Shearing at Other Farms

A few weeks ago two of my friends did their fall shearing. Since I didn't have to do any work I just visited and took photos.

I don't know which is which but this is one of Jackie's Herdwick sheep, either Heddy or Hazel.

I do know this ewe because she lived here for many years. This is Diamond who is now almost 17 years old.

Lucy is Diamond's granddaughter. She is almost 10. 

Camelids are not my favorite animals but they can be photogenic. Jackie's llama is named Peridot...

...and her alpaca is Evangeline.

Jackie's flock after shearing. Jackie shears twice a year because many of her sheep are long-wools and benefit from twice/year shearing. The Jacob sheep will be shorn in the spring.

The next shearing location was Colleen's place. 

This is Colleen's older ram, Razor,...

...and her younger ram, Thor.

When doing anything with the rams at Colleen's farm you have to deal with the Goose. (Thanks, Dona for this photo.) The Goose is bonded with and protective of Razor (as if he needs protecting) but has a sincere dislike of Thor. Thor usually has to live separately to keep the goose from continually harassing him.

Razor is about as big as John, the shearer, and probably weighs more.

Velvet, the cat, enjoying the sun and the smell of lanolin.

Colleen raises Romeldale and CVM sheep that have very fine wool...

...and the unique "badger" face pattern.

After shearing we enjoyed surprise birthday cupcakes (mine--yes, I chose to spend my birthday watching sheep shearing) at Colleen's outdoor table. Velvet joined us.

Dryer Ball Experiment

Turn massive amounts of fluffy wool into something smaller. That is my goal as I try to organize the workshop end of my shop so that I can get to my looms. I think there is a principle of physics in here somewhere.

I have been making dryer balls to sell but it has been hit or miss. Sometimes they turn out great and other times they are not so good. What makes a good dryer ball? Firm instead of squishy. A sphere instead of strips of felted wool connected in random places. The success of a dryer ball has to do with the type of wool (breed of sheep) and the fiber preparation (carded or not). As I use up odds and ends of fiber I'm never sure if the end result will be worth the time and use of fiber so I decided to do some testing.

This is the "before" showing 17 different wool types and/or preparations from wool that I drum carded wool to commercial top to pre-felted wool and breeds including Merino, Jacob, and Suffolk. I included a different color of yarn with fibers that I might need help to identify after felting.

This photo shows the "after" in the same order as the "before" photo. The least successful here were the "white prefelt"and the Suffolk. You might not be able to tell from the photo, but they did not felt hard at all. The Merino/alpaca felted well, but the alpaca fibers poke out giving a hairy appearance. Some of the other balls have more "hairiness" depending on the amount of coarse fibers in the mix of wool.

Another view of the same balls.

This is the latest batch of balls that just need to be matched up and labeled. The white balls are mostly Merino and the gray balls are Jacob wool.

You can purchase my dryer balls at the Artery, at my shop, or on the website.

Two Sides of the Road

On Saturday I left before dawn to get to Pt. Reyes Station for the annual Fibershed Wool Symposium, one of my favorite events. I was driving through the hills towards Vallejo as the sun was coming up. Here are the views to the east and the west as I drove.

Please look past the dirty car window.

It was so beautiful I wanted to watch both sides of the car. But I really needed to watch the road instead so I just held the phone up and clicked to get these photos.

This was a complete rainbow but I couldn't capture that with the phone, and not while I was driving.

A Retreat

Some friends and I had planned a retreat for a few days last week--a get-away to a house in the mountains with as many craft projects as we could fit in our cars. As it turns out it was also a retreat, albeit briefly, from the political scene. We watched, stunned, on Tuesday, but then were able to postpone thinking about it for the most part while we enjoyed friendship and fiber and walking in the woods. Some of us brought dogs.

Ginny will write her own post about the week.

