Granddaughter Time - Part 3

Only a couple of days were left for Kirby’s visit. (This was a month ago.) I had plans for the morning and Kirby’s schedule showed that she would spend the afternoon with Aunt Meryl. The next day she would see Aunt Kaleena who was back from fire duty in Washington and then to to the Dixon grandparents’ house and be ready to fly out the next morning.

Jade and Hazel were front and center whenever Kirby showed up at the barn. I’m so glad that Kirby has enough animal awareness that I could let her be in with the sheep and not worry about her getting hurt.

I had bought a kids’ cookbook but we didn’t have time to do much cooking. We did try something that looked fun. I can’t remember what these were called but they were supposed to be made with a lot of hand involvement of squishing and patting dough and stuffing them with cheese that had been rolled into balls. I won’t say that the outcome was very successful but the process was fun.

My new yarn came and Kirby thought it was fun for dress-up.

We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Moo, Kirby’s great-grandparents. who live near Dixon.

They have some odds and ends of cattle still around from the dairy days. This is one of the huge steers that was kept with the intention of having an ox team. After this visit Kirby went to stay with the other grandparents for two nights (including a birthday party with her cousins from that side of her family).

Back with me we went to a friend’s house to see her sheep that are different than mine.

Kirby got to ride in style from the field to the hose to wash off muddy feet.

Then we stopped by Orange Theory to watch Aunt Meryl coach a workout.

This was Monday and Kirby was going back to town Tuesday evening so she could fly out with the other grandma and two cousins the next morning. We had plans for Tuesday morning so I decided that it was time to put all the sheep we’d been halter breaking back with the rest of the flock. This is Kirby’s ewe, Belle.

We led the lambs back in pairs.

Goodbye hugs for Jade and Hazel.

Tuesday morning we were able to meet up with Aunt Kaleena. SeaQuest in Folsom seemed like a good half way point between our house and Kaleena’s.

Can you imagine a rodent this big? Yes, a capybara is a rodent and these were certainly tame.

We’d been having a discussion about spirit animals at home and after reading this sign Dan decided that the sloth must be his spirit animal—it was the part about sleeping and remaining motionless that won him over, not the upside down part.

Kaleena and Kirby went into the parakeet enclosure to have some close-up bird time.

I was amazed that these rays acted as though they wanted attention. You could reach in and touch them.

We finished the morning with lunchtime ice cream. with all the toppings.

I hope Kirby has good memories of her trip to California. We certainly had fun with her here. Katie’s comment to her mom after the flight back to Texas was “Why would you choose to drive?” Good question, but maybe we’ll answer that on our next road trip, to be planned when we can do it without pulling a trailer or being in a fire zone or dealing with Covid (hopefully).

Granddaughter Time - Part 2

Kirby catching a ride from Uncle Chris. We had a plan for the day as shown on Kirby’s schedule in the last post.

We got to the zoo and and planned our visit.

Flamingos are near the entrance.

So is the carousel. As I was writing this I wondered why I called this a carousel and not a merry-go-round and are they the same thing. Its easy to find out with Google: “Merry-go-round” and “carousel” are synonyms… Some people say that the difference between a “merry-go-round” and a “carousel” is that they turn in different directions. ... Whatever the reason, merry-go-rounds in Europe tend to turn clockwise. There is more from another source: “Traditionally, horses are mounted from the left side. This is because most warriors were right handed and kept their swords on their left side for fast access. In England, the carousels rotate clockwise so the horses can be mounted from the left, keeping with tradition.”

Look at what you can learn by reading this blog! This carousel definitely rotates counter-clockwise.

I don’t think it matters to a praying mantis if it is mounted from the left or right. I find this one kind of creepy.

I love the bald eagle.

I’ll share just a couple more shots taken at the zoo. A lot of the exhibits had been redone since I’d been there last many years ago. You can get quite close to some of the animals.

It is an impressive view. Kirby spent that night with her other grandparents and we picked her up the next day, which was her seventh birthday. There was to be a party with cousins and the other side of her family on the weekend but she was with us for the actual birthday.

We drove to Old Sac, the Sacramento waterfront where there are shops, dining, and the railroad museum.

We started at the Railroad Museum.

We had been entertained by the long trains on our road trip back to California from Texas. I think Kirby liked seeing the trains, but we didn’t expect to have the same kind of visit that it would be if we were on our own. In fact I think she may have been more interested in riding the elevator up and down.

They have quite good signage and information about the exhibits as well as docents willing to discuss all things trains. This photo was taken in the train car.

In an engine.

We ended the visit to Old Sac with ice cream.

It’s good to have some down time and not have everything planned out all the time. I used part of the afternoon to introduce Kirby to a few of the board games that were favorites of my kids. We played Monopoly, Parchesi, and The Amazing Labyrinth.

The first birthday cake of her multiple celebrations (another with the cousins on the weekend and one more when she got back to Texas)

And of course there were a few presents.

Granddaughter Time - Part 1

Our trip to Texas was over a month ago and our granddaughter returned home to Texas August 4 and I am only now getting back to my blog posts. I’m been too busy to do anything with my photos. I have plenty of farm and weaving related subjects for posting but I wanted to keep the stories on order. So here I am. Start here if you want to read about the road trip.

Kirby’s first morning here we headed for the barn. Jade is everyone’s favorite sheep.

Kirby remembers Jade from when she visited from a young age. I took this photo 4 years ago.

