Tag Archives: sheep

Ginny’s Birthday!

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Ginny’s birthday was October 12. She just turned 11. I have only about a zillion photos of Ginny so it was time consuming to narrow this down.

Red and white Border Collie puppy.

December, 2014. Ginny was two months old.

Red Border Collie jumping for a ball that has splashed into the water.

Many of my photos focus on action with a ball. I wouldn’t say that Ginny is ball-obsessed to the exclusion of all else. On the other hand, she is somewhat ball-obsessed. I have lots of photos taken during our walks Across the Road of Ginny leaping for a ball I have thrown. One reason that there are so many is that I kept trying to get that perfect shot and Ginny was a willing subject over…and over…and over…

The heads and horns of Jacob sheep that are staring at a red Border Collie.

I am a sheep farmer and the real reason to have a Border Collie is to help with sheep. That is not necessarily a good time for photos because we are trying to accomplish a task. I don’t have as much work for a dog as the dog would like. We have a small place and pasture management and fencing that makes it easy to move sheep. In recent years my main use of Ginny is to help move rams to catch them or to move the ewes into the barn from the corral. When I need to get sheep out of the pasture it’s usually easy to call them in.

Four dogs running on the dirt road. Two dogs are black and two are red.

This is a photo from 2018 taken on a walk Across the Road. At that time 5 dogs lived here. Rusty, the first red Border Collie came from Terry Mendenhall, as did Ginny. That’s Maggie at the top of the photo. The two black dogs are Finn and Sawyer who moved to Boise when Chris and Meryl moved.

Three dogs looking in a pile of lumber for a rodent.

Rusty, Ginny, and Maggie pursuing some kind of critter, probably a ground squirrel that ran into the woodpile.

Five dogs waiting on the grass to be given a piece of cake off a platter.

This was a celebration of Finn’s and Sawyer’s birthday. All dogs had to wait for permission to have their treats.

Red and white border collie staring intently at the camera.

Ginny in 2019.

Two red and white Border Collies on a dirt road with a ditch on the right.

Ginny has always created her own entertainment by dropping the ball at the top of the ditch and letting it roll in. I tell her to “get it”, she retrieves the ball, and does it all over again farther up the road.

Tennis ball in a net made of the leash wrapped around a forked stick. Border collie in the background.

I try to pay attention when we get to the part of the canal that is cement. There are places where the water level drops a couple of feet and the water flows quickly, creating a whirlpool effect at that drop. Ginny can get in and out of the cement canal when the water is not so turbulent, but I don’t want her in this part. She seems to like the game of dropping the ball at those places and then expects me to get it out. The drop-off creates a turbulent whirlpool and the ball disappears and then resurfaces over and over, but doesn’t move downstream. I’m not getting in there and I’m not sending Ginny in. There have been several times when I was able to create a net with a forked stick and the leash, and eventually snag the ball by leaning over the wooden plank that is the walkway over the canal.

Border collie staring at a tennis ball on a pallet in front of alfalfa.

Here is another of Ginny’s habits. When the skirting table is in this part of the barn and I am working Ginny intentionally puts the ball in this spot and then moves behind the wall of the barn and that upright pipe and expects me to get the ball, often barking at me if I haven’t paid attention.

Red and white Border Collie in a pen with a dirt floor.

Lambtown was last weekend and Terry was there with her sheep and her older dog that she didn’t want to leave home. This is Jill, Ginny’s mom, who is now 14.

Red and white Border Collie on dirt road with hills behind.

I took this photos of Ginny last week. Looking pretty good for11!

Farm Day and Random Farm Photos

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Kitten with Siamese markings near a bowl of cat food.

I’ll start with a random photo. This is the newest animal here, if he/she (?) is still here. Every morning we feed the two Garage Cats in, well, the garage. For a couple of weeks we have seen a third cat off and on. It (haven’t identified gender yet) has started to come in while I’m still there if I don’t make any fast moves. We don’t know where it came from–a neighboring property or dumped. The local newspaper had an article this week about the overwhelming number of dogs and cats that are abandoned. So we’ll never know about this one. I put out a live trap a few days ago but one of the other cats went in for the food. We’re going to be gone for a week so this is not the time to catch this kitten anyway. I did not see it the last two days so I don’t know if it is gone or just being more cautious. I’ve name it Smudge.

