Dan saw a report that we have reached a record of 22 days of tule fog. Cold and drippy. I think I can handle cold (sort of) when it is balanced by a bit of sun. At least the green pasture and fluffy sheep look cheerful.
This is looking northwest to the hills. What hills? Fog instead.
This is the second day grazing Paddock 17. There is still more feed out there, but I want to move them across the other paddocks.
It seems that two days is about right for each of these 30-foot strips. Notice in this photo and the previous one how well the sheep eat right to the edges. The fences are on the checks, the raised strips that channel the irrigation water down the pasture. I think they eat those closer because they aren’t trampled like the middle of the paddock.
This is another view of that paddock.
I moved the net fencing this morning and this is Paddock 16. .
Some of the chicory has red in the leaves and some does not.
We’re still in the gray gloom of drizzly fog, but we accomplished some outdoor tasks that make me feel as through I accomplished something.
These photos were taken on Wednesday, and on Monday I had moved the sheep from the northwest paddocks to the southeast along the road. This is Paddock 20-21 (numbers assigned to indicate the irrigation valves and checks). I had just fenced off the hedgerow we planted two weeks ago (blog post).
This that same fence but from the south. You might notice that it looks as though the fence is leaning the same direction but this is the opposite view. I have developed the habit of leaning my net fence away from the field the sheep will be in. It is rare that a sheep gets tangled in the net fence, but if that happens there is often a bad outcome. I think it is less likely for those upright horns to snag the fence and cause the sheep to panic if the fence is tipped slightly away when the sheep may be grazing close to the fence, as in a field with this much growth. (The previous photo shows how closely the sheep were grazing to the fence on the other side.) It’s also more likely when the charge on the fence is on the low end, and we need to do some troubleshooting on the connections in this field. So I always tip the fence.
Harmony, one of the ewes whose coat was changed recently (last post).
You all know Jade, the oldest sheep here, and a big pet. The plants you’re seeing are chicory and clover.
After morning chores I was looking for the wheelbarrow to use in the later project of working on the hedgerow. It was near the shop where I had been raking leaves, and I thought that, since it was here. I should rake up fallen lemons before I took the wheelbarrow away.
This tree has been here since we moved to this property in1999. I don’t know anything about growing citrus, but I think the tree may have been a combination of a few different citrus on a common rootstock. Maybe it’s always been just one variety, but I got confused with the different looks that seem to show up at other seasons. In any case, I was paying attention this month when we had loads of fruit on the ground. They sure looked like lemons, but were nothing I wanted to use. Lemons are not supposed to be sweet but I would describe these lemons as nasty. You can see a lot of fruit on the tree now, but it is not nearly ripe, and I know those are oranges. I just looked up lemon rootstock for orange trees and found this video about pruning out those rootstock suckers, which in this case had grown taller than the tree. I was right. The branches that had started as suckers but we hadn’t trimmed were taller than the tree. Do you see that empty spot on top and the one on the right? That is where branches had reached through the rest of the tree and were producing fruit. It was quite a job to cut those away as the branches had grown through other branches and they are very thorny. It took me a couple of hours to finish that job and by then it was about time for Raquel to come.
Raquel is a Farm Club member who went out of her way to help figure out how to order what was needed to install a drip system to irrigate our newly planted hedgerow. I had also picked up more cardboard from a friend so we could continue the mulching that we started. We rolled out 250′ of 3/4″ tubing and secured it with u-shaped wires.
This is the tool that is used to poke holes at the appropriate places in the tube and then insert the emitters.
We had cardboard and straw mulch around the plants, but with the new cardboard we were able to cover space between the plants.
We finished the job…sort of. We used all the 250′ I had ordered. Someone (that would be me) had not measured correctly–a fact which I realized when I installed the new electric net fence for this strip. I thought we had a 250′ hedgerow, but it turns out I was 40′ short of fence. So we knew when we started on this yesterday we would run out of the main tube. We wanted to get as much done as we could though. I have ordered more tubing and all we have to do is connect it to this one and install more emitters and we’ll be good to go. It’s so damp and drizzly now that I don’t have to worry about more water on these plants right away.
