Random Farm Photos

After that last heavy post I thought I’d share some photos from today. Darn, I forgot to take some during the weaving class I taught today. I’d better get some tomorrow.

I took this photo this morning after removing the ram marking harness from Barrett. I am pretty sure there are still ewes in his group who are not bred but I was having a hard time seeing any new marks. This started out as an orange marker but you can see that all the crayon part is gone.

Here is what a new blue marker looks like in that harness.

This is Barrett—Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, to give his full name. He was born in the spring of 2021 and came here from Michigan.

He has a very nice, soft fleece.

This was taken a few days ago after I replaced the worn out marker from Townes’ harness with a new blue one. Let’s hope for some rain to wash those marks off!

Change of scene here. After today’s weaving class I took Ginny on our regular walk Across the Road. We didn’t start out with a tennis ball, but she found one somewhere along the way and then did her usual trick of dropping it into the ditch where the water is too swirly for her to go in after it. That water is quite turbulent and the cement sides of the ditch are steep. I saw her lying on the bank looking intently at something in the water. It was a tennis ball that was trapped in the eddies of the water.

I fashioned a net as I have done before by weaving her leash onto a forked stick. Even with this advanced tool it took me about 20 minutes to get that ball out of the water. I was kneeling on the wooden planks with my toes hooked over the edge so I wouldn’t fall in.

Then we finished our walk.

Rams - the old and the new

Back to farm stuff with the blog, although I have a couple of other topics to throw in as well.

Breeding season usually starts October 1. There will be a 2-day delay this year because I’ll be at Lambtown October 1 and 2. I have already scheduled a Farm Day for Farm Club to come out on the 3rd to sort breeding groups and watch the action. My goal is to have all the extra sheep (2022 lambs I’m not keeping and a few cull ewes) gone by then. I don’t have enough room as it is to spread out the groups the way I’d like to.

I want to introduce the rams for this year.

Patchwork Townes is a 2-1/2 year old ram from Patchwork Farm in Georgia. He was purchased by a friend but had some kind of injury shortly after she got him last summer. We wonder if he gave himself a spinal injury by bashing trees. He was down and immobile for a period of time. My friend nursed Townes back to health but was then concerned about his temperament after he’d had all that attention. We don’t like rams to be pets and would rather that they be a bit standoffish. When I go into the ram pen I’d prefer to have the rams walk away rather than approach. My friend offered Townes to me in return for a lamb from him. I jumped at the chance to have the new genetics and a lilac (brown-gray color pattern) ram with great horns at that.

The other three rams with Townes are yearlings, born March, 2021. This is Meridian Silverado (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Spice). He is the only 4-horn ram I kept from last year’s lambs. I’m not crazy about his lower horns now. I haven’t trimmed them but may have to at some point.

This shot of Silverado and Townes is a great comparison of the two Jacob color patterns—black and white, and lilac.

Meridian Axis is a 2-horn lilac yearling. (Meridian Axle x Meridian Vixen). Axis is related to most of the lilac ewes I have here and he is for sale. See info on this page.

Hillside Gabby’s Barrett came from Michigan last summer. He sired some of last years lambs, and some carried that distinctive facial pattern.

I have decided to keep more ram lambs than in the past. Its always discouraging when people ask about buying breeding rams and I have sold most of the rams for butcher. With a small property I can’t keep as many as I like, but I chose these to keep an eye on and watch how they grow. I have also submitted registration applications for them so I can sell them as registered rams. These rams were born this year, so they are just a year younger than the three rams above. Introducing the 2022 rams:

Meridian Rascal (Meridian Rambler x Meridian Hilda).

KJ Royalty Thorn. (Meridian Silverado x Meridian Belle). Thorn and his sister belong to my granddaughter who owns their dam, Belle. They live here, but Kirby can show when she is here in the summer.