I debated taking a dog. Rusty couldn't go because he would have had a difficult time with all the stairs in the house where we were staying. Maggie wouldn't be my first choice because she gets car sick. Ginny is the one that would be going stir-crazy left home while Dan was at work all day. So Ginny came with me and I'm glad I brought her. Having her there made me get out and walk at least twice every day. It would have been very easy to just stay inside and work on my projects, but I'm glad that I didn't miss the beautiful woods. The weather was fabulous, although a bit scary to have summer-like weather in November. Of course I had my camera with me on some of the walks.

The walks were refreshing (and necessary for Ginny), but most of my focus was spent on my projects. I didn't get to everything but made a valiant effort, staying up late every night. We shared the cooking so I only spent one evening in the kitchen and that was making an easy batch of mac and cheese.

It might be hard to tell what this is from the photo. When it is delivered to my granddaughter in December it will have a covered mat on the floor, a hula-hoop supporting the scalloped roof and be supported from the ceiling. It has windows (thanks for demonstrating, Mary), inside pockets, and a door with glittery decorations. If I have time I will weave a rag rug with the leftover material. This is soooo cute, but it took soooo long to sew...and I'm not quite finished.

This is a photo of all my projects for the 3-1/2 days. You can see on the pattern envelope how the canopy looks when it is set up. From bottom left and around: a batch of 41 dryer balls ready to be felted, a rag runner woven on the Cricket loom, a baggie of walnuts ready for the freezer (those weren't mine because I didn't get to cracking any that we didn't eat--I need to finish this at home), Ginny :-) , six chenille scarves fringed (half of the 12 that I brought), and a warp wound for two ponchos. Not shown is the painted warp that I did that was in a plastic bag ready to come home and be rinsed.

I drove home Friday, but not before stopping at the lake. It doesn't seem right to go to Lake Tahoe and not actually go to the lake.

Ginny learned quickly that she could retrieve her ball from the lake but she'll tell you about that in Rusty's blog.

The Right Decision

We all have to make difficult decisions at times. I was in that position last month about a ram I had bought only a couple of months previously. Today I had confirmation that I made the right call. WARNING: There are some yucky photos part way through this post. I wrote this blog post about the trip to pick up a new ram in early August. I have looked through my photos and can't find a "before" photo of the left side of Legolas. This is the one that was posted on Facebook by the seller:

In early September I noticed that his horn looked like this on the left:

That left horn is touching his face. I knew that the horn wasn't like that when I bought the ram and I was amazed that it could grow so fast that in a month. There was no obvious sign of damage. I had noticed flies around his horns, but again, no sign of blood or a wound. With the horn that close to his face it would be a problem if it continued to grow that direction, putting pressure on the jaw. Even if it didn't grow more there would be continued skin irritation at the point of contact.

A few days later I caught Legolas to figure out what to do about that horn. I couldn't even get my finger between the horn and the jaw. Here is what surprised me. When I held the horn not only did it move, but I could see movement in part of the skull where the horn was attached. Yikes!

Behind the horns I found a small opening, which got a little bigger as I scrubbed with hydrogen peroxide. This had been covered with hair and really wasn't visible until I started  cleaning up around it. I could squeeze out a little bit of pus but not very much. There was minimal blood or drainage and the edges of that wound looked already healed over, just not healed together to close up the pocket.

I could move the horn (and skull) so that there was a little space between the horn and the jaw, so I tried to anchor the horn in place with duct tape and wire attached to the other horn. (This was the most mild-mannered ram I've ever worked with.)

This is all the progress that was made by that--not much but better than touching the jaw.

That pink stuff is Swat to keep flies away. As I was working on this I was thinking that I didn't remember these rams fighting, but that would be the only way to account for this injury. At the time I think I just had Catalyst and Marv in the ram pen. When I first brought this ram home I used the "buddy-up" pen, a very VERY small pen where the rams can tussle with each other but not move backwards and run at each other. They usually fight in this small pen where they can barely turn around and when they move to the big pen after a couple of days they mostly behave themselves. They may still posture and fight but hopefully they quickly figure out the hierarchy and the hitting isn't as violent.