Every year I choose some sheep to coat–it’s usually those that are entered at a show. This year we took a trailer-full to Black Sheep Gathering (photos of the show). I coated most of those sheep because those who aren’t coated end up with straw buried in the fleeces. I kept coats on most of those afterwards so now there are nine sheep with coats.
Why coat? 1. The fleeces are free of VM (vegetable matter) which could be stickers, seed heads, etc from the pasture, but our pasture doesn’t have any of those. Alfalfa is our most likely VM, and is great to spin a fleece that is completely free of that. 2. The colored wool isn’t sunbleached. Why don’t I like coats? 1. I would rather see the sheep in the field without coats. 2. Coats need changing as the wool grows, at least four times each year, and maybe more. 3. Coats need repair, especially when worn by horned sheep. 4. Coats can cause felting or other damage to fleece if they aren’t changed at the right time. 5. At this time of year with 6-1/2 weeks to go before shearing I’m running out of the larger sizes. I changed coats last week and took photos of some.
This is Lily wearing a coat that looks snug. I changed this one but didn’t get a photo.
This is how Breeze looks with the coat removed. There is a bit of sun-bleaching because she didn’t wear the coat all year, but you can tell a difference from the neck wool that isn’t coated at all.
Breeze’s fleece.
Breeze with a larger coat.
I didn’t get a photo of Zoe, but here is one of her fleece. Gorgeous!
The title is significant. I don’t know that we have ever grazed into December. There wasn’t enough feed and the ground was too soggy. Now we have lots of green feed and need to keep the sheep eating it. The downside is that the rain seems to have stopped and we will need more.
This is Paddock #1 (west property line) after two days of grazing.
This is Paddock #1 North, just across that fence. Notice that my boot is under the bottom wire, but it’s pretty well buried in foliage. I walked along this stretch of fence to clear that bottom wire.
Happy sheep.
More happy sheep. The last time we grazed this paddock was three months ago on September 1.
The big leafy plant is chicory and so is the one with blue flowers. It took me a long time to accept that they are the same plant.
After looking it up online I found: “Forage Chicory: Perennial broadleaf. Up to 18” (flower stalks up to 6′). Tap-rooted broadleaf perennial with bright blue flowers suited to well-drained moderately acidic soils. As annual or perennial forage: well-managed stands may persist 5 years or longer, but also valuable in annual stands for pasture or green chop. Very high digestibility and protein levels up to 50% higher than alfalfa. Digestibility is reduced if plants are allowed to bolt, but the flowers are very attractive! Research shows reduced parasite loads in animals fed or pastured on chicory. “
This photo is after grazing Paddock 1N for three days. A lot is trampled, but they were still eating out here this morning.
I opened the fence to let them into the next paddock. I have video and I just spent time on iMovie after not using it for a long time. Let’s see if I can share this on YouTube. Here is the link.
Back to regular blogging. More happy sheep.
This view is interesting to me because this is the area where ryegrass completely overwhelmed the clover last spring. This post is one of several I wrote about that situation. If you pursue the Grazing posts you’ll see the whole story. This is good feed here, but it is patchy, more so than in the rest of the paddocks.
This ewe, Meridian Pecan, isn’t bothered by any of those details. She’s happy to have fresh green feed.
We’re almost to the last check in the south pasture. Well, we are at it but that is today and this blog post is about yesterday.
This is looking south and Paddock 2 on the right. That is the one the sheep were just grazing for two days, after grazing Paddock 3 (left) for two days. You can see how this looked two days ago here.
Anther view of that same fence line.
Moving west, this is the fenceline between #3 and #2. I had to move that net fence from the division between #3 and 4 to the division between #2 and 1.
The fence line between #’s 2 and 1, neither yet grazed
This morning I shared photos of our grazing set-up now that it’s one year after the big project began. I just looked back through my blog and found this post when we seeded. That was November 19, just hours before we had a lot of rain. A lot has happened in a year. This winter it feels like a whole new experience because prior to this project I would not have been grazing in late November and would be waiting for spring.
Yesterday about noon I walked out to check the fence. Some of the sheep were on their way in.