Back to sheep things. This is Patchwork Amara. You can glimpse the beautiful clover and trefoil in the background. This is what the sheep are grazing and that’s what this post is about.

Farm Club members came Saturday to help with a fencing project. We finally have all the permanent fencing back in the pasture. Dan has been working on that a bit at a time while trying to let his knee fully recover after knee replacement in April. Since last fall I have written a lot of blog posts about the pasture renovation and irrigation improvement. Grazing properly this spring was a challenge when I had to set up electric net fence for the whole paddock. Now we have 3-wire electric fence going north-south along every other check. That’s every 60 feet. Initially I was grazing each 30 foot width separately. Now it seems to work to graze the 60 foot width for four days. I think they are grazing it evenly enough.

I still need to use the electric net fence though. The posts for the permanent fencing are about 15 feet from the south perimeter fence so that we can drive a tractor there. We use net fences to block that 15 foot gap. That net fence is also important because it is how the charge is carried from the perimeter fence to the north-south paddock fence. In the past I have moved those fences from one end to the other as we moved the sheep. Wouldn’t it be nice to have enough of the 15′ fences to have them always in place and ready to go? I also wanted one fence to span the whole north-south distance in case I wanted to split those 60′ paddocks into two for grazing when we have fewer sheep out there. Another need is 60′ fences to block off the north end of those paddocks. That’s where Farm Club comes in.

I have been putting this off (not like I’m sitting around doing nothing) and thought that it would be a good task for Farm Club. Also if Farm Club members came to do it, I wouldn’t be able to procrastinate and move it to the “deal with it later” list.

Green pasture with white net fencing in the foreground and two people walking through the clover.

First we measured all the spaces in the pasture where I needed net fences. North-south lane fences need to be about 15 feet. The north-south fence to split the 60 foot paddock is 368 feet.

Strips of white net fencing spread out over a green field so they can be measured.

Then we gathered up all the fences that I’ve been using to create paddocks.We measured them and checked for damage.

Woman wearing ball cap sitting in green grass.

We used bright red labels provided by Susan so that we could easily find the label. This is Rachel marking these.

Three women working on a white net fence. Two are sitting in the grass.

Rachel made a list so we could match the needed fences with what was available. I found two 162 foot lengths and a 40+ foot length to use for the long fence I wanted. Then we started to cut the other fences and make sure the wires were attached at each end to carry the charge. I used to use 75+ foot fences to close the gaps in the old system. We could cut those into 60 and 15 foot fences or make multiple 15 foot fences, especially if there were bad spots to avoid. We did not finish the project, but made good headway. Now that all the fences are labeled we’ll have another Farm Day to finish the project. I have enough fences now so that the paddocks are set up for the week I’ll be gone and Farm Club members will be supervising.

Back to random photos.

Three pairs of shoes in red, blue, and green with black rubber boots on a gray surface.

Those are all mine. The green and blue shoes are wool and I like them best in the summer because they don’t get so hot.

Two young pigeons on wood board in front of peg board.

Young pigeons. A couple of months ago I realized that a pigeon had made a shallow nest at the top of the stairs in the barn. I should have tossed it out then. Last year Dan spent days cleaning out years of accumulated pigeon droppings in the second story. He blocked off all the access points, but one pigeon figured out how to fly over the top of the door at the stairway. There were two eggs I think. I took a photo of the baby pigeons on June 30 and I think they were only a few days old. I’m surprised that they didn’t try to fly when I walked up here. They look like they are old enough. I wonder if they haven’t figured out how to fly through the gap where the mother pigeon enters this space.

Two pigeons on wood step near a nest with two eggs.

And there are two more eggs. I don’t remember if I had seen four eggs and only two hatched, or if this is another generation. I have tossed these eggs. As soon as we get back from our upcoming trip I will move these pigeons out and clean this area. We don’t want to start another pigeon rookery.

Michigan – Days 3-4-5

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I wrote about Day 1-2 in this post.

Sign with JSBS logo that says Annual General Meeting

I got to Michigan on Wednesday. The Annual General Meeting began on Friday.

Handwritten sign to Sheep Barn on a bale of straw.

The meeting was held at the Branch County Fairgrounds in Coldwater, Michigan. First stop was the sheep barn.