I looked back through my videos and found one of Catalyst (another two-horn ram) and Legolas making some pretty hard hits. Then I remembered that a few days after I moved them all out to the ram pen I was worried about Legolas. He seemed "off", shaking his head and not eating much. Nasal bots will make sheep very uncomfortable.

Legolas also had bloody lips and gums. I remembered talking to my vet to find out if that was a another symptom of bluetongue because bluetongue causes edema, ulceration, and soreness of the mouth, in addition to listlessness and not eating (because of the sore mouth). At that time I treated him for nasal bots and with antibiotics to prevent secondary infection due to bluetongue. Eventually he got better.

But now, a month later, I realized that he had probably been injured the month prior but the damage to his skull was not obvious.

The wire and duct tape didn't work. I didn't take long for Legolas to start scratching and rubbing on the tree and fence and put the horn right back where it had been. I thought about using rebar or something stouter but I knew that I wouldn't be able to rig up something stable enough to keep the horn in place and besides I wasn't able to move it enough to be a long term fix. This was not a sustainable situation.

I made the decision to put the ram in the freezer. I am in the sheep business, not the sheep rehab and geriatrics business. Butchering the ram would provide meat and I would have his hide and skull to sell.

Before I can sell the skull it needs to be cleaned. I take the easy way out and put it out in the back and let nature take its course. Today some Farm Club members were here and some of them wanted to see the skull. I was amazed that we could clearly see the damage done to the skull by the fighting. This photo shows the skull fracture clearly:

I have had two other rams die from fighting. Once, early on in my Jacob-raising days, one ram killed another (a 6-month old ram lamb owned by my friend but here for breeding) through the electric fence. The ram lamb was standing when I went into the barn and lying dead at the fence when I came out. (I tried butchering that one myself but that wasn't so easy. Now that I'm thinking of that I remember that my daughter and I finally dug a hole to bury him, thinking that eventually we'd be able to dig up a skeleton--she was taking a taxidermy class at the time.) Now I do all I can to separate breeding groups without fence-line contact. Another time I was watching when two rams (that had been buddies just a moment ago) started fighting and one staggered away and finally dropped. I took a wheelbarrow in to the pen to get him out and found that he was still breathing. I guess he was in a coma because it's not normal to be able to load a living adult ram into a wheelbarrow, but I did. I was able to have that one butchered to salvage meat and hide.

The other memorable fighting ram story is about Ranger, a ram that had a beautiful fleece and personality. He wasn't killed fighting but suffered a skull fracture. With that one I discovered how serious it was when I saw his eye bulging from it's socket. The swelling in his head was so bad that it pushed the eye forward and the lid couldn't close over it. I don't remember if the vet came out or we just talked on the phone, but remember  treating and covering the eye and I kept the ram in a small pen until the swelling went down and there was no movement of the horn and skull.

At the time I asked the vet how to tell if there was brain damage. I still remember her answer: "It's not like he has to drive heavy machinery."

Friends

Friday morning.

Oops! Fortunately this was later Friday morning, not all night, or Amaryllis might have been sick from eating too much.

Friday was Spinners Day Out. My friends are really good (unlike me) about remembering and recognizing other friends' birthdays. But they had already done that for me on Wednesday when we were at a sheep shearing and they brought cupcakes and cake.

So this was a big surprise.

Presents too! I told them that I'd find something fun to spend the gift certificate on--not just dogfood and fence posts. The cartoon shows another Shearing Day task to be assigned. I guess the person working the gate will have to bring a mirror.

This is one of Lisa's little weavings.

One of the cool things about it is that it is labeled on the back with the dye she used and its all from my Jacob yarn.

I am lucky to have such thoughtful wonderful friends.

Consolidating Breeding Groups

For almost four weeks I've had sheep in five different breeding groups plus a non-breeding group. It doesn't take long before I'm tired of dealing with that. By last Friday all the ewes were marked and very few were being re-marked so it was time to pull out a few rams.

Dragon, this 4-horn ram, went back to his farm up the rad from here. Buster went with him to finish up the job there. Joker went back to the ram pen with Marv (after spending a couple of days in the "buddy-up" pen, or "jail" as I also think of it.

