Two ewes have lambed early this year. The dates finally made sense when I realized (thanks to a Farm Club member who keeps track of these things) that some of the ram lambs got in with the ewes September 2. Those lambs would have been 4-1/2 to 6 months old at that time. As another friend said, “where there’s a ram, there’s a way!”
I saw one of the rams breed a ewe, but it wasn’t one of these two who have now lambed. Bessie lambed on Monday and in looking up some info, I thought I would feature her in a blog post.
Bessie was born 3/10/2019. She was a week old when this photo was taken. You can see that she is a lilac–the facial markings are definitely gray, not black and the fleece color follows. I love to see a lamb fleece like this. It’s all tight little curls and, in my experience, a fleece like this will be very nice. Also notice the level of the britch wool. That is the coarser wool on the back leg. It doesn’t spread very far up the leg.
Here she is 10 days later.
This photo was taken at about 7 months old.
Here she is three years later.
In 2023 Bessie lambed with twin rams. I kept this one, now named Blizzard.
This is Bessie, not quite a month ago. She is in full fleece and full of lambs.
These two ewe lambs were born on Monday, 1/29. The one on the right is lilac like her mom. They have the same curly fleece and low britch wool that Bessie had in her lamb photo.
I was expecting the first lambs in about two weeks so it was a surprise when I saw a ewe who looked as though she was in labor tonight. I put her in a lambing pen and the more I watched the more I knew that she would lamb. I was a bit worried though because lambs can be considered premature and at risk if they are born even ten days before their due date. I put most ewes with rams on September 16 which makes first lambs due February 11. There were two ewes with a ram 6 days earlier which gives us a lambing date of February 5.
All is OK. I went to the house for dinner and pulled up the barn camera feed on my phone.The ewe was definitely in labor. By the time I went back to the barn the lamb was mostly out. The ewe was standing. One more push and the lamb was out.
This is a single ewe lamb out of a 7-year-old ewe, Meridian Dilly.
She was on her feet in about 20 minutes…
…and nursing within a half hour.
So how did we get such a vigorous healthy lamb that much sooner than expected? I sent an email to Farm Club to announce the lamb. One of the members reminded me of an email I had sent in early September in which I said three ram lambs had gone through the fence to where the ewes were. That timing makes sense. One of those is the sire.
John has been shearing for us for years. He is an excellent shearer and a nice person.
I recorded some of the sheep being shorn which I’ll share when I have time. When I record I can pay attention to time. Some of them are right at 2 minutes or maybe even a little faster.
There is no blood. The sheep are in good shape and the fleeces look great! What more can you ask for?
Farm Club members kept up with getting the sheep to John. I got outside and started to take photos of the sheep after shearing. This ewe is Sandie.
They sure look clean now! That won’t last.
Kathleen weighed all the fleeces.
We had two skirting tables available so that fleeces could be skirted before purchase.
This is just a portion of the fleeces that I need to skirt and put out for sale. Give me a little time to get to that. The sooner the better though.
Distraction…there was a lamb born tonight! Surprise! I guess the next post will be about lambing.
Shearing Day was Sunday, January 21. Rain was predicted all weekend. We need to shear dry sheep. For several years I have used the wool from my friend’s Jacob sheep. It’s easier to shear them here and we can be sure they’ll be dry. So I pay for that shearing and we bring her sheep here the day before.
This year we brought them two days ahead of time due to the weather and because of my Saturday activities. I had two extra stalls there was plenty of room when we split the group.
There were 16 ewes and one ram lamb.
We sheared those sheep first. This is the ram, first sheep of the day to be shorn.
John’s dog, Oakley, found a comfy place to settle down.
As soon as the neighbor’s sheep were shorn we loaded them in the trailer and Dan drove them home. They fit in the trailer much better after shearing than before.
First up for me was Peyton, the BFL ram. The BFL’s seem to gain weight very easily. He and the two crossbred ewes I have are probably a bit too heavy.
The Jacob rams were next. This is the ram lamb (almost yearling) Typhoon.
Here is the lilac ram, Horatio. Look at all that luscious fiber!
Ewes followed. I took recorded lots of video but haven’t had time to do anything with it yet.
Shaggy looking sheep.
This is the view of the main sheep area looking into the lambing area where there are pens, and beyond to shearing.
Shearing Day wouldn’t go as smoothly without all the Farm Club help. We crowd the sheep into the main barn with panels and move them through to the shearing area.
I’m grateful that so many Farm Club members have been here enough that they can just jump in and take over. There were several new members as well who are well on their way to learning about sheep handling.
Sheep in the lambing area moving to the pen on the top left near the shearer. That’s a goat on the right. The goat has to go in a pen or she gets in the way.
She got plenty of attention there.
Two or three people bring a few sheep at a time into this pen where they are moved through the gate to John.
Kathleen took her regular job of weighing fleeces.
Shearing Day was scheduled for January 21, but this was the day before. I was up before sunrise again (necessary if you want to get enough done in the day in the winter) and it’s nice when there is color to go with it.