Jade’s daughter, Hazel has become just as friendly as Jade.

I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to halter break the ewe lambs I am keeping. Kirby and I took those lambs to a pen where we could easily catch them and put halters on each day. That big ewe is NOT a lamb, but is Belle, the sheep I gave Kirby to show as a lamb when she visited here in 2019. That makes Kirby the owner of Belle’s daughter, the dark lamb next to her. Kirby named her Beauty. Are you catching the Disney theme here? So we put Belle in this pen as well. For the 10 days Kirby was in California we worked with these sheep every day that she was at our place—there were a few days when she spent time with the other grandparents and cousins that live in Dixon.

On the third evening here we all went to visit my brother. It was a tight fit for Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris to fit with the carseat. Kirby was thrilled to have them as her backseat companions.

Uncle Matt had arrived separately. Aunt Kaleena couldn’t be there as she was on fire duty in Washington.

After dinner our evening activity was to go on a family beaver walk.

My brother and his wife live in the city of Fairfield. There is a river that flows through the neighborhoods behind the houses and Dave has discovered that most evenings he can spot a beaver family and sometimes otters.

I don’t have photos of the beavers but they were there.

We finished the evening with a guitar session.

Before we left Texas Katie had written out a schedule so that we could all stay organized. Kirby was thrilled to stay with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris (who was able to take a few days off to be home for her visit) as often as she could—that’s convenient since they are right next door. In fact, I had to put some limits on that so that they could get their work done. There was unscheduled time but we had no problem finding things to do.

I had gone to the library before Kirby came to find some books to take on the drive. I came home with an owl pellet dissection kit that was that month’s kids’ project. I’ve taken apart owl pellets before but it was fun to have the addition of the special tweezers and the diagram that identified some of the bones that you find in owl pellets.

I didn’t save most of the things that the kids had when they were younger, but there are some select sets of toys. There is a box packed full of Playmobil horses, cowboys, indians, a fort, and all the other stuff that goes with those scenes. This is probably a collector’s item now-I doubt that this is a politically correct toy set in this era.

But Kirby had a great time deciding which horses were wild (as in the movie Spirit) and which were saddle horses and eventually the whole room was arranged with Old West scenes. I am still amazed at these toys. I don’t know how many sets we bought for the kids over the years, but this box has everything from cooking pots to rabbits, squirrels, and bears.

More in the next post.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 3

We woke up early in our crummy rundown motel in Blythe, California and got on the road. There wasn’t any point in hanging around. Most of this blog post is drive-by photography on the freeway.

Near Palm Springs.

Kirby was a real trooper. She never complained about the backseat or the long drive. I think it would have been different if she hadn’t had the electronic entertainment of her tablet. There is a time and a place for that stuff and this was it.

Freeway art.

More freeway art, a little harder to see.

Not art, but interesting to use a fancy style of lettering instead of just the standard freeway sign.

This is a very poor photo but I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the elusive pink brontosaurus and the clothed T-Rex. They aren’t often seen in California.

Its always encouraging to see a sign that says Sacramento even when you’re still several hours away.

Grandparents’ indulgence, a Happy Meal, was probably the most exciting thing for Kirby on this day.

Agriculture dominates the drive up the San Joaquin Valley once you get beyond SoCal.

This is possible due to the California Aqueduct system, part of which makes up the curved edge of the field in this photo.

There is the aqueduct but also a massive warehouse which I think is the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

This is the last shot I took in the valley south of Sacramento. We made it home before dark. Yay!

After showing Kirby her room (now, after 10 years, finally fixed up into a guest room), which used to be her mom’s bedroom, we headed for the barn.

One of the best parts of visiting California for Kirby is hanging out with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 2

It’s sure taking me a long time to tell the story of this trip. (The first installment is here and the fifth is here.) This is the second day of the return trip. We left the motel in Alamogordo and headed to White Sands National Park, only 15 miles away.

The park borders the White Sands Missile Range and there is one road in and out with some parking areas and trails.

We stopped at the first trail.

The dunes are continually changing as the sand is blown into new shapes and this trail was marked by blue posts.

I kept thinking that this is the little girl who, 5 years ago in Hawaii wouldn’t get off the beach towel and let her feet touch the sand.

I have some great video clips of her rolling down these dunes like a kid rolls down a grassy slope but if I take the time to figure out how to post them here I’ll never finish this story.

It’s not all sand. This is a darkling beetle.

I looked this beetle up later and the “distinctive tracks” that we saw were described.

I have not identified these flowers—maybe primrose?

At the last place we stopped Kirby wasn’t too excited to get out of the truck. It was very hot by this time. I wanted to get a look over this dune so I walked up to get some photos while Dan and Kirby stayed in the truck. This view is looking back at our truck (with trailer) in the parking lot.

White Sands National Park protects about half of the largest gypsum dunefield in the world (275 square miles).

It was designated a National Monument in 1933 and became a Park more recently. We checked out the visitor center, let Kirby choose something from the gift store, and then got back on the road about noon.

The rest of this post is things seen along the road.

Remember, I try to entertain myself by photographing things of interest. I really don’t know the significance of this chili pepper. ..

…or this pink elephant.

I don’t remember what kind of inspection or border patrol station we passed through here, but that had a huge array of cameras and other devices as the truck drove through.