Faulkner was a lucky ram who got to stay out with his ewes for another month or so. However, he knew that something was going on in the barn and thought that maybe he should really have a few more ewes on his side of the gate.

All the rest of the ewes were consolidated into one group and spent some time meeting and greeting.

"How are you Fran? Did you hear what happened to...?"

"What is that scent you're wearing?...Who have you been hanging around?"

Catalyst is the Jacob ram who stayed out with the ewes. He spent some time introducing himself to the ewes who had been in the other groups but they all ignored him.

Here is he after another couple of ewes were turned into the field.

Happy boy even though he's not seeing any action.

A Walk in the Woods

This morning I drove to my son's house in El Dorado County to work on some computer issues. When there was a break in the rain we drove a short distance to Bridal Veil Picnic Area on the South Fork of the American River to take the dogs for a walk.

I just used my iPhone for photos because I didn't want to deal with the other camera in the rain  so it's hard to see Kirin in this shot. He's way out in the river swiming back with a tennis ball. That's Sam nearer the shore and Ginny trying to decide about the river. Ginny isn't use to going on walks without the focus of The Toy or The Ball.

This Ball was Kirin's and it wouldn't have been smart for Ginny to compete for it.

Eventually though I took one ball and when Kirin was distracted in one direction Ginny got to go for the ball in another. I didn't want to throw it too far out in the river because #1, I wasn't sure how far she would go out to get it and #2, we weren't sure if she could handle the current if she did go out farther.

She did get plenty of ball time on the trail.

The people were looking at things besides tennis balls.

We spent about an hour and needed to get back to the house.

What a beautiful interlude. The rain makes everything look and smell so clean and fresh.

Hug a Sheep Day

Hug a Sheep Day originated a few years ago at Punkin's Patch and we think its a great idea! We were a little concerned with the forecast (rain from midnight through noon, then clearing). We went ahead with plans and didn't see rain all day.  In fact the sun came out and the welcome rain from the previous week had cleared the sky, washed away the dust, and started the grass growing. Beautiful!

Farm Club friends came early and helped set up pens and find the huggable sheep. Jade will follow you anywhere for a chin scratch.

Jazz likes those scratches too.

This is Jade and Jazz both lined up for attention.

Jazz is probably the most huggable sheep here.

Spinners enjoyed the wonderful weather and the camaraderie.

Alison is wearing her handspun 4-ply Jacob vest. Notice the very cool felt Christmas stocking in the background. Jackie was here with her Sheep-to-Shop booth but I didn't get good photos of that.

Claire is a friend I've known since we were in college in Davis in the 70's.

I kind of like this photo because it shows a lot about the marketing of a small sheep farm. Alison and Stephany are both Farm Club members, Alison is wearing yarn from the fleece she bought several years ago, Stephany is knitting more yarn, and she bought a skull, and of course there is the sheep ready to be shorn again in a few months.

At the end of the day we decided there should be a group hug, although I realize now that this was more of a group picture than a group hug.

Next year we'll make sure we all get in on the hug part.

Dyeing with Davis Spinners Guild

I like it when guilds want to hold their meetings at my place. I usually get to those meetings!

Today, DSG member, Jen had offered to set up several natural dye pots. We used several heat sources to heat the dyes. Jen brought all the dyestuffs along with plenty of pots and jars and we all dyed sample skeins of wool.

Pomegranate rinds.

Oak galls.

Onion skins.

Peach leaves.

Black walnuts.

A watched pot...

While waiting for the pots to cook we chatted and spun. Jen spun brown cotton directly from the bolls that she grew herself.

Time to check the yarn. This is madder root dye.

Removing fiber from one of the pots.

Jen had wood shavings from several exotic hardwoods and extracted the dye by soaking them in vodka. (She wondered about what the guy in the store thought when she asked for the strongest, cheapest vodka in the biggest quantity that he had.) We used one pot to dye with all five of those extracts by using half-gallon jars in the pot.

Look at the color of the Red Heart!

Here is yarn dyed with peach leaves coming out of the pot.