I had a spinning class scheduled for the morning. Five people from five different cities came to learn about spinning. Most had a little bit of experience or at least an introduction to spinning so we started right in after I explained the different wheels and some basic terminology. They all had a chance to ply their yarns by the time we finished a little after noon.
Just as we were finishing Siobhan and Ivar got here. Siobhan is a Farm Club member who has been here often, either teaching a class or to farm sit, besides our regular Farm Days. She and her husband spent a few weeks in England on a belated honeymoon last year. While there they took a lesson on blade shearing and bought hand shears. Siobhan asked if she could shear a sheep for her Farm Club fleece for this year. I said “sure”.
She chose Harry, the offspring of one of our pet sheep, Hazel, who died last year). I had wethered Harry because he had become such a pet to Siobhan and my granddaughter, Kirby. Ivar did the actual shearing while Siobhan helped with sheep control.
I can’t believe that I didn’t get photos between the start and the finish. I was doing some other barn clean up but also helping with a bit of sheep management. In fact I took this photo while Ivar was finishing his last strokes from the front of the sheep where I had one hand (or maybe my knee at this point) on Harry’s head. Siobhan however has a great time-lapse video of the whole process.
I’ll bet it felt like longer to Ivar, but when I looked at the time on my photos I saw that between the first and last photo there was about 55 minutes. I’d say that’s pretty good for your first sheep and doing it with handshears…and the sheep has horns, which only adds to the difficulty.
The fleece looks good too and I can’t wait to see what Siobhan does with it. Great job, Ivar and Siobhan!
The next day we sheared 77 sheep, but John uses electric shears! Stay tuned for another post.
I scheduled a Farm Day today to take care of some chores prior to shearing next week. The ewes were ready to be vaccinated to provide the highest level of antibodies in the colostrum. I wanted to clip fleece samples from the yearlings (their second fleeces) to send in for micron testing. We also made sure that the ear tags were clean enough to read and that the tags would match the cards that go with each fleece.
Some long-time Farm Club members were there as well as some people who are new to Farm Club. It all went very smoothly and it took only a couple of hours to work through all the sheep and take time to take a closer look at some of those fleeces.
Farm Club members get a chance to reserve a fleece at this Fleece Preview Farm Day.
Deborah took the photos from above and this is me remembering to take at least a few photos. Often we get so busy that I overlook that.
While most of us were in with the sheep Susan, Chris, and Nikki volunteered to clean behind the barn. That’s always a big chore. When they finished here they moved to the ram pen and cleaned the ram barn.
Mary checked off the list on the clip board and made sure the cards matched the ear tags. Susan drew up vaccine into syringes.
Marina and Katy caught sheep, marked faces, and cleaned ear tags.
Rachel and Siobhan also helped catch and mark sheep.
The photos below are what it is all about. I had been thinking that the sheep are looking a bit bedraggled, but when I got hands-on those fleeces I changed my mind. They are looking good.
April is a yearling ewe, almost 2 year old.
Queen Q is the same age. The photos below are an on-the-hoof look at the fleeces of the four rams I have here.
Meridian Blizzard (Meridian Silverado x Meridian Bessie), 10 month old ram.
Meridian Typhoon (Meridian Turbo x Meridian Rocha)
Fair Adventure Horatio, 3 year old ram, from Colorado.
Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, 3 year old ram, from Michigan.
Shearing Day is Sunday, January 21.* We’ll be shearing about 70 sheep. Fleeces are available on shearing day and for a month or two afterwards as I skirt them and post them on-line. If you live in the area you can come here to choose a fleece. Contact me.
*I just fixed this. A friend pointed out that I wrote June 21. Yikes!
After all the thoughts I had about keeping up with blog posts I see that the last post was the day after Christmas. I sure write a lot of blog posts in my head and even take the photos. Best laid plans and all…
We are shearing on January 21 and I like to take photos of the sheep in full fleece so I can update the website. I just updated the Ram page and the Ewe page. I moved the lambs that I kept in 2023 to these pages so that is a record of the whole flock now.
Shearing is only 11 days away. If you are a fiber fanatic and want to attend shearing day contact me. Or maybe if you’re part of a fiber guild you have already seen an announcement. First lambs are due two weeks later.
Zora is the first one due and is pregnant with twins. Due date is February 5. All the others will start a week later.
Bessie sure looks big enough to have multiples, but the ultrasound showed one. Is it all wool?
Sweetgrass Eilwen is due at the end of February and has twins.
This will be Rose’s first lambs. She is carrying triplets and is due February 11. Eight ewes are due that first weekend. That is why I will not be demonstrating at the Sacramento Weavers Open House that weekend.
Janna is also due on the February 11 with triplets.
Patchwork Amara is the third ewe that according to ultrasound is carrying triplets. Her due date is the 21st.
Bide a wee Trista is due the 17th. Ultrasound notes say 1+. That means that one lamb is confirmed, but they couldn’t say for sure that there isn’t a second.