Crossing the Continental Divide was exciting for us…

…but a difficult concept to explain to a 6-year-old when there are no mountains in sight.

More freeway art. I’m not sure where this is—maybe still New Mexico.

We weren’t in New Mexico long though before reaching Arizona.

Freeway art cotton fields.

The goal was to make it to California before we stopped so that it would be only one more day of driving to get home. I hoped to redeem myself with a better hotel room choice on this night. We made it to Blythe and found a motel that seemed to have good reviews. It turned out that the motel had been sold and was in escrow and no one much cared about the business anymore. We all slept OK but it was not the kind of place where you could luxuriate in your surroundings. But it was getting late already and we all went right to sleep after a bedtime story with Kirby.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California

We left home on a Friday (July 16) and got to my daughter’s house Saturday night. We spent four days there. If you have followed along this was the last blog post you saw.

We started the long drive back to California on Thursday.

This time the trailer was empty but we had a back-seat passenger. This is Kirby, age 6.

As usual I entertained myself with photographing things I found interesting or amusing. Kirby entertained herself mostly with her tablet. Normally I’d object to hours of electronic entertainment, but there are exceptions. I was truly impressed with how Kirby handled the drive. Our truck doesn’t have a full back seat and Kirby was in a carseat, so she didn’t have much room. She was more patient that I was.

I’ve lost track of where I took some of these photos.

On the road in Texas.

We stopped more frequently for gas than we would have on our own. Usually we stop only when absolutely necessary for gas or for an interesting diversion of a historical marker or scenic overlook. The frequent gas stops allowed for more bathroom breaks and food. McDonald’s at the first stop was a big hit.

I always follow along with the big map books. I found what looked like an interesting diversion that didn’t take us too far off of I-10. We had been driving about 3-1/2 hours and took Hwy 290 to Fort Lancaster State Historic Site. First there was a overlook with picnic tables and a wall to keep people (especially 6-year-olds) from falling down the steep drop-off onto the road below.

The remnants of the Fort were in the flat land that you can see in the left of the photo. I always think about what it would have been like to be on a horse or in a wagon in “the olden days” and to travel over this kind of terrain.

The State Historic Site “preserves the remnants of the only post established in 1855 to protect the Lower Road between San Antonio and El Paso”. There is a small museum and the remnants of some of the 25 buildings that had been constructed.

Signs inside the museum told of the camel experiment in the mid 1850’s when it was thought that camels would be more suited to the area than horses and mules. As government attention turned to the more pressing issue of Civil War and Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 the camels were sold to private parties.

We went outside to walk around the fort and saw this bug (dead) that was the size of…well, the size of a little girl’s hand.

The site is 82 acres and includes remnants of officers’ quarters, a hospital, commissary, barracks, bakery, and more.

This is what is left of Officers’ Quarters, each with two rooms separated by a double fireplace.

The brochure I picked up says that by 1858 “Fort Lancaster housed approximately 150 enlisted men and three officers…opportunities for soldiers’ recreation were rare and frequently revolved around drinking and gambling.” The day was getting hot so our timing was good that we had stopped here in the morning. After walking around awhile we got back into the AC of the truck.

This bug hung on to the windshield for quite awhile.

More of Texas.

We saw three of these trucks over the course of several miles. Each carried one of the huge blades of the windmills that are prevalent between Sheffield and Fort Stockton.

I have my big map books and I had bought a kids’ atlas for Kirby—it has maps of all the states and notes details (state bird, state animal, etc) for each.

I was impressed with this tile mural in the ladies’ restroom at one of the rest stops.

We planned to visit White Sands National Park the next morning and we wanted to spend the night nearby. Some of you know that on our typical road trips our night-time stops are usually impromptu and “rustic” . I had packed the tent and camping gear with the hope that we would enlighten Kirby about what it’s like to travel with Mama Robin and Papa Dan (as we are called). But better sense prevailed. It was hot, even at night, it was difficult to find a suitable place that was not privately owned, and we had a 6-year-old with us. We decided on a motel. We stayed at Alamogordo, New Mexico, but didn’t get there until well after dark. My frugality overtook better sense and I got a one bed room thinking that since all we were doing was sleeping, what would be the problem. To be continued.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Family Time

One reason for our trip to Texas was to deliver those goats, but the other was of course to visit with my daughter and her family (husband and grandkids).

The first morning we were there, after getting the goats settled, we went for a walk. Two friends had spent the night with the grandkids so we all went out. The view above is what it looks like when you turn out of Katie’s driveway. The property to the right in the photo is their across-the-road neighbor. The last time I visiting there were cattle in the field, but the property has sold since then.

The new owner has brought in “exotics” which I now know is fairly common in Texas. Katie tells me that this person used to work for someone who had what amounted to his own personal zoo and now he is following suit. Most of the animals were far off while we were there but I was able to get a few photos and later zoom in—zebras and wildebeest in this photo.

I had to ask Katie what some of these animals are. Here is an aoudad, an African animal related to wild goats. According to an on-line encyclopedia: “It is considered vulnerable to extinction in all its natural range, where only scattered, small populations survive. Introduced to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico for hunting purposes, it has established thriving populations there, where it outcompetes indigenous ungulates such as desert bighorn sheep. “

The addax is native to the Sahara Desert. Wikipedia says, “The addax is a critically endangered secies of antelope, as classified by the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature]. Although extremely rare in its native habitat due to unregulated hunting, it is quite common in captivity.”

