Random Photos–How I Spend My Time

Posted on September 14, 2023 by Robin

I don’t have photos of everything I do during the day. Standing at the computer for hours doesn’t make for very exciting photos.

Six 2-horn spotted Jacob lambs tied to the fence with red halters.

Now that the only ewe lambs left are those that I’m keeping, I wanted to halter break them. I don’t expect them to lead like a horse, but I like to be able to tie them to a fence without them panicking. Also, a couple of these will be going to the Lambtown sheep show at the beginning of October. It will make it easier for my Farm Club crew if the lambs are at least somewhat halter broke.

Goat and sheep eating a huge zucchini from a feeder.

There is a bit too much giant zucchini. Too bad zucchini isn’t a dye plant. But at least I can feed the extra to someone.

Gold and maroon yarn being wound onto a loom in the clasped warp method.

I have a couple of articles scheduled for Handwoven Magazine for next spring. The deadlines are approaching and I need to finish some more weaving so that I have photos for one article and the project to send for another. This is Clasped Warp, a technique usually done on a rigid heddle loom. I am adapting it to use on a multi-shaft loom.

Seven colorful balls of yarn arranged in a circle.

I have some custom projects in progress on the AVL loom in the shop. I have woven two Year to Remember blankets on this warp. Now I need to finish the warp with other blankets. The yarn above is all naturally dyed and I want to use that for a blanket that I can post on the new Fibershed Market site (not available yet). The yarn is dyed with mushroom (dark gray), hollyhock (blue-green), indigo (blue), weld, (yellow), cosmos (orange), and madder (rose).

Weaving underway on the loom. Yarns are blue, yellow, and orange.

Here is how it looks on the loom.

Silk scarves spread out on a work table with cannabis leaves arranged on them.

A friend dropped off more plant material to use for ecoprinting scarves and I wanted to get to it right away while the leaves were fresh. I have learned something about working with cannabis leaves–they start to fold up quickly. It’s tedious to arrange them the way I want them to look. They have a property of differential friction–the little hairs on the leaves allow them to slide one way on the fabric, but not the other. There is a second scarf that goes on top of these and it’s important to have the leaves spread out as the second scarf is spread across the first. Each scarf is wet with different solutions and they begin to react quickly upon contact.

Square silk scarf with cosmos flowers and leaves arranged on top.

I am trying out some square scarves as well. This one is printed with cosmos flowers and leaves.

Silk scarves ready to be rolled for ecoprinting. They have cannabis, indigo, and maple leaves arranged on them.

These scarves use maple and madder leaves (left) and cannabis and indigo leaves (right). I rolled all of these up on PVC pipes and they steamed for 90 minutes. They are cooling in the pot and taturhe unveiling will happen tomorrow.

Decisions…This Time it’s a Banner

Posted on August 27, 2023 by Robin

How much time and energy do you spend making decision? Sometimes it seems overwhelming and it’s often about something trivial.

I’m helping with a new website. I’m not really helping, but being a guinea pig about how it all works for a non-tech person to enter things and helping to find glitches and things that are confusing. Is that a beta-tester? Or do you have to know more to have that title?

There is a place that asks for a banner across the part that will have Meridian Jacobs info. How to decide what photo? Sheep? Weaving? Yarn? The point of the website is to sell things. How do I choose one? The photo needs to fit the banner space. The software will supposedly take the appropriate size piece out of whatever photo you send, but I thought I should start with something the right size. I started with these below. Some were just experimental to see how they would fit the space.

A sheep photo? This is an older photo but I suppose that doesn’t matter as long as the quality of the photo is good enough.

I wanted to try something with more sheep and a background. This is not a good background.

This photo looks a bit washed out–maybe I can adjust that but at this point I was looking for any photo that fit the sheep into the landscape with a bit of horizon.

What about yarn or weaving? I’d sure like to sell blankets. Version 1.

Version 2.

Version 3.

I have a series of these photos that I have always liked.

