Today on the Farm

Posted on February 13, 2024 by Robin

I caught the sunrise this morning.

I put this ewe, Sweetgrass Tranquility, in the lambing area the last two nights thinking that she was ready to lamb. Notice the sunken sides. She looked like that yesterday too. This was her official due date based on breeding date. There was still no action.

I did chores and moved ewes and lambs around. This is Meridian Janna with triplets. They moved from the stall where they’d been a few days to the big outdoors. I went to the house to do some computer work. When I came back out Tranquility was straining some, but there was still none of the other obvious signs I expect (mucous, drainage). I gloved up and found a lamb close to being born, but stuck. This could be a long story but I’ll just explain that the lamb was dead and was blocking the exit for the other lambs. When a lamb is dead it is floppy and the legs and head don’t stay in the position necessary for easy lambing.

I pushed that lamb back to where I was able to grab its legs and head and pulled it out. Then I was able to find and pull two live lambs. The meconium staining indicates that the lambs were stressed during the process, but all is well. These lambs were normal size (7+ pounds). I think the first one died at least a few days ago. I have a photo but didn’t think this was the place to share it.

Here are those two lambs up and looking for something to eat.

Lambing isn’t always a pretty sight.

I spent a couple of hours still in the barn working on fleeces. I have a lot of fleeces to skirt and photograph for sale. I will get some on the website tomorrow.

I took this photo earlier in the morning, before Tranquility lambed. This is the BFL X Jacob ewe, Addy. Those BFLs put on much more weight than the Jacobs with the same feeding regimen–she is a tad heavy and has looked round for days. Later in the day I went out and thought that the lamb(s) had dropped. Her sides were more sunken and I figured that I would put her in the lambing area tonight.

When I went back to the barn about 5:00 I found her with a lamb that was 12.4 pounds! Maybe the vet that reviewed the ultrasound and gave a 1+ result was right and there was only one. (1+ means they confirmed one but didn’t rule out a second.)

When I went back to the barn two hours later here is what I found. This is a 9.6 pound lamb and had already nursed. I wonder if I’ll be surprised when I go back out as soon as I finish this post.

Here is the lambing list so far. We’re off to a much slower start than previous years, but it’s been easier that way. There are a lot more due before the end of the month.

I don’t think it’s spring yet, but it felt like it today when the sun was out!

If you want to see lambing videos check out my YouTube channel. This is Bessie lambing with twins and here is Cashew with twins. These are about 6 minute videos.

Shearing Day…for One Sheep

Posted on January 24, 2024 by Robin

Sunrise with gray clouds above green grass.

Shearing Day was scheduled for January 21, but this was the day before. I was up before sunrise again (necessary if you want to get enough done in the day in the winter) and it’s nice when there is color to go with it.

Five women sitting in a circle, each spinning on a different type of spinning wheel.

I had a spinning class scheduled for the morning. Five people from five different cities came to learn about spinning. Most had a little bit of experience or at least an introduction to spinning so we started right in after I explained the different wheels and some basic terminology. They all had a chance to ply their yarns by the time we finished a little after noon.

Just as we were finishing Siobhan and Ivar got here. Siobhan is a Farm Club member who has been here often, either teaching a class or to farm sit, besides our regular Farm Days. She and her husband spent a few weeks in England on a belated honeymoon last year. While there they took a lesson on blade shearing and bought hand shears. Siobhan asked if she could shear a sheep for her Farm Club fleece for this year. I said “sure”.

She chose Harry, the offspring of one of our pet sheep, Hazel, who died last year). I had wethered Harry because he had become such a pet to Siobhan and my granddaughter, Kirby. Ivar did the actual shearing while Siobhan helped with sheep control.

I can’t believe that I didn’t get photos between the start and the finish. I was doing some other barn clean up but also helping with a bit of sheep management. In fact I took this photo while Ivar was finishing his last strokes from the front of the sheep where I had one hand (or maybe my knee at this point) on Harry’s head. Siobhan however has a great time-lapse video of the whole process.

I’ll bet it felt like longer to Ivar, but when I looked at the time on my photos I saw that between the first and last photo there was about 55 minutes. I’d say that’s pretty good for your first sheep and doing it with handshears…and the sheep has horns, which only adds to the difficulty.