The springbok is another antelope and is the national animal of its native South Africa.

The kudu is a large antelope, also native to Africa.

Donkeys at another neighbor’s place wanted attention unlike the exotic wildlife.

Later that day we went to the Guadalupe River to do an easy walk and let the kids play in the water. The bald cypress are fascinating trees with huge woody growths at the base known as “knees”.

The Guadalupe River is dammed to create Canyon Lake.

There were plenty of rocks and bugs to keep the kids interested.

I am always looking for interesting plants. This is buttonbush, a plant I first identified a few year’s ago along Katie’s road.

This is a walk up the road the other direction from Katie’s driveway.

The kids like to play on these rocks.

That neighbor with the antelopes has other animals in the exotic category. I had to zoom in here and I didn’t get a better look to try and identify this animal. I don’t know what apes or monkeys these are but they are quite noisy at times. It is the oddest thing to be outside in the Texas hills and hear sounds that are reminiscent of being at the zoo.

I spent a couple of hours each afternoon watching the kids in the pool while Katie and Dan worked on the goat pen. I claim success at teaching Kirby to float with her face in the water. It was the best $100 Katie every spent when she got this pool for the kids from someone who was moving.

Imported mammals aren’t the only odd animals around. While the kids were playing in the pool I found this critter and later identified it as an Ironclad Beetle

I went with Katie when she had to run an errand, and we stopped to meet Kurtis at the Fischer Store. I remember stopping here before when it was open.

Texans do like their star. You see this on a lot of gates. This is Katie’s gate.

Hanging around the house at night, Dan found something else hanging around him.

Dinosaur-loving grandson.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Visiting Family

Its taken me awhile to get back to the Road Trip blog posts, but I know you’re waiting for the next chapter (at least I know of one person who is). As I said in the last blog post we got to Katie’s house just before midnight. We knew that it would be best to leave the goats in the trailer and get them out in their new surroundings the next day.

They were glad to get out of the trailer. The new goat pen and shelter wasn’t finished yet so they went into the fenced area where the dog stays when everyone is gone. They particularly liked the big rocks that line the fence. The grandkids were told that they could each name a goat. Four-year-old, dinosaur loving Kasen named one of them Indominus (we thought of Indie for a nickname). Six-year-old Kirby chose Snowflake for the white yearling. Katie and Kurtis will name the kid.

Who needs rocks when there is a picnic table?

…or a dog house?

I’m glad the goats finally made it to Texas.

They will have good lives with our family there.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Day 2

It was daylight in the last photo I posted about Day 1, but we still hadn’t left California. We kept driving and now I don’t remember where we ended up, but it was somewhere along I-10 in Arizona.

We had our camping stuff with us because usually on our road trips we find a spot to camp along the way. This was different. For one thing we just wanted to GET THERE. Another factor was that it was HOT. Sleeping bags and a tent weren’t appealing. I think we stopped here at about midnight. Dan decided to sleep in the cab with the seat back as far as it would go. I opted to get in the truck bed on top of the stall mats that we were taking to Katie for her new barn. I really needed to stretch out and not stay in the truck seat a moment longer than I had to. Neither were great options. I was comfortable enough lying on a sheepsking, but the trucks keep their generators on all night and other trucks go by on the freeway all night. We started up again about 4 a.m.

When I used the map app on my phone to plan this trip it showed Home to Blanco, TX to be 24 hours. So after driving for probably 14-15 hours yesterday why did we still have 14 hours to go? That’s easy. We didn’t stop much but you do need to get gas and stop at the occasional rest stop along the way. Also, while pulling the trailer we weren’t staying at the posted limit, especially when it was 80 mph (in Texas).

This was at 6:20 a.m. so it’s somewhere in Arizona between Phoenix and Tucson.

Freeway Art somewhere around Tucson.

I wouldn’t call this Freeway Art, but it was interesting. Does McDonald’s have a new item on it’s menu?

Rest stop about 8:30 Saturday morning.

I want to say “Dorothy, we’re not in Kansas anymore”. You get what I mean, right?

9:30 a.m. Another state line to check off. One more to go.

View of the Organ Mountains/Desert Peaks outside Las Cruces.

About 1 p.m. That didn’t take long.

The phone showed about another 8 hours to our destination.

More Freeway Art. This is near El Paso. I think the Freeway Art deserves a blog post of it’s own.

This smoke plume, across the border in Mexico, was visible for miles. I tried to find out what was going on checking Google. No luck although I did find several links that brought up major fires over the last few years.

Border Patrol station. The dog who sniffed our truck didn’t think twice about the goats.

A Freeway Mural.

Before we got to Ft. Stockton (about 5:30 p.m.) the “low fuel” light came on. UhOh. Ft. Stockton was the next place where we could find gas and fortunately we weren’t too far out.

Both Dan and I are always very careful about not running too low on fuel, but around here it’s not that much of an issue. Town isn’t far away and even when traveling there is always a gas station nearby. That’s not the case when driving through the southwest. It turns out that we weren’t as close to empty as we thought when the warning light came on. I looked it up and our truck has a 25 gallon tank. However, we’d been driving with the trailer at elevation and into head winds and all of those things affected our gas mileage for the worse.

I called Katie from here and she had a Ft. Stockton story. That is where their truck broke down when she moved from California. They were stuck in town with a horse and a dog for a few days waiting for parts.

