State Fair - Day 1 for sheep

We left only 1/2 hour behind schedule this morning to get the sheep and the exhibit to the CA State Fair.  I figured that was not bad after about 4 1/2 hours of sleep! I went to the fair with much more of a plan than I usually have so I thought that set up would be easy. No! My 8' x 2.5 sign needed better support than I had planned. Space was a bit different so I had more to fill . I left out some of the elements that I had planned to use because it was starting to look cluttered.

Thank goodness I have such wonderful friends who will help. Too bad that I don't have photos of them but we were too busy to stop for photos. Thanks to Jackie, Chris, Mary, Dona, and Rick!!! And thanks to Tina and Alison for the design help!

Here is a young fair-goer drawing in the spots and horns on a sheep drawing we provided.

Faulkner goes to the doctor

Faulkner, my new Blue-Faced Leicester ram, had a large swelling (about the size of a grapefruit and with no visible injury) behind his rib cage. I noticed it on the weekend and my veterinarian looked at him on Monday. The vet thought that she could feel an opening in the muscle tissue and recommended that I take him to the UC Davis VMTH to surgically repair it. Sure enough, there was a 2" opening that required a much larger opening by the time it was done.

So what could cause this hernia? My vet and I had a talk about what she calls "veterinary practice builders", one of which could be this:

Hudson and Faulkner have not been fighting, but it is my vet's opinion that just a quick toss of this head could cause damage to someone else.  Most of my other 4-horn rams have had curved top horns so I wonder if injuries are more common when a ram has a set of spears on his head.

Carding in Color

I taught a carding class this morning. The participants created  roving by combining 3 multi-colored batts and also carded blends of wool and alpaca and silk.

Unfortunately I didn't get any photos of the finished products, but I did photograph the small balls that I carded after everyone left. This is from the waste that was left on and under the tables.

Three more weavers

I taught a weaving class this weekend. Welcome 3 new weavers to the community!

Revisiting the pasture

I have irrigation water coming on tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.  (It comes through Solano Irrigation District and I have to call when I want the water "on"--in my ditches.) Irrigation has been a struggle this year. Even with the water on for 36 hours there are some paddocks that have died back because I can't get water to them. Part of the problem is probably the old culvert--too deep and too small. It is half filled with mud that I can't get out. I taught a weaving class today but after that we went out to tackle the problem. Dan dug the culvert out with the tractor.

For tomorrow's irrigation the water will be running through the ditch. Eventually we need to replace the culvert with a bigger one.

After setting up the tarps to keep the water in the ditches I checked the paddock where I experimented with burning medusahead. This is the plot that my son burned early in the season. He didn't think it was effective but the medusahead is still gone.

The area of trefoil is where I burned the medusahead that was growing over it. This is some of the area that got water but that medusahead is still thick. I hope the pasture plants will choke it out.

This is some of the area that I haven't been able to irrigate. Not much forage there and look at the medusahead cover.

Medusahead closeup.

Here is the trefoil that would be a wonderful replacement for the medusahead. Hopefully irrigation will go a little better tomorrow and we'll get water on those dry areas.

Generations

I have been spending a lot of time learning how to work efficiently in i-photo. I still have about 30 G of photos to move from the PC to the MacBook. I won't bore you with dozens and hundreds of photos of my really cute kids as they were growing up, but here are two photos I like. This is my Mom at about the age that I am now (notice no gray hair) with Marie, the Merino and other friends. That goose is Honky if I remember correctly.

Here is the whole family 20 years ago. The kids are now 30, 22, and 20. The rest of us are just older. Dogs = Brandy, Flash (adopted Border Collie) and Dog.

OK. One cute picture.

