It's Hay Envy

When I take my dogs for a run (they run, I walk or ride my bike) we use the dirt roads that border the irrigation canals and farm fields. The big fields across the road from our house has been in alfalfa for several years, but last winter the field was planted to rye grass. These fields were harvested last week. This photo shows a bit of the grass left on the edge of the harvested field.

Here is some of the hay that was harvested. I have figured out that at 80 bales/stack and 80 stacks that's 6400 bales! I don't know what rye hay is going for right now, but I'll bet it's at least $10/bale (probably more like $15 retail). You can do the math.  Boy, am I envious! I bought 6 stacks of hay (alfalfa, not rye) last summer and that took me through the winter. Now I'm almost out. I'm worried about hay this year because the price is going to be so much higher. The cost of transportation will add up too. If only I could get my hands on some of this hay that's right across the road! (Why don't I, you ask? I tried last year when they grew alfalfa and I guess it's not worth their time to deal with someone who only wants a little bit. Last year most of it already sold--either to dairies or to a company who compresses the alfalfa for shipping overseas!

When I don't take my bike on a dog run, I usually take my camera. Bonnie knows that there is something in these holes. She just can't get to it.

Notice in the next photo that Bonnie is actually grabbing the edge of the hole in her mouth. She bites off chunks of dirt to make the hole bigger.  Rusty watches, but doesn't seem to care so much.

Fair time is fun time!

That's a line that we tell each other as we drive home each night exhausted from dealing with the FAIR. But this year I have it easy. Chris is driving. He is responsible. For the first time I don't have sheep or an exhibit at the fair. So, although I have to pay to get in for the first time, I also can spend most of my day getting things done at home. This was show day for pigs and Chris got 2nd with this one. They pigs will be sold at the Jr. Livestock Auction on Saturday.  

While I was waiting for the next pig to be shown I checked out the Home Leisure Show. This is my Jacob blanket that I have saved to show at State Fair.

 

And here is one of my favorite things to watch at the fair. I never tire of seeing these Clydesdales.

Back to blogging

Do you know how many blogs I have written in my head? How many photos I have taken thinking of including them in my blog? Lots. But I haven't quite made it to the computer with them. A few weeks ago I took my camera when I took my dogs on their run (they run and I ride my mountain bike). This is the view across the hay field. 

On a warm spring day you can smell the locust trees that grow along the irrigation canals. What a great reminder that spring is here!

We have these trees growing around our house and my shop as well. The fragrance is wonderful. Last week we had several warm days and the savored the combined fragrance of the honeysuckle, locust, and orange trees. The locust flowers are drying out now and when the wind blows it looks as though it is snowing. See all the blossoms on the porch outside my shop. We have drifts of blossoms.

  

The blossoms made dyeing yesterday a little more difficult. My pots of fiber as well as the jars of dye kept filling with dried flowers. I spent yesterday dyeing to get ready for my booth at CNCH (Conference of N. CA Handweavers) that is next weekend. 

 

Is it spring yet?

   It seemed like spring for awhile. The acacia is blooming and and the sweet scent wafts through the air when it's warm. Acacias bloom in February here so their beautiful flowers don't last--another storm is certain to come through. I love daffodils. A friend of mine says that she doesn't like them and won't plant them. "They're just too perky!" Hey, anything that comes up year after year all by itself and has beautiful flowers is OK by me.

   It's been quite a month. I have 60 lambs now and about a dozen more ewes still to lamb. I spend a lot of time in the barn--watching pregnant ewes, cleaning, filling buckets, etc. Tonight after the barn was clean with fresh straw I sat down and watched lambs.

      

I finally caught a couple of their antics with my camera.

Blog is another word for...

...PROCRASTINATION. At the top of the list of all the things that I should be doing is Bookkeeping in Preparation for Taxes. And before I can do that task I have to make room at my desk by either working through the piles of paper or repiling them elsewhere. I have found that trying to learn how to make this blog site work and reading blogs by other people can consume huge chunks of time, allowing me to avoid the aforementioned jobs.  Here are more pictures from the barn--two pairs of mother-daughters.

Above is Tiara and her mother, Diamond. Below is Farrah and her mother, Phoebe. Strong resemblance.

 

Lambs

Lambing is under way. These twin ewes were born today. Daphne is the mom. That's the third set of twins. 40 more ewes to lamb.

  This photo is probably pretty hard to see unless you click to enlarge it. That's Daphne and her lambs below, but look above. The dogs know that if they can't come into the sheep pen with me they can watch from above. Photo below shows Bonnie looking from the stairway.  This morning she was so excited she either jumped or fell from the stairs down into the sheep pen.

 

Learning the Game

I was tagged! Huh? That means that someone else who has a blog let me know that she found mine. I'm supposed to state the rules and tag 7 more people and tell 7 wierd or interesting facts about myself. Hmmm. I only know one other person with a blog right now and that's the tagger. (And I'm not quite sure how to tag her back.) So maybe I only need to think up one fact....My mom told me a long time ago that if I wanted to have a dairy I'd have to marry a dairy farmer. Should I leave it at that or tell the end of the story? I eventually did marry a dairy farmer and we had a dairy, but now he's a teacher and I raise sheep. Yesterday I worked on perfecting projects for a new class I want to teach. Here are photos of triaxial weaving. This is an off-loom technique in which you weave ribbon in 3 directions. I have a friend who has made a jacket front in this technique! Mine are in frames on the wall.

