Family Time

It’s pretty quiet around here now. We just spent the last ten days with grandkids here or nearby. We share the two grandkids with the other set of grandparents who live in Dixon. Katie and the kids got here about ten days ago and Kurtis came about five days later. They split their time here and in town. For the first couple of days my son, Chris was here as well, but he had to get back to Boise, where he and Meryl moved just a few weeks ago.

Right after they got here the kids wanted to get out the toys they remembered from previous visits. There are a selected group of toys left over from when my kids were younger. Kasen had the box of Lincoln logs and the wooden train set. Kirby went right to the Playmobile cowboy set that she remembered from her visit in the summer.

Kirby always likes to spend time in the barn when I do chores. Katie came out the first morning and offered to help with cleaning. You’d think from this photo that they are worn out, but I think they were faking it.

Jade and Hazel are really going to miss Kirby. She spent a lot of time in the barn and in the pasture and those two sheep always hang around her to get pets (and sometimes treats).

One of the mornings we drove to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area between Davis and Sacramento.

The majority of birds were to the east past the line on our map that showed the division between hunting and no-hunting. So we watched and listened to those from afar. I think it’s fascinating to see the city buildings just beyond these massive flocks of birds.

This isn’t a great photo but I think these are sandhill cranes. The majority of the birds in the large flocks to the east seemed to be snow geese.

On Wednesday we spent the afternoon and evening with my brother’s family in Fairfield. Before our Thanksgiving meal the kids played football in the street…

…and then went on a Beaver Walk. Dave usually finds beavers at dusk in this creek, but we missed them on this evening.

After our turkey dinner and traditional pies we also had a mini recognition of Kasen’s birthday which is during “the holidays” and when he’ll be back in Texas.

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday. My sister-in-law organized the party and about 50 family members of several generations came from all over the country.

Kirby in one of her several holiday outfits.

Kirby joined in with the Wild Woolly Wreath class that I did on Saturday morning. This was also presented virtually while I had 5 in-person class participants. The whole Thanksgiving weekend was a bit of a challenge for me with virtual presentations each day through Camp Yarnsie. These were fun, but I had to focus on my organization for the weekend. Camp Yarnsie? That’s a virtual fiber festival. If you missed all it you can catch replays of a lot of the programs here. I had something on each day of the Camp. Check out the video on Thanksgiving Thursday and the Jacob sheep discussion on Sunday.

On Monday my Wednesday Weavers (virtual on Wednesdays) came for a dye day and Kirby joined in. She dyed some of the warps that I have planned for v-shawls and then I made a warp for a smaller version so that she could dye one that I would weave for her.

Kirby usually leans towards the pinks and purples, but then I wanted to use up some of the dyes left over and she dyed this one yellow and green.

She liked the yellow and green one so much that I wound another warp for her and set this up in the house so she could dye this last one before leaving for the airport this morning.

After the dye project we went to the barn for one last session with the sheep before the kids had to leave.

Random Farm Photos

I’m organizing some of my photos and have a lot I took thinking of blog posts but I never wrote those posts. Here we go with some of the more recent Random Farm Photos.

Quinci is one of the 2021 ewe lambs born in March. Look at that fleece! We will shear in about 2-1/2 months and we’ll have some gorgeous fleeces.

This is the fleece of another ewe lamb who has mostly dark fiber.

Coating the sheep keeps the fleeces beautifully clean—free of VM (vegetable matter, which is usually hay in our system). But the problem with coats is that there is a lot of maintenance, especially in a horned breed. Coats need changing at least 3 or 4 times a year as the fleece grows in addition to when they are too torn to stay on the sheep. This is a patch job by one of the Farm Club members. Besides I don’t really like seeing them in coats. I’d rather see their wool. I always have a few though to have those wonderful clean fleeces.

Do you remember these three? I introduced them awhile ago. I got these ewe lambs in August and they are usually found together. From back to front that’s Hillside Grace, Patchwork Amara, and Patchwork Bettylou.

Ewes heading to pasture on an overcast morning.

