Guess which sheep will let me get this close and hold still enough for photos?
Gorgeous fleece.
Why, it’s Jade! Who else? She’s the one in the Santa hat in the previous post.
Sheep going out to pasture last week. I’ve closed the gate today. The grasses are dormant and need warm weather and more daylight to get growing well again…if they get water, that is. This grass is showing signs of drying out. I hope some of the rain that is predicted comes through.
The holidays are upon us. I finally got a newsletter out. I usually get to it about once a month, but if I expect to sell anything at this time of year I need to do it more frequently. You don’t sell things if no one remembers that you exist. So the first one is out, announcing a Holiday Open House in a couple of weeks with two other local fiber vendors and… 
…a holiday craft project (above) and…
…a photo op with our friendliest sheep dressed in her Christmas garb.
Here are some more ornaments that I made from locally grown and dyed wool.
By the way, if you’d like to get my e-mail newsletter let me know and I’ll add you to the list.
Here is one dye pot that won’t quit. I guess I didn’t actually take a photo of the dye pot. But here is a post that has a dye pot full of black walnuts.
I had been soaking black walnuts in a 5-gallon bucket for a few weeks in anticipation of getting a shipment of Timm Ranch yarn here. It turns out that due to medical issues at the mill I won’t be seeing this yarn any time soon. But a Fibershed event was coming up and I wanted a naturally dyed cloth to cover my table. I decided to use the black walnut, but I didn’t want to waste any dye so I thought I dye some yarn too.
This is 5 batches of yarn out of the same dye pot. The first four skeins on the top are from the first batch. The next four are from the second and I crammed the tablecloth in that pot too. The rest of that row is from the third batch using the same dye. It looked like there was still plenty of dye in the pot so I did two more batches that are on the bottom row. They are lighter but still colored. 
Here is another view. It is interesting (at least to me) that the fifth batch appears to have slightly more color than the fourth. It is a different yarn. The first four batches included Anderson Ranch yarn, white Jacob, and gray and white Jacob. The last batch was Columbia yarn that hasn’t been sold and I’ll use in a project now.
This is the white Jacob from the first four batches…
…and this is the gray and white Jacob.
I was photographing the skeins outside and out of the corner of my eye I kept seeing this other brilliant color.
For this trip to Texas I combined a family visit with work, although I’m not sure that I should say that visiting a fiber festival is all work.
Kid’N’Ewe & Llamas Too is in it’s 27th year. It is held in Boerne, TX which is about 50 minutes from my family’s home so it was a convenient event to visit. When I was planning my trip I found out that the organizers were still looking for instructors so I applied.
I taught two classes.
The first was a rigid heddle weaving class with four students.
The second class was a new one I developed using the Schacht Zoom Loom. There were 7 students in this one. They had all purchased Zoom Looms previously but had not used them yet.
I couldn’t bring 16 different cones with me but I had wound off several groups of all those colors in 8 yards (enough for a Zoom Loom square) each. It wasn’t difficult to separate the colors.
Students learned how to use the loom and went home with flowers and the knowledge to go further with the little loom.
After that Sunday morning class Katie and Kirby and I walked around the vendor buildings.
These are batts of fiber ready to felt…
…on the needlefelt loom that this vendor brings to the shows. Customers can needlefelt the fiber they buy from her for no charge or pay a fee to use the loom for fiber that they bring.
Angora goats are common in Texas and there were some at the show.
Where you have Angora goat producers you’re going to have dyed mohair.
A few other images from the show:
I think I know where I’ll be next year on the second weekend of November.
As I watch this incredible child working her way through her world with curiosity, wonder, concentration, and learning I wonder when and why does this change? Babies are born with the potential to grow up kind and caring. What happens that an innocent and loving child becomes a hateful, ignorant, and cruel person? That’s the extent of my public commentary about recent world events but I’ve been thinking a lot about it as I spend a week watching this new mind develop.
Kirby wondering why Mama’s hands look so different. Mama was taking advantage of me being here to get some outside work accomplished.
It’s been 23 years since I have had to keep up with a 15 month old. So much work, but oh, so very cute.
I thought that this would be a one blog post event but there was a lot going on. In the last blog post I wrote about our morning watching cotton being harvested and ginned. After touring the gin we loaded the two buses and drove to the Cardella Winery in Mendota where we had a great catered lunch.
I admired the table decorations. We listened to speakers after lunch. Steve Melanca spoke about the movement he created, “My Job Depends on Ag” to raise awareness of how important agriculture is to the California economy. More about this in a future blog post.
Lydia Wendt of California Cloth Foundry spoke and showed products that are produced from Cleaner Cotton and natural dyes.Lynda Grose spoke more about bringing Cleaner Cotton into the supply chain of manufacturers and designers. 