Three Looms Warped

I have new projects on all three looms. That's exciting! This is a warp for 2 shawls. It is a mixed warp of cotton threads, a shiny slubby rayon thread, and Luna ribbon. I have already completed blue and purple shawls in my series of shawls for the Artery. I know it's 100+ degrees out but I'm getting a head start on the projects for the winter and I couldn't wait to try out my new yarn. This is the newest Jacob yarn (1 ply black and 1 ply light gray)--not even labeled or on the website yet--and the project is a v-shawl. I have been low on baby blankets for quite a while and while this warp may not help when someone needs a "boy blanket" it should give me several for girls--it's 24 yards. Someone called today looked for a "neutral" blanket and I wonder if I weave with a blue thread if it could go for either. Here's a small world experience. Yesterday I got an e-mail from a young woman New York who had been sent one of my baby blankets when she was a baby and her mother has been a regular customer ever since. The daughter now has a friend who is pregnant and wants to give one of the baby blankets. The call today was from the person who sent that first blanket  to his niece in New York and now wants to send a blanket to Germany.)

More ram photos

I am still trying for those ram photos.

This is Granite.

Clint is still on the run.

The ram lambs that were born at the end of March are finally getting old enough to evaluate them with a little more confidence. I think it's too hard to tell much about them before 3 months old. Now I can see the width of the horns on the two horn rams. This guy seems to have a nice wide horn spread. I'd prefer that he didn't have white feet.

Here is another with a wide horn spread. If you don't start with a wide horn spread at this age, very often the horns grow too tight near the jaw as the ram gets to be a year or two.

This lamb is turning out very nice and I may keep him. He is the last lamb born this year, the son of Clint and one of last year's ewe lambs. He is a four-horn ram with good horn spacing, nice wool and some leg markings.

Sheep portraits

  I'm trying to get some sheep portraits for a project that I'm doing.

This is Fran, a 3 year old ewe.

The rams aren't so cooperative. They either stay in a tight group ...

...or go running by.

These are my 2 new rams--not a very good photo but you can see the difference in size   between Faulkner (BFL) and Hudson (Jacob).

This is Faulkner's fleece.

Fibershed photos

I drove to Petaluma yesterday to deliver yarn, fiber, and buttons for a photo session with my favorite photographer, Paige Green. She is photographing items for use on the Fibershed Market place website to be announced shortly. I was amazed at the difference that reflector made for the photos. I want one of those. It was a pleasant afternoon with some of the other people involved in the Fibershed.

I thought the dog was a nice touch.

Black Sheep Gathering Part 3

We had such a good time at Black Sheep Gathering this year.

I never thought that I'd have fun "camping" in a parking lot but when it's with the right people at the right event it's a great time!

I'm used to seeing the Jacob horns, but I sure noticed when I saw this Angora goat's horns.

Sunday evening I left for Bend to pick up a Blue Face Leicester (BFL) ram.

Here is the reception I had at Tumble Creek Farm.

Robina's BFL ewes come when called.

We set up a pen outside so that my sheep could get out of the truck overnight. This morning we loaded Faulkner in the front of the truck bed with the Jacobs behind.

As much fun as I had this weekend I'm always glad to get back to California.

Black Sheep Gathering-Day 2

Here are a few scenes from  today's events.

All the champion ewes and rams return to the show ring for selection of Supreme Champion. Theron and I represented the Jacob breed.

The winner was Terry Mendenhal's beaufiful Merino ram, the third white sheep from the left in this photo.

The Spinner's Lead competition was held in the evening after a huge  potluck dinner. We were last of 18 entries and had the biggest applause of all (thanks, all you CA friends). Chris, Jackie and I all wove v-shawls from Jacob fiber and had a good story to explain all the details. It's too late for me to explain more, so here is another photo.

We are having a great time! More tomorrow.

Black Sheep Gathering - Day 1

Farm Club members, Kathy, Dona, Tina, and Jackie are ready to leave with me and the sheep for Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon. Friend, Chris was already in Oregon waiting for us.

Synchronizing phones.

UhOh!

The Shasta County Deputy calling in the suspicious livestock. It turns out that I am the legal owner. What if I hadn't had the health certificate? The only reason I had paperwork was because I was on my way to an out-of-state show.