In Ft. Stockton there is no excuse for getting lost.

I love the expression on this roadrunner’s face.

Texas landscape from the truck. This is about a half hour past Ft. Stockton.

I took only a few more photos after this or maybe I just deleted most.

This isn’t Freeway Art but I think it is Inspiration for Weaving. Great colors and pattern!

We made it to our destination on this day but it was after 11:30 p.m.

Learning to Weave

I started to offer in-person weaving classes again. I haven’t had live classes here since before the pandemic started. My “stay-at-home” started in October 2019 with a severe injury. (There are a lot of typos in that blog post and that’s because I I wasn’t using my hand very well and could barely type a complete sentence.)

Anyway, I started classes this month now that it seemed safe to do so. (With the new variant that seems more dangerous I have decided that people who come here for classes need to be fully vaccinated. As some of my friends and supporters have said, I used up a couple of my lives in 2019 and I don’t need more risk.) I want to share some class photos. I didn’t take that many photos but I am mostly busy talking/teaching when people are here. Besides I try not to be too intrusive with the phone/camera.

Last Friday and Saturday there were four people here for Learn to Weave. The fourth is around the corner to the left of those shelves. Do you see the reason I ask people to be vaccinated?

This is a small area and students are here for 7 hours or more. Besides when you are learning weaving or teaching weaving there are plenty of times when there is close personal contact.

Learning to change the tie-up on the treadles.

Winding a bobbin.

Students learn to read weaving drafts and have the opportunity to weave several patterns.

They can try a variety of pattern and color combinations.

This is someone who has figured out how to minimize loom waste!

These are the four students in the first class. Two weren’t quite ready to cut their warps off the looms but finished later.

Two days after this class I had three more students.

People usually use my looms but in this class two people already had looms they could bring.

Oops! I didn’t get a group photo of this class.

Today I two people came for a warping refresher. They have taken previous classes but wanted some supervision for a new project using finer yarns and a longer, wider warp.

Learn to Weave classes for the floor loom and the rigid heddle loom and classes in weaving a chenille scarf and a V-Shawl (double weave) are now posted on the website.

WATER

Our farm is on the edge of California’s Central Valley. This is a Mediterranean climate where we expect hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters. Lately we haven’t had the wet winters that are so important to fill up reservoirs and aquifers to get us through the dry summers.

Here on this farm we don’t face the dire circumstances of those who live in many other areas of the West where forests are dyeing and burning, reservoirs are almost dry, and some people are out of water. We are fortunate that we are in the area served by Solano Irrigation District (SID) and our water comes from Lake Berryessa.

I found this graph from the Solano County Water Agency. I was surprised to see that the lake level was so much higher in July 2020 (left side of graph) than during the winter of 2020-2021. I know that we didn’t get enough rain (about 40% of “average” here) but I didn’t realize that even that amount of rain didn’t increase the water level in the lake.

This blog post has taken a turn other than what I intended but I’m sitting here at my desk at about 8 p.m. It’s still 97 degrees outside and it’s about 90 degrees in the house. I hope that our “delta breeze” kicks in and blows cooler air through the house tonight.

The original plan for this post was to share irrigation photos but I want to make it clear that I know how fortunate we are right here and I am grateful for the water. Notice the dry grass on the left of the photo. That’s what land looks like without irrigation. This is the view at the northwest corner of the property. Lake Berryessa is about 20 miles away in the hills (view covered by a new almond orchard). When we ask for water it comes down that ditch that is off our property and into the standpipe. It flows out at the base of the standpipe and into our ditch.

I should have a photo of the ditch that goes east from the standpipe, but I got distracted by blackberries.

They are so good.

The standpipe and the ditch at the north end of the property are to the right of this photo, at the north end of what we still call the horse pasture, although there haven’t been horses there since Katie left for college and took her horse with her. In this photo the water has already covered the horse pasture and then flows east/west in this ditch that borders the other pasture. At the point when I took these photos we’d had the water flowing for about 33 hours. We usually hope to finish in 24 hours but we have been extending the time between irrigations lately to hopefully extend our allocation into the fall. The ground was so dry that we figured that we would need more time to complete the irrigation at the south end of the field.

I took this photo at about the same spot as the one with the water a few days ago. The ground was so dry that I could barely get the electric-net fence posts in place.

There are cut-outs in the ditch so that the water will flow out of the ditch through the pasture .

Looking southwest. Those fields are finished.

This is from the south end of the property looking back to the barn. This morning the water wasn’t down this far and we really did need those extra hours to get coverage everywhere.

This is the tailwater ditch at the south edge of the property. The idea is to channel excess water into the main canal off the property. However I figured out a system to “reverse irrigate”. Usually the paddocks on the west finish first. By blocking this ditch at the east end the water backs up and irrigates the south end of the other parts of the pasture.

This is at the southeast corner where the water finally does flow off the pasture and into the main canal.

The sheep are ever hopeful that when they see someone walking around the pasture it means that they will get to go out. Sorry girls, you have to wait for it to dry out some.

Some of them were hanging out in the shade near the ram pen.

Here is the goal. This photo was taken in the horse pasture that I showed first. The sheep haven’t grazed this since early June. The last irrigation was after they came off of it about 4-1/2 weeks ago.

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.

Thursday Morning Farm Photos

I was talking about the pasture and someone asked me what birdsfoot trefoil looks like.