This is the corner of the new paddock I’d just set up. I think I mentioned something in previous posts about acquiring five new sheep. This is one of the three Corriedales, so far named Corri 1, Corri 2, and Corri 3. Yeah, not very creative. This is Corri 3…
…and she is one of my best friends.
Sparky is another.
I have been taking photos of individual sheep to update the pages on the website. I have updated this page with the current ewes, but haven’t included all the new photos yet. The ewe in this photo is Ophelia, a yearling.
I also took photos of new lambskins yesterday. I stopped in the middle of writing this to list them here.
The hedgerow project wasn’t completely finished yesterday. I found more cardboard and cut it up for the remaining 19 plants and added more straw. We hadn’t got them all watered yesterday so I brought out a wagon to haul more water at one time.
I finished just as the sun went down.
In the evening I jumped on Zoom for my final Basics of Bark Tan class presented by Traditional Tanners where I have had the latest sheepskins tanned. This is leather I made from deerskin! I highly recommend this class. It is very well presented and a lot of fun!
The sheep were out when I went to the barn yesterday morning. The paddocks are numbered from west to east, 1 to 21. Every other check has a permanent 3-wire fence, visible in this photo on the left. In the summer I grazed two at a time and 4 days seemed about right. After we got measurable rain I noticed significant trailing down the border check between the two paddocks they were grazing. The check is a raised strip running north to south that guides the water when we irrigate. I thought I’d better put a fence along that check so that they wouldn’t impact it as much. So that’s the way I’ve been grazing for the last few weeks. When Farm Club helped to measured net fences to make sure I had the correct fences where I needed them (blog post here) I had left 3 lengths of e-net that we measured to be the correct length for just this need. You can see the net fence on the right of this photo.
The sheep grazed this paddock (#4) for two days. This is the third morning and they need to move to #3. The fence is on the border check and you can see how they have grazed right up to it. The fence is purposely tipped away from the grazed paddock because I think the 4-horned sheep are less likely to get horns caught when they graze near the fence.
The sheep were anxious to get to fresh feed.
I was able to move the fence that was blocking access to the next paddock and they all came around the end.
This is the view before I reset the net fence. I find it interesting to see how the sheep ate the leaves as far as they could reach on the chicory. By the way, the leafy plant that looks like we’re growing a crop of lettuce or chard is chicory. That was one of the three forbs in the seed mix we planted last fall. It didn’t grow as much as the clover until later in the summer, but it is sure evident now.
Another view of the fence before I moved it, and more chicory stalks.
The sheep are happy on this new paddock. This is quite a contrast from the one grazed for only two days.
View to the north after re-setting most of the net fence.
Our pasture and irrigation project that began last fall included a plan for a hedgerow. This project was included in a block grant from CDFA administered by Fibershed. So when the time came to implement the hedgerow plan, people from Fibershed volunteered their time to help make it happen, along with the RCD (Resource Conservation District) representatives.
The hedgerow was to be planted inside the east fence of the pasture. RCD experts had come the day before with most of the plants. We placed them approximately where we thought they should be planted and marked them with flags. Some are small and if we hadn’t flagged them it would have been like an Easter egg hunt to find them all.
After a foggy start to Thursday we had warned everyone to wear rubber boots. Friday was sunny and dry! The first task was to clear space where each plant was to go in the ground. The biggest impediment to getting a good start will be the amount of competition and shading from all the other vigorously growing plants. Even a plant we like (clover for example) will be considered undesirable in the root zone of the new plants. I remember from somewhere, “A weed is a plant out of place.”
This was quite an undertaking. We planted 80 California natives in the 250′ row.
The plants include three to five each of Coyote Bush, Oregon Grape, CA Lilac, Western Redbud, Golden Current, Deergrass, St. Catherine’s Lace, Toyon, White Sage, CA Fuchsia,and 50 Yarrow.
The pasture has been growing well, the soil looks healthy, and everywhere you dig there are earthworms. We have had recent rain so it’s moist, but we will have to make sure that we irrigate these new plants. That’s a project for a couple of days later.
The photographer who has been with Fibershed since the beginning, Paige Green, and I wandered out to visit the sheep and take photos.