This one is in the category of “sheep problem”. I had just put the two tame wethers in a separate area. Why this one decided he needed to be IN the feeder I don’t know. I couldn’t get him out without calling Dan. He couldn’t go forward because his hips were stuck. I couldn’t pull him out by myself. We did get him out and I put that feeder on its side for now so he wouldn’t try that again.

Another sheep problem. I found this after I put the rams back together. This is Barrett, the smallest ram. I had forgotten to take his marking harness off but that wasn’t the problem here. He got his head through the welded wire panel and couldn’t pull it out. It took two of us to manipulate his head just right while pushing on the wire to get him out.

These are examples of why it is a little worrisome when we leave and I am asking other people to take care of things here. In fact, I think it was when we were in Texas this summer that one of my friends had to deal with the sheep-in-the-feeder problem—same feeder, different sheep. She had to call on another friend who came over to help get the sheep out.

This is Meridian Silverado, Meridian Dylan, and Hillside Barrett. Barrett is the lamb with his head in the fence in the last photo. Dylan is now living in Nevada, and Silverado is here.

Axis is the other ram lamb who is staying here.

Rambler is the yearling ram.

One last photo. This is Sunny lying on top of me.

Above the Fog

Last Tuesday I met up with a cousin for a hike. We chose a place about half way between us—Jack London State Historic Park. Its only about an hour from here but I had never been there. What a great day! It had been foggy in the valley for days—that thick drippy fog that lasts all day. We found the sun!

There are 29 miles of trails in the park and we kept checking the map as we ran into intersections. This trail is part of the 400 mile trail system designated Bay Area Ridge Trail. That makes me think I have a lot more exploring to do in my own backyard.

The mist is a sign that there is still a lot of moisture in the air and on the ground.

We were impressed with the size and color of these leaves.

There are several ecosystems here—including grassy meadows, oak woodland, redwoods, and streams.

The fog was still there in places but here we were above it.

There are seeds sprouting in this dry thistle. I’ve never seen that but maybe it’s because I’m usually hiking in the spring, before seeds are even formed, and summer when it is dry and nothing is going to sprout.

It reminded me of a chia pet or a container of sprouts.

I didn’t take my usual number of photos and I didn’t get one of Carol and me. I slipped in one place and twisted my already injured knee. So I was paying such close attention to footing and getting back when we needed to that my photo mojo was left behind.

But this was a great place for a hike and a great time with my cousin whom I hadn’t seen in years. I definitely want to do it again!

Birthday and Christmas Tree

What does my early November birthday have to do with Christmas trees? A few weeks ago I read that the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree would make a stop at the Dixon Fairgrounds on its journey from the Six Rivers National Forest where it was harvested to Washington D.C. and it was on my birthday. I wanted to go see this.

There is a display that accompanies the tree and it starts with this sign.

This is just part of the next sign, but I was amused when I looked at the base of the tree to see who is sneaking out from behind it.

The next thing to see was the quilted tree skirt make up of 24 panels created by three northern California quilt guilds. You can see the whole thing at the website for the Redwood Empire Quilters Guild. Eel River Valley Quilt Guild and Moonstone Quilters are the other guilds involved.

I was just at the USCapitolChristmasTree website and read this: TREE SKIRTS: More than 50 tree skirts in varying sizes were created and donated to adorn the 50 companion trees that will decorate the Senate and House chambers of many California delegation members, along with the USDA and USFS headquarter offices. Specifically, a 15-foot skirt representing the “Essence of Humboldt” was lovingly stitched by members of several local quilting associations will be placed inside the Whitten Patio at USDA; and a 12-foot skirt representing beloved icons Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl will be inside the Chief of the Forest Service’s office.

So now I think that this tree skirt is the one for the USDA. I wondered if it was going to be on a tree that was set up outside. Maybe it will at an inside venue.

This is quite impressive. There is a book at the information desk with information about all the quilters and their panels.

Some of the quilters showed their sense of humor. Notice the piece on the left is titled “Bigfoot, Banana Slug Reindeer & Snail Sleigh”. Sure enough, those are banana slugs (who thrive in a cool, moist north-coast forest).

Here are a few close-ups.

The images represent places and inhabitants in the Six Rivers area.