Meridian Brady (above) and Meridian Bravo (below) are twins. (Hillside Gabby’s Barret x Meridian Roca.) Brady is black and white and Bravo is lilac. It may be hard to tell in the photo but Bravo’s face is a dark gray, not black. His wool looks different, but sometimes it’s hard to tell about the wool without looking at the whole staple length. Look at the fleece photo below.

That’s Bravo’s fleece on the left (lilac) and Brady’s on the right (black).

This is Meridian Turbo, who has the best horns of the two horn rams this year. (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x bide a wee Trista.) Of the ram lambs, Turbo is the least related to most of the sheep in the flock.

I wanted to keep another 4-horn ram and this is him. I haven’t chosen a name yet. (Meridian Silverado x Meridian Sylvia).

I almost forgot the last ram. Peyton is a BFL and I crossbreed a handful of the ewes each year. He sires larger lambs that are ready to sell earlier than the 100% Jacob lambs.

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).

A Ram Retrospective

On Christmas Day I took advantage of my son being here to try and track down photos that seem to be “lost” in the depths of my computer. I’m still not sure we found the family photos I think are somewhere, but it prompted me to later go through other photos. I probably don’t really need all 33,000 that Lightroom says I have. There may be other posts like this one later, but I’ll start with rams. I think it’s always fun to see the variety in Jacob rams.

This is Jacquee’s Rugby. I think he might have been the first ram I bought, probably in 2001, because he sired lambs born in 2002 and 2003. I know I used a couple of other rams (from Hillside and Oak Farm) but I don’t find any photos of them. The photos here are of those I bought or that were born here.

Bide a wee Duke sired lambs in 2003 and 2004.

Meridian Apollo, born in 2004, sired lambs born in 2005 and 2006.

Hillside Joy’s Lynn, a lilac (the gray/brown coloration) ram who sired lambs born in 2005. By this time I was using at least two rams each breeding season and maybe more, but I don’t have photos of all of them.

Meridian Rocky (Meridian Apollo x Meridian Diamond) was born in 2006 but I don’t have a photo taken here. This was sent to me later by the person who eventually bought him. He sired Ranger, who is a few photos down.

Hillside Springtime’s Newberg sired lambs in 2007.

Bide a wee Yuri sired lambs born in 2008.

Chicory Lane Houdini was here for about half a year. He came to me because he had become aggressive and the owner needed him off the property. I used him for a breeding season and then didn’t want to risk the potential danger of keeping him around. This is an example of why I have very strong opinions about how rams should be handled while they are growing up.

As the flock grew Meridian Ranger (Meridian Rocky x Meridian Dot) sired a lot of lambs in 2008 and 2009.

Meridian Tioga was Ranger’s son, born in 2009. He sired a lot of the 2010 and 2011 lambs.

Puddleduck Ringo, born in 2014, is the sire of some ewes still in the flock, including everyone’s favorite pet, Jade.

Meridian Catalyst (Meridian Crosby x Meridian Clover) was a 2015 grandson of Yuri, in one of the photos above. Catalyst was a lilac ram who was eventually sold to another California breeder.

Bide a wee Buster, born in 2016, also sired many still in the flock.

Meridian Cayenne was the 2017 son of Catalyst and Mud Ranch’s Foxglove. He was that lilac color pattern with beautiful horns like his sire.

Meridian Jasper (Meridian Clark x Meridian Jade), is a grandson of both Buster and Ringo. He was born in 2019 and the sire of 6 or 7 sheep still in the flock. Jasper is now the flock sire of another California farm.

Meridan Axle (Meridian Catalyst x Meridian Ava) at almost 3 years. Axle was a favorite ram as far as his attitude and his fleece, and some of his offspring remain in the flock. I’ll share photos in another post of how fabulous his horns looked in his first year. This is an example of why you can’t always predict the final outcome of the horn growth. He is now at a farm in Montana but 5 of his offspring are here, including our second best pet sheep, Hazel.

Ruby Peak Tamarisk sired many of the 2021 lambs and we are awaiting more of his in 2022.