The fleece looks good too and I can’t wait to see what Siobhan does with it. Great job, Ivar and Siobhan!

The next day we sheared 77 sheep, but John uses electric shears! Stay tuned for another post.

Farm Day – One Week Until Shearing

Posted on January 14, 2024 by Robin

I scheduled a Farm Day today to take care of some chores prior to shearing next week. The ewes were ready to be vaccinated to provide the highest level of antibodies in the colostrum. I wanted to clip fleece samples from the yearlings (their second fleeces) to send in for micron testing. We also made sure that the ear tags were clean enough to read and that the tags would match the cards that go with each fleece.

Some long-time Farm Club members were there as well as some people who are new to Farm Club. It all went very smoothly and it took only a couple of hours to work through all the sheep and take time to take a closer look at some of those fleeces.

Farm Club members get a chance to reserve a fleece at this Fleece Preview Farm Day.

Deborah took the photos from above and this is me remembering to take at least a few photos. Often we get so busy that I overlook that.

While most of us were in with the sheep Susan, Chris, and Nikki volunteered to clean behind the barn. That’s always a big chore. When they finished here they moved to the ram pen and cleaned the ram barn.

Mary checked off the list on the clip board and made sure the cards matched the ear tags. Susan drew up vaccine into syringes.

Marina and Katy caught sheep, marked faces, and cleaned ear tags.

Rachel and Siobhan also helped catch and mark sheep.

The photos below are what it is all about. I had been thinking that the sheep are looking a bit bedraggled, but when I got hands-on those fleeces I changed my mind. They are looking good.

April is a yearling ewe, almost 2 year old.

Queen Q is the same age. The photos below are an on-the-hoof look at the fleeces of the four rams I have here.

Meridian Blizzard (Meridian Silverado x Meridian Bessie), 10 month old ram.

Meridian Typhoon (Meridian Turbo x Meridian Rocha)

Fair Adventure Horatio, 3 year old ram, from Colorado.

Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, 3 year old ram, from Michigan.

Shearing Day is Sunday, January 21.* We’ll be shearing about 70 sheep. Fleeces are available on shearing day and for a month or two afterwards as I skirt them and post them on-line. If you live in the area you can come here to choose a fleece. Contact me.

*I just fixed this. A friend pointed out that I wrote June 21. Yikes!

Catching up in the Barn

Posted on June 20, 2023 by Robin

I had plenty of catching up to do after the Estes Park trip described in the last 4 blog posts. These photos were all taken last Wednesday, two days after we got back.

Culvert in pasture with irrigation water just starting to flow through.

We really needed to irrigate. We were about 2 weeks behind because we didn’t want to irrigate before the trip. The water comes into our property just off the top left near the blackberries. In this photo it is running down the ditch and just starting through the culvert.

Veterinarians examining a Jacob sheep in the barn.

The vets were here to issue CVIs (Certificate of Veterinary Inspection) for the sheep going to Oregon the following week (now in two days). I asked them to look at a couple of other sheep while they were here. Jade was noticeably skinny even before lambing–a time when many of the sheep are putting on weight. Dr. Urbano thought that maybe her teeth had sharp points that irritated her mouth so she didn’t spend as much time chewing her cud as she should.

Veterinarian holding a sheep's head while another uses a rasp to file her teeth.

She rasped Jade’s teeth and we’ll see if she starts to put on a little weight.

After the vets left I spent most of the day finishing up with fleeces so I could deliver the wool to the mill for processing. I have a few fleeces and a few one-pound lots listed on the website now. I need to check the barn because I lost track of the paper where I wrote which fleeces are still out there. So there may be more to list, but I’d better check first.

Large bags of wool labeled and ready to deliver to the mill.

These are the bags I delivered to Valley Oak Mill on Thursday. The wool is sorted into black, white, gray (mixed fiber that I can’t separate), and britch.

These are some 3/4 lb and 1 lb lots that I saved for Siobhan’s Vegetarian Sheepskin class to be held at Lambtown in October (look under Saturday classes) and later in the year here. I will also bring back my felted wool wreath class so some of the wool is saved for that.

These are fleeces I brought back from the Estes Park show because I wanted to show them at Black Sheep Gathering. I took them out of the bags and reorganized and rolled them up again. These are some really nice fleeces. I may have to bring one back home with me!