These are life-size cut outs of 3 fish common to some of the six rivers that are important to this area. The are Chinook Salmon, Green Sturgeon, and Pacific Lamprey. This all migrate from the ocean into fresh water rivers to breed. I wish I had a photo of the USFS representative who was there to indicate scale. That sturgeon is a really big fish!

This was cut from the base of the Christmas tree. It indicates that the tree was 57 years old. This tree is a white fir and was 84 feet tall.

There is a special oversized trailer that carries this tree and this is the route it will travel. It is difficult to show the scale of this truck, but think about the trucks we usually see on the highways. Those containers they carry are 40-53 feet and this tree is 80 feet long (after cutting 4 feet off the base). That is a long trailer.

The back section of the trailer has plexiglas sides so that you can see the tree inside. It has been decorated with ornaments that are thematic for the area from which it was harvested.

There are a lot of people accompanying the tree—USFS representatives, and honor guard, and the drivers. There are six drivers who trade off in pairs for the trip. Matt asked one of the staff about how the tree is kept hydrated. He was told that there is a bladder of water at the base in the enclosed part of the trailer and around it is a wax ring that seals the bladder to the trunk. I don’t remember how often they have to add water, but they do keep it wet and the enclosed plexiglass was steamy inside from the humidity.

There is a USCapitolChristmasTree website where you can read about the Six Rivers National Forest, the special truck built for this job, the drivers who were selected, and more.

My own two USFS employees who both said that they’d sign up for this job if a tree is ever chosen from the El Dorado National Forest.

This has nothing to do with the Christmas tree, but it is a cool metal sculpture at the Dixon Mayfair.

So this was a fun activity for my birthday.

We picked up dinner from a Chinese restaurant but forgot to open the fortune cookies until the next morning. I chose the cookies for Matt and Kaleena because they weren’t there. Theirs are the top two. My cookie is next and was empty. Dan’s is at the bottom. Chris and Meryl got theirs later.

Chris and Meryl came over this evening and we finished with the fortune cookies. I got to choose another and got the fortune that is third from the top. I think that describes the end of 2019 into 2020 for me. Meryl’s and Chris’ are the last two but I don’t remember which is which. Considering that they are moving to the next phase of their lives (literally moving to Boise) those are good fortunes to have.

Last Weekend - Family & Rain - Part 2

When I wrote last night’s blog post I realized that I had too many photos (as usual) and it really should be told in two parts. The plan had been for all of us to go to the Sacramento Ironman and support Chris in this event. It was not to be. The record breaking rainfall caused them to cancel the event at the very last minute. That is a whole other story and this post is about the rain at the farm on Sunday.

I took this photo around noon and by that time we’d had over 3” of rain. When the storm was over I had measured a total of 6.8” here. That’s a lot for 24 hours especially considering that our average annual rainfall is about 24”. This photo wouldn’t be unusual during times of heavy storms over multiple days in a “normal” rainfall year, but we haven’t had a normal year in a long time.

I had moved breeding groups around the day before in anticipation of this. This is a group that would have been in standing water with no shelter. They moved to the donkey pen (no donkey anymore) which had at least a few dry spots.

The barn was flooding from the south and I realized that it had been a long time since I’d had to dig ditches.

This ditch brought water from the south and east sides of the barn into the main irrigation ditch. That ditch was so full it looked as though we were irrigating. I checked the end of the ditch where it flows off the property and dug out a few more spots to help the water flow a little faster.

This group had a dry spot at the corner of the barn because they weren’t going to try and cross Lake Meridian.

Kirby spent part of the day in town with her cousins but was ready for some sheep time when she got back. Katie had bought her new rain gear in anticipation of spending a soggy day at the Ironman. She was able to wear it here.

First we spent some time with the favorite sheep. Snacks for these two.

BettyLou is one of the new lambs who really likes her cookies, but usually from someone she knows. Kirby has enough sheep sense that she was able to entice BettyLou to take the cookie.

Do you remember the hopscotch photo from yesterday’s post? A little rain wasn’t going to stop Kirby from using her hopscotch grid.

Kirby and Katie left early Monday morning to fly back to Texas. The day was dry and sunny. The sky was blue, cleaner than we’d seen it all summer, after all the dust and smoke were washed from the sky.

