. These were relatively close to the parking lot so there were lots of people there. If you look closely you will see people on the rocks under the arches and on the trail. That gives you a sense of scale.

We followed another trail at this location…

…to get a different perspective…

…as the sun was going down.

Interesting manmade patterns.

We stopped at the visitor center to clean up and fill water jugs. I got in a bit of sheep showing practice before we left to find our camping spot for the night.

Road Trip to Colorado – Arches N.P.

Posted on July 19, 2016 by Robin

The mosquitoes that had been relentless the night before (this post) were slightly less so in the morning.

However the surroundings were beautiful as the sun reached the west side of the canyon.

But we didn’t linger around camp. We packed up and drove just north of Moab to the entrance of Arches National Park.

The cliffs on the left side of the photo are part of Arches and that’s the Colorado River flowing our of the canyon in the center of the photo.

I had been here once or twice before but that was almost forty years ago. (Oh yeah, I was going to find my old slides and see if I have photos from back then.)

I don’t remember the names of all the arches. Besides sometimes I don’t want to know what names other people have used for formations. I like to enjoy them without always having to see or think of something that is not a rock. I’ll make up my own name if something comes to me.

We had one day to see the park and, knowing that it was going to be a hot day, we decided to start with one of the longer trails. Out and back on the more traveled trail would have been about 5 miles. We ended up taking the “primitive” route to come back and that was 7 miles.

I thought about giving up taking photos because it seem so hard to capture the grandeur, the color, the textures.

But of course I continued to shoot photos and I am sharing some of my favorites.

Distances are so deceptive in this country. We had seen these rock walls in the distance and I had thought, “it’s a good thing we’re not going there”. The “primitive route” took us around those and beyond.

Cairns are important in finding the trails over slickrock and through washes. Seeing those little rock towers kept us on track in places where the trail wasn’t obvious.

More from Arches National Park in the next post.

Road Trip to Colorado–Tonopah to Moab

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Robin

After the tire problem the night before (this blog post) we knew that before we drove farther we needed to buy new tires.

Tonpah rest stop

We had driven to a rest stop just west of Tonapah, Nevada, where we spent the first night of this trip.

Tonopah NV

We drove through town looking for a tire store and I remembered this motel from a previous trip through Tonopah when we were looking for a motel late at night. We chose something that did not advertise clowns. Sorry, Clown Motel.

Most of the rest of these photos are DBP (drive-by photography). The goal was to get to Arches National Park or close to it so that we would have all of Friday to spend at the park.

UT-0778 Hwy 50

Dan likes to drive and that’s fine with me. I keep myself amused with following along on the map or with the phone (if there is service…which there wasn’t for a lot of this trip) and by taking photos.

UT-0780 Hwy 50

UT-0780-cosmic ray

We saw these “things” regularly spaced on both sides of the highway for several miles in Millard County, Utah. All we could make out was what looked like solar panels on a framework and we speculated as to what they were–we decided that they were to monitor or measure something, but what? As we drove into Delta, Utah we just happened to see several of them in what looked like a parking lot beside a building that said Cosmic Ray Center. I googled “cosmic ray delta utah” and found a lot of references to the Telescope Array Project: “The Telescope Array project is a collaboration between universities and institutions in the United States, Japan, Korea, Russia, and Belgium. The experiment is designed to observe air showers induced by cosmic rays with extremely high energy. It does this using a combination of ground array and air-fluorescence techniques. The array of scintillator surface detectors samples the footprint of the air shower when it reaches the Earth’s surface…” OK, you lost me. At first I wondered if this was for real (thinking of driving through Roswell, NM last year with it’s focus on Aliens) but I guess it is. Who knew what we’d learn on the road?

UT-0782-shoe tree-

I also learned from googling, that “Shoe Trees” are a real thing, although of less lofty impact. There will be more about this in a future blog post.

UT-0785-Delta

Where there is water the desert is held at bay. There were plenty of alfalfa fields throughout this valley in Utah.

UT-0791

Towards the east the patterns and rock formations were impressive…

…and we began to see “red rock country”.

This is U.S. 50 in central Utah, which is known as the “Loneliest Road in America”. I just looked this up and now I understand why there is a sign in Sacramento for Ocean City, Maryland (see my first blog post for this trip). U.S. 50 is also one of the longest highways in America, going between Sacramento and Ocean City. I always thought that it was just because someone in the Sacramento Highway Department has a sense of humor.