I have used this photo (full size) a lot because it shows the difference between black and white sheep and lilac sheep. Townes, the lilac on the right, got the tips of the top horns caught in a fence two days ago and I found him dead.

Back to landscape photos. Here is one with a horizon and a lot of sheep and lush grass. The sheep are pregnant and recently shorn.

I walked across the road this morning and had just changed the fences so the sheep have this field near the road. That’s the view I was after. It is a narrow band but it shows sheep and the horizon. I like that this one shows our position in the Sacramento Valley. That notch you see in the hills is where the road goes to Lake Berryessa. Its a landmark for me.

This is a little different cropping of this morning’s photo.

A closer up view makes the sheep and the barn more prominent and removes the white fence on the right but cuts off the trees and my notch on the hills.

Back to yarn. This is what I did the last few days. Indigo on the left and Cosmos and Dahlia on the right.

But maybe I need black and white.

No decision made yet. Any suggestions are welcome…

Rams

Posted on August 22, 2023 by Robin

I needed to update ram photos on the website. This is the adult ram page and the ram lamb page. I need to make decisions about which rams to keep and which to sell and how many ram lambs to continue to evaluate.

Right now there are five mature Jacob rams here and several ram lambs.

Fair Adventure Horatio is the most recent ram. I brought him home from Colorado where I sold Turbo (blog post from Estes Park). He is not with the other rams because I didn’t want to disrupt the pecking order. He has had a ram lamb or two with him for company, but after breeding season he will go with the other rams.

Here is what I wanted to avoid with introducing Horatio to this mix. These four have been together for several months but they were fighting a couple of days ago. I don’t know if it was because I was in the ram pen and they decided to get feisty. Or was it that the ewes are starting to cycle and there seemed to be some interest across the fence? Silverado, the 4-horn ram on the right, hasn’t been feeling well–spending a lot of time in the ram shed lying down. I think he may have had bluetongue which causes sore feet. Now he is doing better and is out with the others–so maybe that was reason to reestablish pecking order…and he is not on top anymore.

The lilac 4-horn ram, Patchwork Townes, is the oldest at 3 years. Hillside Barrett is the 2-horn ram on the left. He and Silverado (middle) are the same age, born in 2021.

Two Jacob rams bashing heads while two others look on.

After Townes and Barrett both bashed Silverado, then they went at each other. The ram on the right is Thorn–that is my granddaughter’s ram that we showed at State Fair. He is a yearling.

Four Jacob rams facing off before bashing heads.

All four of them are facing off here.

A Jacob ram bashing another ram and pushing him off balance.

Thorn didn’t seem to be as aggressive as Barrett and Townes, but this photo shows he took his turn.

Two Jacob rams fighting while another walks closer.

Townes and Silverado.

Townes seemed to be the aggressor again…

…but Barrett was still involved.

You might ask why I let this happen. This was relatively mild as ram fighting goes. After breeding season I go through a protocol to keep the damage to a minimum. I put the rams in a very small pen. They fight but they can’t back up and put the power into the hits. After a few days they have figured out who is on top and if the others remain subservient they all get along. ..usually.

The reason I was in the ram pen was to get photos. Here are the photos I got.

Hillside Gabby’s Barrett. Don’t you love those horns? He is only two this year.

Patchwork Townes, 3 years old.

I need a better photo of Silverado.

Thorn is Silverado’s son from 2022.

Blizzard is one of Silverado’s sons from this year.

Cyclone is Blizzard’s twin. I’m not sure if he lower horns will point away from his neck–I hope so because I’d like to keep him as a replacement for Silverado.

Decisions to make…

Black Sheep Gathering – Day 3

Posted on July 1, 2023 by Robin

View Day 1 and Day 2 of this adventure. The only thing I had to think about on Saturday was showing sheep in the afternoon and Spinners’ Lead in the evening. I’ll share scenes from the farm booths and around the vendor hall.

Karen of Liongate Farm always has an array of unique needlefelted pieces at her booth.

