Athena lambed ahead of schedule. Unfortunately the biggest twin (12.2 lbs) was dead when I went out this morning. Although it looks as though it was born alive (or at least was full term) there was something wrong with it. It's belly was full of fluid so I think there was probably a congenital problem with it and it never could have survived.
This lamb is 8 pounds.
It's obvious who the dad is:
Lambs are due in about a week.
This is Sparkle.
Sweetie
Spring
Jazz.
Bella.
Our first Farm Day of the year was on Saturday and five Farm Club members helped me get ready for lambing. I forgot to take photos at the beginning but started with vaccinating all the ewes. In the meantime we kept an eye on the two ewes who were supposed to be bred that day so that they will lamb at the fair in July.
There was no question about Miller and Donna, but ZZ left me wondering. He seemed more interested in his buddies in the adjacent pen than he was in Clover although she was doing her best to entice him. I decided that I'd better try another ram so Faulkner was the one. He knew just what to do.
While the rams were otherwise occupied and I had plenty of help it was time to clean the ram pen.
Rusty usually keeps the rams away while I clean so he took his usual position although the rams weren't there. 
The ewes watched through the gate while we moved wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow load. Those red marks are just from the marking crayon we used as we vaccinated.
After cleaning the ram pen it was donkey play time! Lisa discovered the bliss of brushing a donkey.
Amaryllis had to hold still for me to measure her. She is about as svelte as she ever gets and I wanted to have a baseline measurement for her (670 pounds according to the tape, which is really meant for horses). By the way, I looked up svelte because I wasn't sure how to spell it. Svelte, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary: thin in an attractive or graceful way; and a. slender, lithe. b : having clean lines : sleek. Hmmm. So maybe svelte isn't quite the right word to describe a donkey.
Lambs will be here at the end of February and I have been thinking about how fast they grow. Here are some of the 2013 favorite lambs as they grew up.
This is Marilyn with her mom, Hot Lips.
2 1/2 weeks old.
First in her class at Black Sheep Gathering, 4 months old.
Marilyn at 8 months old. Isn't she pretty? 
Santana at 10 days old. 
About a month old.
Not quite two months old. 
5 1/2 months old with a great horn spread.
Santana with his ewes 7 1/2 months old. 
That's Alex on the right at about 10 days old. Not much color on that side. Fortunately he has more on the other.
About 4 months old.
About 8 months old.
Alex after shearing, 9 months.
This is Cascade at 10 days old.
Two months old.
Here she is at 7 1/2 months.
Sunday was Shearing Day and we sheared 71 sheep (61 ewes and 10 rams and wethers). I said "we". Not really "we", but John, my fabulous shearer. The sheep looked great, the fleece looked great and he finished shearing in two and a half hours! Shearing was finished by 11:30.
Here are sheep ready to be shorn.
Clover.
Mary.
John started with the rams...
...and moved on to ewes.
Farm Club members were the other wonderful helpers who made it all work.
Alison spent the morning at the skirting table explaining skirting and helping buyers skirt their fleeces.
Shelby and Gynna were our sheep wranglers, making sure that there was always another sheep for John to shear.
Mary and Carol bagged fleeces while Anna swept and Jackie worked the exit gate.
Linda weighed and recorded fleeces. Other members helped too but I didn't get photos.
What would shearing day be without chili...
...and Dona's brownies (and Lisa's Jacob sheep cookies, Jackie's corn biscuits, Mary's wonderful tangy chicken and fancy rice krispie treats and more).
After shearing the sheep look so much thinner. This photo looks as though it was stretched vertically, but it wasn't.
Lila.
Cascade.
Gynna looks happy with her Farm Club fleece.
And look at this gorgeous one!
After shearing we (Farm Club again and other friends) did demos of all kinds of spinning and fiber prep, but that's another story, especially because it's too late to write more.
I made all these buttons this week.
Here are better photos.
I think I have a new audience for my buttons....
...How about using them for sorting practice for little kids? You can sort by shape, color, and size. You can arrange them in order of size. So they're not just for sweaters anymore! But at $6/button this would be a pricey sorting kit.
We really need rain, but I must admit that the weather is sure nice. I spent an hour in the pasture yesterday morning enjoying the fall color.