Last Weekend - Family & Rain

If you live in in northern California then you know about the record-breaking rainfall we had on Sunday. I measured 6.8” in 24 hours here. Our average for the whole year is usually 24.5” and I think we had less than 8” last season.

We had big plans for the weekend. Chris had entered the Ironman Triathlon to be held in Sacramento for the first time. Ironman athletes train all year for an event of that magnitude and he fit his training regime into his smokejumper job all summer with this focus. My daughter and granddaughter flew from Texas to be here for the event. So this post is some about family and some about the rain.

Katie and Kirby got here very late on Thursday evening. When Kirby got up Friday morning she went to the barn with me. Kirby didn’t have full access to all the sheep because right now they are in breeding groups and there are rams with the ewes. We brought selected sheep out where they could be petted. Hazel was ready for attention.

Kirby made a hopscotch grid in the sand.

Back at the house we got out this box of toys that Kirby remembered from her July visit. That box holds many, many Playmobil sets that we had bought when Matt and Katie and Chris were this age.

Ginny became a pest with her constant need for attention. She brought a fuzzy squirrel to each of us hoping that we’d throw it. Katie found a new way to interact with her.

I don’t think Ginny was amused, but she tolerated it. I found myself thinking that Katie was the big sister teasing the little sister. After all, Ginny is one of my kids now, right?

On Saturday we drove to Apple Hill to get together with Matt and Kaleena.

Kirby made quick work of the maze at this farm.

Aunt Kaleena treated Kirby to a princess type headdress with ribbon streamers.

There were three states represented by these cutting boards and two of them were appropriately California and Texas.

We drove up the highway to one of the stations of the El Dorado National Forest. Matt’s main work helicopter is gone now, but this one is still there, so we had a look inside.

Kirby got to try out the seating arrangement.

I sat in front. I am amazed at all those switches and dials. A bit overwhelming to think of learning all of those.

I was amused by the simple calculator attached below all the sophisticated controls. Matt said that you have to calculate the load, fuel, etc. while you’re loading so that is a very important component here.

I have realized that this is really a two blog post weekend. To be continued…

Idaho Trip - Day 3 - Part 2

At the end of Part 1 I asked a question about the Scottish bagpipers. Did you figure it out? See the next photo.

At first I thought it was just a few, but they all had sheep covers on their bagpipes.

The crowd was asked to be quiet while the sheep trailed through town. There are two sheep with halters at the front of the herd. The woman leading them was introduced as being part of this since being a little girl with her pet sheep. It helps sheep to have another sheep to follow so I assume that maybe at the staging area it was helpful to have these tame sheep be part of the plan. Maybe if we go again we’ll watch from that area—that would be interesting.

The sheep were followed by two more sheep camps, each a more modern version than the horse drawn camps.

I think this was an official part of the parade and he didn’t just sneak in to try and make a sale.

The last “entry” was the street sweeper.

After the parade we walked through a small outdoor vendor area. There were pushpins so that attendees could mark their locations on this map.

There were booths selling sheep and wool related items.

I stopped here because I thought I recognized the yarn. Not the actual yarn, but the style. Sure enough it was spun at Mountain Meadow Mill in Wyoming where my Timm Ranch yarn is spun. The wool comes from Nevada and one of the family members is working with this vendor to market the wool as yarn and as blankets.

They found a weaver in Boise. This made me anxious to get home and get my AVL loom up and running again. I’ve had glitches with the new compudobby (probably my fault and not the loom’s) and have been avoiding it. I have the yarn and I have the loom and I really want to get back to weaving blankets.

Seen on the way out of town.

Moving on from sheep, also seen on the way out of town.

This very cool set of bronze statues is at the south end of Hailey. I couldn’t get a decent photo of the whole thing. There is a herder with his horse, a dog, and several sheep. The artists’ portrayal of the animals’ body language and movement is just perfect. I can see my sheep turning like that to the dog, who crouches down to encourage the sheep to turn around (or in Ginny’s case, she’d bark and the sheep would turn around and stare).

In this view the dog and the herder are at the back.

On the long road to home. We hadn’t decided if we were going to stop along the way or just make it home.

