Farm Day - help with sheep chores

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.  

Across the Road Close-up

I just wrote a post using photos that I took Across the Road from our mailbox. I started that to document the changes in the field that we see from our house everyday. The photos themselves are kind of boring and not all that attractive. Here is some of what I see when I walk Across the Road. (And here is Rusty's version.) Last year the main crop was sunflowers but there is a corner of land owned by someone else. Last summer's crop on that parcel was corn. Hot dog. Irrigating the sunflower field. Pollenating the sunflowers. Stickers in someone's fur. Sometimes our road seems like an alfalfa highway. Swarm of bugs. Another hot dog.  Irrigation water. This sure looks appealing when it is 100+ degrees.  Signs that I'm not the only one Across the Road.   Hope of the next harvest.

Last Year's View Across the Road

We don't have very much acreage, but across the road is a much larger parcel. We appreciate living here and being able to walk, run the dogs, and just a enjoy the view across the road. In 2013 I planned to take photos from the same location, of the same view, and at the same time each week to document the changes through the year. You probably don't mind that it didn't work because who would want to see 52 photos of the same thing? This field has been planted to alfalfa for several years but in 2013 there were sunflowers. Here is the year Across the Road:  January 10 January 25 January 31 March 7 March 26 April 4 April 11 May 5 May 21 May 28 June 13 July 4July 12 August 8 September 30October 10October 18 November 24December 31

There you have it. I stood at the mailbox for each photo. But the photos are obviously now always the same view or even using the same camera.

The most striking thing in my mind is how dry it was last year. The Central Valley of CA enjoys a Mediterranean climate which means hot dry summers and cool wet winters. We rely on winter rainfall to replenish aquifers and reservoirs to provide the water that keeps the valley from being a desert in the summer. This link shows graphs of the average precipitation and temperature for our area. According to accuweather.com the average annual rainfall for Sacramento is 18.5". We have had only 30% of that (5" in all of 2013). The hills (and the field across the road) should be green right now with the growth of the annual grasses that germinate from fall rains. Grass started to grow with each of the two (only 2) rainy days that we had but has mostly dried up.

On the bright side, I'm not slogging through calf-deep mud when doing chores and we don't have to run the sump pump to keep the the water heater in the basement from flooding.

Hoping for a wet 2014!

Early Morning Sheep Portraits

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. AlisonSummerRoxiVentura and SonataLaura 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  

Odds & Ends...or what do I do all day?

I am always behind, but this year I feel more behind than ever in the weaving department. I read the blog of a production weaver I know and she commented that any weaving she does now through the end of the year is "extra". Everything for this season's sales is finished. What? I should have woven my scarves and blankets LAST January? I thought about it. I also thought about it in March and July and August and September. I knew that I'd get to it in October. What have I been doing when I should be weaving? Here are a few examples beside the obvious sheep farming, Lambtown, etc. Last week I hosted a field trip of middle school home-schooled kids and their families. We spent a couple of hours in the barn and at the shop. After lunch I guided them through a needlefelting project.  They all made up their own designs. This is one student's work. Cute, huh?

I taught a Learn to Weave class a couple of weeks ago.

Here is the scarf woven by a brand new weaver. She used Zephyr Jaggerspun yarn and doubled it in warp and weft. It turned out great!One of the students couldn't come back on the second day of the class and she finished her scarf today. This is a close-up. She used Jaggerspun Maine-Line yarn. I taught three students in a Rigid Heddle Scarf class, which, by the way, I will offer again once in December. No more other classes until January.  This is the blackberry jungle growing (for those of you who know the farm) just north of Faulkner's pen--in fact part of this IS the fence-line for Faulkner's pen. There is an engineered septic system under those shorter blackberries that is supposed to be maintained and inspected every year.  This is what I did on Sunday after working another several hours on the final Lambtown reports and finances. There is still a lot of blackberry work to do but at least the septic guys can get to the valve covers. Farm Club was here all day on Saturday and helped with the list of chores on the clipboard. We didn't get to all the barn cleaning, but did a lot of other stuff. Maybe I'll ask Rusty to write a post about that since he hasn't done much writing lately.It's the time of year that the pomegranates need to be picked or they will split (if we ever get any rain that is).

When I take the dogs for a run across the road I see all the black walnuts going to waste. Here is what to do with them. Boiling black walnuts. 

Add white yarn.End up with brown yarn.

Maybe I'll get to the loom tomorrow...after I take my kids to the airport.

What did I do to deserve such Good Friends?

