Ginny’s Birthday!

Posted on October 14, 2025 by Robin

Ginny’s birthday was October 12. She just turned 11. I have only about a zillion photos of Ginny so it was time consuming to narrow this down.

December, 2014. Ginny was two months old.

Red Border Collie jumping for a ball that has splashed into the water.

Many of my photos focus on action with a ball. I wouldn’t say that Ginny is ball-obsessed to the exclusion of all else. On the other hand, she is somewhat ball-obsessed. I have lots of photos taken during our walks Across the Road of Ginny leaping for a ball I have thrown. One reason that there are so many is that I kept trying to get that perfect shot and Ginny was a willing subject over…and over…and over…

The heads and horns of Jacob sheep that are staring at a red Border Collie.

I am a sheep farmer and the real reason to have a Border Collie is to help with sheep. That is not necessarily a good time for photos because we are trying to accomplish a task. I don’t have as much work for a dog as the dog would like. We have a small place and pasture management and fencing that makes it easy to move sheep. In recent years my main use of Ginny is to help move rams to catch them or to move the ewes into the barn from the corral. When I need to get sheep out of the pasture it’s usually easy to call them in.

Four dogs running on the dirt road. Two dogs are black and two are red.

This is a photo from 2018 taken on a walk Across the Road. At that time 5 dogs lived here. Rusty, the first red Border Collie came from Terry Mendenhall, as did Ginny. That’s Maggie at the top of the photo. The two black dogs are Finn and Sawyer who moved to Boise when Chris and Meryl moved.

Three dogs looking in a pile of lumber for a rodent.

Rusty, Ginny, and Maggie pursuing some kind of critter, probably a ground squirrel that ran into the woodpile.

Five dogs waiting on the grass to be given a piece of cake off a platter.

This was a celebration of Finn’s and Sawyer’s birthday. All dogs had to wait for permission to have their treats.

Red and white border collie staring intently at the camera.

Ginny in 2019.

Two red and white Border Collies on a dirt road with a ditch on the right.

Ginny has always created her own entertainment by dropping the ball at the top of the ditch and letting it roll in. I tell her to “get it”, she retrieves the ball, and does it all over again farther up the road.

Tennis ball in a net made of the leash wrapped around a forked stick. Border collie in the background.

I try to pay attention when we get to the part of the canal that is cement. There are places where the water level drops a couple of feet and the water flows quickly, creating a whirlpool effect at that drop. Ginny can get in and out of the cement canal when the water is not so turbulent, but I don’t want her in this part. She seems to like the game of dropping the ball at those places and then expects me to get it out. The drop-off creates a turbulent whirlpool and the ball disappears and then resurfaces over and over, but doesn’t move downstream. I’m not getting in there and I’m not sending Ginny in. There have been several times when I was able to create a net with a forked stick and the leash, and eventually snag the ball by leaning over the wooden plank that is the walkway over the canal.

Border collie staring at a tennis ball on a pallet in front of alfalfa.

Here is another of Ginny’s habits. When the skirting table is in this part of the barn and I am working Ginny intentionally puts the ball in this spot and then moves behind the wall of the barn and that upright pipe and expects me to get the ball, often barking at me if I haven’t paid attention.

Red and white Border Collie in a pen with a dirt floor.

Lambtown was last weekend and Terry was there with her sheep and her older dog that she didn’t want to leave home. This is Jill, Ginny’s mom, who is now 14.

Red and white Border Collie on dirt road with hills behind.

I took this photos of Ginny last week. Looking pretty good for11!

It Is Someone’s Birthday!

Posted on October 12, 2024 by Robin

I brought Ginny home ten years ago when she was two months old.

She is a red and white Border Collie named after the red-headed girl in the Harry Potter books.

She came from Mendenhall Wool Ranch, where I also got Rusty. They were related in some way, but I forget how now.

We still have this moose in the toy basket.

I don’t remember who brought this drone here, but Ginny didn’t think it belonged.

Ginny’s one-year birthday. Fiona, Rusty, and Maggie were in attendance.

Ginny was born with good herding ability. The most training that is needed is that of the partner (me). I learned most of what I know from Debbie at Herding 4 Ewe, just up the road from here. I had worked with Rusty there when he was younger and took Ginny for awhile.

