Five Months to Lambs

Monday was Sorting Day (but not like at Hogwarts, although I know that some of you could probably come up with some Harry Potter  analogies). It was also the first day of the Spinzilla competition. Spinners from Team Meridian Jacobs were going to gather here in the afternoon but some of the team members are also Farm Club members. Several of them came early to help with sorting ewes and rams into breeding groups.Faulkner, the BFL ram, was first to get his girls and they happy to meet him. I knew that Athena was ready because she had been hanging out next to the fence. But so were Delight, Delilah, and Shelby. Four of the seven ewes with Faulkner were bred yesterday. (The red on the ewes' rumps is the mark from the crayon in the ram harness.) Next up was Crosby, a lilac ram lamb. I wasn't going to use him this year because it's hard to split the flock into too many groups. But transport for the ram that I am buying is now delayed so I thought I'd give Crosby a shot.He just got back from Lambtown where he won Champion ram of the Primitive Breeds division. It was a small show, but a win is a win, right? The judge loved his fleece and so do I.The girls, however, were not as impressed. It seems that ribbons aren't everything.To Crosby's credit he tried hard... ...he didn't give up......but to no avail. None of the four ewes wanted much to do with him. I don't have a photo but I did see him finally lying down by the fence looking exhausted and dejected.Alex was ready for his ewes. He is a yearling ram whose fleece is beautiful. I didn't try to use him as a lamb last year because he had bluetongue in the fall. Even if he could have bred, he likely would have been sterile from the high fever.      Out of his group of 14 ewes, Alex found only one ewe who was interested.  Poor Celeste. With no one else interested in him, Celeste got all Alex's attention. Good thing that I moved Shearing Day to January. Hopefully rain will wash out some of this color.

The rest of the flock is waiting for a ram to show up in a few weeks. Lambing season will be a bit longer this year.

Vacation Interlude - Back to Work

I'm on Day 4 of describing our wonderful vacation to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last week, but I will insert a post of what I am doing now that I'm back home. This is the north fence of the pasture. This is AFTER grazing. The sheep don't venture in this far once the combination of dallisgrass and blackberries grow so thick. Access is hampered since there is an irrigation ditch just in front of this mess (the left part of the photo).  There is a fence under there.  This was yesterday morning's achievement.  I dumped the branches in the corral and the sheep were happy to work on defoliation when it was easier.However I'm not happy that the branches  get stuck in their wool. This morning's task was to finish the  job.    There are plenty of these still on what is left and they will be easier to get to. With my luck though they will all ripen just about the time that I go to Texas for the birth of my granddaughter. By the way, you'd think that I'd come up with another solution to this problem. See this post from just over a year ago. Maybe some strategic fencing to hold some sheep right at that fence line.

Stay tuned for our adventures in Yellowstone!

Around the Farm in May

I went back through my i-phone shots during May, most of which I deleted. But here is a collection of what I thought was photo-worthy at the time.Sheep on new pasture lining up at the blackberry buffet.Goose on the roof. There was another just out of site on the high part of the barn. Note ongoing wool washing activity. Also blooming bottle brush in the background...…which makes it clear where Rusty was hiding out. Felt flower done by someone who came to my weaving class. Baby wrap brought by another weaving student. I had no idea that baby wraps were in such huge demand and people will pay huge prices for them. I'd love to weave some but my shoulders start hurting just thinking of weaving yards and yards of relatively fine threads, even on my AVL. What I wouldn't give to have joints that were 20 years younger. Playing with the iPad when I should have been sleeping I found this cool app that turns your photos into paintings.  Mom's and babies. This is Laura and twins.Jazz and triplets. I spent a huge amount of time this month sorting fleeces that were beautiful except that they were filled with obnoxious burr clover. A lot had to be thrown out. This wool is finally  in route to the mill. I found this tom cat with a foxtail in his eye, huge ticks on his neck, and very weak and skinny. Through the wonders of Facebook within 24 hours he was on his way to a new home where I hear that a vet has ruled out any severe problems other than starving and he is eating up all the food and TLC he can handle. My latest attempt at gardening in my raised beds that have been gopher-ravaged is to try straw bale gardening. I am in the phase of watering the bale to start it decomposing. Then you add fertilizer, keep watering, and then plant. My hope is that a gopher will not tunnel all the way up through the bale.

