Irrigation, Part 2

Posted on May 22, 2026 by Robin

I left the last post knowing that the irrigation would not be finished by the time the water was shut off Tuesday afternoon. I was able to have the water start again at 6 a.m. I waited for the ditch and pipeline to fill again and went out about 7:30 a.m.

I could tell right away that there was more water flowing in–it had already progressed farther down the checks where the valves were still open than the previous day. The following are the notes I took on my phone that morning. The numbers refer to how far down the field the water is for each check.

7:45 a.m.
13 is 1/2, 14 and 15 are 2/3, 16 is 1/4, 17 and 18 are 2/3, 19 is 1/2
9:20 a.m. 13 and 14 almost finished. 15 over 3/4. 16 is 2/3. 17 and 18 are over 3/4. 19 is 3/4. 20 is 2/3
9:40 a.m. 13 finished. Closed. Opened 21 and 6-7-8
I had to go to Davis and didn’t get back until 12:30
12:30 p.m. 15-16-17-18-19-20 finished. 21 is close to end.
Now only 21 and 6-7-8 were on. Closed 8. 7 is 1/2. 6 is 3/4. Both of these were flowing backwards into the lane a lot.

The last note is about 21, 6, 7, and 8. Valve 21 was the last one I opened. I had closed 6, 7, and 8 because the water wasn’t flowing enough there and I wanted to make sure all the rest got enough water. It was only after the water was flowing so well and everything else was finished I opened those again.

Close up of pasture clover and grasses with irrigation water on the field.

I took this photo in a place where I could actually see the water. Many times I can’t see it because the forage is so thick or tall. In that case I can tell if it’s wet because I can hear the water splashing where I’m walking. I recorded a video to share that, but I can’t upload it here.

This is what the soil moisture sensor looks like. I get the graph on my computer or my phone.

Irrigation valve with water flowing down the lane behind it.

This is what I meant by #7 and #8 flowing backwards. It took only a couple of minutes for the lane to be flooded. Before we irrigate next time we’ll have to pile dirt around those valves.

The red line on the graph below shows that the amount of water was more than twice what I had the previous day. It also shows that the other soil moisture sensor finally measured water. I see an anomaly–that faint blue line that rises as the water is shut off the first time. I think the timing is coincidence, but it shows underground flow that activates that 12″ deep sensor on the east. Flowing through gopher holes?

There is a lot to think about before the next irrigation.

I turned the sheep out this morning. The paddock on the left was last grazed May 1. The sheep moved to the north paddocks after that and then moved from west to east. The one on the right hadn’t been grazed since March 29. The whole flock is out there, but you can’t see them because they are in a jungle of chicory.

Hedgerow 101

Posted on April 16, 2026 by Robin

It was five days ago that I named this this blog post and was writing it in my head while I was in the pasture trying to set up fences for the next grazing paddock before it started raining any harder.

We planted a hedgerow at the edge of the pasture back in November and I described it in this post. Keep in mind that these were all very small plants. Many are still small and some didn’t make it, and some will be small at maturity anyway, so you’re not going to see photos of what you probably picture when you think about a hedge.

Here is what it looked like when we were finished.

Edge of the pasture with the electric fence barely visible over the tall grass.

This photo is the same view taken last weekend. You can barely find the flags that mark the plants.

Lesson 1. I should have spread the cardboard and straw mulch out farther.
Lesson 2. The electric net fence should be closer to the plants so more of the grass would have been grazed when this was last grazed (which, by the way, was February 12). That may not have made a huge difference since March was so warm and the grasses really took off.

Here is another view from a little further north. The white flowers are yarrow, one of the species we planted. Do you see how overgrown the electric fence is?

Here is a close-up view after I had pulled away some of the grass and clover. You can’t even see the lowest part of the fence. There is a black strand about 4″ below the white one.

I had to pull the fence away from the tangled plants foot-by-foot for the whole length. Then I moved the fence much closer to the desired hedgerow plants so that the sheep could clean up most of the vegetation. This photo is an “in-progress” view.

This is how it looked when I was finished. The storm hit not long after and we had about 3/4″ of rain in the next hour.

The sheep did a pretty good job of cleaning up the fence line. I have to do something about the grass on the other side of the plants. I think that will involve the weed-eater and more cardboard and straw for mulch.

Shearing 2026 – More Photos

Posted on January 29, 2026 by Robin

The first blog post about Shearing Day is here. I have a lot more photos.

John is our fabulous shearer. Farm Club members help with all the tasks.

John brings Oakley who can always find a warm spot. Notice in the first photo Oakley is in a different pile of belly wool

Spinners from local guilds came to watch shearing and select fleeces.