Jade provided Paige with the perfect cover for getting photos of sheep that might otherwise be wary of an unfamiliar person.
Back to the hedgerow. View to the south when we were finished.
View to the north. Each plant was surrounded by rice straw to provide mulch with the intent to prevent weed growth. There is more to that story…to be continued in the next post.
As I’ve said before Breeding Season is a Season, overlapping the traditional seasons of summer and fall. If defining a Season influences how you live your life, Breeding Season definitely qualifies. It doesn’t take long before I’m ready for it to be over. It’s easier when all the ewes are in one place, the rams are somewhere else, and I don’t have to feed groups differently and watch my back when I’m with the ewes.
We have 4 breeding groups, a non-breeding group (the oldest sheep, Jade, and six ewe lambs), two young rams with potential for breeding (too young and/or small this year), and two older rams who are sold but still here. The breeding group with the most ewes is on the main pasture. Hornblower has about 30 ewes with him. Doesn’t that pasture look great?
Elvis has eleven ewes and is on the pasture to the north. When I moved the Hornblower group to the next paddock of the south pasture I needed to separate the two groups with more than a single net fence, especially since I’m having some issues with the power to the north one. So I set up two fences and was able to power the north one from the south one.
Those pasture photos were taken October 10. On the 13th it rained. We had 1.6″ the first day and .5″ the second day. A significant rainfall usually marks the end of grazing. It is late in the year and the pasture is depleted or dormant. Also, the land is flat and the water doesn’t drain well. This year is different because the pasture has been renovated and there is a much better stand (mostly clover, trefoil, and chicory). We are not sure how long we’ll be able to graze but it seemed appropriate to continue as long as I moved the sheep to a fresh paddock.
Five days ago I moved Hornblower’s group to the paddock closest to the road.
The lane is adjacent to Clancy’s group. However there is hot wire on both sides of the net fence and there doesn’t seem to be any problem with either ram trying to get through.
You may notice some blue marks on the ewes. Those are more noticeable than the orange marks on several, The rams wear marking harnesses so we have a better idea of when to expect lambs. I hadn’t noticed as many marks lately.
Is this why? The rams went in with ewes three weeks ago on September 27. I substituted the orange markers from Clancy and Hornblower with blue markers a week ago. You can see the difference in a new one and the used ones.
Clancy’s group is in the field between the barn and the shop–not one of the renovated pastures. Notice two blue marks. The ewe in the background marked blue was the first one Clancy marked with orange on September 27.
So we now know that she was not pregnant after that breeding. If all the ewes in this group are re-marked that would indicate a problem with the ram. Hopefully that is not the case. The other ewe marked blue in the photo above this one had not been marked before. I’ll keep watching to make sure that more of the oranges aren’t also marked blue in the next week.
I am in Michigan now (more on that in a future post), but having a chance to go through photos for planned blog posts. I took these photos last week when I switched the sheep to the last paddock on the west.
A view of the pasture with lots of clover. Most is white clover, but there is some strawberry clover as well. The dry grass is annual rye which has dried out. I have written extensively about the pasture project, seeding, and what is growing. If you’re interested search posts from November 2024 through spring 2025.
Part of the pasture project included two owl boxes. I can’t see inside them without a ladder. However, I can open the door on this one and hold my camera up high enough to take a photo of the inside. It’s obvious that it has been used, but I don’t know if it is used currently or not.
Chicory is one of the plants that was in our seed mix but I don’t see as much of it as I do the clover. After reading articles about native bees I think this is probably one of them.
There have been challenges on the north pasture. The annual ryegrass, which was not part of the seed mix, grew so quickly that it took over some areas. There is clover growing, but a lot was shaded out by the ryegrass that was trampled as the sheep were turned out.
These are patches that I lifted up to show how tall the grass is. It has effectively mulched parts of the field. Dan recently mowed this area to try and break up this thick grass. We’ll try hand seeding some of these areas before irrigating next week.
Back to the south pasture. You can still see the dry ryegrass, but it was mowed or grazed before it got as tall as that in the north pasture. There is plenty of clover thriving under it.
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