It Takes A Farm Club …

Posted on March 12, 2013 by Robin

I’ve thought about titles for this post for a couple of days, but I’ve been too busy and/or too tired to write it. It Takes A Farm Club to Run a Farm. Or Farm Club Experiences Life and Death. FC met here on Saturday. I am so appreciative of everyone in FC. I know that they are getting experiences they wouldn’t otherwise, but I am benefiting tremendously as well. There was a lot going on that day.

My day started with a ewe that I though might have milk fever. I treated her with calcium gluconate and put her with her lambs in a pen so I could watch her. The first FC members arrived as another ewe, Onyx was lambing.
Lambing pens ……and the rest of the barn were cleaned while we kept an eye on Onyx. Onyx is a BFL/Jacob cross bred to a Jacob. She had a black lamb and a Jacob-looking lamb while FC looked on. I’m glad that she lambed in the barn. If she had been in the field I would have been looking all over for a Jacob ewe missing a lamb.Look at the horns on that lamb. Ouch! It’s unheard of to irrigate this early in the year, but we have had almost no rain since December. The irrigation district charged the ditches so I put in a call for water. Gynna and Lisa helped by clearing debris from the ditch. We checked this ewe lamb’s broken leg. I showed FC members my bone-yard ( a pen where I put skulls that are in various stages of decomposition). Shelby sat with the ewe who later died (not of milk fever, but a metabolic problem similar to pregnancy toxemia, according to preliminary necropsy results).Then we had to bottle feed her lambs. (The day before I had just grafted the bottle baby I had onto a ewe. Now I have more bottle lambs.) And there are always plenty of lambs to hold. We checked all 70 lambs for split eyelids and number of horns and I gave them all BOSE injections. I don’t have photos, but a guest of a FC member worked on my buttons–sanding buttons that I had cut out months ago. We can’t have Farm Day without Donna’s brownies…and now Lisa’s sheep cookies and Mary’s O’Henry bars. Thank you to everyone who came and helped and then shared the warm afternoon sun.

Shearing Day

Posted on November 11, 2012 by Robin

Shearing Day was yesterday. What a wonderful time. Farm Club came through (as always) and handled all the various tasks of the day. (Except for Rusty’s job, which he describes in his blog so I am not duplicating his photos here). I am grateful to the great shearer who has come for the last few years. He does a wonderful job–the sheep look good and the fleeces look good. John is so fast that he finished with 64 sheep in about 2 1/2 hours.

One important job is making sure that the shearer always has a sheep to shear as soon as he finishes with the last one.

I took some videos too but it will take me awhile to get those edited. You can sign up on the Meridian Jacobs YouTube Channel and see them when they are ready.

This is the BFL/Jacob crossbred ewe. I probably could have started a bidding war on her fleece, but I’m keeping it.

A couple of people bagged fleeces after shearing and then each fleece was weighed.

Alison and Linda helped many new Farm Club members and other visitors evaluate fleeces at the skirting table.

The warm afternoon sun was welcome after the cold morning.

Good friendships and sharing the work make a day like this extra fun.

Want a Hug?

Posted on October 28, 2012 by Robin

How exciting! Thanks to Dona, who photographed us, we made the Hug A Sheep Day blog with this photo of Farm Club.

It was a great day to Hug a Sheep and we hugged several! If you want to read about the other things we did yesterday (from Rusty’s perspective) read Rusty’s blog.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Robin

It’s been a week since Meet the Sheep, our spring open house. My internet service has been sketchy and every time I started to add photos it was too slow and I gave up. I think technology has been upgraded and hopefully all is well with our internet tower. I can see that tower on the mountain several miles away (one of many–I don’t really know which it is–do you think they could put a ribbon on it so I can pick it out?) and if I can see it, shouldn’t the little thing on the roof be able to pick up the signal?

The Saturday of Meet the Sheep we had gorgeous weather and I know that was one reason we seemed to be so popular. Dozens of people came and enjoyed the sheep, the goats, fiber, fresh air, and a wonderfully sunny (dry) day. As always Farm Club members were a huge help.

Paulette always enjoys a good scratch.

This is an Angora kid owned by my friend, Julie, of Black Oak Ranch.

Julie brought kids and a bottle lamb, all of which were very popular.

She also did a dying demonstration.

Shelby brought her tame chickens.

Jackie demonstrated carding and…

…Alison taught a visitors how to spin.

First handspun yarn.

Photo opportunities

Fashion footwear

Checking out chickens

Fresh yarn

Of course it was all about Meeting the Sheep:

Farm Day

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Robin

Last Saturday was Farm Day and 8 of the 10 Farm Club members were able to make it here. We caught all the lambs and checked for split eyelids (a condition that sometimes happens in 4-horn sheep) and number of horns.

With this many people here it went quickly. Everyone else caught sheep and I weighed them. I don’t usually weigh lambs as they grow, but I’m interested in finding out if my BLF cross lambs grow at a different rate than the Jacob lambs. I’ll report back on that.

After working with the lambs everyone grabbed pitchforks and shovels and, with 3 wheelbarrows going, they made quick work of cleaning the barn.

What a great group of friends!

Black Sheep Gathering – Day 1

Posted on June 25, 2011 by Robin

Farm Club members, Kathy, Dona, Tina, and Jackie are ready to leave with me and the sheep for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. Friend, Chris was already in Oregon waiting for us.

Synchronizing phones.

UhOh!

The Shasta County Deputy calling in the suspicious livestock. It turns out that I am the legal owner. What if I hadn’t had the health certificate? The only reason I had paperwork was because I was on my way to an out-of-state show.

Hot Lips thought it was no-big-deal.