Bag of fleece with green and red marks from the rams' marking harnesses.

A small bag of wool that I’ll wash here and then dye if it isn’t clean. The color in this wool is left from the marking harnesses the rams wear during breeding season.

Palm of hand covered with dirt after skirting fleeces.

Here is what my hands looked like after working through all this wool.

Sheep skulls in various stages of preparation--all in separate containers.

Unfinished business. I have lots of skulls to try and clean up better before selling the. That’s a whole other story.

I brought back new sheep coats from Estes Park. I got several different sizes to try them out. These are from Rocky Sheep in Colorado.

I’ve been doing a lot more catching up but it wouldn’t be a very good blog post to just show photos of me at my computer all day…that’s where I’ve been.

Morning on the Farm

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Robin

Four horned Jacob ewe in pasture with other sheep in the background.

View after putting sheep on fresh strip of pasture. This is Columbine.

Four horned Jacob ewe with grass in her mouth standing near a fence.

Eilwen with a mouthful of grass.

Mulberry tree with red and black berries.

This mulberry tree is growing at the edge of the pasture. Last year I used the berries for pie, but I don’t know if it’s worth the effort. It seems a shame to not harvest these but they don’t have much flavor, especially compared to the mulberries that I had in Santa Barbara while staying with my friend last weekend.

Wild turkey with two babies walking through grass.

This turkey hen was in the pasture also, calling to her two babies to keep up with her in the tall grass.

This is a nice looking lilac ram lamb. He is out of one of my granddaughter’s ewes and I may keep this one to see how he looks as a yearling

These lambs were weaned just a few days ago. They will be going to the Estes Park Wool Market next weekend where we’ll be showing sheep.

Two four horn Jacob ewes wearing halters with one lamb behind.

These sheep will also go to Estes Park. The Jacob Sheep Show has a class for a family group that is a ewe, her daughter, and her granddaughter. That’s Quora on the right, her daughter, Quince, and Quince’s lamb.

We’re used to seeing hot air balloons overhead, but they don’t usually land close by..

Hot air balloon landing just across the road.

This one landed just across the road–on the dirt road, not on the newly planted tomatoes.

Yellow, red, blue, and white hot air balloon just after landing with power lines in front.

I was surprised that they landed so close to power lines.

Hot air balloon after landing with balloon lying on ground before collapsing.

I guess they know what they are doing and the balloon collapsed in the right direction.

More Fun in the Barn

Posted on June 18, 2018 by Robin

I hope you’re not tired of grandkid photos yet. The last ones were here. While Katie was still working on the barn during her visit… …I supervised Kirby…

…and Kasen. I think that Uncle Chris was a lot more fun than me.

Notice the dog ball in Kirby’s left hand and two dogs waiting for it. Back to the wagon. On this day I didn’t need to put the carseat in it for Kasen to fall asleep.

Someone else was worn out too.

Shearing at the Timm Ranch

Posted on April 22, 2018 by Robin

Last weekend I spent a day skirting fleeces with some of the Farm club members. We were at the Timm Ranch not far from here. After a rainy and overcast week the sunny day was a welcome change and the ranch was a beautiful place to spend the day.

The sheep were in pens when we got there. We helped to move them toward the lane into the barn. Most of the lambs were born much earlier but there were a few late lambs too.

The sheep are a ranch blend that were originally bred from Targhee, Polypay, and Rambouillet sheep The shearer works in the old barn where there are signs of what shearing would have been like in the “old days” when there would have been hundreds of sheep to shear in the day.

We brought each fleece to the skirting tables… …and inspected them for strength, length, and VM (vegetable matter)

My goal was to get at least 200 pounds, the minimum weight to send it to the mill I am using for this wool.

I ended up with 270 pounds of beautiful fleece.

We dragged it on a tarp over to the baler… …where the shearer baled it. This is our 270 pound bale in the truck. I am grateful to Farm Club members for helping out on this day. It not only made the work easier, but it was fun to spend time together.

A link to last year’s Timm Ranch yarn is here.

Meet the Sheep

Posted on April 12, 2018 by Robin

Meet the Sheep is our spring event when we invite the public to see sheep and watch fiber activities. I haven’t kept track of how long we have been doing this but I have pictures from 2009 and I think we’ve been at it longer than that. Meet the Sheep comes off smoothly now with Farm Club members handling all of the outside activities. I spend most of the time in the shop but I get out occasionally to take some photos.

