It’s Lambing Season

Posted on February 27, 2026 by Robin

Lambing began Sunday night. The first ewe to lamb had twins, up and nursing when I got to the barn. That is how it is supposed to be. The second was a different story, but maybe that will be a post later. After that it has seemed slow, until yesterday.

This is the first ewe who lambed yesterday, Bideawee Billie Jo.

Jacob ewe in straw with two newborn lambs.

Twins.

Nothing in the middle of the day but in late afternoon, Beauty started. She ended up with twins, but it took awhile for the second and there was another ewe lambing in between.

Large black ewe in green pasture, showing huge belly and udder.

Addy is a Jacob-BFL (Bleufaced Leicester) cross. This photo was taken four days ago.

This is not a post-lambing photo. It was taken about three hours before she had the first lamb. Those sunken sides are a sign that the lambs have “dropped” and we’re getting ready for lambing.

Just after Beauty had her first lamb I looked over the fence and saw that Addy had one lamb. It’s not visible in this photo because it’s behind her. It’s black. Jacob sheep are colored sheep with a spotting pattern. When you breed them to most other breeds you get black lambs because the sire doesn’t have that spotting pattern. Addy is a crossbred, bred to another BFL. So genetics are interesting.

Black lamb with a white feather on its head.

Here’s the first lamb adorned with a white feather that looks like a spot.

Big black ewe lying down with newborn lambs, two black and one white.

But there is more! Ultrasound showed twins. I thought that maybe there was another and, sure enough, there was. This one was born hind feet first.

Black ewe lying in straw with four newborn lambs.

But wait! There’s more! Another hind-feet first delivery. These lambs total 32 pounds!

After I’d made sure that all those lambs had nursed I checked in back before I went to the house for dinner with guests. These two I thought required checking again later. This is part of the pen where I used to keep another ram. I have opened this area to the ewes because I have too many sheep for the barn space. Now it’s another space I need to check.

I did not take photos of these ewes and lambs other than this one that shows why sometimes those ram lambs aren’t delivered quite as easily as the ewe lambs. They end up OK but the ewe may have to do a little more work to deliver one with horn buds like this. Those two ewes had a set of twins each and now I have the lambing pens full and one in overflow pens in the barn alley.

A Farm Club member took a screenshot of her view of my barn camera. I knew I had to spend some time at the computer and figured I’d do it in the barn while waiting for lambs. These are all twins except for Addy at the top corner. It was not a cold day but the bugs were bugging me; therefore, the hood.

Stay tuned for more…if I have time.

Sheep Across the Road – Shearing

Posted on February 25, 2026 by Robin

I wrote three blog posts (the latest) about the sheep grazing the alfalfa field across the road. They moved out in December. I had talked to the owner about the possibility of buying his wool so I would have another locally grown yarn here. When I contacted him a couple of weeks ago he said the timing was just right because they were going to shear that week. Unfortunately the sheep he thought would be best for my purpose were grazing a vineyard in Santa Barbara County. Fortunately I have a good friend in Santa Barbara AND I had three days with no commitments. I drove to Santa Barbara on a Thursday, getting there after dark.

Friday morning we drove about 40 minutes to the vineyard where the sheep were grazing. The corrals and shearing shed (to the left, out of this photo) had been set up the day before. This is a lot of infrastructure to move from place to place, but how they make it work.

The first group of sheep was brought down from the vineyard. That’s their LGD (livestock guardian dog) leading the way.

This group includes Merino and Corriedale sheep. The owner, Cole, has separate flocks that he delivers to different jobs. I think that part of the planning is how to make the most of the trucking and deliver a full load. When he grazed the alfalfa in Solano County he had groups of 180 to 200 ewes with lambs and that filled a truck. This group is 400 ewes with single lambs.

The lambs were born in October which is why they look almost as big as the ewes.

It took an hour or so to sort the lambs away from the ewes so that didn’t have to happen as the ewes were going into the shearing shed. The shearing shed is temporary panels with the green tarp. The red panel is the chute where lambs were sorted. This view is of the lambs after being separated. The ewes are in the corrals.

This view is the opposite of the last one. That bumper of the white truck near the tree is seen in the photo above this one. The ewes are now being sent group by group into the shearing shed.

Sheep being shorn with ten shearers working.

There are ten shearers working here. The floor is sheets of plywood. The green panels behind the shearers are tarps hung on metal frames. The tarps can be moved easily after the sheep is shorn and exits to the back. This was quite a noisy operation with all ten shearers working. They brought music with them. I heard Spanish music at one end of the shed and Classic Rock at the other.