Faces

I was was frustrated over some tech issues I was having yesterday and decided that my sheep and my camera would help me get over it. So…

I’ll start with the rams. This is Orion, a ram lamb that is for sale. I love that wide horn spread.

Dylan, a nice ram lamb, but not on the breeding line-up.

Axis is a lilac ram lamb who will have a group of ewes.

Silverado will have a group of ewes.

Hillside Barrett is the only one who wasn’t born here. He came from Michigan last month. He is younger than the others but will have a few ewes.

Billy is a wether who is kept around as a buddy for a sheep that needs to be separated from the others for some reason. He was with Barrett when he first came and now is with Dylan. Dylan just came back from a friend’s farm and I don’t want to deal with the fighting that there would be if I put him in directly with those other rams.

Speaking of wethers, here is Rocky. A wether’s horns stop growing at the rate they would have grown if he was still a ram. These horns would have prevented registration for this guy. I needed a wether a few years ago and he was handy. Now he is still here living the good life with nothing to do except eat and grow wool.

This wether does have a job. He is the full-time best friend of the BFL ram, Peyton, who I don’t want to put with the Jacob rams.

Speaking of Peyton, here is is. I liked this view best of the ones I took last night, except for the unfortunate location of the wether behind him—like the kid putting up “rabbit ears” behind someone in a family photo.

Rambler, the yearling ram. He’ll have a large group of ewes. So will Tamarisk, but I’m missing his photo.

Not a sheep, but a face. Ginny was posing on my way from the rams to the ewes.s

This is a yearling ewe, Pecan.

This is Pecan’s sister, Sandie. They happen to be two of the ewes whose fleeces I chose to protect with coats. Those fleeces will be sought after on Shearing Day in February.

A lilac ewe, Zora.

This is Patchwork BettyLou, one of the sweet lambs that came her last month.

Amelia, a Nubian doe. I love how expressive she is with those ears.

Sweetgrass Eilwen who came last month when I got those lambs.

This is Eilwen’s friend, Patchwork Tranquility.

Last but not least these are the three lambs that came last month. They are always together. Hillside Grace, Patchwork Amara, and Patchwork Bettylou.

Sheep Photos--Lambs Growing Up

I don’t have a plan for updating my lamb photos. I need to take photos as they grow so that I can keep the lamb pages on the website updated. Ewe lambs. Ram lambs. I wander around with the camera and try to get photos of the lambs in which you can see their legs and feet. I also need to see at least one ear tag clearly enough to read the number. Needless to say, not all of the lamb listings have current photos.

Here are some of the latest photos along with some photos to show how the lambs have changed. When people want to buy lambs to start a breeding flock I explain that it’s hard to predict how the ram lambs horns will turn out and I don’t want to sell them until we have a better idea of horn growth. Why is that important? The rams can’t be registered until they are 6 months old because the inspectors need to be assured that the horns aren’t growing in a way that will impact the health of the sheep. Every sheep is inspected by two inspectors (and I am one, but don’t inspect my own sheep) who look at photos submitted by the owner. There is a Breed Standard that shows Desirable, Acceptable, and Not Acceptable for registration. The goal with inspection is to make sure that animals do not fall into the Not Acceptable category. Most of the traits that would put them in that category indicate potential crossbreeding or health risk. The goal of JSBS (Jacob Sheep Breeders Association) is to register as many as possible—we do not like to fail a sheep.

This is what you see if you click on Breed Standard at the top of the JSBA website. All of those menu choices have information on those different aspects of describing Jacob sheep. It’s worth spending some time there if you want to learn more about any of these traits.

This is Ruby Peak Tamarisk. I got him last year as a yearling (blog post about that road trip during fire season) because I needed new genetics here. I have spent so much time focusing on good fleece that I haven’t paid that much attention to horns and I wanted a ram that might help with my flock’s horns (in addition to maintaining the fleece traits of which I am proud). He was bred to almost 2/3 of the flock.