Farm Cub members are invited to be vendors. This is Jackie with Sheep to Shop. These are some of her handspun, handknit pillows. Colleen has Fiber Confections. She usually sells at the Davis Farmers’ Market. Gynna makes socks. Here are some of her socks knit from my Anderson Ranch yarn and Timm/Jacob yarn. Joy sells dye plants… …ready to use for dyeing and ready to grow. Her butterfly is made from a Zoom Loom square.

Farm Club members also demonstrated fiber activities. Alison and Doris were processing fiber, Laura was weaving on the inkle loom, and Lisa wove a tapestry on the Lilli loom.

Of course, it’s all about the animals, especially the lambs. Betsy, Mary, Sue, and Marina helped children pet lambs. My little goats were an added attraction this year since Julie, who usually brings goats and bunnies, couldn’t be here. This fence helped keep the kids in one place. Moms could relax temporarily. I saved the small field behind the shop so that the sheep would be enticed to come to fresh pasture for the weekend.

An new activity was Running Through Puddles. This activity is not offered every year, but the children enjoyed it this time.

Shearing Day Prep

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Robin

Shearing Day was a week ago and I’ve been so busy that there has been no time to sort through my photos or do anything fun on my computer (like writing blog posts). Now I’m going to try and catch up.

Shearing Day at our place is an Open House event so it’s a good time to get the place cleaned up and ready for visitors. It took me several hours to finally deal with the mess in the “milking stall” of the barn. That’s where we used to milk the goats but it is now kind of my barn office. I don’t have photos of before and after but I did take a photo of one solution I found for organizing some of the vet supplies.

I not only found a plastic tub to keep the dust and cobwebs and rats away but I wrote the names on the tops of the bottles so that I don’t have to pull each of them out every time I’m looking for something. This is so simple, but it makes me inordinately pleased–why didn’t I think of it before? While I was cleaning inside the barn Dan was working outside. We had finally had some rain so felt more comfortable burning the brush pile. By the way we burned this on Thursday. This doesn’t look like much but it was a pretty not fire. Even though it looked like it was out on Monday there were still hot spots and smoke.

That burn pile is right next to the ram pen. Here are the five of them. The 4-horned rams are Serrano and his dad, Buster. The lilac 2-horns are Cayenne and his sire, Catalyst. That’s Gotham in front. In the meantime, Dan is working on the west side of the barn. This has been a multi-year project but I think it may get finished this year.

I was trying to get ready for shearing but was also dealing with taxes, the clutter I still haven’t taken care of in the house after painting my office, weaving deadlines, etc. I found another way to procrastinate. Let’s put the GoPro on a sheep. Jade is the obvious choice, being the best pet sheep. The first thing she did was run into the barn. When one sheep runs, they all do. Then she shook her head and it was obvious that I didn’t have the camera secured well enough.

At that point I needed a scoop of grain to entice her. I had used the headgear that is meant for wearing the camera, but it was meant for a human head and didn’t wrap around the horns very well. I found the brace I use for my elbow and that seemed to secure it better. I’ve looked at the footage. It’s not as exciting as we might hope for. Maybe if she wore the GoPro all day (and there was enough battery life to do that…and then we condense it all into a minute) it would be interesting. But it’s not like she’s going to be skydiving or snorkeling. For this trial run she pretty much just looked at the barn, the pasture, and me.

I will still do something with the video but it probably won’t be winning any film festivals.

Donkey Photos

Posted on October 29, 2017 by Robin

So many blog posts to write now that maybe I’ll have time…The show is up at the Artery, Hug a Sheep Day was yesterday, lots of natural dyeing, lots of weaving, trip to Tahoe. But I’ll start with Amaryllis because I’m going to the Donkey Welfare Symposium next weekend and they have a photo contest. They asked for “cute” donkey photos and I think they will make up categories for prizes as they go along. Here are some contenders.

“She’s at it again.”

“Let’s pretend we don’t notice.”

I love this photo but the announcement said 8 x 10 and this is square. I don’t know if it matters.

I like this one. I will crop it to remove that sliver of tree on the right.

This is the most recent. I wish that I had a little more of her head in it but it’s cute.

What do you think?

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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