Color Everywhere I Look

It's been awhile since I wrote a blog post--at least on paper...well, on on the computer. But you know what I mean. I write a lot of them in my head but they don't always make it here. So I was looking at my latest photos to see which in-my-head blog post to put here and these are the things that caught my eye.  The dye class that I taught last week.

The v-shawl class that I taught last week.

Socks that Jackie made for me but it hasn't been the season to wear them.

The color wheel class that I taught at Lambtown on Sunday.

Georgia O'Keefe's Purple Petunia which is now on the loom.

But when you think you've found the most fabulous colors of yarn, fiber, and dye, you walk outside  and see this:

A sunset from last week.

I think I need to find yarn in these colors.

Green Pasture

You have all seen photos of my green pasture.

This does not happen naturally here in California's Central Valley . We have what is known as a Mediterranean climate. I thought I'd give you a definition but what I found when I did a google search is more interesting:

There are not many places in the world that have our hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. So how do we grow all that clover and grass in a hot, dry summer? Irrigation, of course. But irrigation water has to come from somewhere if it's not coming out of the sky this time of year.

Our irrigation water is provided (sold) by Solano Irrigation District and comes from Lake Berryessa which fills from winter rainfall. Here is how our irrigation water is delivered.

Do you see that low spot in the mountains on the right side of the photo? Lake Berryessa is behind there. The water is carried down Putah Creek. Eventually it works it's way into a system of canals. When I call for water the SID person opens a gate at the end of this ditch that is normally dry. The water flows to another gate at the northwest corner of my property (that cement box on the other side of the fence). When that gate is open the water flows under the fence into the standpipe in the foreground.

That black circle is the pipe carrying the water into the standpipe. It flows out the hole on the south side of the standpipe (at the top of the photo).

This is a close-up of that rushing cool water. It's not a rushing mountain stream but it sure looked appealing this afternoon when I was outside working.

Here is where the water flows out of the standpipe into the pasture.

There is a ditch at the north end of each pasture. The water is just starting to fill the ditch.

I have to dig cut-outs in the ditch to get the water to flow where I want it. It's not a perfect system because our ditches are worn out and trampled by sheep and the pastures aren't level, but I can usually make it work. I have the water on for 24 to 36 hours to irrigate everything.

This is the last pasture the sheep were on yesterday and I finished mowing it (a story for another day)  just before irrigating.

This is what we'd have in the summer if we didn't irrigate. (This is a small pen behind the barn.)

Here is what irrigation gives us.

Hot Day and Other Random Thoughts

Higby's Country Feed is my favorite store. There is always something there I want to buy. I told them that if they started carrying underwear, then between Higby's and Ace Hardware, I wouldn't have to shop anywhere else. Today Higby's had an anniversary celebration of opening the new expanded store five years ago.

With the weather forecast of 104 degrees and north wind today I scoped out the most protected spot for the canopy and sheep pen. The winds didn't materialize, but it was breezy enough to help with the heat. Thanks to Jackie who met me there and stuck it out for most of the day. We were well fed as Higby's provided home-made scones and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, enchiladas for lunch and snacks and cold drinks all day.

I was impressed with the raised beds for the vegetable garden. (Since our tractor tires just shredded maybe I'll be able to use this idea too.)

This morning I caught a couple of lambs that I think I'll be keeping.I figured that I may as well bring sheep that I want to halter break. At the time I wasn't thinking of a blog post so I didn't take many photos. But here is one lamb that I brought:

She is the biggest lamb I have and she has a beautiful fleece. Does she look familiar?

Here is Dad:

By the way, he was sheared last week. The flock is shorn in November but some of the long-wool breeds can benefit from twice/year shearing. Faulkner's fleece looked so lovely that I decided to have him shorn since a sheep shearer was in the area to buy lambs anyway.

Penny, the shearer, chose to shear Faulkner standing up. He was a perfect gentleman about the whole thing.

Penny's son helped catch the locks as they came off. Ummm...don't look too closely at Faulkner. Maybe he could benefit from wearing a sheep size grazing muzzle.

Here is a photo that I took after washing half of Faulkner's fleece.

This is the site that greeted me inside the door of the shop this morning.

It's 7:30 p.m. and I think it's probably still in the 90's. I'm sitting under the ceiling fan I hope that in another hour it will be cooler outside than inside so we can turn on the whole-house fan. How many people go to Hawaii to find cooler temps? (For those of you who think, "wow, that's a random thought", stay tuned. Or maybe it's just heat stroke.)

The grass really IS greener on the other side

Faulkner, the BFL ram lives with his buddy, Jerry,  because I don't want to put him up against the adult Jacob rams with horns. He lives in what used to be the pig pen back in our 4-H and FFA days. I have been meaning to expand his pen ever since last year and finally got to it (with the help of son, Chris) yesterday.

Happy Sheep.