Ram #2130 is Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Jingle. His horns look very promising. At one point I wondered if he was that less common lilac color. See the photo below.

The lilac coloring would have to come from as far back as lilac great-grandmothers on the sire and dam sides. If this is lilac coloring it would have come from as far back as lilac great-grandmothers on the sire and dam sides. I think I want to take a closer look at him now.

Lamb #2126 is Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Terri. He was born March 1 so he is 3-1/2 months old. This is why we wait until 6 months of age to evaluate rams. Those horns are tipping forward and we want to see how much they tip as the ram grows.

Lamb #2156 looks good. Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Lavendar. Lavendar is a lilac ewes so this ram will carry that trait.

Lamb 2175 doesn’t look promising. Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Ruth 2, born 3/10/21. It’s not a problem that he broke off a top horn because it will grow, but the lower horns are curving right into his face.

At 12 days he looks like he could be the perfect flock sire (albeit not a lot of spots but still passable).

At just over 2 months you might think that his horns were OK, but compare this photo to the first one of this ram, taken when he is a week over 3 months old. (That’s his twin on the right. I don’t have a current photo of him.)

This is Meridian Rambler, a yearling (about 15 months now) that I kept from the 2020 lamb crop. He probably deserves a blog post all by himself to show the progression of horn growth and discuss why I kept him. You can see how much horn growth to expect in those lambs by this time next year and think about the horn shape and position.

Lamb # 2137 is Rambler’s offspring. Meridian Rambler x Meridian Patsy.

Ewe horns don’t grow nearly as large so aren’t as critical when evaluating young lambs. Ewe lamb #2187 is one I have chosen to keep. Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Cashew. I have named her Meridian Columbine. Doesn’t she have a pretty face?

Meridian Lupine, # 2159, is another that I’ve decided to keep. Meridian Axle x Meridian Vixen. It’s hard to tell in this photo but she is lilac, like her dam and her grandsire on her dad’s side. Notice the different position and shape of the horns on a 2-horn ewe. Ewe lambs can be registered at 3 months old as long as you can see enough horn growth.

Around the Farm and More Sheep Adventures

We irrigated last week and for a time had our own private wetlands complete with a small flock of Canada geese. Now the pasture is dry but I have heard a lot of honking the last few days. I think this goose was calling his mate.

He eventually flew off…

…but not far. Just into the pasture.

Together.

A Jacob breeder who lives about 2 hours from here wanted to buy the ram, Jasper, and I offered to deliver him. The wether (who happens to be one of the few sheep I am trying to keep coated to keep his fleece free of VM) went along for the ride. It seemed as though it would be less stressful for Jasper to not be completely alone in the trailer. Also we were delivering a ram for Jasper’s buyer to a location that was on our way home.

The horns on this wether are the main reason that he was castrated as a lamb. Most of the rams that don’t meet certain standards will go to the butcher market but this one lucked out and his job is to be a companion to any sheep that needs a buddy.

We drove north and eventually had a clear view of Mt. Shasta. The north wind was incredibly strong that day—so strong that our truck struggled heading due north and pulling the trailer. Time for a new truck?

Jasper ended up in a nice place—a large field and a bunch of ewes. What more would a ram want?

Back home, this is my entertainment every evening.

People have asked why the lambs run and i don’t know. They just do. It’s a Lamb Flashmob. If I’m still in the barn I hear them thundering past.

They run for 15 minutes or so and then they give it up and go find mom or get some hay.

We delivered Jasper on Friday and Axle went to a new home the day before. That left Tamarisk by himself so we put a wether in with him. Today we moved the yearlings, Rambler and Jangle, into the grown up ram pen where there will now be three. We started with a small pen and included a bale of straw as an impediment. There isn’t much space but the idea is that they will figure out who is boss without the major damage that could happen if they were able to back up and charge each other. The wether is still in the ram pen but not forced to be in with the others while they battle it out. Hopefully after a few days they will be BFFs. I assume that Tamarisk, the older ram, will be the boss of the other two.