Today on the Farm – February 16

Sunrise while I was in the pasture.

This is the opposite view. It looks as though there is a lot of grass but we have to be strategic about grazing right now. The ground is wet and I don’t want to cause compaction. And much of the pasture is not fresh grass, but still-dormant dallisgrass with only a little annual grass growing through. The bulk of the green grass right now is annual, not perennial. There are clovers in here too and we want to maximize their vigor by not overgrazing them.

We first set the net fence up along the lane so the sheep could graze that down before it became so tall all they would do is trample it. The grazed part is where I had the sheep yesterday using a short bit of net fence. This morning I switched to a longer section of net fence and gave them a bit more of the grass.

Ginny came to the barn eventually with a ball. Whose ball is this? Chicken or dog?

Trista was in last night because I thought she was next to lamb. I was right, but she sure took her time with it. It was a long time before this labor became anything that was visible.

Back at the Weaving House, one of the things on the list was to photograph the latest v-shawls to promote the class that I will teach at CNCH in April. There is still room!

On my many trips back and forth between the barn and the house I always admire my daffodils.

It was about 1 p.m. that Trista finally lambed. It took another hour before she had the seccond lamb. Look at the horns on this ram!

Back at the Weaving House. Jacob shawls are on the loom now. I hope to finish these tomorrow.

We have seen a skunk twice in the last week around the shop. It seems to be living under the shop. Ginny has confronted it. I There is a distinct “eau de skunk” in the air, even in the shop. There are many reasons why it’s not a good idea to have a skunk around. Fortunately it was not under the shop tonight we we could deal with it.

Back to the barn. This is Coco with the first of twins.

Jade came in tonight because…well, because she is Jade. She doesn’t look particularly ready but she sure looks as though she should be. She was due yesterday I think.

Random Farm Photos

Once again I had several great blog ideas to share, but other things happen. So here are random photos that were going to be in some of those post.

I have friends who talk about what they see on the Next Door website (or is it an app?) and I didn’t get around to exploring that until recently. I still haven’t spent much time on it, but right after I signed up I got an email about For Sale and Free stuff. I saw these bookends ($25) and knew I needed them. The person who had them was going to be driving near my place the next day and offered to deliver. Aren’t they great?

That’s random. What else?

Butternut squash on a gray plank deck.

Butternut squash harvested from my garden. I made “pumpkin” pies from these for Thanksgiving. They turned out great! The three little ones at the top are too green but I thought I’d try them. Not ripe.

Here are the rams I’m keeping through the winter. The two on the left are this year’s lambs. The four horn ram is Typhoon and the two horn is Blizzard, both born here. The two two-horn rams on the right were born in 2021. That’s Hillside Gabby’s Barrett from Michigan on the right and Fair Adventure Horatio from Colorado on the left. I would have used another 4-horn ram for breeding but Townes died in a freak accident when he caught his horns in a fence panel. After a fertility issue last year I had the vets do some fertility testing and Silverado was found to be not fertile at the time of the test.

I have finally been spending time at the loom. These rugs are woven from corespun yarn that is spun from the coarser britch wool that I have sorted away from the rest of the fleece.

This is a close up of the corespun yarn that is the weft for those rugs. It is listed here on my website. The rugs are here and now I have two more to post.

I use a big ski shuttle to weave with this yarn. What you see on the loom in this photo is the part that will be the hem and I’m ready to weave with the corespun yarn.

Speaking of weaving, these are some of the shawls that just came off the loom. I wove some holiday colors so that they would have a place in this room at The Artery in Davis. Everyone has an opportunity to bring more work in for the month of December.

These items are in the main display area of The Artery. That colorful piece on the left is a rug I wove at the same time as I wove the corespun rugs. I have two more of these here at the shop. Most of these items are not on my website because it is risky to have them listed on-line but not know if they might have sold here at the Artery. The pieces in the middle are blankets.

I took this photo out the window when I was leaving The Artery this week. The Artery is located at the other end of this block. At the beginning of the pandemic the bars and restaurants on this part of G Street were given permission to block off the street and have outdoor seating. The street is blocked at that the other end just past our store, so there is still access to the sidewalk and a small amount of parking, but it’s not exactly inviting when you look down the street and it looks like it is a crime scene or a medical emergency. Those of us at The Artery have tried to have the street reopened but The City is not interested. They have ideas about making G Street a destination venue of some kind. Where there used to be other retail shops, now mosts of the businesses here are bars and restaurants. So the street was closed off in 2020 or early 2021, and it still looks like this.

That was random too.

When I got home I saw that Dan was using our new (last year’s purchase) manure spreader to spread the composted pile on the pasture.

It is so much faster and more effective than the old way of taking the manure out one scoop at a time and then kicking it around to try and spread it.

Last random photo. This is the Jacob yarn that I just picked up from Valley Oak Mill on Tuesday. This will deserve it’s own post soon. I am weaving scarves with it now.

Cows, Not Sheep

In a previous life I raised cows. When I married Dan he was a partner in a family-owned dairy. My daughter recently asked for photos of Grandma and Grandpa, preferably with cows, so that my 2-1/2 year old granddaughter would have an association with something memorable she looks at pictures of her extended family.

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The dairy we worked on was sold several years ago and the cows were moved to Orland. That dairy was sold recently and the milk cows are all gone. There is some young stock left at the home place. These are Milking Shorthorns.

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I have always loved this tankhouse. This one has been recently rennovated.

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A young bull.

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Stuart kept a couple of steers to be trained as oxen. This photo doesn’t show their size because they are standing lower than Stuart. They are huge as were the steers that I had when we first moved here.

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Random Thoughts in Photos

Seen while driving in town the other day…lumber patternI liked the patterns of the wood. I especially noticed the part that doesn’t show up very well here but the bottom right where the heartwood (I think) makes the half circles. Weaving ideas.IMG_8433Also while driving. I was on Pedrick Road east of Dixon. I really wanted a photo of the snow-covered Sierras. It’s been awhile since we’ve had that view. The lens on the phone makes the mountains too far away for that shot, but I like seeing the train.IMG_8434In this shot too.IMG_8337I may have shown this photo before, but I like this sunset view. It makes the mud and swampy “lake” worthwhile.IMG_8329And speaking of lots of water, this was a result of the last storm that came through. This is a very old fig tree that the kids used to play in a long time ago. Note the steps and the treehouse platform. The roots of this tree have been rotten for some time and the dogs often found something to bark at in the hole in the trunk. giraffe sculptureI’ll bet you didn’t know that we had giraffes in Solano County. These two are about a mile from here where I take Ginny to herding lessons.IMG_8407And while we’re talking about herding, this is Ginny working “her flock” at home.