Tag Archives: Jacob sheep

Black Sheep Gathering 2025 – Friday

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The map app shows that Albany, Oregon is under an 8 hour drive from here, but it took us about 9 hours pulling a trailer full of sheep. We had 15 sheep with us–8 of mine and 7 belonging to my granddaughter, Kirby.

Girl sitting on straw in pen with Jacob sheep and using her phone.

This is Kirby sitting with her sheep the first morning of the event. Shetlands showed first and then it was us.

Jacob sheep on halters tied to rails in pen.

The first two days of the Black Sheep Gathering sheep show are for the open show. The junior show is Sunday. I entered Kirby’s sheep in both shows. We needed at least three exhibitors to be able to have a Jacob show, and we were two of the three.

Two horn Jacob ram in show ring.

The first class was Yearling Ram and Meridian Elvis was the only entry.

Five people showing Jacob ram lambs in the show ring.

Ram lambs were next. Kirby and I had two ram lambs each. The other exhibitor had only a few sheep in the show and had lambs in this class. Thanks to Farm Club members, Doris and Chris, for helping to show. Thank you to Rachel for most of the photos.

Two people in show ring with Jacob lambs and Judge looking at one of them.

My ram lamb, Hunter, shown by Doris, and Kirby’s ram lamb, Gaston, were awarded Champion and Reserve Champion Jacob ram, respectively.

Four people showing spotted Jacob sheep in the show ring.

Kirby and I each had two ewe lambs. We also showed yearling ewes and aged ewes (2-year olds).

KJ Royalty is Kirby’s flock name. This is KJ Royalty Isabella.

Sign about Meridian Jacobs with champion ribbons displayed.

My sheep were awarded Champion and Reserve Champion Jacob Ewe and Champion Ram.

Girl in blue t-shirt on fence rail next to sign with champion ribbon.

Kirby had Reserve Champion Ram.

Kirby and Rachel wearing felt sheep ears on head bands

After the sheep show everyone was free to experience the rest of the Gathering. Kirby and Rachel became good friends and I’m grateful to Rachel for giving Kirby such a good time.

Girl doing handstand in swimming pool with only legs showing above the water.

Usually I pitch a tent in the lawn near the sheep barn at Black Sheep Gathering, but with Kirby and Dan along we decided to go for the neighboring hotel. There was an indoor pool and Friday night ended with pool play for Kirby.

More photos tomorrow.

Grazing and Irrigation 4 – April 28

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I was gone for four days and my brother had finished setting up fences in the north pasture. This is how the pasture looked where I was to remove this fence and let them into the last part,

As described in the previous posts most of this tall grass is annual rye, not a species in the seed mix we planted.

The challenge was to graze it enough to not only feed the sheep, but to remove the cover from the clover growing beneath.

This is the opposite view from the first photo, but the same location where that net fence had been.

Dan took the tractor into the south field and mowed on top of the checks (the raised borders that control the irrigation water)–not so low as to impact the clover, but to top that grass and make the checks more visible and make it easier to set up the fences.

Close-up view showing the clover.

After mowing that strip.

Grazing and Irrigation – 3 – April 23

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The previous post showed how this looked when the sheep went in. The growth of the annual rye was so fast at this time of year that we needed to move them through fairly quickly.

Here is another view of that same area (left) before removing the fence to graze the next section.

The sheep trail out from the barn to access that field.

It was a challenge to set up fence and graze this with the grass so tall. Thanks to my brother for coming to help set this up.

This was the last day before I had to be gone for four days. Dave came every day while I was gone to get the sheep out on new pasture.

Trista and triplets.

Grazing and Irrigation – 2 – April 21-22

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I showed the first photos of grazing the new pasture here. This is the second and third day, now a month ago.

There is clover in this field but you can’t see it because the annual rye is so dense and tall.

There was certainly plenty of forage to eat, but a lot was also trampled.

The goal was to get the sheep to eat it as evenly as possible by fencing small areas.

After being on the first small section we moved the fence so they would go to fresh grass.

They still have to trail back to the barn for water.

Grazing and Irrigation – 1 – April 20

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Way back in January I wrote the 14th Pasture and Irrigation Renovation post. I like my posts to be in order, but now I have skipped some important updates. Too many photos. Too confusing. Too much other stuff going on–lambing, teaching, deadlines, etc. The whole point of this renovation was to feed sheep and make it easier and more efficient to do so. If you look back at that linked post you’ll see plants growing, but they are small and there is a lot of bare ground. Fast forward past winter rain, warming temps, and 3 months. I’ll change the name of this series to Grazing and Irrigation.

The original plan when we applied for funding was that we might not be grazing for a year. It was evident by April that the pasture needed to be grazed NOW. I was committed to a teaching gig at the end of April and was going to put off grazing until I got back. Dan was not able to work on this only two weeks after a knee replacement. My brother, Dave, knowing how important it was to get started with this, offered to help set up the grazing before I left and handle it while I was gone.

A major problem was that all the permanent interior fencing had been removed at the beginning of this project. We would have to rely on electric net fencing. We gathered all the lengths of net fence that were stored in the barn.

We spread these out to figure out what we had and in what condition it was.

Dave made a plan and laid out fence, beginning in the northwest pasture, the one we call the Horse Pasture. Grazing started April 20.

This gives an idea of how thick the grass was. The seed mix we used had three forbs (clover, birdsfoot trefoil, and chicory) and three perennial grasses. There is a lot of clover and a moderate amount of trefoil. I don’t identify any chicory and all the visible grass is annual rye.The seed already in the soil completely overwhelmed any perennial grasses that might have started to grow and was covering the clover as well. This is one reason we needed to get going on the grazing.