We don’t have that much work for a dog here and I try to create situations where she can work. Most of it is after I have weaned lambs and we can work with them. It’s difficult for a dog to move sheep with young lambs when the ewes aren’t “dog-broke”, meaning that they are going to defend their lambs and threaten the dog.

And young lambs certainly don’t know that they are supposed to move away from a dog.

One of the important jobs I have for a dog is to either move the rams into a place where I can catch them or to keep them away from me while I’m working in the pen. Ginny and Rusty keeping rams away in this photo.

Rusty never wanted to play with a ball. I taught Ginny about balls thinking that would be a good distraction when we didn’t have real sheep work to do. Sometimes I wonder if that was a mistake. On walks Across the Road her favorite thing is to drop the ball into the canal just beyond the dams where the water is swirling.

She also puts the ball through a fence where I am working and she can’t get it. Therefore I am expected to pick up the ball and throw it.

Here is a different canal photo with a pink ball. Ginny gets in the canal in the other portions but I don’t want her jumping into the cement canal at these areas where the water is fast and swirling.I have been known to create a net using a forked stick and the leash so I can get the ball out of this situation.

This photo is from about a year ago. That’s the same moose and an oil bottle she took out of the recycle bin.

Also taken a year ago.

This photo is from last week. I didn’t let her have the ball while we were near those dams but she dropped it in the canal repeatedly as we walked along here. She drops it in and jumps in for it after I tell her she’ll have to get it.

How will we celebrate? We’ll go for a walk Across the Road and she can help move rams as we set up breeding groups.

Random Farm Photos

Posted on December 19, 2023 by Robin

This post is just what the title says. You may have seen some of these on Instagram if you happen to notice them among all the others that bombard you.

Ginny on her bed. She likes to take things out of the recycle bin on the back porch. That’s why the oil bottle is there. That moose has been a favorite inside toy since she was a puppy. Amazing that at age 9 the moose is still here with only a couple of repairs.

Four Jacob rams with hills in the background.

The rams that are still here after the last culling. Left to right: Meridian Blizzard, Meridian Typhoon (both born in March 2023), Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, and Fair Adventure Horatio (both born in 2021). There will be lambs sired by all of these rams in February.

Devil's claw seedpods dried out so they are open. Pasture and trees in the background.

Devil’s claw pods. I have these listed for craft or decorative use on the website. I had an order the other day so I thought I’d take more photos while I was gathering them. Not only do they get tangled up with each other, the points on those claws are very sharp. These are not a good plant to have around when you’re raising fiber animals. If I see them on the sheep side of the fence they are removed. I gather these from places where there are no sheep.

Across the Road with Ginny yesterday before the rain. There is hardly any water in the cement ditch now, but what is there is stagnant and slimy and muddy. Ginny was hot from chasing the ball and thought it was a good idea to lie down in that.

Border Collie focus.

This morning’s look at the rain gauge. It’s about time we started to get some real rain.

Most of the flock after feeding in the morning. I think I count 40 sheep here…and a goat.

There are eight sheep here so there must be a few at another feeder. The hardest question to answer is “how many sheep do you have?” I think there are 53 ewes, 2 wethers, and 5 rams now.

And 4 chickens. The rooster is a new addition.

I’ve been finishing up some weaving projects. I usually weave rayon chenille scarves, but decided to weave a series of shawls. These are two different shawls on the same warp with slightly different weft colors

This is on the same warp with a different color weft, but stitched together to create a poncho of sorts. I really like how it came out. Even though the sewing adds a bit of work, I think it takes far less time than twisting all those fringes. I hope that this style is popular because I’d like to make more of these.

Fall Colors and Dogs

Posted on December 3, 2017 by Robin

I haven’t taken the dogs Across the Road much lately. I need to take the time to do that for them and for me. Here are some photos from a few days ago.

Leaves are turning color and falling.

They will be gone soon.

The black walnut leaves are already gone. Or maybe this is one of the trees that is dead. I think the drought took it’s toll on some of these.

The view looking southeast.

Ginny’s ball was cracked and even with the “Chuckit” I couldn’t throw it very far. Rusty runs after Ginny every time she goes for the ball. Then he runs back with her but he doesn’t always keep up with her now.