Men waiting for sheep in the shearing shed.

The shearers have a short break as another group of sheep enters the shed. This story will be continued in another post. One more photo below.

Screenshot of the phone showing the map and location of the next gas station.

I didn’t want to start with this photo because it’s not what the post is about. However, I snapped this screenshot while I was on the road to Santa Barbara. I was getting worried about gas and I asked Siri for the next gas station. Notice the answer: 6833 miles. Fortunately I found one closer than that.

To be continued…

Sheep Across the Road-Part 2

Posted on February 17, 2026 by Robin

I first shared photos and a sheep story in the November 9 blog post. The sheep were brought in to graze the alfalfa Across the Road November 4 and were there until December 14. Now I have another story to tell about this flock and the grazing operation, but I should at least finish the part of the story that was right across the road two months ago.

I often walk Across the Road with Ginny, but during this month I didn’t walk there very much. That was mainly because I didn’t want to cause any trouble with the guardian dogs that were on duty, but maybe also because that was the month it was so miserably foggy and dreary. It’s not foggy in this photo but it is a good example of how thoroughly the sheep grazed each paddock before they were moved to the next.

One morning I was checking the fence in our pasture when I saw the sheep being moved away from the main road back to where they had been farther back in the alfalfa. I assumed they had gotten out during the night and wandered out on the road and now they were being herded back. The next day I realized that I interpreted that scene wrong.

That morning, about two weeks after the sheep had first arrived I saw this scene from the southeast corner of our property. This wasn’t the same flock, but another being trailed up the road.

They had been grazing another property and were being moved to the one near us, as had the sheep the day before.

They turned the corner onto the road along the canal and were herded to a paddock further to the east.

This is the fencing that the herder moved to set up new paddocks when it was time for the sheep to move.

The three flocks were kept separate. I counted from about 180 to 220 ewes in the groups. That’s not counting the lambs.

That was from a distance with binoculars, but I later confirmed with the owner that was about right.

Eventually they moved to the alfalfa right across the road from us.

If I went to the mailbox the guardian dog came alert.

One of the flocks moved to south of the canal.

The other two were north.

My flock grazed just across the road. It’s a very different scale of management.

Shearing 2026

Posted on January 25, 2026 by Robin

Shearing Day was yesterday. I have far too many photos for one blog post. Starting with the beginning, the night before.

Plywood with Shearing Platform in spray paint.

Lots of barn cleaning and organizing. One of the last things to set up is the shearing corner. This board has been in use for many years, labeled so that it never is cut up to use for something else.

The evening before shearing Dan and I went to Trish’s farm, a few miles away, to pick up her 24 Jacob sheep. With sheep in full fleece it took two trailer loads. After shearing they all fit in the trailer with room to spare. These are Trish’s three rams.

A dozen Jacob sheep in a metal horse stall.

I put 10 or 11 ewes in each of two stalls for the night.

Close up view of 4 horn Jacob ewe with two horns pointing straight up.

I recognize this ewe’s hairdo from when she was here last year.

Shearer bending over to hold onto 4-horn ram while shearing him.

John began with Trish’s rams.

Barn with panels set up and Jacob ewes moving down the lane.

As John was shearing the three rams we moved the ewes from a stall to the shearing corner. The shearer doesn’t want to stop once he starts, so we do our best to always have the next sheep ready.

Woman in overalls bending over trimming feet on a 4-horn ram.

I woke up early on Shearing Day so I could finish the prep for the day. One of the jobs was to get all of our rams into the shearing area before people got here. While John was shearing Trish’s sheep I worked on the rams, vaccinated and trimming hooves on all. That way I didn’t have to think about catching them later to deal with that.

After Trish’s sheep were loaded back into the trailer John started on our six rams and the wether.

Three people moving sheep into the barn from grassy area.

In the meantime Farm club members started gathering our ewes. This photo shows what a fabulous day it was, after so many days of thick fog. We were really lucky, because that drippy wet fog was back today.

Three people in the barn working with sheep.

I am fortunate that I have such a willing and capable team of people.

Tightly packed group of Jacob sheep waiting to move through a gate.

Sheep are in the lambing area and this will be the next group to move in.

Thanks to Roy Clemes for sharing some of the photos I used here.

Sheep Portraits

Posted on January 19, 2026 by Robin

It was a foggy morning and the fog didn’t lift until mid-afternoon.

The sheep had already been out before I walked to the pasture so they didn’t bury their faces to start grazing immediately. It was a good opportunity to take sheep portraits.