 My recreation these days is to go to sheepdog training once/week and work with Rusty at home. My goal is to be able to handle the whole flock with him. But my sheep aren't "dog-broke" and would rather turn and stamp at him then do what he says to do. It can be quite intimidating for a young dog to be faced with a group of aggressive horned ewes. Some of them have no qualms about bashing a dog in the ribs. Now that they are heavily pregnant it is not a good time to try to force the issue of learning to be herded by a dog. So we spend our time herding these 4 ram lambs who were born last August at State Fair. I am always amazed at the Border Collie's instinct...and brains. Rusty knows when the lambs are apt to run for the barn or a gate. Then he not only needs to keep the lambs moving, but keep them from running ahead.

Sun is shining

It's sunny out. What a treat! The sky is blue and the rye grass field across the street is a brilliant green. It's breezy, but that's good. Hopefully some wind will start to dry things out. We've had enough rain now that our cellar (about 10 x 10) is flooded and we've had to start the pump--otherwise our water heater is under water. I found water damage in my shop--but relatively minor--a few books. I need to put plastic over the outside of the A/C unit because the rain leaks in there. I'm on lamb watch today. Lucy is due on Wednesday by the calendar, but she looks ready now. Or maybe it's just that I'm ready. The first two lambs were born a week ago and that seems ages ago now. Speaking of Lucy, her fleece was beautiful when we sheared--long and soft. I kept her twin ewe lambs, Laura and Linda, from 2007 and their fleeces are spectacular. The wool is at least 5" long with nice crimp and very soft. Laura is mostly black and what a deep rich black she is. Her fleece was snatched up right away. To think that I considered culling Laura because her hind legs aren't very good and I can't keep everyone. I guess she never needs to go to a sheep show--she can just stay here and grow wool and lambs.

 I haven't figured out how to add photos to this blog yet. I'll work on that today.

Successful Shearing!

I'm not doing very well with this blogging thing. I just realized that my first post--about the storm last week--was never published. I think it is now. I was so excited after shearing that I wanted to let the world (at least the fiber world) know all about it. For me Shearing Day is more fun than Christmas. Fresh fleece! Ewes that now look obiously pregnant! No more separating goats and sheep before feeding! All the sheep fit at the feeders! Shearing Day here is a big event because I invite the public (mostly my Fiber Friends from my e-mail list). After a couple of weeks of miserably wet and/or cold, drizzly weather, the fog lifted and the sun was out. A lot of people visited. We sheared 45 ewes and 3 rams. The fleeces are gorgeous. Most of them are very clean with litte VM and the few that were covered were even better.

I had a potential glitch in the middle of the week. My regular shearer was just diagnosed with pneumonia on Thursday.  I was lucky that the only other shearer that I know was willing to come on such short notice. I am grateful. He did a great job as well as working through the flock quickly.

 As much as I love to see the sheep in full fleece, it is fun to see the transformation right after shearing. Before shearing the sheep look gray (dirty white wool) and brown (sunbleached black wool). Now they are truly black and white. Although I recognize all the older sheep from their faces and horns, it takes me awhile to reacquaint myself with the yearlings (last year's lambs).

 We sheared 3 of my 4 rams. I will handshear Ranger later. I've been dealing with the aftermath of a ram fight for a couple of weeks. It was 2 1/2 weeks ago that I saw Ranger and Yuri covered with blood at feeding time. Yuri, the 2 horned 2-year old, was the obvious winner. Ranger didn't have very obvious injuries, other than the blood, but a few days later the swelling on the right side of his head was severe enough that it prevented him from closing his eyelid over his right eye. I was dealing with other issues and didn't realize that had happened until I saw the bulging eye and pus from behind it.  Yikes! Since then Ranger has been on antibiotics and banamine (for pain and swelling) as well as getting eye ointment 4 times/day. He is amazingly better, but his horns are still loose--it doesn't seem to be the horn itself, but that whole part of his head. (My vet says that it's hard to tell if there was brain damage, but at least we don't expect him to drive heavy machinery.) Now I have a dilemna.  I have had Ranger separated from the other rams so that I can treat him easily and so that his head can heal. I'd like to put him back with the other rams while they are all becoming reacquainted after shearing. I tried it, but I finally separated him again. One of the 4-horned rams in particular won't leave him alone. I guess I'll have to deal with that later.

2008 Blows in!

I've been thinking about creating a blog for awhile and today seems a good time. Now I have to see if I can figure this out so it looks like I know what I'm doing. Our big news today is the storm--6 1/2" of rain since yesterday and incredible wind. The tin roof blew off the garage and a lamb shelter blew away. Fortunately my barn is intact, but the relentless wind blew a lot of rain inside. The outside area is flooded as usually happens when we have a lot of rain all at once.

We are shearing is next Sunday. I'm planning on sun for that event!