There were sunflowers in one of these fields and there were lots of seeds dropped on the road at harvest time. Now they are all sprouting.

This is Ginny while I was on the ground trying to take seedling emergence photos.

So you know that she put the ball right under my camera.

Ginny, do you know that broken tennis balls don’t float? She spent time looking for it after she had taken it into the canal.

Back at my driveway there were beautiful leaves to photograph. A wild grape vine.

Walnut tree.

Happy fall!

Ginny Herding Sheep

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Robin

Ginny went to a Sheepherding lesson last week and wanted me to explain these pictures to you.

1711-Ginny-herd-1 Sheepdog Debbie sent her out to gather up the sheep. 1711-Ginny-herd-2 Debbie’s sheep are pretty dog-broke because they are used to being moved by dogs. 1711-Ginny-herd-3 So for a Border Collie like Ginny (or me) it’s not very hard to get them to move. 1711-Ginny-herd-4 There were a couple who didn’t want to play the game though.

Ginny moved the sheep toward the gate… …and held them there while Sheepdog Debbie sorted a few out into the other field. This is a pet sheep who is one of the ones who was standing near Debbie.

Ginny looks pretty good here.

I think that I should go back to Sheepdog Debbie’s place and get to work with her sheep. They don’t have those nasty horns like ours do.

Shadow Pictures

Posted on June 11, 2017 by Robin

Right now I’m sitting at my desk with one Border Collie (Rusty) at my feet under the desk and the other behind the chair. Ginny has never been gun shy or afraid of things in the sky but this thunderstorm has her rattled too. Rusty is terrified. So I left the loom where I was weaving and I’ll wait it out with them. We don’t often have thunderstorms here.

I had planned to write this blog post about our walk Across the Road in yesterday’s sunshine.

Guess who with something in her mouth?

Ginny watches the Ball and Rusty watches Ginny.

Ginny constantly drops the ball in the water but this year she gets herself. Last year I was fishing it out for her.

I don’t say much about Maggie because she usually wanders ahead and does her own thing out of range of the camera. I called her over to get a photo.

The late afternoon sun gives light to other subjects as well.

Ginny found a ball that we lost at some point in the tall grass. Now the grass is gone and she saw it in a dried tractor track. It’s a good thing because the ball on the right isn’t in very good shape at this point.

Winter Rain and Some Random Farm Photos

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Robin

Rusty wrote in his blog a couple days ago about his own private lake in front of the barn. Once it stopped raining, the water in this area drained off quickly.

The next evening things were back to normal near the barn.

This isn’t so normal. Why in the world is this rose choosing to bloom now, in January?)

This scene is normal behind the barn in a winter when we have rain. The sheep avoid the deep mud when given a chance. Another storm was due to come in.

And it was a doozy. I haven’t seen water like this here in several years.

This is the area where the dogs were standing in the first photo. Fortunately the barn and those smaller buildings stay just out of the water.

For anyone who has seen what this is normally like these photos are dramatic, but we really can’t complain. The shop (behind the tractor) and the houses (out of sight here) are built up off the ground so we don’t worry about water inside them. We have never had to worry about the serious flooding that other people have. It is especially amazing to realize that this is not water from a creek overflowing or a levee breaking. It is just a lot of rain over a period of days on flat land that is already water-logged. Some of this water comes from the property to the north because the only drainage is at the southeast corner of our property (see this post).

One problem we have is that our cellar floods when the ground water is high and that’s where our water heater is. We keep a pump going but during yesterday’s storm I decided that I really need to reroute the water somwhere other than this field because it’s too close to the houses and seeping back in, as well as causing trouble with the septic system for the other house. So I wired this PVC pipe to the fence at an angle and put the hose from the pump in the upper end.

Now that water drains into the ditch which is taking water away from the houses. It’s really just a drop in the bucket (uh…no pun intended) but it makes me feel like I did something pro-active in the face of all this rain.The pump hasn’t turned off in at least 36 hours as it continues to try and drain the cellar.

Today the sun was out, the driveway and the area that looks like a lake in the upper photos have mostly drained. I taught a weaving class today…

…and when I’m in the shop the dogs take turns at the spot by the door.