Felted white stag with fairy rider with champion ribbon in front and the Black Sheep Cup award

She was awarded the Black Sheep Cup for this piece. The detail is amazing.

Knitted and felted Wolf head with award.

Here is another Black Sheep prize awarded to a different fiber artist.

Black Lamb Cup award showing light gray knitted sweater with motif around neckline.

I was glad to see the Black Lamb Cup awarded to a youth entry. We need to encourage the next generations to be excited about sheep and fiber.

White tennis shoes with black and white line drawings of sheep and blue laces.

The perfect shoes to wear to a sheep gathering.

This is an impressive display that was just outside the vendor hall. I hope that everyone took a look.

There are dozens of different sea creatures in a variety of fiber arts represented here.

A closer view.

Two Jacob ewes in a pen with straw on the fleece. One is "lilac", the other black and white.

Back at the barn, a little clean up was necessary. Jazzie had been wearing a blanket but I took it off because I’d rather see the sheep than a blanket. Jazzie is a black and white sheep and Lenore, behind her, is a lilac.

We were the only Jacob breeders who entered the show this year so we had to show in an All Other Breeds division. This is for sheep registered in their own breed associations, but without enough sheep or breeders to show in separate divisions.

Ram lamb, Meridian Bridger, won Champion ram of this division.

We also had best Young Flock (one ram lamb, two ewe lambs). This isn’t the typical photo you’d take of your winning sheep group, but I mainly wanted to have one of Farm Club members who were there and helped out. This is Brenda, Lisa, Beth, and me. Doris was taking the photo. Other Farm Club members were there too. Ryan had his own Heritage Fiber booth in the vendor hall, Stephany was helping with the Mendocino Wool Mill booth, and Lyn was visiting. Did I miss someone? I kept running into people I knew all day.

The collection of ribbons and a trophy.

I think Lisa took this photo. I was told that this should be my new profile photo on all my social media pages. What do you think?

The Angora goats showed on Saturday also.

The day ended with Spinners Lead. I had told Ryan that he should definitely wear his handspun handknit sweater using fleece that he got at his first shearing day from Jacob ewe, Columbine.

He led Jazzie, whose fleece matched the spots really well.

There were 15 entries (no photos unfortunately), and the two of us won the top placings in the show. Ryan was first for non-sheep-owner and I won for the sheep owners. Great fun! I’m so glad that we did this.

Estes Park Wool Market – the third installment

Posted on June 18, 2023 by Robin

I just finished the blog post about the second day of travel and first day of the Estes Park events.

Saturday was very full, with a whole day of scheduled events for the AGM as well as the full Wool Market events going on. We started the day with breakfast followed by a talk about copper in the diet of sheep and then a discussion of spinning Jacob wool. There was a session on slaughter and butchering with a live demonstration of the butchering part followed by other informational sessions.

Two horn Jacob ram being handled in the show ring.

The JSBA Jacob Sheep show was held after lunch. Rams were first. Turbo won the yearling ram class

I had two entries in the ram lamb class. I was pleased that the winner of the class was my ram (#2317) purchased by a Jacob breeder (standing) from Pennsylvania.

We went into the ring for the Champion ram class and Turbo was the winner.

The ewe classes followed. Royal helped show in all the other classes. Dan was glad of the help, and he was in the barn keeping people away from the sheep we had tied up in the alley so they’d be ready for the show ring. This is Quora in the aged ewe (anything over yearling) class.

Quince was in the next class. You don’t normally have sheep with lambs at shows, but in this case I brought two nursing ewes with their lambs. The reason for that was the next class:

We were the only entry in this class that was for Three Generations. Dan is holding Quora. Quora’s daughter, Quince, is in the midde, and the lamb is Quince’s.

Quince and her lamb are also in this class, Family Tree. Turbo joined the group as he is the sire of the lamb.

A just-for-fun Project Runway followed the show. There were four entries in the adult category for less serious themes. I was the only person in the Wool category.

They all had humorous stories to go along with the entries. I don’t remember all, but this is obviously a sheep dressed in royal garb and I think Anne is her subject.