It's not just the trees that are colorful:
Red and yellow and green are pretty...
...but black and white are two of my favorites.
I usually have my i-phone (camera) with me but was glad I took the real camera to the barn this morning.
That is Celeste in the doorway.
Alison
Summer
Roxi
Ventura and Sonata
Laura is the third oldest ewe here. She is not really that old at almost 7 years.
Phyllis is an 8 year old lilac ewe.
This is Ears, the second BFL-cross that I have kept.
Here is Faulkner, the BFL ram. He gets to be "clean-up" ram and is out with all the breeding flock now.
I used red the first two weeks of breeding (starting October 1) and green the second two weeks. Almost all the sheep are marked with red and maybe a 6 or 8 with green. Faulkner has been with them for about 5 days and there are 3 yellow marks so far. 
Marilyn is my favorite of the lambs I'm keeping this year.
Amaryllis
Hendrix and his group of ewes have been in the back pasture since breeding season started and they have been at the north end of that pasture for a couple of weeks. Since hardly anything is growing (start the rain dance please) I figured that they couldn't do too much damage leaving them that long. I thought that maybe that could take down the dallisgrass and they actually did a pretty good job of it in most of the pasture. It is still a challenge however along the ditch and the fence-line. (If you search dallis in the blog search you'll see several posts about my attempts to conquer it.)
This is the north end of the property. Notice the blackberries on the north fence. I cut these away in the spring to uncover the electric fence wire on the inside of the field fence. The sheep could help in that job except that this time of year the dallis grass growing in and around the ditch keeps them from going over there. It may seem hard to believe that a grass keeps sheep from something, but this stuff is so coarse and strong it's like hacking your way through a jungle. And it's very sticky now from a fungus that grows on the seed head. Several years ago I found a ewe whose horns were so tangled in it that she was stuck upside down in this ditch. The only reason that I knew she was there was that she was baaing. The sheep in the photo above are in the ditch because I trampled some of the grass and put alfalfa there. 
This photo shows that they are making progress. Now I can actually see a ditch and the sheep can get through it to the side with the blackberries.
They are finding the hay in the blackberries and it makes it worth their while to work their way through the grass.
After about a week we have worked our way through the ditch and I'm putting the hay near the fence. 
Then I moved beyond the blackberries and had them trample the dallisgrass along the rest of the fenceline.
This is the east fence and it looked almost as full of grass before I started this project. It is more overrun with blackberries. The sheep have eaten some of the leaves off. I think I have to get in there with clippers now though. There is an electric fence hiding in there somewhere.
I put the rams in with the ewes on October 1. This is Day 16 so it's time to change the marker. The ewe's heat cycle averages 17 days. If one of the previously marked ewes is remarked then I know that she wasn't bred in the first cycle. If multiple ewes are remarked I may have a ram fertility problem. 
I changed the markers for all four rams from red to green.
Hendrix was not very happy about being tied up.
All he wanted was to get back to the ewe in heat.
The young ram, now named Santana, (second from right) wasn't put in with the ewes until October 7 but several ewes have been marked. 
As I was working with the sheep I heard geese honking. It's that time of year.
And here is the gorgeous evening sky.
It's time to think ahead five months to lambs. But that won't happen if I don't do something about it now. What with events and classes the last few weeks it was hard to get all the rams and ewes sorted into the right places but they are there now. 
Faulkner's ewes were first to sort because at least I knew where I would put them. They are staying in Faulkner's pen. He has 7 ewes.
Hendrix, with 18 ewes, tried to get started right away.
He didn't choose the right ewe.
Miller, with 9 ewes, had no problem figuring it out. Each ram wears a marking harness so that I know when each ewe is bred. I will change the markers to another color after two weeks. If the ewes are marked again then there may be a problem with ram fertility. 
Presley is another adult ram but I don't plan to use him because he is closely related to the others. (He is for sale.) He was hopeful when I moved him to another pen, but he gave up after finding that there were only ram lambs. 
I wanted to use one of this year's ram lambs for the fourth group of ewes. I had a hard time choosing among the rams I have saved. My first choice was a four-horn ram lamb who I think has promise and also placed well at the summer shows. Unfortunately, he was very sick with bluetongue (insect transmitted virus common in the fall) a few weeks ago. He pulled through (I lost two others) but with the 106+ temperature I can not be sure that he is fertile. He may have his chance next year, but this year I needed to find another ram. 