Hot Lips thought it was no-big-deal.

Gas stop in Oregon. That's Jackie's van behind the truck.

Unloading the van. We had all the gear for 5 of us, dozens of fleeces, spinning wheels, etc packed in the van and the back seat of my truck.

Shaul's Manufacturing is one of our favorite vendors.

Although I come to BSG primarily for recreation, the purported purpose is showing sheep. I did not bring a yearling ram to the show because I don't have room to transport one and take all the other sheep in the back of the pick-up. I brought 2 ram lambs to show and, being born in March, they don't show as well as they might if they were a month or so older. The Jacob breeders are all pretty good friends and we were all happy to find out who won Champion Jacob Ram:

This is Theron with his ram lamb.

Part of the ewe lamb class. Jackie showed her lamb, Nellie (who was a bottle baby from me), Tina showed Venus, and I showed Ventura. We placed 3rd and 5th in this class. I have heard that Nellie will be writing her own version of the show later on (and may have quite a different perspective) and will publish that on Jackie's blog (Wooly Adventures).

Here is the high point for me. Meridian Hot Lips won Champion Jacob Ewe. She will show again against all the other winners for Supreme Champion Ewe.

A Typical Day...

...or why I don't get everything done that I have planned for a day.

First up is morning chores and spend some time admiring Hudson, my new ram from Mud Ranch Jacobs. Joan brought him yesterday and took home a couple of ewe lambs. Hudson warrants a blog post all by himself, but he'll have to wait for that. Hudson is a lilac ram and by breeding him to my lilac and lilac-carrier ewes I'll have lilac lambs next spring. (Lilac is a Jacob color different than the more common black and white.)

One of the risers in my pasture water line pulled out a couple of days ago and I had to wait for the water to subside to be able to fix it. I left the hole open awhile to make sure that there are no more leaks.

Here is the result of a repaired pipe line--drinking water in the pasture so the sheep don't have to come into the barn for water.

I will have irrigation water tomorrow so I needed to set up tarps in the ditch. The water is provided by the Solano Irrigation District, not my well. The tarps allow the water to back up and fill the ditch and then flow out into the pasture. 

The green forage is the result of irrigating. Even with all the rain we had recently it wasn't enough to keep the desirable pasture plants growing. Notice the brown part on the left. My 24-hour irrigation hasn't been enough to get water to the all the pasture and that brown area is part that wasn't irrigated when I had water on last month. I have asked for 36 hours for this irrigation and hopefully I can get water to the rest of the pasture. Otherwise I have lost about a fifth of my forage for the summer.

This small green area is a section in the eastern paddock that my son burned earlier in the spring. He didn't think that the burn was successful because the medusahead was green and didn't catch fire readily. However, the burning killed it allowing other plants to grow. I want to burn the rest of it but I'm a bit worried about burning now--even if the burning would be permitted now. Maybe next year.

Throw in a littel bird watching in the morning.

Spend some time petting Stephanie...

after trimming her feet which she considers to be an insult.

More bird-watching.

Scrounged and cut wood to fit inside the feeders so that hay won't fall onto the backs of the sheep.

Jackie and Chris came out about 1 to help with halter breaking. (By the way, thanks to all the help, the lambs are showing remarkable improvement after only 3 days.) I thought a couple of them had rather droopy ears.

I pulled these out of one ear and found one other lamb with foxtails bothering her, although not lodged like these were. It makes me wonder how many I'm missing.

That's about half the day, but a long enough post.

Halter breaking

Black Sheep Gathering is coming up at the end of next week so it's time to halter break lambs. A few friends came to help.

The lambs behaved fairly well for their first time on halters.

Bottle-baby Nellie had other ideas.

She was a true drama queen. Halter breaking-Day 2 is today.