The sheep love it. From PennStateExtension: “Birdsfoot trefoil is a perennial that adapts well to production on poorly drained, low-pH soils (Table 1). It can reseed itself, is resistant to Phytophthora root rot and numerous alfalfa insects, responds well to fertilization, and does not cause bloat in animals.” What a great plant! We have some in the pasture and I’d like more. This photo was taken in an area that the sheep can’t access.

One of my chickens wandered by while I was admiring the trefoil.

The sheep have been in this section a few days now and have eaten it down quite a bit. There is still a lot of grass left and some clover hidden in the grass clumps. I noticed that last few days that the sheep weren’t out when I expected them to be in the morning. I didn’t know if it was because they had eaten the plants they like (clover and trefoil) and were turning their noses up at the dallisgrass that is getting coarser or if there was another reason. I wanted to see what they were eating and if the mosquitoes were as thick as they had been earlier in the morning.

I took this photo of my leg a few days ago. The mosquitoes were worse this morning when I walked the pasture about 7:30. The sheep didn’t want to go out until about 9:00 and I took my camera out a little later. That’s when I took the most of these photos. By that time the mosquitoes were not nearly as thick, although I’m sure I’d have had bites if I wasn’t completely covered (overalls over my shorts and a long sleeve shirt with the collar up).

The Western Kingbird is happy out here because there are plenty of bugs to eat, mosquitoes included. I see them flitting around while the sheep graze.

I spent some time watching the sheep eat to see what plants they chose.

This ewe is named Dimitri.

This is Beauty, the March daughter of Belle, the sheep I gave my granddaughter to show in 2019 when she was here for the State Fair. Kirby has chosen names with a Disney Princess theme. If it wasn’t for the pandemic Kirby would be here to show Beauty at this year’s State Fair. The fair is cancelled but Kirby will be here and she and I will spend time befriending and halter-breaking Beauty and other lambs.

This is Juniper, another lamb I am keeping. I’m not crazy about the quilting—that’s what you call the unequal lengths of wool fibers in this fleece. But it is likely to even up after her first shearing.

This is not a pasture plant, but a dahlia. Its one of the few things growing in my dye garden right now. After a rough start my dahlias have finally taken off. Some are almost my height and some of the flowers are massive.

This flower is as big as my hand.

This is 8 ounces of flowers that are going in a dyepot tomorrow. Stay tuned.

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.

Random Farm Photos

The Random Photos posts mean that I don’t have anything very exciting to report or a story to tell but I don’t want to be so neglectful of my blog. So here it is.

I have been updating the lamb pages and needed new photos. This is one of the five ewe lambs that is still for sale. Her number indicates that she was the first lamb born in 2021.

This is a lamb I am going to keep. This is almost the last lamb to be born in mid-March.

Tamarisk is the sire of most of the lambs this year. All the rams are putting on too much weight. They get alfalfa because in our area alfalfa is cheaper than any of the grass hays. But maybe I need to switch to something else even though it will cost more.

The goats are always so helpful when I’m doing chores.

This is Ellie and her daughter from last year.

How about some weaving pictures? After all, the blog is titled Life on the Farm and at the Loom. I finished a custom weaving job of 44 throws woven with Northern CA grown and spun yarn. The customer ordered 200 throws, but I said that I could do 40 of them. This is how the weaving looks still on the loom.

I wove these in two batches. This is the second batch of 22. Fortunately I don’t have to do the wet finishing. Someone else is taking on that task.

This is another project I’m working on. I will devote a whole blog post to this idea when I have more finished but the short story is that this blanket represents the 2020 weather pattern in our area. The colors indicate the high temps for the whole year of 2020. The grays and blues are 40s, 50s and 60s. Green is 70s. Yellow, orange, and red are 80s through 100+. There are two rows for each day of the year.

That first blanket has the color changes in the weft. In this blanket the warp indicates the temperature. I hope to market this idea as a kit to weavers and/or weave custom blankets for people based on a special year and place. I sell this yarn at the shop and on-line.

These are samplers that are woven in the Learn to Weave class. I have the first in-person class in a year and a half scheduled for the first week of July. Participants range from brand-new-never-touched-a loom to people who have some experience but could benefit from instruction on warping, reading drafts, etc.

I weaned 7 lambs a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been taking Ginny in there to practice her herding skills. It only took a few days for the lambs to figure out that when the dog is there they need to be near me. A Border Collie’s natural moves are to “gather” the sheep to the handler rather than chase them. But Ginny has the tendency to be to close and I’m working on the “get out” command.

Some of the rams were aggressive toward her at first but now they respect her a bit more.

Ginny is always ready for a dip after working the lambs.

Take Your Parents to Work Day - Touring the Redding Air Attack Base

Matt invited us to visit him at work yesterday and tour the facility before it gets too busy when fire season really gets underway.

According to the website “the Redding Air Attack Base is an interagency base operated by the U.S. Forest Service and hosting CAL FIRE firefighting resources, located at the north end of the Redding Municipal Airport.” Matt works for the Forest Service as an Air Attack Specialist (or something like that). Last summer he was usually based in S. CA and flew in an airplane. This year he is with a helicopter and although he reported to Redding this week, he will go wherever the helicopter goes.

The part of the base used by the Forest Service is a World War 2 era building that was built and used elsewhere and moved to Redding sometime after the war.

When we got to the base the mechanics and pilot were putting one of the Cobra helicopters through its paces after doing maintenance work on it.