A call from the Artery made that decision. I was supposed to work my shift Monday morning at 9:30. I think I hadn’t written in down because I knew that I should trade with someone for that day. Oops! We drove and made it home at 12:30 a.m.

Idaho Trip - Day 3 - Part 1

We ended the second day in Idaho by loading up Chris’ motorcycle and some other belongings that we would transport back to California. Then we hit the road and ended up in a motel sometime after dark. The next day we drove to Ketchum to catch the parade that is on the last day of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival.

We were rewarded for not driving this part of the route in the dark by seeing the fall colors along the way.

This is the town of Hailey and some of the Trailing of the Sheep Festival activities were here. Sheep played an important role in the economy and history of this part of Idaho. The amount of money represented by the sheep market from the mid 1800s to mid 1900s and beyond is in the billions in today’s dollars.

Now it’s not all about sheep, especially in this valley where winter sports and recreation have a large role. As you know if you follow my blog I keep myself amused by taking photos of things of interest along the way…things like a giant bicycle…

…and a colorful sheep.

Ketchum is just up the valley from Hailey. We parked outside of town and walked to the parade route. Like any other small town parade, people had staked out their spots with lawn chairs. We found a spot with a view and waited for about 45 minutes for the parade to begin. The sheep spend the summer grazing in the high mountains and are trailed down the valley to lower elevation for the winter. This festival was developed as a way to recognize this history and the people involved and promote the concept to the modern residents.

A mounted color guard. The horses were decorated with sparkly rumps, but I already have enough photos to share so I didn’t include that one.

The dignitaries of the town and the parade were transported in the first horse drawn wagon. This is the Lava Lake Lamb Camp wagon from Hailey.

Hook Lamb camp wagon pulled by miniature horses.

This is the Jones Sheep Camp. They call these wagons camps because they are the basis of the headquarters or camp for the shepherds who stay with the flocks in the mountains all summer.

The Ben Holland Sheep Camp, with a double wagon.

The parade included Basque and Peruvian dancers and musicians and the festival recognized the importance of those cultures to the sheep industry . Many of the original Basque herders settled in the valley and became sheep owners themselves. Today the industry relies on Peruvian herders.

This is Miss Lamb Chops and I don’t know the story about her.

It seems that where you find a wool celebration you often find a Scottish component. Scots settled in the valley and played an important role in the early days.

I saved way too many photos for this blog post so I’m going to make this Part 1 and finish it off with Part 2. While you’re waiting for that, take a look at these bagpipers. Do you notice anything odd?

To be continued…

Idaho Trip - Day 2-1/2

After our hike (described here) we went back to McCall and Chris gave us a private tour of the McCall Smokejumper Base.

The season is over now. Chris was still there finishing additional EMT training, but most of the others have left. When the base is active the smokejumpers’ personal items are stowed in the blue lockers, and their jumpsuits (I’m not sure that is the official terminology) and gear are arranged on hooks along these racks. As a team of smokejumpers is dispatched they remove their gear to get on the plane.

This space adjoins the room where the lockers are. The shelves contain all the things that might be launched from the plane with parachutes, from sleeping bags to chainsaws to food and medical equipment.

This is a random comment, but when I see these boxes with the chainsaw sticking out the end it reminds me of a book I read over and over to my kids (Chris included). Do any of you moms remember the pop-up book, How Many Bugs in a Box? The last page, I believe, showed “10 Saw Bugs”.

One mode of transportation to get around the base. There are a number of bicycles that are used by all, but this is specialized to carry gear. Clever.

Sleeping bags above. There are instructions for packing supply boxes with food and other items.

More gear.

These are streamers that are used before the jumpers leave the plane to show the wind speed and direction. I think they drop one of each color at a time so that at least one will be more visible.

There is a gadget on that table that is used to roll the streamers to an exact size.

This is the room that can is enclosed by the tower seen in the photo of the base from the parking lot.

After each jump the parachutes are clipped to rails and lifted for inspection.

The fabric is inspected as well as making sure that all the lines are organized and not twisted or knotted.

Any parachute or other gear with a flaw must be fixed. This is just one rack of fabric used for repairs.