Brenda and Gynna helping with sheep wrangling.

Freshly shorn ewes before going to pasture.

Hank, Raquel, and Roy cleaning the barn after all the sheep were moved.

Deborah and Lisa made sure identifying cards matched up with the fleeces.

Mary always scoops up the fleeces to put in bags.

With thick fog the day before and after, the sun on shearing day was welcome.

LucilleB, a lilac ewe, and one of the Corriedale ewes.

The Farm Club friends who were still here at the end of the day. Some had to leave earlier. I am so grateful to them for all the help and good vibes.

More Grazing in the Fog

Posted on December 16, 2025 by Robin

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.

Clover in the fog.

Sparky.

She is always anxious for a selfie.

Grazing and Irrigation 8 – September

Posted on September 6, 2025 by Robin

When I wrote a newsletter yesterday I referred to the series of blog posts about the pasture that I wrote over the last year. You can find any of these by searching Pasture and Irrigation Renovation (14 posts) and Grazing and Irrigation (7 posts).

Tonight’s post will follow up on this Grazing and Irrigation post (#7) written in June about May grazing. The pasture looks much different now than it did then.

Four horned Jacob ewe with grass all over her horns in a clover pasture.

The ryegrass is gone and you see mostly clover.

Next most prominent is birdsfoot trefoil, and more recently the chicory has taken a foothold. Those are the three broadleaf plants that were in our seed mixture. All of the paddocks in the south pasture look like this now. Back in the spring we started topping the ryegrass with the mower before grazing and mowed again after grazing. This prevented the ryegrass from being flattened over the clover and becoming a mulch layer.

Pasture being irrigated. This area has a lot of dry grass and mounds of grass piled up.

The smaller field on the north is different. We didn’t graze early enough and this is where the annual ryegrass had such a head start on the clover and overwhelmed it in places. I took this photo while irrigating two weeks ago. While the pasture was flooded, some of the ryegrass “mulch” floated and I was able to rake a lot of it into piles thinking that I’d be able to move it out with the tractor.

Wheelbarrow piles high with old wet straw.

A few days later I realized that I didn’t want to wait until the field dried out enough to use the tractor. I was ready to graze again but the lane was still too muddy. I realized that I could use all that straw to cover up the mud. So I used the wheelbarrow.

Lane bordered by white net fence and green pasture. Lane is filled with old straw.

I used at least a dozen big loads of ryegrass straw to fill in the lane.

Two horn Jacob ewe lamb with mouthful of green leaves in a pasture.

This is Sparky in that north field. Hopefully over the course of winter these bare spots will fill in now the they aren’t covered with mulch.

Grazing and Irrigation 4 – April 28

Posted on May 23, 2025 by Robin

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.

Pasture and Irrigation Renovation – Part 14

Posted on January 31, 2025 by Robin

The last time I wrote about this project was over six weeks ago in December.

About two weeks ago one of the NRCS representatives came to check on the progress of the pasture seeding. Not a great photo, but he is putting down a grid to aid in evaluating plant growth.

This is what it looks like and I should have asked more about it. I didn’t see him mark where he put it or count plants. We were talking about generalities in the pasture, but now I’m going to ask. Did you know that my degree from UC Davis is in Range and Wildlands Science? So I recognize this for what it is–a tool for analysis of plant germination and growth–but we didn’t talk about it.

Do you see how hard it is to evaluate growth when you look across the field and not straight down? Compare the first photo to the next two. In the second photo close up photo it shows grasses and forbs. There were three of each in the seed mix. We identified clover and chicory, but I don’t see trefoil yet. I can’t identify the grasses.

This is the field west of the barn. The grass growth is thicker here, at least in that small area.

This is a photo taken from the same spot as the last one, but looking north. This is the check where there was traffic from the people working on the irrigation system. We’re thinking that it probably needs discing again.

Last week we met with a representative from the company that makes the soil moisture sensors that were installed. He showed us how to see the info generated by the two sensors and we talked about how we’ll use that. They are sensors are at the south end of the field, one near the west edge and one in the center, still in line-of-sight with the sensor in the northwest corner.

The flag in the foreground marks where the sensor is at this station.

This is what it looks like inside the box.

We haven’t had rain for a month and there have been north winds that make things dry out even more. We were getting worried about this new pasture. Those little seedlings need moisture in their root zone to stay alive. This is a screenshot of what the sensor shows for one station. The gray and white columns each indicate a day. The horizontal green line is 4″ depth, purple is 8″, and blue is 12″. You can tell that today’s 1/4″ rain just started to soak in.