Yearling ewe, Meridian Zoe, a 4-horn lilac.

Meridian Hailee has a nice wide spread to her horns.

Meridian SallyR, a ewe lamb.

Patchwork Amara, a lilac ewe, who came from Patchwork Farm in Georgia.

This is yearling ewe, Bide a wee Bobbie Jo, one of two ewes I got last summer, originally from Oregon.

Meridian Lenore, another lilac ewe.

Meridian Pecan. The ewes born in 2020 didn’t get as much handling as in other years because that was after my accident and head injury. They were all a bit nutty and that’s why most of them have nut names.

Jannie, a ewe whose horns took an interesting twist.

Corri-3, one of the three Corriedale ewe lambs I got in September.

How Many Lambs in 2026?

Posted on December 19, 2025 by Robin

Yesterday was ultrasound day.

The day began and ended very differently as far as weather. This is how I was dressed for morning chores, just has I have been for the last few weeks with the drizzly fog. The vets arrived at 9 and we got to work.

It’s worth it for me to be have confirmation of pregnancy, confirmation of due dates, and idea of how many lambs to expect. It’s not an exact science. I remember a couple of years ago when the prediction was two sets of triplets and there were eight! Some of it is about the timing of the ultrasound. Breeding season this year was from September 27 to November 11. We scheduled ultrasound day so that the timing would be right to confirm pregnancy for the sheep bred the latest. For those bred at the beginning of breeding season, the vets can certainly confirm pregnant or not, but may not be able to get an accurate count of the number of lambs because of the size of them at that point.

I gathered all the sheep in the barn and we put three or four in each lambing pen. When they are lined up four across it’s easier to keep them in one place, with the added advantage of a place to put the ultrasound unit.

One of the vets is a resident, having earned his DVM, but getting additional experience and training. So the visit probably took longer because he was getting help from Dr. Smith and then she also double checked some of the sheep.

I took a few photos, but I sure can’t make out what is what. Whatever is important in this one is up in that top right part of the image.

It’s what is in the upper part of this image that is significant but I can’t tell you about this either…

…or this one…

…or this one.

Brown border collie on dirt road with green grass and blue sky in the background.

The sun came out–this was significant since it had been 23 days or so since we’d seen it! After the vets had left and I cleaned the barn I had to get out for a walk. The sheep that were Across the Road were moved a couple of days ago, but that is another story when I can get to it.

The vet tech wrote notes while they were working but this is how my spreadsheet looked when we were finished. Those people in Farm Club would recognize this as my breeding chart. Breeding groups are color coded on the left and dates are recorded as we go. (In case you’re getting a close-up look the dates on the left are hoof trimming, not breeding.) But all those circles and other notes are how I transcribed what the vets were saying. Fortunately I was able to take the vet tech’s notes and redo this spreadsheet, putting the rows into order of due date. That’s what we’ll refer to when breeding season starts.

One important item–when the rams got in with the ewes on September 1 at least one sheep was bred. The first due date is at the end of January while all the rest are due towards the end of February.

Random Farm Photos – Yesterday

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Robin

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!

Sheep Across the Road

Posted on November 9, 2025 by Robin

A few days ago I heard sheep making a lot of noise and saw that they were all going from the pasture to the barn. It seemed like more baaing than usual. Then I realized that I wasn’t hearing my sheep.

Two semi trucks with large livestock trailers parked on the road.

These trucks were parked just down the road but where I couldn’t see them from the house because of the trees.

Close up of the side of a livestock truck with a sheep and a dog poking their noses through the holes.

Notice that the two noses poking through the holes are different!

Ramp at the upper level of a livestock trailer where a sheep is looking out.

These trailers have four levels and all were full of ewes and lambs.

Two men placing a ramp at the back of a truck to unload sheep into an alfalfa field.

They move the ramp once because two levels can unload to one position of the ramp.

Ewes and lambs and two guardian dogs in an alfalfa field with a net fence holding them in.

Two guardian dogs were with the sheep.

Ewes and lambs with a white guardian dog.

I was surprised at how young some of the lambs were. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. It’s just that I have no experience with this kind of operation. Our sheep have it easy with barn access and personal attention all the time.

Ewes and lambs with a guardian dog inside a net fence set up in an alfalfa field.

It was quite noisy with lambs and ewes looking for each other.

Large truck with sheep walking down a ramp into a fence set up in an alfalfa field.

The second truck pulled up to unload.

Large truck with a ramp where sheep are being unloaded.