Farm Club (and others) came through again. Expanding the shop has been an ordeal that started five months ago. The last step was to paint. Farm Club friends volunteered to help so I set a date. If they hadn't offered I'd probably still be procrastinating. I have been looking at these paint samples for months and finally chose one. But first everything needed to be primed. This is where the new section joins the old.  This is part of the original  building. It's actually an old mobile home, which hasn't been mobile in decades. I painted it about a dozen years ago after we first moved here. This is at the south end. The window trim on the south end and much of the east side was rotten. The wood beneath was also rotten in some places. It has been very discouraging and overwhelming--trying to figure out how to deal with it. (Don't look up dry rot on Google unless you want to get depressed.) Some of this still has to be fixed before the whole project is completed, but we moved on with what we could do.   It was extra nice that a couple of husbands also volunteered to help. The more the merrier!   I don't know if Mary overcame her dislike of ladders, but she persevered anyway to paint the eaves. We worked all day yesterday with brushes to get that primer into the wood. Today I got out the new paint sprayer. I don't have photos yet of the completed job. There are still windows to fix and more trim to paint, but I am so grateful to my friends for their help that I wanted to write this now. In addition to giving up their weekend days, most of them had to drive an hour to get here.  I can't thank them enough. There will be another post when the job is completely finished.

Things Learned While Moving a Hay Stack

 The view from the top is interesting, but not always reality.Gravity is your friend......but when that doesn't work, use leverage.  Don't wear your best jeans.    You get what you pay for. (Don't be fooled by the duct tape. This is a great hay hook.)Be aware of your surroundings. Dogs aren't much help when moving hay.Use brains when you don't have enough brawn. That's 80 bales of hay, about 100 pounds each. If you don't use it, you lose it. But if you use it too much, go for the ibuprofen.One down, more to go.

Getting Ready for BSG

It always takes so long to get ready to leave on a trip. This time it should be easy. I'll only be gone for 4 days. Dan will be here to feed sheep and dogs. I'm not packing up a vendor booth. I am taking sheep, however. Friends and I are going to Black Sheep Gathering in Oregon for four days. Dan has been fixing up the box on the truck that holds the sheep. New gates, new paint, new wood. Pack the tack box. Check. Match up the coats to fit the sheep so that they don't get full of blowing straw in the back of the truck. Check...well sort of. I found the coats and dumped them out. I'll have to figure out sizes tomorrow a.m. Figure out which fleeces to deliver and have made into felt. Scratch that one. No time. No energy. Deal with the bills and paperwork. I did go through the piles to find the sheep registrations that I've been meaning to mail and will now deliver. Good thing. I found my AAA membership bill...now expired. I'll call in the morning and get reinstated. Jacob Sheep registrations. I was going to get a pile of those done tonight. Nope. Water my pathetic very late-started garden. I finally just threw zinnia seeds in the larger empty area. It would be nice to have something growing even if it is not edible.  Move more boxes into the shop so that it doesn't look so messy outside. No time for that. Tarp it again. Paint shelves so that they will be useable when I get back. I cut and painted three. Work on truck. Dan changed the oil and rotated the tires. I cleaned the inside, including the console that collects all the junk--I'm not sure that has been cleaned out since we bought the truck from my son years ago. Notice my little mower there. I mowed one paddock this morning. Dan will irrigate while I'm gone (that's worth going all by itself--having someone else irrigate.) (Chris, if you read this, notice the hood up on the jeep--didn't start.) Remember that I didn't plan what to do about signs for over my sheep pens. I found a magnetic white board that the magnetic sign fits perfectly. It will hang from a PVC pipe framework painted black.Getting late. We put the box on the truck about 11:30. I guess we'll be doing more to get ready in the morning.

Views of the Farm

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.

Meet the Sheep 2013

Another great day at the farm and another day that I'm so thankful to Farm Club and my other friends! Meet the Sheep is our annual spring Open House event. It is a big undertaking, but with the help of Farm Club and my family (and some luck with the weather) it went very well. Mary, Joy, and Gynna are three of the crew that arrived early to help with set up. Notice the threatening weather. Just before visitors were due to arrive I brought the sheep in from the pasture... ...and moved them to the pasture near the shop so that they would be ready to Meet the People.  Jackie set up a booth... ...as did Colleen. I resurrected some displays from my Shear Delight days.Shelby and Dona tried out the new photo station that was created by Dona and Rick.The scheduled demonstrations were very popular.  Alison demonstrated spinning. Colleen taught Solar Dyeing with Kool-aid......and how to felt a bowl using a balloon.   Julie brought baby chicks and bunnies and showed people how to handle the bunnies. I think she won in the Cuteness Category today... ...although Mary's triplets were popular as were the three bottle babies and the six newest lambs.  Julie also talked about dyeing fiber.Janis made this cool poster using wool from a fleece she bought in November. And that's it for my photos although there was a lot more going on. We were so busy that I was in the shop the rest of the day!Good thing that Dona brought brownies for lunch!