Old walking wheel outside the sheep barn with flowers in front.

This old spinning wheel was outside the barn.

Sheep pens in a barn with dozens of Jacob sheep.

It was sure fun to see this many Jacob sheep from different breeders in one place.

Jacob ewe in sheep pen

Notice the ear tags including a CA scrapie tag. This is Meridian Saffron who I sold to a fellow Jacob breeder in 2018. I was able to get her to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival that year. I just found the blog post about that. I wish I could have participated in some of the fun at AGM–that is buying and selling sheep–not possible when I’m flying.

Front of barn with sign that says Barnyard Children.

There are several barns at this fairgrounds. They are labeled sheep, cattle, horses, etc. I was amused by this sign.

Fleeces in bags at wool show with blue and red ribbons.

A wool show was one of the activities at this meeting. Another activity was the sheep show. I don’t have photos of that because I was a judge. I said I’d do it with a partner, not by myself. That was a challenge. I got good feedback, but I don’t want to do it again. Too much stress and it’s difficult to place 10 sheep in a class when they all look pretty good. Fortunately we needed to place only the first four sheep in each class.

Woman with large blanket knitted with gray and white roving.

One of the participants showed me her “arm-knit” blanket made of roving. It weighs 14 pounds!

Text on slide about mutation causing lilac coloring in Jacob sheep

The presentation I was most interested in was that by Gary Anderson about the study being conducted about lilac Jacobs. Gary showed this slide from a 1995 (I think) paper and noted that they said “the causative mutation” instead of “a”. I think I have written a blog post about the current study in which he involved, but I’m not looking for it now. I’m at the gate for my flight home and want to finish this before we board. I did find this post that is related to the study because of the sheep involved I may have to write more later.

Plaque on large rock about the Anderson Farm in Michigan.

Sunday morning I helped with some sheep loading and a little clean up. Then I got a ride with Gary to his farm in Sparta. My flight wasn’t leaving until 7:30 p.m. so Gary gave me a tour of the area. This is a plaque in place at his original family farm.

Large red barn with two silos on green hillside .

The gorgeous barn at that farm.

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 7- May

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I wrote posts a couple of weeks ago to create a photo diary of our grazing progress as we started grazing the new pasture. As usual I got behind. It’s crazy now to try and document this the way I had intended. Instead I’ll start with this week and see where I go with this.

This is yesterday’s photo. I have numbered all the checks from west to east so I can keep track of what I’ve been doing. They are 30′ wide. We started grazing this spring with the paddocks in the north field. This is the previous post about that before I went on to the first irrigation. When we switched from grazing the north paddocks to the south ones we started with fencing two checks at a time and the idea was to split into smaller areas with cross fencing.

I have to say here that the main challenge here is that we have no permanent fences yet. When this project began (see the first post in October) we had to remove all the interior fences. Dan had knee replacement surgery in April and he wasn’t able to get those fences up before we needed to start grazing that month. I am using electronet fence and that means piecing together lengths of net and moving it as I move the sheep across the field.

This shows the length of fence as I have moved it from one check to another before setting it up.

There is plenty of clover and trefoil, but in some of the areas it has been overshadowed by the annual ryegrass. That is another challenge. Annual rye was NOT part of the seed mix. There were three perennial grasses in the mix, but the ryegrass that was already in the soil took over. Fortunately it is a good feed, but it grew so quickly that it has been a real challenge to manage. This paddock is one that Dan topped with the mower several weeks ago and the clover is more visible here.

So far it seems that I can graze the sheep on each 30′ strip for two days. I could probably add another day but I want to move them across the field to try and keep up with that ryegrass. We also want to make sure that the clover and trefoil get well established before grazing them heavily. It is time consuming to move that length of fence from one check to another every two days, so this last time I moved only one of the fences to the west. There is no fence down the center of this photo. I moved the fence that was on that check to the next check to the west. So the right half of the photo is where the fresh feed is. The sheep can tell where there is fresh feed, and they spent the next two days mostly on that half. They are also able to eat more of the ryegrass that is still on the check once the fence is removed. If this method works then I’ll move one fence every two or three days.

This photo is from a month ago when we moved them to the south field and set the north-south fences up to include two checks. We added east-west fences to have them eat each part more throughly. However, we have no drinking water source out there now so they have to have to be given access to the barn.