Here is what the other sensor shows. The scale on the left axis is different. This 4″ level had more moisture to begin with than the other two. We will be learning how to use this info. There is a lot more available. I just copied this portion for now. This will sure be interesting to follow.

Pasture and Irrigation Renovation – Part 2

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Robin

A few weeks ago I wrote Part 1 of Pasture and Irrigation Renovation. I ended that post with the sheep coming in from the pasture for the last time and a lot of heavy equipment in their place. A lot went on for a couple of weeks and then there was a lull. I have to go back and find the photos I took at each step.

There was still more work for us (Dan) to do. Here he is removing the wood and stakes we had used to make the ditch more functional near the barn and taking out the culvert.

Before work began we were asked to hold a meeting with the contractors where we could all listen to a representative of the tribal people who used to live in the area. He showed photos of the cultural items that one might find when soil is disturbed and talked about procedures if something was found.

The first job was to remove the old cement foundation that ran north to south over 3/4 of our property. We suspect it was the floor of an old barn–I don’t know what else it would have been. That would have been a big barn and maybe someday I’ll be able to talk to a local history buff who knows what this was. It doesn’t really matter–it’s just that we have always had to work around it. Part of it was broken apart to put the original irrigation ditch through and, even though grass will grow on top in the winter, it dries out in summer and the desirable pasture plants don’t grow there. NRCS calls this job “obstruction removal”.

Brett is the contractor with the heavy equipment. He first scraped the layer of dirt and grass off the top of the cement. Most of the concrete was only 2″ to 3″ inches thick and a lot of it broke into smaller crumbly pieces . The borders were a lot larger however.

Brett used the excavator to scoop up chunks of broken concrete.

We found that a clay pipe ran the length of the concrete.

Brett used the teeth on the track loader to rake through the dirt and find the concrete chunks.

The chunks were loaded into a truck for removal to a place where they’d get broken up even more for use in road bed material.

Eventually the pile of dirt that was scraped off the top was incorporated back into the area where it had been.

Manure spreader driving into green field.

While Brett was working on this part, Dan spread the rest of the composted manure pile.

Manure spreader working in green field under cloudy blue sky.

This part of the job took about three days using all this equipment.

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.

Farm Days

Posted on April 1, 2018 by Robin

Farm Club members have spent time here during lambing and helped with cleaning, lamb ID, etc. And of course there is always lamb cuddling. Farm Club is a great way to learn about raising sheep before you invest in sheep or if you won’t ever have the lifestyle that lets you own a sheep.

Zorra had plenty of cuddling while she was still in the lambing area with her mom. Lisa is a lamb cuddling Pro. This is pet sheep Jade’s lamb (and me).

This is her again being held by Peggy. We’d really like her to be friendly too.

This is Zorra again with Sumi.

Betsy and lamb-3 As the lambs get a little older we have other Farm Days. This was Betsy’s first day on the farm and she jumpred right in holding lambs as we ear tagged and castrated. 18042 I don’t castrate many because it’s hard to know how they will grow out and which might be a great flock sire for someone. Some are easy though–too much or too little color to fit within the 15-85% breed standard. This one’s horns are already touching at the base under that hair. As the horns grow they will fuse and not grow well separately. Marina and lamb-3 Marina and Maggie (no photo) helped catch lambs too and Mary handled the clipboard. The lambs were all tagged with their white ID tags right after they were born but we put added a colored tag on Farm Day. I like to use a second tag for back-up ID if the first one falls out and also to color code the sire. It’s interesting to keep track of that and it also helps to find a lamb when you’re looking for one among 75. You can narrow it down some if you have a color to look for. This year Cayenne’s lambs got orange tags. Pink tags go in all the lambs that have been castrated.

Green means these are Buster’s lambs. Blue was for Catalyst.

18013 Peyton’s lambs are obvious so don’t need an extra tag.

Orchardgrass-3-2 After we tagged all the lambs Marina and Betsy stayed to help me set up the pasture for the sheep. I had put the sheep out for a few days but hadn’t cleaned and moved the water trough.

Orchardgrass-2-2 We walked around the pasture and took stock of things. I always point out the issue that I have with the dallisgrass that is out of control. That’s what all that dry grass is. I’d much rather see green grass growing. The whole pasture was looking somewhat dismal from a growth standpoint. At this point we had just had March rain after two very dry and cold months. I wasn’t seeing much growth–at least not enough to feed 55 ewes and 75 lambs. unknown grass-2 We spotted this grass that I don’t recognize. unknown grass-11 I took photos to send to a friend of Marina’s who she think might recognize it.

Thanks Farm Club!

Meridian Jacobs' Blog

Life on the farm and at the loom.

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