Field Trip Season

I found a new Season. Field Trip Season. I've had 4 field trips here in the last couple of weeks. I don't get very good photos during field trips because I'm the one who is leading the field trip, but I'll use a few. Today I'll share yesterday's field trip because I got to be a participant (as opposed to leader) of part of it.Fibershed sponsored a field trip for representatives of Smartwool, Northface, Lucy (and maybe others) to learn about our end of textile production. Many (most?) people who purchase and use fabric, individually or commercially, don't necessarily have a sense of where it comes from. The goal of this trip was to expand the awareness of fiber production--the animals, the farmers, the soil and plants--and the importance of supporting sustainable local farms, and the idea that there is plenty of wool grown in N. CA but not the infrastructure to turn it into cloth. That is a primary goal of Fibershed--to set in motion the creation of that infrastructure and to create thriving businesses that support farmers, designers, fiber processers, and consumers. Whew! Pretty lofty goals? I am always amazed at what Rebecca (creator of Fibershed) has coming up next. I really hope that you'll spend some time on the Fibershed website  because I think it's one of the most important non-profit groups you'll find. On to the field trip. I expected 5-6 people. There was a busload! First stop for us was the pasture. The sheep performed admirably. I had waited to move the fence for the day's grazing until the field trip was here. The sheep rushed to the fresh pasture just like they always do. This is the group in the pasture. We spent a lot of time discussing pasture management, irrigation, choice of breed, wool types, etc. Friend, Dona, brought this board over, getting ready for Meet the Sheep on Saturday. Some of the braver visitors tried it out.

The second part of the tour was a trip to Mary Pettis-Sarley's ranch in the hills west of Napa.  Mary has a variety of sheep, cattle, and alpacas who live in a beautiful setting. She creates Twirl yarn using unique blends of the fibers she grows. The yarns are all natural colored or dyed with natural dyes from plants that grow on the ranch. The "I" in these labels indicates that the dyeplants are invasive species.  A major challenge of raising livestock in the hills is the predator problem. Mary has 17 dogs, most of whom are various breeds of livestock guardian dogs (LGD). They can be intimidating when you drive onto the property, but aren't so scary once they know you're on the approved list (or maybe that you're not a 4-legged hungry visitor). Mary let out the bottle babies... ...and I think her part of the field trip won the Cuteness Factor award.  We were accompanied by two of the pets on the way to Mary's wool washing station.Now I'm jealous, not only of the property, but of this. Maybe I'd wash more of my own fleeces if I could figure out a set-up like this. Here is where the fleeces are dried. Mary had several fleeces spread out so that the visitors could handle them and feel the characteristics that we'd been talking about all day.  A couple of scarves knit with Mary's yarn. As I drove way I saw some of Mary's cows. As it happens, these cows are the daughters and granddaughters of Jennie, a Brown Swiss cow that Mary got from us when we left our dairy life in 1998. Talk about happy CA cows. These truly have a happy life.Look at their view of the Napa Valley if they choose to look up from all that grass. (Alpacas in this photo--they were right next to the cows.)

Felting Field Trip

Today I hosted a field trip of 4-Hers led by Carol of Joshua Farm Shetlands. They came to talk about Jacob sheep, pasture management and the fiber business and to do a felting project.  The morning started in the pasture. Most people that come to see the farm want to spend time with sheep, but it is very important to understand that we should think of ourselves as "grass farmers" first. I couldn't possibly have the number of sheep that I do without irrigated pasture and intensive grazing management.We discussed sheep, facilities and ended the livestock part of the tour by looking at the Dead Zone (I just thought of that name). There are ram skulls in that fence in various stages of decomposition. As we explained to the kids, we want to sell every part of the animal we can.  We came back to the shop for lunch and then a felting workshop. The idea was to felt a sheep.  Some of the sheep had morphed significantly into other life forms: Snail. Duck.Aren't these cool? Before they left the 4-H group was gracious enough to help my son out with his photography assignment. He is supposed to submit an interpretation of Social Awareness and decided to stage a family picnic in which it is obvious that everyone is more involved in their electronic devices than each other.