Things I see on the way to the barn

 Pink bottlebrush Look at how tiny this new leaf is.  One of my special iris plants that I got from Pleasants Valley Iris Farm. Another one of the special irises. This rose  looks fairly common but the fragrance is spectacular.Same for this one. These roses were on this property when we moved here in 1999. We moved them to their current locations. They don't get much TLC, but hang in there. Several of the roses also have branches from rootstock growing up around them. I can easily identify those branches when they are flowering, but I hate to cut them off when they are so pretty.Yarrow.Amaryllis (not a flower).

Meet the Sheep

Our annual spring open house on Saturday was a huge success. This event couldn't happen without the help of Farm Club members and, this year, the Davis Spinners' Guild (DSG). Farm Club members were here on Friday for set-up and showed up early Saturday for last minute touches.  There are a variety of sheep related displays.But the biggest attractions are the animals and the demos. Julie's 3-week old Angora bunnies were very popular... 

…as were the lambs. FC member, Mary held lambs for people all day (and suggested that next year we use smaller lambs!).

Jazz, mom of the triplets that were out for people to pet, made herself just as popular, calling to people to come back and continue petting.

As popular as the animals, were the demonstrations scheduled throughout the day.This is Farm Club (and DSG) member, Alison, showing her passion for...cleaning fleece with a fermented suint vat.   Vera, of the Davis Spinners' Guild, demonstrated use of the blending board...

...and spindle spinning. 

Kathleen, FC and DSC member wove with an audience all day.Many people brought their wheels and spent the day spinning.

FC member, Lisa, always has a carrot for Amaryllis.    She and Dona (who took some of these photos) demonstrated needle felting.

Dona, Jackie,and Colleen offered items for sale.   

Of course my shop was open and there were even sheep inside! 

There was much more going on and many more people helping then I have in photos here. Thanks to all of them. There are no photos of Rusty in this post but he wrote his own and you can find out what he thought of the day here.

Spring Shearing in a Big Way

A couple of friends and I went to see shearing on a commercial sheep ranch about 30 miles south of here. We got there in just enough time to see the last part of shearing 3000 sheep in 2 1/2 days.The original flock was made up of Corriedale sheep and over the years was crossed with Targhee and other commercial white-faced sheep. The sheep are gathered at the back of a trailer that is hauled from ranch to ranch with all the gear. They go up the chute with the encouragement of...…Border Collies as well as people.Here is a view from the other end of the trailer. That sheep in front hangs out for awhile in that position because the other sheep are more likely to go forward if they see a sheep in front of them. Notice how the sheep walk on a raised alleyway while the freshly shorn fleeces are shoved out of the trailer below them.Here is a photo of the inside of the trailer. There are seven shearers at work. The sheep walk forward on the raised alley. Fleeces are pushed out beneath.When the shearer is ready for the next sheep he pulls the door down with his foot and flips the sheep off the alleyway into position for shearing.

After the sheep are shorn they are sent out the doors on the other side of the trailer.

 The fleeces are scooped from the trailer and quickly examined by a sorter/classer who determines where they end up. The fleeces are thrown into the appropriate pile. My friends who owns the ranch had requested that the finer fleeces shorn on that day be put aside for us to look at. It turns out that even the not-so-fine fleeces seemed just as nice to us. Last year's core samples indicated that most of this flock's wool graded in the mid-20's (microns) and the finer fleeces were in the low 20's. For reference Jacob fleece ranges from about 25-35 microns and most of mine is probably about 28 to 29 microns. So all of this wool is finer than what I am used to using. The fine fleece pile is the one nearest the table. The pile to the left are tender fleeces (fleeces that have a weak place usually due to nutritional stress or illness). The pile just barely visible behind the plywood is the "not as fine" pile. We chose our fleeces (all of the fine pile and a lot of the one behind the plywood) and the remaining wool was quickly baled.  The wool is shoved into this wool press...

…and compacted... …and sealed into bales that are marked with the pertinent information. I forgot to ask how much these weigh but on-line sources say they would hold 240 to 450 pounds each. Before we left the shearing trailer was pulling out and everyone was getting ready to go to the next job.Freshly shorn sheep turned out to graze.

In about six months I hope to have blankets woven from this wool. They will be available at the Artery and the Fibershed Marketplace.

Moms and Babies on a Spring Morning

 Sweetie  Alison Mud Ranch's Ginseng Kreutzer Farms Kyra Lulu with triplets Mary EarsSonata Some of these ewes are for sale. You can see details on the website.