There were other aircraft in the hangar. The King Air in the foreground is used as a lead plane when large tankers drop retardant.

The Sherpa flies smokejumpers to remote sites. (That is what my other son is doing in Idaho.)

This is the other side of the Sherpa where they are working on one of the propellers.

This view is from the back when it is open for loading. The jumpers have seats on the right and the gear is stowed on the left.

This view is at the far end of the hangar. There are helicopter rotor blades in those long green boxes and other parts in the crates. The bikes reminded me of touring the base where Chris works. There are random cruiser bikes around that can be used when people need to get from one place to another on the base.

We sat and ate lunch at that end of the building while they were still working on the Cobra helicopter outside and this was in view. I’m not sure if it’s part of the training for the new hires.

After eating we took a closer look at where Matt will spend a lot of time during fire season. The Cobra helicopters were developed as attack helicopters in the 1960’s, and these are retired from the military. The one they were working on outside was used in Vietnam. Wikipedia says the Cobra features “a tandem cockpit, stub wings for weapons, and a chin-mounted gun turret”. Weapons were mounted on those little wings and there is a compartment that opens under the windows that was loaded with ammunition for the gun that was mounted in front. When they are flying Matt sits in the front and the pilot is behind him.

From the side view you have no idea how narrow this is.

Those windows are like a bubble that flares out so the pilot and person in front can have a better perspective of the terrain below.

This is where Matt rides. He has the computer screen on and directs the image from one of five or six cameras mounted where there used to be a gun mounted in front. Those controls on the left are for all the radio channels he monitors while in the air. He is in contact with ground crews and other aircraft and has the job of directing traffic from the air and keeping them all safe. Whew!

The bulk of the helicopter is taken up by its engine.

When it is dispatched to a fire it takes with it a whole entourage. Each helicopter has a dedicated truck and trailer with a mechanic and all his tools, a fuel truck, and one of those vans that contains is set up with electronics and communications systems. We saw a big monitor that can swing into view so that ground personnel can see the image that Matt views on his screen while over the fire in the air.

Cal Fire (the state fire fighting agency that people confuse with Forest Service, which is federal) uses the north end of this air field and there were a couple of planes refueling and filling with retardant. Those tanks at the top left are filled with retardant.

We stayed out of the way while they were filling and then walked over.

The retardant comes as a phosphorus based powder in large bags.

This is the mixing station. Now I can’t remember but I think that each bag mixes with water to make 2000 gallons of retardant.

The retardant is stored in these 24,000 gallon tanks.

This is one of the Cobras. That’s the mechanic’s truck and trailer to the left.

A view of the cameras that have replaced front mounted guns. This swivels in all directions and Matt controls which camera has the active view.

I can’t help but remember Matt in this same position with the TV and Nintendo controller 25 years ago. I guess that experience has paid off.

This is a view through the infrared camera of the proud parents.

Great job, Matt!

More About Rusty

It was a week ago that I wrote the blog post that started the story of Rusty’s life here and two weeks since he died. Here are more photos of him the way I like to remember him.

In that last post Ginny was just a baby. As she grew up she became obsessed with The Ball. Rusty never stooped to playing with a ball or toy but he sure liked to chase Ginny when she chased the ball. In fact that was the only thing that perked him up in those last couple of months.

Rusty knew that he had important roles to play when we had school field trips and our spring open house, Meet the Sheep. He had to keep track of the small animals that were not where they belonged (bunnies in this case,)

And a chicken here. I never had to worry about him grabbing one of these animals, but he thought it was very important to watch them.

Another bunny on the loose.

Rusty was always patient during our field trips.

He also paid attention when I warned him to “leave it”.

Rusty took on many roles here but the original idea was that I needed a Border Collie to help with sheep. He was my pathway into learning about sheep herding. He and I went to lessons at Herding 4 Ewe, just a mile from here. He wasn’t the one who needed the lessons but I needed to learn how to help him be successful and develop confidence and how to not get in his way. It certainly helps when starting a dog to use sheep that are already “dog broke”. It is also important to not try and start a dog using ewes with lambs, especially when those ewes have horns.

My sheep were a tough crowd for the dogs, and Ginny didn’t get as much early work as Rusty did, but that’s another story. I am trying to make that up to her now and weaned a group of lambs so that she and I have a group to work with. (That’s also another story and maybe a blog post coming up.)

Rusty excelled at this very important job. That was to keep the rams away from me when I had to do something in their pen.

I could talk about how all work and no play isn’t good. But remember that for a Border Collie the Work is what they want to be doing. Sheep work (or watching bunnies or whatever) will always take priority over anything else. But if we weren’t going to do any sheep work, then going Across the Road was the next best thing for Rusty.

He always watched and chased after Ginny while she focused on the Ball.

I won’t say that Rusty especially liked water but he wasn’t shy about cooling off when he got the chance. And as his hips got more sore over the last several years I think he liked to walk in the parts of the canal where the water was just deep enough to support his body weight.

I think this is the look of a content dog.

Other important jobs included harassing ground squirrels. The chirping under an old wood pile kept the dogs focus for what seemed like hours.

If we weren’t Across the Road then any puddle would do to cool off.

This was taken in 2018. Maggie is now gone, but Finn and Sawyer still live right next door with my son and DIL. That’s Kirby in pink, the granddaughter from Texas.

The pack.