Gas stop in Oregon. That’s Jackie’s van behind the truck.

Unloading the van. We had all the gear for 5 of us, dozens of fleeces, spinning wheels, etc packed in the van and the back seat of my truck.

Shaul’s Manufacturing is one of our favorite vendors.

Although I come to BSG primarily for recreation, the purported purpose is showing sheep. I did not bring a yearling ram to the show because I don’t have room to transport one and take all the other sheep in the back of the pick-up. I brought 2 ram lambs to show and, being born in March, they don’t show as well as they might if they were a month or so older. The Jacob breeders are all pretty good friends and we were all happy to find out who won Champion Jacob Ram:

This is Theron with his ram lamb.

Part of the ewe lamb class. Jackie showed her lamb, Nellie (who was a bottle baby from me), Tina showed Venus, and I showed Ventura. We placed 3rd and 5th in this class. I have heard that Nellie will be writing her own version of the show later on (and may have quite a different perspective) and will publish that on Jackie’s blog (Wooly Adventures).

Here is the high point for me. Meridian Hot Lips won Champion Jacob Ewe. She will show again against all the other winners for Supreme Champion Ewe.

A Typical Day…

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Robin

…or why I don’t get everything done that I have planned for a day.

First up is morning chores and spend some time admiring Hudson, my new ram from Mud Ranch Jacobs. Joan brought him yesterday and took home a couple of ewe lambs. Hudson warrants a blog post all by himself, but he’ll have to wait for that. Hudson is a lilac ram and by breeding him to my lilac and lilac-carrier ewes I’ll have lilac lambs next spring. (Lilac is a Jacob color different than the more common black and white.)

One of the risers in my pasture water line pulled out a couple of days ago and I had to wait for the water to subside to be able to fix it. I left the hole open awhile to make sure that there are no more leaks.

Here is the result of a repaired pipe line–drinking water in the pasture so the sheep don’t have to come into the barn for water.

I will have irrigation water tomorrow so I needed to set up tarps in the ditch. The water is provided by the Solano Irrigation District, not my well. The tarps allow the water to back up and fill the ditch and then flow out into the pasture.

The green forage is the result of irrigating. Even with all the rain we had recently it wasn’t enough to keep the desirable pasture plants growing. Notice the brown part on the left. My 24-hour irrigation hasn’t been enough to get water to the all the pasture and that brown area is part that wasn’t irrigated when I had water on last month. I have asked for 36 hours for this irrigation and hopefully I can get water to the rest of the pasture. Otherwise I have lost about a fifth of my forage for the summer.

This small green area is a section in the eastern paddock that my son burned earlier in the spring. He didn’t think that the burn was successful because the medusahead was green and didn’t catch fire readily. However, the burning killed it allowing other plants to grow. I want to burn the rest of it but I’m a bit worried about burning now–even if the burning would be permitted now. Maybe next year.

Throw in a littel bird watching in the morning.

Spend some time petting Stephanie…

after trimming her feet which she considers to be an insult.

More bird-watching.

Scrounged and cut wood to fit inside the feeders so that hay won’t fall onto the backs of the sheep.

Jackie and Chris came out about 1 to help with halter breaking. (By the way, thanks to all the help, the lambs are showing remarkable improvement after only 3 days.) I thought a couple of them had rather droopy ears.

I pulled these out of one ear and found one other lamb with foxtails bothering her, although not lodged like these were. It makes me wonder how many I’m missing.

That’s about half the day, but a long enough post.

Halter breaking

Posted on June 15, 2011 by Robin

Black Sheep Gathering is coming up at the end of next week so it’s time to halter break lambs. A few friends came to help.

The lambs behaved fairly well for their first time on halters.

Bottle-baby Nellie had other ideas.

She was a true drama queen. Halter breaking-Day 2 is today.

Farm Club Comes Through Again

Posted on May 15, 2011 by Robin

I sent an e-mail Friday to the Farm Club in which I said I was going to vaccinate lambs today and did anyone want to help? Dona and Tina were already planning on being here for a spinning class in the morning so they said that they would stay. Jacki, Shelby, and Allison came too. Wow! What great response with only 24 hours’ notice.

I bought a new tool. For years I have been vaccinating with single dose syringes. That means that you have to reload the syringe each time you give an injection.

I just never thought about doing it differently, but I was at Higby’s Country Feed Store (my favorite store) and saw this syringe. There is a bit of a learning curve (remember to tighten needle, make sure you depress the handle part all the way, don’t drop because the barrel is glass–OOPS!), but what a huge difference it will make after I replace the glass part that broke about a third of the way into the job.

I appreciate all the Farm Club members (who are now friends) who show up for projects like this. Shelby manned the camera, as well as caught lambs and played with the loose chicken.

Alison, Jackie, Tina, and Dona all helped catch and mark lambs and…

fill syringes (after the unfortunate incident with the new one).

Shelby took the following portraits.

After vaccinating I let all the sheep out but then needed to catch one more lamb.

So Rusty had a chance to get involved also.

Thanks to all of you for helping. Wait until you hear about the next unscheduled Farm Day. I think it’s coming up soon.

A Rainy Farm Day

Posted on March 21, 2011 by Robin

Farm Club members braved stormy weather to make the March Farm Day a fun and productive day. As usual I had more tasks on the list than we could hope to accomplish in the morning but we made good progress.

First on the list was a lesson on using a halter and tying a rope, using a knot that can be easily released. I didn’t mean that the people had to wear halters, but Shelby is always ready for anything.

Everyone helped catch lambs and record the number of horns and whether or not there were any eyelid defects. (Split eyelids are not uncommon in 4-horn sheep.)