A Blogging Experiment…Morphing into my Blogging History

I was writing a blog post last night and after about 3 photos I couldn’t upload any others. I was told I was out of space. I started this blog in 2008 with this post on January 14. My next post on the same day could have been written a year ago. There are a few more sheep now, but my thoughts about shearing day are the same. One reason I write the blog is as my own journal. In that last post I told about an injury to Ranger, which is something I still refer to, but just didn’t remember the date. It is the comment from the vet, when discussing potential brain injury in a sheep, “at least he doesn’t have to drive heavy machinery”.

By the January 28 blog post I figured out how to include a photo. One photo and it’s small. Same issues–sheep that don’t want to be herded and figuring that out with Rusty. Now it’s Ginny. The next one and the last one I’ll link to here tells a little known fact about myself.

So here we are 15 years later and I guess I’ve outgrown the free version of WordPress. There was a hiatus here when my blog posts were all at my website on Squarespace. I started writing blog posts there in January, 2019. In the first post I said: “I have spent time the last couple of days figuring out how to move my blog from WordPress to this new home (and whether or not I should move it). I started my blog January, 2008! Ten years ago! I feel very protective of that blog. I know it’s out there for the public to see, but it’s really my personal photo album/scrapbook. I love having digital memories. The old paper albums languish on the shelf and are covered with dust and the photos deteriorate. I love that when I scan photos (and recently kid’s drawings) they come to life so much more…and the added benefit is that I don’t have as much STUFF around.” Some of the photos are the same as now–Ginny rolling her ball in the ditch Across the Road and the view of Mt. Diablo from Across the Road, but Rusty and Maggie are gone now.

It was about a year ago that I realized that if (when) I someday stop paying for the Squarespace website the blog posts there would all be gone. That would be like losing all your photo albums. This is one I wrote on my website while I was debating what to do. Since then I have written some posts on my website, but more have been at WordPress. However it seems I am not blogging as much as I used to. This post really is like an entry in a diary. Does anyone care? It’s helping me to figure out where everything is.

In the meantime my son and daughter-in-law. hearing what I said, started having these books made. I’ve been getting one on my birthday and Mother’s Day.

Here is the latest gift, blog posts from the middle of 2017. I don’t know if they have all of these lined up in a closet for the next birthday or if they make them as an event comes up. I find myself looking for a particular story and then sitting down with the book and remembering all the rest. Isn’t that a great gift?

I originally subtitled this post “Where is a Millennial When you Need One?” As I reread it just now I see that I veered off from the original point–that is, now I have to pay for this blog and I hope I did it in a way that all the other posts will be accessible. I think I’m paying for a domain to meridianjacobs.blog . I guess I’ll find out when I click “post” and I’ll see what happens. Hope to see you on the other side! Let me know in the comments or by email if you’re reading!

Shearing at Timm Ranch 2024

If you do a search in either of the blog locations (WordPress that you’re reading now, or the one on my website that I don’t use much now) you can find Timm Ranch shearing posts from other years. I could probably substitute photos because the sheep look the same, the shearing location looks the same, our skirting set up looks the same, and some of the Farm Club members are the same–but not all of them. I just searched the WordPress blog and see 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018. After that I think I started with my website blog. So here is a view of 2024.

The sheep are a blend of Rambouillet, Polypay, and Targhee. Once in awhile a new ram is brought in, but the Timm family mostly raises their own replacements so the blend of breeds has stayed the same.

This year they sheared about 120 ewes.

We set up two canopies and two skirting tables.

The shearing team started with one shearer but eventually there were two working.

As the fleeces came off the sheep we piled some of them nearby. We were slower than a professional crew would be, but that is because I want to be careful about what I send to one of our small local mills. I knew there would be plenty of wool so I can be picky with what I take. What we don’t take goes into the bale that the Timm Ranch will sell or to my neighbor, Charlene, to be made into Integrity’s Wool Pellets (formerly Gardener’s Gold).

Three lambs got through the fence and wandered around while we were working. (Thanks to Sue G for the previous three photos.)

Another view of shearing.

Ewes after shearing.

We checked staple strength and length and skirted away manure and felted areas.

This is the 130 pounds that I kept. It will go to Mendocino Wool and Fiber for spinning. Yarn from 2022 is here and some of the TR yarn that I have dyed is here. Most of the blankets I weave use TR yarn for warp and sometimes for weft. The painted warp V-Shawls are all TR. You can see a variety of those pieces on this page.

It was a beautiful day at Timm Ranch. Blue sky and green hills just starting to turn gold. Thanks to Farm Club for all their help!