You can see how overwhelming the ryegrass is. There is clover there but it is hidden. When the grass is this tall the sheep trample it more than eat is and it has the effect of mulching the field. That is not what we want to encourage the clover and trefoil to grow.

When Dan topped the ryegrass the sheep could move through it more easily and it allowed the other plants to have light.

This view shows how they were able to graze the mowed part.

It’s great to have all this feed now, but I wish that I had more sheep right now to use all that feed.

Meet Sparky

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Lambing started only two weeks ago but is almost over (except for the lambs that will come at the end of April due to acquiring a ram around Thanksgiving). I like to keep my blog posts in chronological order, but I’m giving up on that for now. I may share other lambing photos later, but for now I’ll write this story.

It was only a week ago (Thursday, March 13), that Patchwork Amara lambed. I had put her in the evening before and didn’t see anything when I checked the barn at 2 a.m. When I went back at 6:00 I found a big lamb in good shape and a small lamb that at first I thought was dead. When I picked her up she wasn’t completely flaccid like a dead lamb would be and I could see her take shallow breaths. She was very cold.

I brought the lamb to the house and put her in a dishpan of warm water. As her body warmed she started to move her legs. After I’d warmed her enough I wrapped her in a towel and went back to the barn. I set up a heat lamp and moved Amara and the big lamb to a clean pen. Lisa was helping for a few days and when she came to the barn I gave her lamb holding duty.

I milked colostrum from Amara and tube fed the lamb.

While we were feeding her we realized that Amara was having a third lamb.

Those big brothers were 9.2 and 8.6 pounds. Sparky, as Lisa named her when she showed a spark of life, was only 4 pounds.

I found a size Small coat for Sparky, It was way too big and eventually Lisa cut some off.

Sparky was spunky enough after the tube feeding to nurse on her own. Throughout the day we made sure that she was nursing.

The next morning Amara was tired of having three lambs and was getting a bit aggressive towards Sparky. I didn’t feel comfortable leaving her there and decided that she would be a bottle lamb. That was 6 days ago.

Farm Club members came on Saturday and Sparky was a favorite.

I picked up my grandkids at the airport yesterday and we went to the barn right after we got home. Ten-year-old Kirby.

Eight-year old Kasen. The kids are taking turns bottle feeding, although the next feeding is in a few minutes (11:30 p.m.) and no one has volunteered for that one.

Sparky has had plenty of attention. The kids are taking her out of the barn and letting her run around in the grass. I tried to share a video here don’t know if I can make it work. Let’s try this YouTube link.

A Totally Random Sheep-Related Post

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I was looking for something on my computer. Now I can’t remember what but I was browsing through my folder with the title Sheep. That includes everything from Breeding and Lambing Dates to Body Condition Scoring to Processing Skulls to Vet info and Wool Facts. Now I remember what I was looking for–a list of butcher lamb customers because I have an email from someone who wants a lamb this year–we haven’t even started lambing, so how am I going to remember that person if I don’t add it to a list that I still haven’t found?

Anyway, look at what I found while I was browsing through the files.

I have no idea where I got this photo or who is in it, but the file name is WWII-German . That sure looks like a Jacob lamb!

So this prompted a post of random sheep photos. I found this photo that I had scanned not long ago.

This is my brother and me with our 4-H market lambs.This was probably in the late 60’s. I barely remember raising market lambs because I mainly raised dairy heifers in 4-H.

I thought there must be more and I plugged in a hard drive that I’ve had a hard time viewing. Now it seems to be working! I might get carried away with old photos at some point! I’ll stick with sheep tonight.

This is the house we had in Cotati. Mom and my brother are feeding lambs in the kitchen while Joe, our favorite college student renter, looked on. These were Dave’s and Mom’s sheep. I had a horse and dairy cattle at this point.

Mom with sheep

I think I was going to school at UC Davis by now. Mom had a merino sheep and I think the other sheep were probably Dave’s. Mom is holding a lamb and a white cat named Bill. That is Honky, the goose, on the right.

So there’s a trip down Memory Lane. There may be more to come.

Shearing Day 2025 – Part 2

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Shearing Day was a week ago. Here is the first post.