I chose a two-horn ram whose wool I like. He wasn't happy about the whole thing. The ewes were a little rough on him the first day. I could just hear the comments under their breaths "little pipsqueak", "a lot of gall thinking he can handle us", "take that" (rib-bashing)
There were times when I thought that this ram would do OK, but most of the time I found him lying down away from the ewes. I started to wonder if he also had bluetongue because he acted so depressed and showed no interest in food or the ewes. I finally removed him and chose a second ram. Now I think that he just wasn't ready to breed and the ewes knew that and beat him up. Most Jacob rams are ready to breed at six months, but not always. 
This guy seems to be interested and ready to go.
He weighs less than all these ewes but that doesn't seem to bother him (or the ewes).
Hendrix has been with his ewes for a week and seven are marked.
Miller has five marked.
Poor Amaryllis is exiled for the moment. I don't want the rams fighting through the fence so they are all in areas with no fence-line contact. Besides the four ram groups there are the non-breeding ewes (spring lambs, summer-lambing ewes, cull lambs) and non-breeding rams. That doesn't leave much space for Amaryllis since she has to be on a grass hay diet without pasture (she broke the grazing muzzle) or alfalfa. So she has her own corral for the moment.
The sheep follow me, always hopeful that I'll switch them to a new paddock.
They are in luck this morning.
The young lambs don't always figure out going around the post.
Now they're going the right way. 
Sheep aren't the only thing in the pasture.
Can you tell what I'm looking at?
The mosquitoes haven't been too bad this year, but that has changed now. The pasture mosquitoes are out in force. I don't go out in the pasture without my long sleeved "mosquito shirt".
DISCLAIMER: You wanted it real, right? At least that's what I hear from some people who say they want to know what it's like to raise sheep. So this post is real. No pretty pictures; in fact, some down-right yucky ones. A few sad stories. It's the other part of life on the farm. Skip this post if you don't want to know. Over the last couple of months I have had to deal with several relatively minor veterinary issues. If I had to call a vet for each of these I might as well give up raising sheep. There are some things you just have to do on your own. But also note that if I hadn't dealt with these issues as they arose they would have become much more serious. As it is, they are mostly nuisances, taking time away from other things on the never-ending list of things-to-do.
Problem: Ram horn growing too close to jaw.
It doesn't look too bad here but...
...here is how it looked after I cut the horn. There was already an open sore on the skin which is the perfect place for infection and fly strike to start. This ram was never registered and destined for butcher because of his horns and his personality. In fact I had counted on using his very cool striped horns for dozens of fabulous buttons. The sad story is that his horns were lost at the butcher facility and no one seems to know what happened to them. Discouraging.
Problem: Ram horn growing into skull.
This is Miller. He started life out with nice looking horns, but after one broke it started to grow in the wrong direction. (Those photos will be another post.) This is looking down and you can see the horn going into the top of his skull behind his ear.
This is the kind of saw that you use to cut horns. It's a wire piece with two handles. I can't find mine so this belongs to a friend (thanks, Jackie). 
Here is a close up after cutting the horn. It's hard to tell but the horn had already gone into the flesh making an open wound.
This is the same view covered with Swat, an product that keeps the flies away. It comes in clear or pink. I like pink because I can see that it is still there. Sorry boys. I took these photos in mid-June. It's early August and this horn needs to be cut again. I just looked up the wire saw on-line because I need to buy one. I read that the wire gets dull with use. No wonder that when I tried to cut this horn again I couldn't get anywhere. I will buy two of these wire saws (with the wire that can be replaced) and give one to Jackie.
Problem: Ewe depressed (not in the psychiatric way), not eating, getting worse quickly
One morning I found Hattie, an otherwise healthy 3 year old ewe who was in a group of ewes I had recently weaned, not wanting to eat and not responding to much I did. I was teaching a class that morning and couldn't do much other than put her in her own pen and get back to her later.