We got back on the bus and stopped not far from the winery to listen to Dan Munk, a UC Cooperative Extension Farm Advisor discuss cotton production and water use of cotton and other crops. Cotton requires 28″ of water in a growing season. Nut and fruit trees require 48-52″ of water. The western side of the San Joaquin Valley is in a rain shadow created by the mountains and receives only about 12″ of rain annually. Surface water use has been curtailed or drastically reduced over the last few years of California’s drought so people are relying more on ground water.The most available ground water is salty, coming from what was an old sea bed so wells must go down 300-500 feet for clear water. This is not only very costly but now some areas are having to deal with subsidence–where the ground is actually sinking from the loss of ground water. This becomes a major issue when you consider the effects on that on concrete roadways and major water canals. No matter the water source, when drip systems are used filtration systems (shown in the two photos above) are vital to maintain the systems in working order. Back to the buses.The last stop was at Frank Williams and Mark Fickett’s colored cotton field. We learned about the perennial hedgerow that was planted to increase biodiversity and beneficial insect activity. Unfortunately it hasn’t really been tested because since the hedgerow was planted there hasn’t been enough water to plant these fields. Hillary Sardinas also spoke about her passion and recent PhD thesis, the huge variety of native bees that are important components of the ecosystem and provide more complete pollination for cotton crops. She represents the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation (think Audobon Society for insects) and was fun to listen too. I had no idea that we had all these native bees and that they mostly live in ground burrows.Plants along the half mile hedgerow had been labeled for our benefit.I got carried away walking up the hedgerow (right in this photo) and missed hearing the farmer speak about the patch of colored cotton on the other side. I think that it may have planted for our benefit because it is just a small area and it was filled with all varieties of cotton that have been parts of the breeding work that these farmers have been doing over the years. 
We were given bags and were able to pick as much cotton as we wanted to.
This is Dona and me back on the bus. The tour ended about 5 and we drove home. This was a full day and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing this part of the valley up close and learning about the SCP and cotton farming in general.This is the cotton that was packed into my ziplock bag. My goal is to spin and weave it before the next tour.
Earlier this week Dona and I went on a Cotton Farm Tour organized through the Sustainable Cotton Project (SCP) and sponsored by The North Face and the CA Sate Water Resources Control Board. The website of the SCP says: “Since 1996, the SCP has been dedicated to the production and promotion of sustainably grown domestic cotton fiber. In the field we work with innovative growers to produce a high-quality fiber without using the most toxic pesticides and herbicides. And, in the industry we connect growers, manufacturers and consumers to develop a Cleaner Cotton supply chain.” 
The tour was a very full day and I took dozens of photos. I’ve tried to narrow them down for this post but there are still a lot.
In most cotton crops a defoliant is applied prior to harvest. 
I was reading up on this and find that, as in most things, it is a whole lot more complicated than that simple statement implies. Dozens of factors are involved in the decision of to defoliate or not, type of defoliant (hormonal or herbicidal), and timing of defoliation (based on crop maturity and desired harvest time with some weather predicting skill necessary).
Most cotton in the U.S. is harvested by machines that pick four or more rows at a time.
Close-up of the rotating barb spindles that pluck the cotton from the plant. Warning signs on the harvester.The fiber is sucked up into the back of the harvester.Dona took this photo of me on the harvester and the one below of me watching the module packing. When the harvester is full the load of cotton is dumped into the module builder…
…where it is hydraulically pressed into modules that will produce up to 14 bales of cotton.
This is cotton in the module builder.Modules covered with plastic and waiting to go to the gin.You can see the already-harvested rows.
After watching the harvest for awhile we went to the nearby gin where the manager spoke to us before we toured the gin.He showed us examples of ginned cotton and by-products. Acala cotton (left) is a brighter white than Pima and it’s seeds remain fibrous. Cotton seed (60% of the weight of the harvest) is an important by-product of cotton production. Most is sold as a protein supplement for dairy cattle. (I found it interesting that the “cleaner” Pima seed doesn’t stay in the cow’s rumen long enough to be digested and needs addition of fiber to keep it there.) Piles of cotton seed.A module just before it enters the gin.Covers removed from the modules.We waited at this entrance to the gin as small groups were taken through. Finally, because we were on a schedule and lunch was waiting, we were all allowed to walk through the gin. 
The process was described to us prior to entering the gin but once inside I wasn’t sure which machine was which. There are dozens of machines and tubes are running everywhere. 
In the ginning process modules are broken apart and the cotton enters a dryer which removes excess moisture. It passes through several rotating, spiked cylinder cleaners that break up large clumps and remove soil and leaves. The saw gin separates the fibers from the seeds and lint cleaners separate immature seeds and any remaining foreign matter. 
The cotton then enters a press where it is formed into 500 pound bales.These are the wires that hold the bales together.The bales are wrapped with plastic. (Some were in cotton bags for a specific destination.)
Each bale is labeled so that it can be traced back to the field in which is was grown… …and then loaded for transport.
Even the gin trash has a value, being used for cattle bedding.
This brought us up to lunchtime. I’ll finish the story in another post.
Yes, it is Hug a Sheep Day and we’ll be celebrating it here at the farm. Anyone can join us. So that those of you who have never hugged a sheep can get a feel for this I thought I’d share some sheep hugging photos.
The photos above are all of Farm Club members. If you join Farm Club you will have plenty of sheep hugging opportunities.My granddaughter on a visit out here last spring. This is another cute kid, the age my granddaughter is now, at Fiber Fusion.
Chickens deserve hugs too.
And baby goats. Now we’re getting into the archives. This is my son about 10 years ago.
Another sheep hug.
Running with sheep.
I love this photo. A couple of these girls are in college now.
While I was searching photos I found this one. Doesn’t have to do with hugging sheep, but it’s two of my kids waking up in the dairy barn at the State Fair back in my dairy cow days. My mom drying off a newly born kid.
But today will be all about hugging sheep.
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