Spinning on the Farm

I spent yesterday at Spinning on the Farm, an event hosted by the Sonoma County Fiber Trails. Beautiful location, great weather, fun people. It's hard to know what to take to an event like this. It's only one day and it takes a lot of time to take apart my whole shop, box it all up, load it, set up the booth, take it all down, load the trailer again, put it all back in the shop. Is it worth taking it all? I find that there is usually no one big seller and I usually sell a little of everything so that's what I take.

Isn't that a beautiful backdrop for a booth? I brought dyed Merino roving, silk/merino fiber and scarf kits, latchhook pillow kits, notecards, and books...

...WoolPets felt kits, Thomas Joseph notecards and buttons, and spinning tools...

...wool socks...

...yarn...and much more.

Spinners get their gear  to and from the parking lot by tractor hay-ride.

What group of spinners gets together without thinking of food? As always, the potluck was delicious.

Spinners spend the day spinning, knitting, eating, visiting, and shopping in this beautiful setting above the Russian River.

Something is up there that shouldn't be.

There are only two reasons that I know of that Rusty doesn't want to go to the barn. One is THUNDER, which we don't have very often. Here is the other:  

Now that the rain has stopped (and, by the way, it is supposed to be in the mid-90's next week) this is Balloon Season. I had another Border Collie who was also afraid of the balloons. I'm not afraid of them but I resent them. If some of you like the romantic idea of floating around in a balloon then stop reading this. I don't want to tarnish your image of them and spoil your fantasies.

Ant Farm. That's what I feel like when there are balloons overhead. Am I supposed to look up from what I'm doing in the yard or the pasture and wave and smile for a photo? Or do I go about my normal work so "they" in the balloon can observe what we do in our natural setting? I tend to go in the barn and stay there until the balloons are far away.

This morning's balloons never made it that close, but for Rusty it's enough to look to the west and see this huge floaty thing that hisses and doesn't belong in the sky.

Silk Challenge-Part 2

When I have new fibers or yarns and am trying to figure out how to use them my first step is to sample. Sometimes this is a full-sized sample. For instance I go ahead and weave a blanket or a scarf, etc and learn as I go how the yarns work together and decide if I like it or if I should change something next time. The silk challenge poses a different problem for me. I don't have any idea of how these yarns will work and I don't really have an end project in mind although a scarf is one idea. By the way, the responses to the last blog were good ideas

• color and weave effect
• accent colors on woven sheep as in  some very cool sheep paintings that Dona sent
• fabric for the "squares jacket" that Diane brought to WWW

So my first step was to wind a narrow warp and experiment with weft. I started with the heavier red silk yarn at 6 epi.  I used the sari silk yarn, silk rags and bamboo yarn in various combinations of fiber and weave structure. Interesting but nothing jumps out at me.

My next sample was to use the sari silk yarn for warp. I was hesitant about this because it is so "hairy" I thought that it might not work well as the warp. At 6 epi it worked fine in this narrow sample and I like the results better than the first warp. I will have to evaluate all these different sections as to drape, durability, etc and decide where to go with this project.

These are the samples. One thing that I don't necessarily like about using the silk strips is that the colors become blocky--weaving 3-4 inches of each color. If I wove a wider piece that wouldn't be as much of an issue but it will be in a narrow scarf.

In this sample I alternated colored strips so that one color blends into the next. I also beat more tightly. This wouldn't be very good for a scarf but would be a great jacket or mat.

I like this part. I alternated the strips with the sari silk in a twill. This is beat more loosely so there is better drape, but it could be considered sleazy if the fabric was to be used for something that needed firmness.

A Silk Challenge

These are strips of silk. You can see the iridescence in some of them.

Here is another set of silk strips.

And this is the challenge. Choose a yarn for warp (choices are thin bamboo or a heavier silk) and weave something from these strips. I'll report back when I have something. Any ideas?

Another use for my new MacBook

When you turn on the Photo Booth your computer becomes a mirror. That's good because I usually forget to comb my hair.