Do you see Hattie's posture in the photo above? That is known as star-gazing and sometimes is a result of a thiamine deficiency. I didn't think Hattie could see--not a problem with the eyes, but a neurologic problem. From Sheep101:
Polioencephalomalacia (PEM, CCN, polio, cerebrocortical necrosis) Polioencephalomalacia is a disease of the central nervous system, caused by a vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency. Since the rumen manufactures B vitamins, polio is not caused by insufficient thiamine, but rather the inability to utilize it. The most common symptom of polio is blindness and star-gazing. Polio most commonly occurs in lambs that are consuming high concentrate diets. Polio can also occur in sheep that consume plants that contain a thiamase inhibitor. Polio symptoms mimic other neurological disease conditions, but a differential diagnosis can be made based on the animals' response to injections of vitamin B1.
I knew that an injection of thiamine would clear this up if that was the problem so I called my vet (Dr. M) to get some. I gave Hattie the injection and saw no response. I talked to Dr. M and she asked if she could come out and bring some students who were helping her. (She said that if nothing else, I would be adding to the students' experience.) In the long run, we gave Hattie thiamin, calcium, and glucose to no avail. She died within a few hours. I took her to the Food Animal Health and Safety Lab at UC Davis and the necropsy report showed copper toxicity. That could also be the subject of another post someday. There have been a few other deaths associated with Cu toxicity and I don't know the source of the Cu.
Problem: Ram lamb with broken horn (and lots of blood and flies).
That is not the normal position of a horn. The lambs often break horns when they play and fight, but they usually break the outer covering off the horn, leaving a bloody core. It's messy, but if you do nothing (except use Swat on the head to keep flies away) it will dry up and heal and the horn will continue to grow. But not this one.
This is looking down on the ram's head. The lower horn broke at the base of the core which leaves a hole in the head. In this case you can't just put the horn back and expect it to reattach...and you have to be careful of infection and fly strike. I ended up taking this horn off entirely and then having to cauterize the wound to stop the bleeding. 
Swat again. I kept the ram in a pen for a day with a fan blowing to hopefully keep the flies off. The second day I decided he was better off in the field instead of the barn. He is now a 3-horn ram and is in the butcher line-up.
Problem: Ram with swollen jaw.
Remember this guy? This is the one from the first photos. I noticed a swollen jaw. My first thought is bottle jaw (caused by worm overload). On closer examination I saw something else.
This is a view of the underside of the jaw. 
Here is the solution. Cut the horn, take a photo, then apply Swat.
Problem: Ram with gooey eye.
This is Miller again. I noticed eye looking gooey and let this one go for a little while. (It's more work to catch the rams.)
After I took a closer look I realized that the gooey eye was a result of a wound (probably from rams fighting) and not due to illness. It was not only gooey, but the lids were swollen.
Clean up was in order.
More clean up and then Swat.
Problem: Ram with swollen jaw. 
This ram lamb has no horns to speak of so that is not the problem. At first I thought this one was bottle jaw also and I think I treated him with worm medicine. The swelling never subsided and then started to change from an even swelling to something that felt more like an abcess. I just realized that I have no more photos of this one and that's probably a good thing. This was a big abcess, probably from a foxtail. I treated it and kept the ram away from the others, but I could never get it to clear up well. This ram went with the last batch of rams who were butchered.
Back to pretty pictures next time.
From a management standpoint having new lambs in July is not very smart. It's like managing two separate flocks. On the other hand, it's always fun to see new lambs. More importantly I like to support the efforts of UCD and the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital in presenting the Livestock Nursery at the CA State Fair. It is a major attraction and helps to provide much-needed education to the public.
This year I took five pregnant ewes to the fair, and I visited the fair yesterday.
Dona has twins. I bred some of the ewes to Faulkner, the BFL, as well as to a Jacob ram. It was more important to have lambs, any lambs, than to have purebred Jacob lambs. I decided that in breeding out of season using two rams would be safer than counting on just one and that by using Faulkner I'd be able to tell which ram sired the lambs. I think that I have one of each here. The lambs are quite different looking.
Phyllis had a single ram and Clover had twins, all sired by Faulkner. 
Isadora was bred to a Jacob ram and has a nice single ram lamb. I had a phone call today that Foxglove has also lambed with a single ram. 
Here is a view of the nursery first thing in the morning. When I left at noon the place was packed.
I wandered around the fair for a little while before I left. I thought I'd check out a few of my favorite spots. I won't get much time to do that once I get there with the other sheep at the end of next week.