These are the yarn that I dyed. From left to right: oak galls, black walnut, Red Heart wood,  peach leaves, onion skins, pomegranate.

The dogs were allowed to join us after awhile. Ginny, ever hopeful that someone will throw a toy for her.

Thanks so much to Jen for organizing this and bringing all the equipment and dye. And thanks to the Davis Spinners Guild for being such a fun group!

The Lucky Ones

As you must know when there are almost 80 lambs born in the spring I can't keep them all. How many sheep would I have in 5 years? Who can do the math? My sheep capacity is about 55-65 adults. That includes a few wethers, more rams than I probably need, and the ewe lambs that I choose to keep. Someone has to go and a handful get to stay. I just sent registration applications in for the lambs who are staying here. I was going to share their photos and then I thought that it would be fun to see their baby photos as well. For those of you who pay attention to who the sheep are I have included the (sire x dam).

This one is Sylvia and the photo below was taken last week. (Rotor x Sonata)

Here is Marilla (named in a contest for her mother, Marilyn, and because she was our Spinzilla ravatar) in March and below in September. This is a good pair of photos that show that even when a sheep is black and white, the wool may look brown due to sun bleaching. The markings on the face and legs will indicate the true color, at least in Jacob sheep.

This is Marilla's brother, Marv. He is one of only two ram lambs that I kept this year. He was champion Jacob ram at Black Sheep Gathering and his dad, Rotor, was Supreme Champion at the CA State Fair. The photo below shows the difference in rate of horn growth between ewes (Marilla) and rams (Marv). (Rotor x Marilyn)

This is Stacy as a newborn lamb and below at 7 months. (Crosby x Estelle)

More newborn photos. This is Jean with twins. I kept both of these lambs. The ewe lamb, trying to stand, is Cindy, below. The lamb nursing is the ram, Joker, in the photo below Cindy. (Nash x Jean)

Joker has a group of ewes and is wearing a marking harness with a red marker.

 This is Vanessa with her lambs. Vanna , on the right, was 5.2 pounds when she was born, but you wouldn't know that now. (Rotor x Vanessa)

Vixen is the only lilac lamb I kept. Her markings are a brown/gray instead of black. That shows up better in the photo above than below. (Nash x Foxglove)

This lamb is Virginia (Rotor x Ventura).

This is bide a wee Trista, the one lamb that I purchased, so I didn't take a baby photo. But I just looked and, yes there is one on the bide a wee farm website. Here is Trista as a little lamb.

Vixen, Virginia, Cindy, Vanna.

Fall Colors

She's Two Today!

So many cute photos. I may have to do more than one post.

I can use more photos if I make a mosaic. A lot of firsts for Ginny at two months old. First meet-up with the big dogs. First Christmas tree. First time in the barn. First visit to the vet.

Still two months old. Running in the fog. Spending time in the shop with spinners. Playing with Rusty and Maggie and conquering branches.

Ginny and her lamb.

Ginny and her moose.

Ginny at 7 months with the favorite Toy.

Ginny not so happy after her little operation so that I wouldn't have to worry about what might happen while I was going to be gone for two weeks.At 10 months Ginny discovered that she wasn't a big fan of drones.First herding lesson at Sheepdog Debbie's place (Herding-4-Ewe) just down the road.

Ginny's first birthday.

Ginny at two years old. Rusty will post some photos in his blog post of Ginny's recent lesson at Sheepdog Debbie's.

Breeding Season

This week it was time to separate sheep into breeding groups. After much debate and deliberation I ended up using five rams this year. I don't NEED five rams for the number of ewes I have but it's always fun to find out how each ram will match with the flock...and there is also a bit of "not putting all one's eggs in one basket". There are a lot of criteria in selecting a ram to buy or a ram lamb to keep in the flock.