No one seemed to mind the time for this, but the girls crowded around the iPad kept asking for the password.

It Takes A Farm Club ...

I've thought about titles for this post for a couple of days, but I've been too busy and/or too tired to write it. It Takes A Farm Club to Run a Farm. Or Farm Club Experiences Life and Death. FC met here on Saturday. I am so appreciative of everyone in FC. I know that they are getting experiences they wouldn't otherwise, but I am benefiting tremendously as well. There was a lot going on that day. My day started with a ewe that I though might have milk fever. I treated her with calcium gluconate and put her with her lambs in a pen so I could watch her. The first FC members arrived as another ewe, Onyx was lambing. Lambing pens ......and the rest of the barn were cleaned while we kept an eye on Onyx. Onyx is a BFL/Jacob cross bred to a Jacob. She had a black lamb and a Jacob-looking lamb while FC looked on. I'm glad that she lambed in the barn. If she had been in the field I would have been looking all over for a Jacob ewe missing a lamb.Look at the horns on that lamb. Ouch! It's unheard of to irrigate this early in the year, but we have had almost no rain since December. The irrigation district charged the ditches so I put in a call for water. Gynna and Lisa helped by clearing debris from the ditch. We checked this ewe lamb's broken leg. I showed FC members my bone-yard ( a pen where I put skulls that are in various stages of decomposition). Shelby sat with the ewe who later died (not of milk fever, but  a metabolic problem similar to pregnancy toxemia, according to preliminary necropsy results).Then we had to bottle feed her lambs. (The day before I had just grafted the bottle baby I had onto a ewe. Now I have more bottle lambs.) And there are always plenty of lambs to hold. We checked all 70 lambs for split eyelids and number of horns and I gave them all BOSE injections. I don't have photos, but a guest of a FC member worked on my buttons--sanding buttons that I had cut out months ago.  We can't have Farm Day without Donna's brownies...and now Lisa's sheep cookies and  Mary's O'Henry bars.  Thank you to everyone who came and helped and then shared the warm afternoon sun.

Lambs are Here!

Lambs were due on Thursday, 148 days after the first breeding date. I've started watching for early arrivals. Last night I went out at about 12:30 a.m. (after finishing bookkeeping for the night) and found two ewes with four lambs. I brought them into the lambing pen area and tried to sort out moms and babies. I finally assigned two lambs to each ewe and they all seemed happy. In the light of day I realize that the sets of twins are split up. But that's OK as long as each lamb has a happy mom. This is a beautifully marked ram lamb. Meridian Celeste x Kenleigh's Matrix. The two parents are both lilac (the color of this lamb) and they should have lilac offspring.  This is his adopted twin, but he is black so I think belongs to the other mom. (Meridian Zoey x Meridian Fogerty) Here is a lilac ewe lamb (although in the photo she looks black) so this is the twin to the first one.  Meridian Loretta lambed with twins in the middle of the day. I put Loretta in a pen and came back an hour later. No muss, no fuss. Twins clean and nursing. This is a ewe lamb. Meridian Loretta x Kenleigh's Matrix. Here is that first lamb again. I usually just number the lambs and let buyers give them names.  This lamb is tempting me to name all my lambs. I don't have his name yet, but I'll think of one. Lambing season has started.  

Phyllis Returns Home

Phyllis is a lilac ewe who was born in 2005. She was sold as a lamb to someone who eventually got rid of her flock. Phyllis came home the first time in 2010 as the owner was on the way to the auction with her sheep. It was a surprise when she lambed in January, 2011 with two black lambs. It seems that she was bred during that last trailer ride.  Look at the size of those lambs at about 5 months old. This is what made me think about getting a ram to raise crossbred lambs for market. That's how Faulkner's story here began.  In 2011 Phyllis went to a nearby farm as a companion to Diamond, an elderly sheep (a Pensioner in Jackie's story about this event). Due to the owner's ill health the sheep needed to go, so Jackie and I picked them up yesterday. Diamond is living at Jackie's and Phyllis came back here.   Phyllis and Diamond in the back of Jackie's van. Diamond at Jackie's place.She's in the front of the group here and that's Marley going to greet her.  Here we are back at my place. Phyllis has a very nice fleece.  She is right in the middle there--the one with more fleece.

Welcome home, Phyllis.

A Frosty Morning

Who lives here?

How about here?

What a beautiful day, though cold. Good Morning.