Dave made strips going north-south and we blocked the sheep into a portion of the first strip. The idea is to get them to eat one area down more thoroughly before moving them to the next.

With no fences left in the pasture Dave had to create a lane to direct the sheep from the barn to where we wanted them.

You can see in this photo how the tall grass is trampled more than eaten.

This ewe may have not got the message about eating the grass instead of wearing it.

There is no drinking water in the pasture so at some point the sheep go back to the barn for water. This is something we have to work on.

Last Lambs

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Most of the lambs came as planned during the month of March. There were some late lambs, also expected, but not originally planned. That is because I unexpectedly acquired a ram in late November.

Ginger Lynn’s Eli was sired by a Meridian ram that I sold a few years ago.The breeder of Eli sold him to someone who unexpectedly needed to re-home him due to a move, so we drove to the Redding area to pick him up. When I got him here I decided to put a few ewes with him. We hadn’t bred the whole flock this year because of the pasture renovation project that has been described in other posts. A 5-month gestation means lambs in late April or early May.

Here is Eli after shearing in January. He is not here anymore because I returned him to the breeder who wished she had not sold him to the other person. I hoped for some nice lambs.

This is lamb # 2555 born April 27, the only ewe lamb from this group. Ginger Lynn’s Eli x Meridian Belle. Belle is my granddaughter’s sheep and this lamb is sure pretty, so she will stay and I’ll let Kirby think of a name.

Jasmine was next to lamb with a ram lamb but I can’t find a photo right now.

Bide a wee Hallie is ten years old and these will be her last lambs. These are two ram lambs, one with 4 horns and one with two.

Here are the last entries for the Lambing Board. Hallie’s lambs were 12 and 10 pounds!!

Belle and her lamb.

Seeing Triple

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I’ve been trying to get the lamb pages on the website updated, so most of the photos I’ve been taking are of individual lambs…and trying to make sure I can read ear tag numbers. If I go out earlier in the morning I sometimes find lambs bedded down next to their moms. There were five sets of triplets this year.

This is Janna with her three lambs–two rams and a ewe.

Bide a wee Trista also has two rams and a ewe. You can’t see the ewe very well–she is mostly black and behind the two spotted lambs.

Sweetgrass Tranquility with triplet ewe lambs.

Addy with her lambs, the first of the season. Addy is a BFL/Jacob cross.

Patchwork Amara was the other ewe to have triplets, but Sparky required intervention and became a bottle lamb. Her story is here and she features in several of the posts since then. Her brothers are 2527 and 2528 on the ram lamb page.

Sparky and me!

Lambing, the End (Almost)

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I have lamb photos to share but not necessarily in order because I didn’t keep up as lambing progressed.

The last lambs of Lambing Season, Part 1, were born two days ago, March 31. Part 1? That’s another story, but there may be four ewes due to lamb at the end of April. This is Tamara with two ewe lambs, #2553 and 2554.

Bide a wee Trista lambed March 28 with triplets.

This photos was taken three days BEFORE lambing. Trista certainly carried that twenty pounds of lambs low. She is getting grain now to help her put some weight back on and supply enough milk.

This is lamb #2545 born to SilverRain March 21. Lambing had slowed down at that point.

The lambing board shows that there was a lot of action for about a week and then days between the later lambs. My granddaughter made the notes on the board before she left on March 25.

Sweetgrass Tranquility had triplet ewes March 19.

My grandkids were here for a week and shared bottle feeding Sparky. This is 8-year-old Kasen.

I was able to finish skirting and sorting the Jacob wool be the time lambing was over. This wool is now at the mill and hopefully I’ll have some of it back by the fall.

Lambing Season is between Winter and Spring

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I’ve talked about this before–the seasons. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter, and Lambing–right there between Winter and Spring. It’s a busy time. I wrote one blog post at the start and the one about Sparky two weeks into the season. It was an intense two weeks and now things have slowed down considerably. I’m waiting for three ewes to lamb by the end of the month.

March 9 three ewes had twins and one had triplets. This is Janna with triplets and Sandie and Beauty with twins.

Jacob sheep with triplets

The next day Juniper lambed with twins.

It was beginning to feel like the next new season–spring!

Peach
Pink flowers of western redbud.
Westerben Redbud
Daffodial

Janna and lambs moved into a stall a couple after lambing. This gives the ewes and lambs more space to move around, but it’s easy to keep an eye on them for a few days before they go out with the other sheep. That’s Farm Club member, Lisa, holding the lamb.

More signs of spring.

Flannel Bush is one of my favorites.

Cindy lambed two days after Juniper.

A cloudy sunset.

The rooster and one hen roost every night on this panel between the hay and the lambs.

Jazzie lambed that night with twins, lambs #22 and 23.

Amara seemed the most likely to lamb next and she went into the lambing area. That leads up to the post about Sparky.

Lambing 2025

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I’m 9 days into lambing and haven’t had a chance to share any of it. Here is Day 1 on March 6.

There was a field trip from a Waldorf school in the morning. I had told them that I couldn’t promise lambs, but maybe there would be some. There were not. However, they had plenty of time to pet sheep. Notice Jade enjoying the attention.

I had a tax appointment after the kids left and when I got back I found Addy with triplets.

After I brought them into the barn the first order of business was to erase last year’s Lambing Board. This shows 88 lambs from January 25 through March 7 plus other notes squeezed in. So we ended lambing last year at the same time we’re starting this year. That was partly because we wanted to take a trip to Texas to see the grandkids and the eclipse in April. I didn’t want to have lambs coming if we were not here. This year I’m back to a more normal schedule.

Cashew lambed the following day. There were no lambs the day after that. A slow start.