There is a memorial to September 11. In the background is a steel beam from one of the towers and in the foreground is a sphere on which is inscribed the names of all the victims of that horrendous tragedy. It floats and spins gently on a cushion of water.
I breezed through the art show. This caught my eye. That is plastic bottles (400 of them) pouring out of a culvert.
Here is a sculpture made of nails.
In the California Living exhibit I saw a crocheted bicycle...or I guess it is a bicycle with crochet touches.
Lots of beautiful quilts.
Solano County always prides itself on winning awards for the exhibit in the County Building. This year's display was a bit different. It not only included the rich agricultural diversity of the county, but told the story of Travis Air Force Base. 
My last stop was The Forest, a relatively quiet and cool spot in the busy, sun-drenched fairgrounds. This time, with the AZ tragedy still fresh in my mind and my fire-fighter sons both working now, I took notice of this memorial.
I see something wrong here. 
This may not be obvious to anyone but me. How about in the next photo?
Look more closely.
I wish that I could draw arrows on the photo but I don't have the right software. See the sheep on the left? How about the sheep in the back with the white horns. And the sheep in the right center with his head down. Yes, those are rams in the pasture with the ewes. And Amaryllis is in the ram pen. OOPS! Someone didn't latch the ram pen gate after she cleaned out the feeder.
BUSTED! You guys have to go back in.
Sorry, boys.
I was trying to take ram photos today. It's frustrating because they all stay in one cluster. I think part of that is due to the flies that bother the sheep this time of year. They stand together with their heads down.
This isn't exactly the kind of photo I'm looking for.
Or this.
Rusty helps move them around.
I had the best luck getting photos of this ram with the white horns, but he is not one I'm keeping for a couple of reasons. His lower right horn was already cut to keep it from growing into his cheek. The lower left is almost growing into his jaw and will need to be cut. He also shows no respect for people and as he gets older I think he could become a danger. Both rams in this photo are a year old, born at last year's State Fair in July. I am keeping Hendrix, the one with the black horns, at least for now. He just recently broke his top horns which is unusual for an adult ram.
This is a photo of the same ram taken in February. Do you see those ridges on all the horns a few inches from his head? There must have been some kind of stress (illness, parasites??) at that point in growth that results in a weak place in the horns. Now, as he fights or...
...rubs on a tree (even with electric fence there...ACHHH!) those horns have broken off where they were weak. (Also notice how far out they have grown since February.)
While we're looking closely at ram horns...
... take a closer look at the ram with the white horns.
So after dozens of photos this morning I didn't end up with the full body shots I had hoped for. I have a few head portraits.
Hendrix (Mud Ranch's Hudson x Meridian Shelby)
Miller (M. Clapton x M. Mable)
Presley (Sweetgrass Clint x M. Vicki)
Larry (Ruby Peak Linden x M. Spring)
Black Sheep Gathering in Eugene, Oregon is a favorite event for my friends and me. 
We gathered here on Thursday morning, loaded sheep, and were on the road only a little behind schedule. We made it to Eugene in about 8 1/2 hours, settled the sheep into their pens, and found our motel. Some years I camp, but this year a motel sounded good.
Friday was show day for the Jacob sheep.
I showed ram lambs, ewe lambs, and yearling ewes. My ewe lambs took first and third place in the ewe lamb class. 
My yearling ewe, Fandango, took first place in her class and was awarded Champion Jacob Ewe.
Besides showing sheep, what else is there to do at BSG? 
Admire several hundred sheep in the barn. This is a Bluefaced Leicester from the farm where I got my ram, Faulkner.
Admire wool.
Watch the wool show judging. These are the fleeces to be judged. After two days of judging the fleeces are for sale and dozens of spinners line up to be first in the door.
Shop! My friends are very good at that!
Watch sheep dog demos by my friend, Shannon and her amazing dog, Kate.
Take classes. Mary and Dona made these scarves in a nuno felting class.
Relax with friends.
Farm Club member, Tina, who moved to Portland last year, came to visit along with 10-week old puppy, Ragu. 
It has become tradition now to eat dinner at La Oficina. 
On Saturday afternoon all the breed champions are shown together and the judge chooses one to be Supreme Champion. Look at all those different sheep! 