We drove U.S. 50 to Highway 191 where we turned south to Moab. Arches National Park is just east of the highway and north of Moab and seeing the spectaular scenery whetted our appetites for the next day’s adventures.

It was late though and we needed to stay somewhere. Arches N.P. has very few campsites, but there are several in the Moab area. We found a BLM campsite on the Colorado River right outside of Moab.

The sun was going down, giving intensity to the red rock cliffs.

The campsite was right next to the river. River + Dusk = Mosquitoes. They were relentless.

We quickly set up our tent and retreated until after dark when we ventured outside to heat up a couple of cans of chili.

Road Trip to Colorado-Bodie & Beyond

Posted on July 17, 2016 by Robin

The first post about our trip is here. One the first day we made it to Bodie State Historic Park near the California/Nevada border with about an hour and a half before the park closed.

W.S. Bodey discovered gold here in 1859 but he died in a blizzard several months later, never seeing the town that was named for him (although spelled differently). A mine collapse in 1875 revealed a rich body of gold and the boom time of the town was during 1877-1881 when there were 30 mines, 9 stamp mills, and 60 saloons. As the boom years ended population declined quickly into the 1900’s. Mining continued until 1942 and the family of the last major landowner continued to protect the town from vandals. In 1962 the CA State Parks purchased the town to protect it. It remains in a “state of arrested decay” without the intent to reconstruct it. The non-profit organization, The Bodie Foundation was created with the goal to raise funds to assist with stabilization of structures as well as education.

View of what is left of the town from above. At it’s height there were probably 8000 people living here. There is an interesting mix of eras remaining–houses built in the 1870’s, gas pumps from the 1920’s, and a school that was used until 1942.

The walls and roofs of many of the buildings are covered with flattened tin cans.

Dan took this photo because he liked all the different roof lines.

I like the design of the tin here, but I was really trying to take a photo of one of the violet green swallows that were zooming around. I got this one just as it flew into the corner of the roof.

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Do you see the wing tips under the roof line?

The brick vault is all that is left of the Bodie Bank after a fire in 1932.

This is the safe inside the vault.

Due to safety concerns the Standard Consolidated Mining Company’s Stamp Mill and other buildings are not open to the public except by guided tour. It is on the hill above the town and was only one of thirty mining companies in the district.

After our visit to Bodie it was time to get on the road and drive until we found somewhere we wanted to stay for the night.

Coming down the mountain towards Mono Lake the truck rattled and shook every time Dan used the brakes. Then we heard a thwump, thwump. One of the front tires was beginning to shred, but fortunately still held air. Dan changed the tire and we knew that we needed new tires. It was too late to find anything near Mono Lake so we decided to continue on. We turned east and spent the night at a rest stop outside Tonopah, NV.

The lower pink line is the first day of this trip.

Next up: on the road to Arches National Monument.

Road Trip to Colorado-Day 1

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Robin

VACAVILLE TO BODIE

We just completed our annual Road Trip. Last year it was to see my daughter and her family in Texas, exploring Arizona and New Mexico on the way. If you’re interested the blog posts about that trip start with this one. This year the goal was to meet up with my husband’s brother and sister in Leadville, Colorado on July 9 and do some site-seeing and camping along the way.

I do use my iPhone for maps and interesting info along the way, but it doesn’t do you much good when the phone says “no service”, which it did a lot on this trip. Besides we like to follow along with the detail in these map books as we’re driving. They are also invaluable at finding places to camp along the way.

We started east on Hwy. 50. I always get a kick out of this sign when entering Sacramento.

I’m glad that Dan likes to do most of the driving because it leaves me free to watch scenery and take photos from the truck. This was another journey for the old green truck.

This is some of the evidence of last year’s fires in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

East side of Sierras

We joined up with 395 on the east side of the Sierras. Beautiful. Most of the country on the east side is considered the high desert, but the West Walker River is at the base of the mountains and other creeks flow out of the mountains that are east of the highway. The valley is lush and this is cattle country.

Our plan was to first visit Bodie, and old mining town in Mono County, California. Bodie had been a favorite haunt of Dan’s dad and he wanted to check it out.