Each driver was responsible for unloading his truck. They switched to rubber boots so they could climb in with the sheep if necessary and keep their other footwear clean. I didn’t see any other fences so I wasn’t sure how they were going to deal with this many sheep.

Flock of ewes and lambs held within a net fence.

I have seen other alfalfa fields where they graze sheep but this is a first for “our” field–the one Across the Road that I know well. I talked to the truck drivers a bit. I think they said they had about 450 sheep to unload. I thought they said that was the number of ewes but maybe it included lambs. I wasn’t sure what they were going to do for the night because I didn’t see any other fences.

Flock of sheep being held in a net fence. A four wheeler with a border collie on it is outside the fence.

There were a lot of sheep crowded into this fenced area. It turns out that this was just a holding area while the trucks were being unloaded. This was late in the day and rain was coming in that night.

Green alfalfa field with herd of sheep being moved away from the fence.

The fence was opened and two men with one 4-wheeler and 3 Border Collies moved the sheep to the east. Fencing was already set up somewhere else and a herder would stay in an RV near the sheep.

Green alfalfa field with an orchard in the distance and sheep in between.

It rained that night and it was too muddy to walk across the road the next day and I was busy all day anyway. The following day I wanted to see where the sheep were. I walked half of my normal route but didn’t want to get close enough to alert the guardian dogs and cause a problem. It’s complicated to bring sheep to graze areas that aren’t set up for it. Fencing is supplied by the grazers–you can’t see the electric net fence in this photo. And they have to have a water source–that’s the white tank.

I’ll probably walk over there today and find out if they are in the same location.

Morning Chores

Posted on October 22, 2025 by Robin

Sunrise with cloudy sky over alfalfa field.

This morning’s view. I walked across the road to take this photo.

Back on our side of the road, this is the group of sheep with Hornblower, the 4-horn ram farthest back on the photo. They don’t need to be fed when they are on this pasture, still in great shape in late October. If you’re new to this blog and want to catch up on the pasture renovation start at the October 3, 2024 post and find 13 others titled Pasture and Irrigation Renovation and later 8 posts titled Grazing and Irrigation starting with this one in May, 2025.

Gray tabby cat and black cat eating out of bowls on a black mat.

On my way to the barn I stop and feed Tiger and Tippy. These are Dan’s garage cats, but I started feeding them in April after his knee replacement surgery. Now feeding cats is on my chore list, because they expect to be fed earlier in the day than Dan will come out. Each of these cats showed up here at different times (dumped or stray?) and now live here.

Breeding Season gets complicated because there are several groups of sheep. The next stop is the group of sheep with Clancy, the BFL. There are two significant points of this photo. One is the blue rear of the ewe in the back. She was the first marked September 27 but re-marked with blue at the next heat cycle. Also notice all that green behind the sheep. That is all new growth after that 2″ rain we had just 9 days ago.

At the barn there are multiple groups. These are non-breeding sheep. Jade, in the back near the post, is the oldest sheep here and will live out her live as a pet. There are six others in this group. Sparky and 5 other lambs (some Meridian and some KJ Royalty, Kirby’s flock name) are here because I want to may want to choose some non-nursing yearlings next year if we decide to go to any shows.

This is another breeding group that has access to the north pasture.

Elvis is the ram with this group.

These are two young rams that I did not use to breed this year. The two horn ram is Meridian Dynamo. The four-horn is bide a wee Peregrin. He came from Oregon in September, was still on the young and small side, and I was able to get Starthist Hornblower, the adult 4-horn ram with the group in the pasture. So these guys will be in the line-up for next year.

Hunter is the two horn ram in the middle. He has six ewes.

I had two adult rams here, but one has been sold. Meridian Blizzard is hopefully sold and there is a ram lamb here that is the last of this year to be harvested for a customer.

I am ready to be done with Breeding Season, but when I look at the calendar I see that it has only been 3-1/2 weeks. I look forward to being able to put all the ewes back together and having them on the pasture together. There are challenges in putting the rams together, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes. For now they are all in separate places.

Mid-Breeding Season

Posted on October 19, 2025 by Robin

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.

Thick green clover and chicory pasture with Jacob sheep grazing.

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?

Irrigated pasture with two electric net fences separating groups of sheep.

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.

Crayon markers worn by rams in breeding season. Two orange ones are almost empty ad a blue one is new.

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.

White ewe with orange marker on her rear indicated that she was bred.

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.

Jacob sheep walking out into pasture of clover and chicory with morning mist.

This morning’s move to fresh pasture.

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