Fleece is the most important characteristic for me. If I don't like a ram's fleece then I don't want to use him no matter how great he looks otherwise. I want to stay within the Jacob breed standards but consider fleece weight, fiber diameter (determines if a fleece is soft or scratchy), crimp, and freckling. One problem with making decisions about young rams is that you're better off waiting until 18 months to fully evaluate fleeces. That is a long time to hang onto a ram and then decide he stays or goes. With my small acreage I just can't hang onto several rams to evaluate a year later. I need to make my best guess at about six months old.

Horns. You can have the best ram from all the other standpoints, but if the horns grow into the face he will have to go. Here is a blog post with examples of two-horn rams.

Color. The Jacob Breed Standard states that registered sheep must have 15-85% color. That's a broad range, but not all sheep fit that category.

Jerry is a 5-year-old wether who won the sheep-lottery by having a beautiful fleece, but with too much color to be kept as a breeding ram. He was castrated as a lamb and was kept to be a buddy to any sheep who had to be separated from the flock. He lives permanently with Faulkner, the BFL ram. Also note how narrow his horns are. If he had not been castrated those horns would have grown tight onto his neck or face.

There is more, but this was going to be a post about the rams I am using this year, not a how-to-choose-your-flock-sire post. However other traits to consider are personality (yes, really), conformation, size, birth weight, gain, and is he a single/twin/triplet.

I hadn't planned on keeping Meridian Joker, but as I looked at lamb weights over the last few months he stood out as one of the heavier ones. I sell at least half the lambs for butcher and the sooner they can be sold the better. So rate of gain is important. His horns don't have a huge spread, but hopefully they will be all right as he grows.

By the way all the rams in these photos are wearing marking harnesses with red crayons. That's what all the color is.

Starthist Dragon is on loan from a friend. When I evaluated his lamb fleece a couple of years ago I was impressed and Trish remembered that so offered him for the season.Bide a wee Buster came here from Oregon last June. He was so small I had my doubts about him being up for the task this month, but I should have had faith.

Meridian Catalyst is a ram who was born at the 2015 State Fair Nursery. He is a lilac ram with nice fleece and markings. That's him in the middle of the ewes on the second day of breeding season.Faulker is ram #5. He is a Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) and sires the black (brown) lambs. He is the big guy in the center of the photos. His lambs are larger than the 100% Jacob lambs and are mostly sold for meat although they have very pretty fleeces and also wind up in some spinners' flocks.Faulkner enjoying some time with the ladies.Isabelle, marked by Joker.Skye is in Catalyst's group.Jillian is with Faulkner.Joker looks a little disheveled after a few days.Buster has his work cut out for him to reach those big ewes......and needed a nap after the first morning out.

For any of you who pay attention to this stuff and may be wondering about the other Jacob ram I bought this summer...I discovered a few weeks ago that he must have been injured by another ram and his horn had changed position so that it was growing right up against his jaw. I found that the point of attachment was movable (I don't know if went all the way to the skull which means that it would have been fractured). I tried to give his face a little more space by using wire and duct tape but that didn't work. This is not a sustainable situation so he is no longer with us.

Lambtown, then Spinzilla

I haven't posted since I was in Texas over a week ago. I had a great time with my granddaughter but what did I bring home? Not a puppy. Not a longhorn. A cold. So I felt pretty awful for several days, but I'm back and trying to catch up with things. (Although I'm catching up on computer stuff early in the morning because the cough kept me from going back to sleep.) Lambtown, the annual sheep/wool festival in Dixon was last weekend. It's only 15 minutes from home so it really couldn't be easier. But being a vendor at a fiber festival is never easy.

It is always a challenge to decide what to bring and how to fit it in a 10'x10' space (which really wasn't this year, especially when you subtract the space with the post in the back corner). This year I focused on products that no one else would have.

I brought my brand new lambskins (incredibly soft and fluffy), brand new handwoven ponchos, and Jacob fiber and yarn and buttons.I brought my new farm photos in 2 sizes and as notecards. There were also my new calendars. (As I'm writing this I realize that there are a lot of new things to get listed on the website.) I also brought rigid heddle looms and weaving equipment.