Disclaimer: Let me say here that a lot of my travel photos are DBP (Drive-By-Photography). Some are from the open (or maybe not) side window and some are through the bug-splattered windshield. I’d rather read (and write) blog posts that are more photos than text, so I’m using what I have. Even my good photos will never be National Geographic quality, but these posts are about the story. So here we go.

We turned off of 395 onto Bodie Road (270). The country is mostly desert, but again, where there is water the desert is kept away. I was excited to see sheep on the way to Bodie. This was not a fiber trip, but sheep are always a good sign. I tried counting these from a photo and I think there are about 600 sheep with 4 guardian dogs and a herder. They were moving up this valley when we drove to Bodie. (The next post will be about that.)

When we left Bodie two hours later the sheep were back in the middle of the valley and had been going to water in an irrigation ditch at the right of the photo. They were moving away from the ditch and back into the valley. We stopped and watched awhile.

When I enlarged the photos I could see about 17 black-faced rams in with the ewes.

The band started moving up the valley on it’s own but that was obviously not the plan the herder had. He and his Border Collie walked out to the road and up in front to cut them off. The Border Collie turned them while the guardian dog in the center of the photo went to get a stray.

Near Bodie

But back to Bodie. Here is the landscape without water.

Stay tuned for the next post.

Seen on the Farm

Posted on July 3, 2016 by Robin

This one isn’t actually on OUR farm. I love this sunflower crop that is Across the Road.

Sunflower

I took the rest of these photos here.

Monarch caterpillar

Monarch caterpillar on narrow-leaf milkweed.

Alfalfa butterfly. The caterpillars are considered pests in fields of alfalfa. They also consume other legumes (like clover and trefoil in my pasture).

I still don’t know what this one is. Previously I tentatively identified one in a better photo as a forage looper moth. Maybe? Do you know how hard it is to chase a butterfly/moth that doesn’t want to be photographed? CA Red dragonfly

California Red Dragonfly. While we’re looking at insects here are nasty ones that supposedly the dragonflies eat.

We were doing pretty well keeping the pasture mosquitoes at bay. I guess it was the last irrigation followed by a heat wave that brought them on to this degree. This morning in the pasture I was covered head to foot–overalls and a hooded sweatshirt with the hood tied around my face. I could still hear them buzzing.

paper wasp-2

While on the subject of nasty buzzing things in the barn last year’s paper wasp nests are active again. I guess I need to find the wasp spray.

Black widow

Same subject. Different pest. This is another black widow on the hay. You have to be careful pulling bales of hay away from the wall or off the floor.

brewers blackbird nest

Also in the barn but no stings or bites (except maybe when the parents dive-bomb the dogs). This is another nest of Brewer’s blackbirds. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago…

Brewer's blackbird nest

…and this one a little later. These birds have left the nest now.

Sheep going to pasture in the morning.

These are some of the new sheep. That’s Bronagh who seems to take the lead. They are out with the rest of the flock now and are as anxious to come to the fence for grain when I rattle the bucket as the other sheep.

New Faces on the Farm

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Robin

The last few blog posts were about Black Sheep Gathering. One reason that I decided to go this year was that I could bring home some new sheep. Here they are:

Bronagh-4

Windy Acres Bronagh, 3 years old, lilac (that’s a gray-brown color in Jacob sheep lingo).

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This is her fleece…

Bronagh

…and here is another view.

Scout

Another sheep is 2-year old Hunter’s Glen Scout.

Scout-fleece

This is her fleece…

Scout-4

…and another view.

Hallie

Bide a wee Hallie is a yearling with very pretty horns…

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…and a long, open fleece.

Shelby-head Shadow Mountain Shelby is a yearling…

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…with a fine crimpy fleece. Sheena-head-2

Kenleigh’s Sheena is the last yearling. Sheena,Shelby

Sheena-fleece

Trista

I brought home two lambs from bide a wee Farm. I just realized that I didn’t get a decent photo of the ram lamb, buster. This ewe lamb is Trista and I just love this little lamb. She is one of those sheep who seems to have a friendly nature and is taming herself. Trista-fleece

And look at her lovely fleece.

I can’t wait to see these fleeces next February and new lambs in March.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.