I will say that when I compare these ladies to me…

…it reminds me of my job in the early 1980s. Why? I worked at a place called Continental Lady, leading aerobics classes. When we had to wear Halloween costumes I stitched unwashed wool all over a t-shirt, and wore black leggings and a wool hat with cardboard ears. The other people (all young women) all dressed as princesses or fairies or some other cute, pretty character….and then there was me. Just like in these photos. At least I’m not wearing unwashed wool. I have on a base layer of wool that is not seen, a wool sweater knit by friend Kathleen Hendrix, a handspun handwoven v-shawl, and a knit cap that was probably my last knitting project. Turbo is wearing a handspun, handwoven scarf.

It’s taken me two days just to finish writing this post. Let’s see if I can finish this story before the next one starts.

On the Road to Estes Park Wool Market and AGM

Posted on June 15, 2023 by Robin

A week ago today we started the drive to Colorado for the Estes Park Wool Market and the JSBA AGM (Jacob Sheep Breeders Association Annual General Meeting–that’s why it’s easier to use acronyms). I just looked up acronym and JSBA is one when we say it “Jazba”, but AGM is an initialism. Just thought you might want to know that.

We got on the road at 8:30 with a trailer full of sheep.

Turbo, the yearling ram, was up front. A yearling ewe, Quince, with a single lamb and a two-year-old ewe, Quora, and her twins were on the left. The right compartment held 3 ewe lambs and 3 ram lambs. They were bigger than the lambs on the left who were still nursing.

We always bring our map books along, but there wasn’t going to be any National Park time on this trip.

Dan did all the driving. He likes to drive. I entertained myself in a variety of ways, often with my phone. We’re still seeing snow in the Sierras.

I haven’t been through the Sierras on I-80 in years. I think the flumes that follow the canyon are so interesting. And look at the water pouring out of this one.

Blue sky with clouds over the Nevada dessert, green from rain.

Nevada landscape. We were amazed at how green it was.

There are lots of “drive-by” scenery photos. As great as the iPhone is for photos, when zoomed in it can leave something to be desired. I left my regular camera home because I couldn’t find the battery charger and both batteries were almost dead.

More green landscape in Nevada. Amazing!

I think this is still Nevada, but I didn’t keep notes. Of course I assumed that I would remember. The photo info shows it was taken about 5:20. I guess I could do the math to figure out where we were.

Overcast sky over the Great Salt Lake, photo taken from the car on the freeway.

I know this is Utah because that is the Great Salt Lake. At this point it was 7:20 p.m.

Rainbow over hills with trees in foreground.

This was taken from a gas station in Lake Point, Utah, just past the Salt Lake.

It was at this gas station that I watered and fed the sheep. We stayed in one spot for about a half hour to give the sheep a chance to eat. Then back on the road.

I was keeping track of miles, mileage, etc. We were dismayed to calculate after this gas stop that we were only getting 10.2 mpg. We’d had 12.6 from home to Loveland and 11.6 from Loveland to Elko. Pulling a loaded trailer, at elevation, and up hills is bad enough, but fighting a headwind made the mileage worse.

We drove into Wyoming. I say “we”. Dan drove into Wyoming and eventually had to stop. We stopped at a rest stop abour 2 a.m. and I gave the sheep a little more hay. I can’t say that we stretched out in the cab of the truck because there really wasn’t room to stretch out, but we covered up with our wool blankets and slept as best we could. I got out my ipad and finished editing the minutes of Tuesday night’s Artery meeting so I could send it when I had wifi. Then I slept.

Stay tuned for the next day!

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.