In addition I brought sheep. I had chosen to not bring sheep because it's just too much work to have a vendor booth and sheep in the barn, but the show organizer asked me to bring my sheep. With the help of Farm Club it all worked out. The Primitive Breeds Sheep Show wasn't very big but there was some Shetland competition. Honey and Marv were awarded Champion Ewe and Champion Ram in the division. They make a nice looking pair.

As Lambtown ended, Spinzilla week began. From the website: "Spinzilla is a global event where teams and individuals compete in a friendly challenge to see who can spin the most yarn in a week!" This is the fourth year that I have hosted a team for this program that raises money for youth needlearts mentoring programs all over the country.Not all of our spinners are local, but some who are showed up here Monday morning.

We had to take a puppy break at one point when my sister-in-law visited with her new 2-month old Queensland heeler.

Spinners are continuing to spin at home all week, but on Wednesday several showed up here again. The weather was nice enough to be outside. Notice the wheel in the background.

I had seen this on the way to the bank in Dixon on Thursday evening. All it needed was a drive band and a cotter pin to hold the wheel in place.

Alison and I got it going. I had figured that I'd resell it because I just don't have room in the shop or the house. But it is way too cool. I'll have to hang onto it for awhile at least.

Up and Down the Road in Texas

At home I write a lot of blogs about my walks Across the Road. Here at my daughter's place in the Texas Hill Country my walks are Up the Road or Down the Road. These are photos taken from walks in both directions.

This was Up the Road the first morning I was here. It had rained heavily during the night.

I tried to clean my glasses a couple of times thinking that I must have rubbed greasy fingers on them. Then I realized that the glasses were fogging up due to the humidity and temperature. Well, that's annoying.

Juniper berries, although everyone in the west calls these "cedar trees".

I have identified this plant as either Snow-on-the-Mountain or Snow-on-the-Prairie, a Euphorbia species. I read that it is an annual that is poisonous to livestock. Here is an excerpt from Texas A&M Extension:  "The white sap of these plants has long been used to blister the skin or as an intestinal purgative. In most cases, livestock are poisoned by an acrid principle that severely irritates the mouth and gastrointestinal tract. This plant rarely causes death. Experimental feedings of this plant in Texas have shown that 100 ounces produces severe scours and weight loss in cattle, the latter persisting for several months."

Gorgeous oak trees are seen where the juniper (cedar) has been cleared.

I have not tried to ID the rest of these flowers. I'm just enjoying them.

My granddaughter and I saw many of these large  Black Swallowtails  this morning.

Visiting Texas

I haven't been to Texas since last year, but that's because we saw my granddaughter several times last winter and spring in California. It was time for me to see her again and to do that I had to travel east. She is now two.

While Mommy painted the shed we went for a walk.

Time to take off the shoes.

The low water crossing on the road.

What better place to play on a hot day.

Hugging Colby.

Yesterday we went to the Comal County Fair.

This morning I said that we'd go for a walk in the rain. Kirby started to pack. You never know when you'll need a stuffed llama, a cup of milk, or a bunch of books.

It had rained enough during the early morning hours that the water had risen too high for playing.

We turned and walked up the road the other way.

Well, one of us walked and the other rode most of the way.

Sunflowers - June Through August

I have too many sunflower photos for one post so I split them up into yesterday's post and this one.

Do you see the flowering sunflowers in the center of the photo? If you count 10 rows to each side you'll see (barely) that every 10th and 11th row there are flowers in bloom. The field was planted with two varieties of sunflowers, a smaller one that bloomed earlier and the larger variety. The following is from Wikipedia:

"Typically, sunflowers tend to be self sterile. But for a sunflower to produce seeds, it needs pollen from a different sunflower. This is also known as cross-breeding, or in this case, cross-pollination. Occasionally, a sunflower can self-pollinate. Self-pollination produces an inbred line which, when bred with a separate inbred line, will result in a hybrid flower."

This is two of the shorter rows in full bloom. The taller sunflowers are also blooming. I assume that these are two varieties that (with probably a male-sterile flower on the larger plants) produce a hybrid seed. At harvest time I talked to a representative of the buyer who was out in the field and she said that this was a seed crop that was going to Europe to be planted for oil production.

