Random Farm Photos

This post is just what it says. I’ve taken so many photos with the intent to share them and tell a story, but then I don’t.

Sheep waiting in the shade. They come and go and are in the pasture even when it’s over 110 degrees like it was two weeks ago.

That’s a screenshot from my phone one of those hot days. I forget now how many it was in a row of over 100, but considering that some were over 110 it sure felt like a lot. Thank goodness that is over for now.

Two ram lambs that show a big difference in the spread of their horns. I’d like to hang onto both of these rams for different reasons. They both have good fleeces. The one with the wider horn spread is unrelated to most of the flock. The other is a shade of lilac (that brown/gray color of some Jacob sheep). If I can keep them for several months to a year it will be interesting to see how their horns look at that time.

Before I box and ship pelts for tanning I take photos so I have a record of what I sent and where I sent them. I have shipped 20 sheepskins in the last week or so. It will take from 3 to 5 months to get them back depending on where they were sent.

I’m spending a lot of time on preparing for the Shades of Black and White show that will be at the Artery for 3 weeks in October. In fact I will be setting this up the day before I set up my vendor booth at Lambtown. A lot going on. These are some of the latest blankets to come off the loom. These blankets use Timm Ranch wool warp and Jacob weft. They are very soft and I’m thrilled with both of these yarns this year.

This is Jacob wool warp and weft in progress on the loom.

This is how that fabric looks after wet finishing. I turned this one into a mobius shawl. The twist in it allows you to see both sides of the fabric at once. There is no right and wrong side.

This is where I left off tonight on a black and white Jacob blanket.

I was loading the truck today for tomorrow’s event and I heard a suspicious crackling sound across the “bamboo” fenceline that separates us from the neighbor on the north. (It’s not really bamboo, but an undesirable species, Arundo, although it makes a great windbreak for us.). I walked around the fenceline and into the next-door driveway. There was someone standing near the bushes on the right monitoring the fire. Still, with conditions so dry it’s a bit nerve wracking to see.

The neighbor on the west called me this afternoon to say that she saw smoke and called the fire department. They told her it was a permitted fire. I’m surprised that anyone was able to get a permit at this point. Let’s get some rain first.

More About Rams

I had a couple of comments after the last post “A Ram Retrospective”. One person asked about Rotor. I couldn’t include all the rams I’ve ever had, but how could I forget Rotor?

Rotor had the unimaginable triumph of winning Supreme Champion Ram at the 2016 CA State Fair. That means the judge placed him over all the other breed champions. I don’t know what the talk in the barn was after that. Usually it’s one of the “regular” breeds that win.

This photo isn’t very sharp, but you get the feel of what the Supreme Champion competition looks like. Rotor and I are third from the left dwarfed by those huge rams, all perfectly fitted for the show. Jacob sheep are shown in a much more natural state, at least by those of us showing on the West Coast.

While I was looking for those last photos I came across this one. In the last blog there was a photo of Axle at almost three years and his horns had curled very close to his face. Axle was Breed Champion (Primitive Breeds) at the State Fair when he was a yearling.

At four months old his horns looked very promising. Many lambs are born with nice markings and good fleece, but a ram has to have horns that won’t impact his future well-being. With a two horn ram that means they need a nice wide spread.

Axle at 9 months.

Axle, almost three years. That horn on his right is getting pretty close to the jaw.

This photo was taken a few months after the last one. Axle has broken that right horn—I’m not sure how. Shortly after this he was sold to someone who was moving with her flock to Montana. Hopefully he is still there siring beautiful lambs.

I will remember Axle for the fun time we had at the 2019 Black Sheep Gathering Spinners Lead. I can’t imagine another of my rams standing so patiently on a halter with lots of other sheep around for the hour or so that we were lined up and waiting our turn. By the way, the scarves that he and I are wearing are his wool spun and woven that spring.

Axle has 7 or 8 offspring in the flock now.

Meridian Pecan…

and her twin Meridian Sandie.

Meridian Hazel, daughter of Axle and Jade, the most friendly sheep here. Hazel is #2 in line for scratches (and treats).

Breeding Season Begins

We live by seasons…and this one is breeding season.

On Sunday Farm Club members came to help. We started by sorting ewes. We also replaced old smaller ear tags with some that are a little larger and more legible. We colored coded the 2018 and 2019 ear tags. I had already tagged the 2020 ewes with blue tags. I can identify many of the sheep by their markings but I don’t remember all 60+ of them. The larger ear tags make it easier to read the tag and to find a particular sheep when you can narrow down the year by the ear tag color.

Then we put the markers in the ram harnesses.

It was time to get the rams. Farm Club members went to get the ram lambs. I had worked with Axis (left) and Silverado (right) a bit…

…but Barrett is the new one and he thought dragging was the way to go rather than walking…

…or maybe giving up was best.