Columbine has twins and is one of the 8 ewes due on February 11 or 12. Of course the due date is only a guideline. Lambs could be a few days before or after that date. I have to be paying attention. Looking at this photo, I remember that she had a wool break early in the year while nursing 2023 lambs. You can tell that some of her fleece is shorter than the rest. So this will not be a prime fleece. It’s possible that it can be salvaged. If not it will become part of next year’s Gardener’s Gold, a soil amendment for houseplants or the garden and made just down the road! It is available on line or here at the shop.
We have 45 ewes that will all lamb in February. The barn will be full!
This post is just what the title says. You may have seen some of these on Instagram if you happen to notice them among all the others that bombard you.
Ginny on her bed. She likes to take things out of the recycle bin on the back porch. That’s why the oil bottle is there. That moose has been a favorite inside toy since she was a puppy. Amazing that at age 9 the moose is still here with only a couple of repairs.
The rams that are still here after the last culling. Left to right: Meridian Blizzard, Meridian Typhoon (both born in March 2023), Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, and Fair Adventure Horatio (both born in 2021). There will be lambs sired by all of these rams in February.
Devil’s claw pods. I have these listed for craft or decorative use on the website. I had an order the other day so I thought I’d take more photos while I was gathering them. Not only do they get tangled up with each other, the points on those claws are very sharp. These are not a good plant to have around when you’re raising fiber animals. If I see them on the sheep side of the fence they are removed. I gather these from places where there are no sheep.
Across the Road with Ginny yesterday before the rain. There is hardly any water in the cement ditch now, but what is there is stagnant and slimy and muddy. Ginny was hot from chasing the ball and thought it was a good idea to lie down in that.
Border Collie focus.
This morning’s look at the rain gauge. It’s about time we started to get some real rain.
Most of the flock after feeding in the morning. I think I count 40 sheep here…and a goat.
There are eight sheep here so there must be a few at another feeder. The hardest question to answer is “how many sheep do you have?” I think there are 53 ewes, 2 wethers, and 5 rams now.
And 4 chickens. The rooster is a new addition.
I’ve been finishing up some weaving projects. I usually weave rayon chenille scarves, but decided to weave a series of shawls. These are two different shawls on the same warp with slightly different weft colors
This is on the same warp with a different color weft, but stitched together to create a poncho of sorts. I really like how it came out. Even though the sewing adds a bit of work, I think it takes far less time than twisting all those fringes. I hope that this style is popular because I’d like to make more of these.
So much for my one blog post every day routine. It’s been a week. I think I had a set back last weekend. I often work on the computer in the late evening. Last Friday I went to bed earlier than normal because I had to get up early for the next day’s event. That backfired. I woke up at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.
Charlene (Integrity Alpacas, creator of Gardener’s Gold, and my down-the-road neighbor) and I left at 5 a.m. for San Francisco to be part of the Fibershed booth at the Ferry Building Farmers’ Market.
We arrived at dawn and some people were already setting up. It had been raining and continued to rain and drizzle off and on all day.
This is the opposite view from our location.
A few Fibershed producers arrived, and we finished setting up in time for the market to open. There were twelve producers represented at the booth.
Do you recognize any fabric here? Gynna (creator of Soil to Soil Market is using some of my woven pieces to create earrings! (FYI – Soil to Soil Market is open, there are still only two of us listed while there is more behind-the-scenes work.)
This was a cold, wet day. Thankfully we were able to pack up when the market was over at 2. When Charlene went to the parking garage to get her truck she found it, along with six other vehicles, had been broken into. Her rear passenger side window was shattered and the truck had been searched. The next day after, a night of freezing temperature, the front passenger window had shattered and you could tell where it had been hit first but hadn’t yet broken.
I didn’t feel warm until that night in bed (early). I’m ready to stay home.
Back to farm life.
This is SilverSun, one of the March 2023 lambs. I changed coats a couple of weeks ago. Its always a gamble to figure out which coat is big enough to give room for more wool to grow but fits well enough to stay in place. I had bought some new coats last summer and I they fit a little differently. She had probably got a back leg out of the strap and then the front was loose enough to get a front leg through. Eventually the neck opening was around her middle and she was trapped with the coat dragging underneath. The other sheep were harassing her and she couldn’t do anything about it.
Here she is in one of the old style coats that has been patched. That’s a better fit.
Ewes (and a goat) in the small field behind the shop.
I’ve been focused on weaving…all the weaving that I wish I had done earlier in the year to be ready for the holidays. These are three wool shawls now at The Artery in Davis.
I’m also creating other pieces using odd bits of handwoven fabric. These pillows are at The Artery.
At Spinners Day Out on Friday a friend who had harvested our pomegranates brought me a treat of pomegranate soda!
Also at Spinners Day Out, our youngest friend, daughter of one of the original Farm Club members, went to the barn to visit with Jade. (That’s a stuffed kitty snuggled in her clothes.)
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…
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