Sunflowers typically follow the sun, but when they get large the heads don't move anymore. This was the view from my house --all the flowers facing east. If I wanted to see the pretty faces I had to walk around the field. Do you want to know more about this? Here is an article from the New York Times that explains why and how the sunflowers move to face the sun. This is an excerpt from it:

"The answer was in their stems. Like those of other plants, the stems of young sunflowers grow more at night — but only on their west side, which is what allows their heads to bend eastward. During the day, the stems’ east side grows, and they bend west with the sun. Dr. Atamian collected samples of the opposite sides of stems from sunflowers periodically, and found that different genes, related to light detection and growth, appeared active on opposite sides of the stems."

Isn't that amazing? And isn't it cool that there is so much to be learned about the seemingly most mundane things in our world? I'm all for promoting science to explore ideas and not just to solve a problem. But I digress...

You saw bees on the sunflowers in the previous post.

Here they are at their hives. Hives were placed all around the field.

Here is another interesting article--this one about the bees that pollinate sunflowers. "In sunflower hybrid seed production, pollen from a male row of sunflowers must be moved by bees to a female (male-sterile) row. Growers typically use honey bees to accomplish this task. However, most honey bee workers specialize as either nectar or pollen foragers. Nectar foragers tend primarily to visit female rows, while pollen foragers visit male rows. If few bees cross between rows, growers can experience poor seed-set." The article goes on to say that native bees  collect both pollen and nectar and by chasing the honeybees from row to row they make the whole process more efficient in terms of getting the 100% pollination. Therefore growers should encourage native bee populations.

The photos above were all taken in June.

By mid-July the heads were drooping and the two rows of smaller plants were cut. The sole purpose of those sunflowers was to provide half of the genetics of the hybrid seed to be harvested from the larger plants.

The seed was ready to harvest in mid-August.

The harvester drove through the field, cutting the plants,...

...sorting out the waste,...

...and periodically dumping the seed into a waiting truck.

But the job isn't over. While plants were being harvested in one part of the field the other part was being disked.

A month later the field is still being prepped to get ready for next year's crop--tomatoes.

Sunflowers-April through June

We have only 10 acres here, but having the field Across the Road makes it seem as though we have much more. We are careful to be good neighbors and we are grateful that we have permission to spend time exploring that property. So I feel kind of like the crops grown there are mine although I have none of the work involved.  This summer's crop was sunflowers--one of my favorites. I have way too many photos so I'll break this into two posts.

April 12. You can just see the tiny plants.

April 27

May 2. Cultivating.

June 11. They're growing up. I sound like a proud parent.

The rest of the photos in this post were taken throughout June.

Life and Death on a Milkweed Plant

While mowing the pasture the other day I saw a fluttering monarch butterfly.

I thought, "Cool, I'm watching this butterfly emerge from the chrysalis." However, as I watched I realized that for some reason the butterfly had been stuck in this position and now was hopelessly damaged. I helped it out of the chrysalis but its wings were damaged and all it could do was flutter, but not fly.

I continued mowing.

There were plenty more milkweed plants that were teeming with life. That's the Common Buckeye Butterfly and the Alfalfa Butterfly (see my last post).

Here is what the seed pods have inside when they are ripe. (Spinning, anyone?)

I identified this one in Bug Guide.net  as the Small Milkweed Bug (also the Common Milkweed Bug, Lygaeus kalmii). It's surprising how many similar looking bugs you find when you google "red and black bug in CA".

I had to look closely to see the identifying markings. The Guide says: "Adults suck nectar from flowers of various herbaceous plants, and also feed on milkweed seeds(?). Also reported to be scavengers and predators, especially in spring when milkweed seeds are scarce. They have been reported feeding on honey bees, monarch caterpillars and pupae, and dogbane beetles, among others."

Here is more life, but I'm not going to try and specifically ID this one.

And the circle continues...

The other photos were from a couple of weeks ago and I just saw this monarch caterpillar a few days ago on another milkweed.