This is from tonight while doing chores. I cleaned the ram shed and while I was in their pen Ginny tried to get my attention. She succeeded. Drop the ball in the water through the fence and chances are I’ll get it out for her.

She’s Two Today!

Posted on October 12, 2016 by Robin

So many cute photos. I may have to do more than one post.

I can use more photos if I make a mosaic. A lot of firsts for Ginny at two months old. First meet-up with the big dogs. First Christmas tree. First time in the barn. First visit to the vet.

Still two months old. Running in the fog. Spending time in the shop with spinners. Playing with Rusty and Maggie and conquering branches.

ginny-2-5-months-1 Ginny and her lamb.

ginny-2-5-months-3 Ginny and her moose.

ginny-7-months-1 Ginny at 7 months with the favorite Toy. ginny-7-months-2

ginny-7-months-4

ginny-7-5-months-1 Ginny not so happy after her little operation so that I wouldn’t have to worry about what might happen while I was going to be gone for two weeks. ginny-10-months-1 At 10 months Ginny discovered that she wasn’t a big fan of drones. ginny-11-months First herding lesson at Sheepdog Debbie’s place (Herding-4-Ewe) just down the road.

ginny-1-year-2 Ginny’s first birthday.

Ginny at two years old. Rusty will post some photos in his blog post of Ginny’s recent lesson at Sheepdog Debbie’s.

Cute, Cute, Cute

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Robin

It will still be a few weeks before I have any more lambs so the first three have more than their share of photos.This is Delight with her twins. Dazzle and 16001 This is Dazzle with her single lamb. One of the problems I have photographing Jacob sheep is the fact that they have black markings around their eyes. I find that it is hard to expose the photo properly and also be able to see the faces. I edited this lower photo to where I could see the lamb’s eyes, although they aren’t showing up here very well and the photo looks washed out compared to the top one.

Here is another example.

The original is on the left. The black is too black, but I’m not very good at lightening it up just enough to see the eyes better. I lightened the shadows on the one on the right and it looks OK when it stands alone and is not next to the first version. I also tried dodging around that right eye, but it didn’t help much. I think I need a lesson. 16002-3 version 1 Here is another pair of photos. Which is better? Top or bottom? 16002-3 - Version 2 16002-3 (1) At least I have CUTE going for me. 16002-3

16001 - head

Ginny 1 Speaking of cute, can you tell the difference in these two photos? It’s not in editing. Try the focus…Ginny’s focus, that is. Ginny 2

Lambing Prequel

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Robin

Lambing season is due to start in a month, but there were early lambs yesterday, the result of not moving ram lambs out of the main flock soon enough. Yes, some 5 month old lambs are fertile. I saw one of these ewes being bred and the ram lambs were moved that day. So I don’t anticipate anymore lambs until late February.

When I went to the barn yesterday morning I moved the ewes to the back as I normally do so that I can feed hay without them near the feeders. I heard a baaa. It’s pretty crowded back there with full-fleeced ewes. I walked through the flock but didn’t see a lamb. Then I heard it again and looked back. This is a poor view of the sliding door at the south end of the barn.This is looking from the other end. This happened once before–a lamb stumbled into the opening between the door and the wall and then couldn’t get out. Fortunately it wasn’t wet or too cold that night.Here he is with mom, Dazzle, in the barn.

Farm club was here during the day, but that’s for another post. Afterwards, Dan continued with his work in the barn. We have new lights in the lambing area! IMG_8384-barn Dazzle’s lamb was a surprise although I didn’t have a breeding date for her, which was an indication that she may have already been bred. I went back out last night to check the ewe I expected to lamb.She was lambing and had nice big twins.These are some flashy looking lambs, especially the little ram on the right. If he grows up nicely, those markings would make him a very pretty show lamb. Too bad he doesn’t have a known father so he can’t be in the show. Maybe he’ll make someone a nice fiber pet if he’s wethered. dog eating afterbirth Ginny was just a baby at last lambing season and wasn’t out on her own much. Today it didn’t take her long to discover a dog’s favorite part of lambing time. I usually make sure the afterbirth is not dog-accessible but when it falls out of the wheelbarrow it’s up for grabs.

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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