Have you ever seen a Border Collie smile? I never could get a good photo of it but Rusty had a great smile when he was pleased with himself.

Rusty knew that if I was cracking walnuts it was treat time for him. He heard me scooping them out of the bucket and would come choose one.

In the last year I encouraged Rusty to help herd the chickens. He got to use some of his herding skills but wasn’t at risk of being beat up by a ram. He complained about this in his later blog posts (here is one), but I don’t think he really minded.

Rusty really was The Best Dog Ever. We can’t replace him.

The Best Dog Ever - Rusty -2006 to 2021

It’s taken me several days to get to Rusty’s obituary post. The first few days it was too sad to deal with and after that I couldn’t find the photos that I was sure I had taken when he was much younger. There are big gaps but I found some of my favorites. And then I found enough later photos that I may fill two or three blog posts. I enjoy seeing these photos because they help me remember Rusty as he was most of his life with us instead of how he had become in the last several months.

Rusty is (was?) a red and white Border Collie. “The Best Dog Ever”—that’s what Dan would always say to Rusty when he came in the house with his lips pulled back in a smile—the only dog I have had that would do that. He was about six months old when he came to live here in the fall of 2006.

Rusty’s littermate, Jake, lived with a friend of mine about a mile away. I don’t think they remembered each other but we got together occasionally.

Rusty had less interest in other dogs and was more focused on an animal that might need to be herded or seemed out of place—like the cat he has his eyes on just outside of this photo. Those two photos are not dated properly so I don’t know how old Rusty was there.

I know that Rusty was only about a year old here. These are Toggenburg kids, offspring of my son’s goats.This was taken in 2007.

I never had to worry about Rusty with the kids or lambs.

I don’t remember what Rusty had done but he put up with Farm Club members giving him a bath (2010).

Rusty knew that the chicken belonged in the chicken house and not in the spinning circle, no matter how much Shelby was in control of the situation (2011).

He also knew that there were treats to be found in the wheelbarrow during lambing time. (2012)

Rusty had the kind of coat that caught everything—weeds, hay, grass. I had to keep his feet trimmed through the summer because the soft fuzzy hair was a foxtail trap.

Looking back through old blog posts I found this one (2013)of trying to get dogs (and sheep and the donkey) into the holdiay spirit. Rusty was never one who liked dress-up. I knew I took lots of photos back then, but I just can’t find them.

In 2013 I thought it would be a good idea to get another dog so Rusty would have a companion. I found Maggie in a foster care situation, but I don’t have photos of the earlier years. I was looking back through old blog posts and found this one with a photo of Maggie. That led me to thinking about Rusty’s blog. Did you know that Rusty wrote a blog from 2011 to July, 2019? It still lives out there on Wordpress and the photos I was looking for and can’t find on my computer are there. Rusty’s blog is called “Perspective of a Border Collie”. I should probably just let Rusty’s blog tell the rest of the story of his life—he was an amusing writer with a perspective of farm events that was different than mine.

I’d forgotten that he also tried his paw at photography. I found this photo in an old blog post of mine.

In 2014 Ginny came to be part of our lives.

To be continued…

Random Farm Photos

Just sharing what I see here. I have things on my mind now that will result in a future blog post. But these photos have been lined up for awhile.

This photo is from this morning after moving to fresh pasture. These paddocks on the east side are are looking so much better after being able to irrigate and then getting warm weather. We didn’t have nearly the normal winter time growth because there was so little rain. It also helps that Dan has been mowing after grazing to take down the stalky parts that are left.

It’s mostly about sheep here but the goats are photogenic. This is how I usually find the goats in the morning. Ellie and her daughter (mostly white) are together and Amelia’s daughter (brown) has now joined the pair because Amelia is distracted by this year’s kids.

Two of Amelia’s triplets that have decided the feeder is really a goat play structure.

This is what my dahlia garden has looked like for a month. The plants finally started sprouting and then they were attacked. I don’t know what is getting them. I put out rolled up newspaper to see if earwigs were there. I put out a game camera (only for one night though) to see if I could catch ground squirrels in action at night. I have sprinkled diatomacous earth around. I don’t know if that is helping but some of the plants look better. The funny thing is that we have this one bed and there are big tractor tires at each end with more plants growing in them. The ones in the tires aren’t eaten as much—does that mean there is some creature that won’t cross the rubber tire?

Speaking of bugs I was sitting outside talking to my daughter on the phone and I noticed movement on the ground. There were dozens (hundreds?) of these bugs.

I checked iNaturalist and Google and I think they are boxelder bugs. They are under the maple trees and locust trees. Maples are listed under the description for these bugs. I have never noticed them before so maybe its something about this year or its just that I don’t usually just sit under a tree and do nothing else. These are redder than the ones I see in the photos but I think it’s because they are the juveniles. When I looked later I found ones with more brown on the back.

This is a selection from my recent ecoprinting. They are for sale in Davis at the Artery and on-line on my website and the Artery website.

This is the AVL loom before I threaded. That’s 50 yards of wool for a custom weaving project.

Its hard to make out the pattern while I’m weaving because the value of the warp and weft are similar and it’s a very open weave structure. After wet finishing the yarn will bloom, the holes will disappear, and the piece will look more like a blanket.

That is about 15 blankets woven so far. After they come off then I need to cut them apart, trim all those threads, and look for errors to fix. Then I need to do it all over again for another 20 blankets.