It was a fun four days, but it's always good to get back to California. That's Mt. Shasta in the distance.
As much as I love to read, when I look at blogs I'd rather see photos...especially good photos. That is one reason I like Celi's blog, thekitchensgarden . I don't know how Celi finds the time, but she writes a daily post and it's fun to keep up with what is going on at her farm. Celi recently posted a request to see the views from her readers' back porches.
My back porch view isn't too exciting:
The back porch looks directly at the back door of my on-farm shop where I teach classes and sell fiber and yarn and related equipment. It's less appealing right now because we have been remodeling it and it's essentially a construction zone for the time being. Nevertheless, Farm Club members enthusiastically encouraged me to send Celi a photo.
Celi's idea made me think of other views that I thought I'd share. How about the views from the barn? 
From the second story of the barn looking northeast. That's G-2 (Dan's hide-out) on the left, and G-1 is hidden in the trees. My shop is barely visible in the break in the trees on the right and the house is behind that. By the way, none of those trees were here when we moved here in 1999. I'll have to post before and after photos some day.
View from the barn looking south. I irrigated yesterday so the sheep are all locked in to the barn area. Normally they would be in the pasture, which is strip grazed using electric fence.
View from the second story of the barn looking northwest. We are on the western edge of the Sacramento Valley and those hills are the easternmost part of the Coast Range. The mound in right foreground is the all important manure compost pile which features prominently in several Lamb Game Videos.
What about a view OF the barn?
Here is a view of the barn looking west. The sheep are on the non-irrigated side of the fence since the pasture will have to drain for a few days before they go back out. The house and the shop are to my right in this photo.
This is from the pasture looking north. 
And if I turn slightly and look more north I see the end of the shop and the house that my mom used to live in. Our house is right behind that one.
What about a view INSIDE the barn?
This isn't all the sheep. There are about 60 adults, counting rams, and 80+ lambs. There is Amaryllis in the upper right. The sheep can go under that fence, but Amaryllis has to stay on the other side so that she doesn't get the alfalfa I feed to the sheep.
There is another view that is important to me. We have only 10 acres, but it feels like much more because we are fortunate to live across the road from much larger farmland. This year's crop is sunflowers. It doesn't look like much now, but in a couple of months I know I won't be able to put my camera down when I walk over there.
This is the view of the field from my mailbox. I have been taking a photo of this same view once a week since January with the idea that it will be interesting to see at the end of the year.
Remember, without irrigation the Sacramento Valley would be a desert all summer.
Typical Jacob lamb:
Blue-faced Leicester x Jacob lamb: 
Here is Dad, below. Do you see a resemblance?
This is Onyx, one of last year's BFL x Jacob ewes, all grown up:
Of course, if you really want to see ears, look no farther than here: 
How does the Fibershed Marketplace get all those great photos? It takes a lot of work from everyone who is involved in the photoshoot but the photos are a credit to the skill of our wonderful photographer, Paige Green. I hosted the spring photoshoot and my friend, Jackie, organized everything. Here are some of my photos from the day.
We arranged items that were to be photographed. These are my Jacob shawls and scarves.
Jackie's hot pads and bangles.
Katharine Jolda's felted jacket
We turned one of my stalls into a dressing room. Shelby is a Farm Club member who consented to be one of our models.
First photos of the day were Sally Fox's sheepskins. There is a lot going on behind the scenes to create these photos. 
Alisa is Jackie's daughter and she became one of the models. Her boyfriend, Mark, was indispensable in assisting Paige with her equipment all day.
This is Brooklyn, our youngest model. She wore a hooded jacket and wool socks.
Meryl is being fitted by Marlie.
Paige used a variety of settings during the day. In this scene Allie modes her rabbit-skin vest.
Rusty was involved in the activity all day. He will write his own blog post about his involvement. 
We used the sheep in the photos of my handwoven pieces.
Meryl and Shelby modeled four shawls.
Give us a few weeks and you'll see all of these items and more available on the Fibershed Marketplace website.
At Meridian Jacobs farm we raise Jacob sheep and sell locally grown wool fiber, yarn, and handwoven goods. We teach fiber classes and sell Ashford, Clemes & Clemes, and Schacht spinning and weaving equipment. We encourage farm visits with field trips and our unique Farm Club.
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