We had planned a break at 10:00 to watch the Lambtown Sheep-to-Shawl judging. We missed the first part so didn’t hear what most of what they said about ours—we can watch the recording when it’s posted.

The judging presentation was good, but unfortunately our shawl was among the four that were disqualified based on size. We were short of the desired 72” by only about 2”. I guess we were in good company. Back to work.

The lamb, Axis, got down to business right away.

The youngest one, Barrett, was interested but the ewes wanted nothing to do with him. In cases you’re wondering, it’s not that he’s too little, it’s just that they aren’t in heat right now.

Dan and I caught the big rams.

Tamarisk’s face has been looking a little rough, but he seems OK other than something under his jaw. (Thanks for the photos Susan.)

I caught him about a week ago to check out his swollen face. He has something going on with his jaw but I think that whatever it is has healed—it’s hard like bone, not soft like an abscess. He still eats and is in good flesh.

If there is something with his jaw it’s not on his mind right now.

I had to chase this group out to the pasture because they got distracted by each other and were just hanging around the lane.

Peyton was happy to have some female company.

Ram lamb, Silverado, seemed more interested in the smells in the ram pen where the older rams had been.

Rambler’s group also has a pasture that is separate from Tamarisk but they can also go into the corral near the barn.

Everybody’s favorite ewe, Jade, was the first to be marked.

Rambler, Tamarisk, and Peyton all wore themselves out on Sunday afternoon. Among them 10 ewes were already marked.

I have two extra ram lambs, Dylan with 4 horns and Orion with 2 horns. They are both for sale as registered breeding rams.

This is the third day the rams have been with the ewes. Tamarisk has bred 10 of his group of 21 so far.

Peyton has bred 4 of his 5 ewes.

Axis is a lilac ram with some of the lilac ewes and ewes that carry lilac in their pedigrees.

He has marked Zora, left, and Foxy, right and 2 other ewes so far.

I’m still waiting for Barrett (in this photo) and Silverado to mark someone. Maybe tonight.

Evaluating 2021 Rams

I am trying to decide which ram lambs to keep. OR should I keep any of them? I wish I had enough land to keep several for a year to see how they look when the grow up. In my situation it is not realistic to keep more than a couple. Even that may not make sense when I still have their sires still here as well.

I caught most of the 4-horn ram lambs yesterday so I could take a better look at them and take photos to send to a potential buyer. I thought you, my faithful readers, might be interested.

This one (2126 Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Terri) is on my cull list because I don’t like his horns He may have nice wool, nice a good balance of color throughout his body, all the correct face markings, etc, but there are so many things to try and get right with this breed, and the horns are a major one. Those horns are tipping forward. They may never be bad enough to cause him harm, but they are certainly not attractive.

This one (2130 Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Jingle) certainly has better positioned horns and he has nice fleece.

This ram is 2137, Meridian Rambler x Meridian Patsy. I like his sire’s wool and I think it was passed down to this ram. In this view it almost looks as though his horns are slightly forward but the tips are going back and I hope the horns continue that way. I’m tempted to keep this one to see how he grows. His sire, Rambler, is one of two rams I have sired by Jasper who was sold this spring. Rambler had just enough color to be registered and this guy is also on the light side. He also has a pink nose which is not as desirable. But take a look at that wool.

Lamb 2148 (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Janna) is a decent looking ram with good markings and nice wool, but what about his horns?

Broken horns will grow back but I don’t know for sure how they will look. Will that lower right horn curl out of the way of the jaw or grow right into it?

I had high hopes for 2151 (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Honey) because Honey has such great wool. Strike 1 - lower horns growing in towards the jaw on both side.

Strike 2 - freckling. This makes for a pretty fleece, but a Jacob sheep is supposed to have large spots. Freckles are different and they increase in number as the sheep gets older. Its one thing to have a freckled ewe, but a ram will pass that trait on to many offspring and change the look of the whole flock. Notice that the freckled fiber doesn’t show up at the tips of the fleece. You can’t see freckles when a lamb is born. I think it’s in the secondary follicles that mature only after the lamb is born, so freckles may surprise you when you look at a lamb that is a couple of months old and only starting to show the trait.

Ram 2156 (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Lavendar) Where are those lower horns headed?

This guy’s wool is OK and well within the breed standard, but it doesn’t have the visual appeal of those others. This one was also a bit shorter. On the plus side for this ram, his dam is lilac (the brownish-gray color pattern in Jacob sheep) so if bred to a lilac ewe would be expected to produce lilac lambs 50% of the time.

I just looked back at a blog post I wrote 2 weeks ago. Many of these rams are in photos there too. You can check out the changes.

Farm Club members are coming next Saturday. We’ll probably catch these all again and evaluate them further. We’ll catch the two horn rams also and make some decisions about them.