As we loaded Trish’s sheep into the trailer John kept shearing, starting with my rams…

…and then moving on to ewes.

Farm Club members kept the sheep coming so that John didn’t have to wait.

Farm Club members covered all the jobs. They moved sheep, bagged fleece, checked the ciipboard, swept between sheep and let sheep out as they finished. I have videos of shearing but haven’t had time to post them yet. Because I recorded 4 or 5 videos I can say that John shears a sheep in just over 2 minutes. It is amazing to watch.

We bedded the barn with straw knowing that would help with the cold at night.

The shorn sheep enjoyed the sun during the day.

Farm Club member, Kathleen, took over her annual job of weighing fleeces.

This is just some of the fleeces, bagged and labeled with sheep name and weight.

Farm Club members and other friends who purchased fleeces were able to skirt fleeces the selected.

This is our youngest Farm Club associate, son of a member. He wanted a job and spent most of the morning cleaning the barn with the help of Dad.

Shearing Day can be tiring. This is Oakley, John’s dog, in a pile of belly wool.

After shearing was over I called on three Farm Club members, who are now tagged as the Tech Team, to figure out why I couldn’t get the barn cameras to work after we made a big switch to a new internet service. I hadn’t been able to get them set up again. Farm Club members have links to those cameras. Success!

Shearing stats: We sheared 64 ewes, 12 rams, and a wether. That’s important to know because shearers charge more for rams. I guess it’s a good thing that they don’t charge more for horns. (Joke) Of those sheep 47 ewes, 9 rams, and the wether are mine. We didn’t shear 2 ewes who will be the subject of another blog post. Fleece weights range from 2.5 to 6 pounds. That’s typical for Jacob sheep.

I need to start skirting and sorting fleeces so I can get some on the website for sale and others to the mill for processing.

Shearing Day 2025 – Part 1

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We were lucky on Shearing Day. It was cold in the early morning, but there was no threat of rain and the sun was out.

The day before we took our trailer to Trish’s farm a few miles away. We loaded 21 sheep to bring them to our place for shearing the next day. It turns out that one of the 21 was mine–I had forgotten about the ram lamb Trish borrowed in September to breed some of her ewes. So now I have 9 rams–that’s a few too many!

These are Trish’s sheep the next morning. I remember that ewe on the left from last year. See her photo below.

Her hair style makes her memorable.

John got here at 9 and we started with Trish’s sheep. This ram is Starthist Goldhill, sired by one of my 2-horn rams who is no longer here.

Farm Club members were on hand to help with all the jobs. They kept the shorn sheep out of John’s way while he worked.

After all 20 of Trish’s sheep were shorn we moved panels around to load them back in the trailer.

They fit better after shearing.

Then John started on my rams. This is Eli.

For those of you who may not have watched shearing, the shearer follows the same pattern on all the sheep.

I recorded video of shearing four or five sheep. I haven’t had time to edit and post those videos yet, but because of recording I know how long it took to shear those sheep. What do you think?

John is shearing each sheep in under 2-1/2 minutes. Some are close to 2 minutes!

More shearing photos in the next post.

Sheep and an Owl

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I wandered out back with my camera–the real one–so I could take better photos of sheep. I like to update the sheep page on the website every year when the sheep are in full fleece. I did not update the website yet, but I took some photos with that in mind.

It’s wet behind the barn and we have a lot of piles of brush to burn (to the left out of the picture). The sheep can’t go on the newly seeded pasture so space is limited. There is a concrete pad and then a wooden bridge over the lowest spot.

As I walked towards the pasture gate the sheep were hopeful that I’d open the gate. Jade led the way.

Many of the sheep weren’t happy about the mud just past the bridge and decided they had to jump it. These are two 2024 lambs and I can’t sort them out by name yet.

This ewe is Jannie.

Cindy.

This is Sandie…

…and her twin, Pecan.

Jade.

Patchwork Bettylou, the ewe that had hernia surgery in October.

Here are three of the 2024 lambs. Harmony, Zoe, and Lily.

I walked out behind the ram pen and stood under this palm tree wondering if the resident barn owl is still around. It’s impossible to find owl pellets because, even if pellets could drop through all the old dry palm leaves, the blackberries grow around the base of the tree.

While I was standing there the owl flew out of the palm tree into one of the sheoaks.