Random Farm Photos Here and There

Posted on May 18, 2023 by Robin

The New Girls

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Robin

These are the ewe lambs that are still here after selling everyone (almost) that I intend to. (And there were 81 lambs this year.) I’m very pleased with this group and proud that my breeding program has led to this selection. 18001-Janie Meridian Janie (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jane) 18021-Maybelle-head Meridian Maybelle (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Mae) This ewe was going to be on my sale list but she had an unexpected tryst with Cayenne and may be pregnant. 18041-Ruthie Meridian Ruthie (Meridian Cayenne x Meridian Ruth), who just broke her horn and is somewhat bloody on one side. This is another ewe who may be pregnant after the aforementioned incident. 18054-Zora-head Meridian Zora (Meridian Cayenne x Meridian Betty)Zora is a pretty little lilac ewe who was chosen from Day 1 for her cute markings, although “cuteness” isn’t listed under the JSBA Breed Standard selection criteria. 18056-Quartz Meridian Quartz (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Jade). Quartz was chosen because, besides being a nice looking ewe, her mom is everyone’s favorite pet sheep and… 18056-Quartz-hd …I want to see how her 6 horns grow out. 18080-2 Meridian ??? I haven’t named this lamb yet but she certainly deserved a good one. (Meridian Serrano x Unzicker Shenandoah) 18454-Marion-head bide a wee Marion (Ruby Peak Cinnamon x Meridian Maven), who didn’t go home to Oregon after the AGM we hosted in August. 18078 Janna Meridian Janna (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Janis). Janna is a big tall ewe lamb and is out with the breeding group, possibly to be bred by Meridian Axle. 18002 Soprano Meridian Soprano (bide a wee Buster x Meridian Sonata) has definitely been bred by Axle.

It looks as though I am missing photos of one ewe and that is Meridian Haldana, who is one of the lambs that went to the state fair. Everyone else is accounted for here.

Shortest Breeding Season

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Robin

The last post was about breeding season that started for us on October 3. A week ago, only 24 days later, I called it quits (almost). I had five breeding groups and one non-breeding group. I get tired of feeding hay to all these different groups especially when there is still green feed in the pasture. But mostly I get tired of the rams tearing up the fences. Also, Hug a Sheep Day was the next day and two groups would cause trouble with that. The young ram, Clark was in the most accessible (to visitors) pen and I don’t trust him if someone stands right at the fence. In addition I thought that we might need to park behind the barn and that’s where Buster’s group was. Time to be done with all these groups.

I decided that Axle would get to remain with the ewes in case someone had not been bred and Peyton could keep his ewes for another few days. But that meant that Buster, Cayenne, Clark, and Spark (who had not been given ewes) would be back together. I brought the groups in one at a time and separated the rams. That’s Buster in the pen. His nose is already bloody because he was ramming the panel to try to get to Axle, the young 2-horn ram in the middle of the photo.Most of the ewe flock was back together now and that was Clark’s lucky day! That’s him in the background with his head turned away.Meanwhile the other four rams went into their “buddy-up” pen. The point of this is that they are confined enough that they can’t do much damage. That doesn’t mean that they don’t hit each other but at least they can’t back up 10 feet and come charging. 17025 Cayenne-6 After a few days of learning to be buddies again they went back to the ram pen with minimal fuss. They all had figured out the pecking order. Cayenne (above) is #2. 17025 Cayenne-4 Cayenne. I love a nice two horn head. 18062 Spark This is Spark, Cayenne’s full brother, born this year. There is the difference a year makes. Cayenne was born last year. Spark-Cayenne Brothers. Buster-3 Bide a wee Buster is #1 in the ram pen. Buster-Clark Buster is 3 years old and Clark is his son from this year. Buster-Clark-3 Bookends? 18030-Axle Here’s the lucky ram who gets to stay out with the ewes for another few weeks. This is Axle, also a 2018 ram. He is wearing a blue marker… 18002 Soprano …and I finally saw some real color. This is ewe lamb, Soprano. Pope Valley ewes Today I moved most of Peyton’s ewes back to the flock. Three of them were the Pope Valley sheep that came this summer, and they immediately found their two friends. That’s the five or them in the front. Large Triangle, 4-Horn, Small Triangle, White Ear, and Crooked Blaze in the back. (They do have names but I remember them better by what I called them at first.)