All the parachutes and gear are repaired at the base and they also make a lot of the bags and other items they use.

There are a dozen or so heavy duty sewing machines of various brands and styles. I found out that this was not Pete’s work station but the machine is named Pete.

Part of more advanced smokejumper training is in how to repair the gear.

Some of the components used in repairs or construction.

There is a whole room dedicated to rigging parachutes—that is spreading them out and folding them in a very precise way to pack for use. An important part of training is learning this task. Would you want to jump out of a plane using a parachute folded by someone who hadn’t had training in the precise way to pack the parachute so that you can count on it opening correctly? Hours and hours are spent on this training and practice.

This is the other half of that room where parachutes are packed.

Chris took on a project this summer to create this display that included all the season’s smokejumpers and their home towns.

This is another view that shows the tower where the parachutes are hung to dry and for inspection.

One of the planes used to transportr smokejumpers.

A tribute to the gear used by the original smokejumpers in the 1940’s.

Idaho Trip - Day 2

After driving to Weiser Idaho to drop off sheepskins (last post) we drove onto McCall and stayed at the Rustic Inn. We met Chris for breakfast at his favorite diner in McCall.

6 Three 4 is an old gas station that has been repurposed as a cafe. Notice the counter top added onto the old truck and the roll-up garage door.

Additional seating.

Some old Hardy Boys books leveled our table.

After breakfast we drove east out of town to go hiking in the Payette National Forest.

Chris had heard of an unmarked trail to a lake a couple of miles up this main trail.

The fall colors were gorgeous...

…accented by a beautiful blue sky.

Chris found the unmarked trail…

…and we followed him down the other side of the mountain we had just hiked up…

…to Crystal Lake.

A panoramic view of the lake.

I keep looking at this photo and find it hard to acknowledge that the lower half of the rock is a reflection—it is so vivid.

The sky was gorgeous.

The fall colors were stunning.

It was a lovely day in the Salmon River Mountains and great to spend it with Chris.

Idaho Trip - Day 1

We found three reasons to make a quick trip to Idaho last week. Two involved sheep. We left early of Friday morning with the plan to get to Weiser, Idaho by late afternoon to drop sheepskins off at a new tannery.

We caught a glimpse of welcome snow as we go into the Sierras. Snow is welcome because California is in such need of a snow pack this winter and any snow will help with the fires that are still burning.

We were driving the truck so that we could haul the sheepskins with us and return with other cargo. This truck is 2 wheel drive, but there wasn’t enough snow that we needed to worry about not having 4 WD or chains.

There was evidence of snow on some of the peaks in the middle of Nevada as well.

We made it to Living Sky Tannery in Weiser about 5:00. The tannery is housed in a building on the farm that includes plenty of space for this family’s other needs as well. This photo shows the first step in the process. The lambskins go into the washing machine to get the first cleaning and remove the salt used to dry the pelt.

I realize now that I didn’t find out enough details to fully explain this process. I do know that the method Living Sky uses is based on the natural and non-toxic method that the owners learned in England. Duane built most of the infrastructure modeled what they saw there. I don’t remember the exact order of the process and I did not get a photo of the next process of fleshing the pelts—that is to remove any remaining flesh or fat that is still clinging to the underneath. Anything left on the hide can prevent the tannin from being absorbed completely. Next the pelts go into a “pickling” tub but I don’t know what is in that solution.

There are four more tanks for soaking the pelts in a solution of mimosa bark. Duane built the motorized paddlewheels at the back of the tubs to slowly move the pelts through the solution.

This is a barrel of mimosa powder. When I googled I found this at leather-dictionary.com :

“Mimosa bark is a vegetable tannin, which is extracted from the tanner acacia cultivated in Australia, Southeast Asia and South Africa. The bark of the tree is used for tanning as it has a very high tannin content of up to 30 percent. Leather tanned with mimosa bark has a reddish color through the tannins.” I learned that there are trees grown specifically for this use in Africa.

After all the wet tanning processes are finished the hides are secured to boards that can be slid into a cupboard that will hold a couple dozen.

When the hides are dry they are brushed if necessary to remove burrs and other vegetable matter. That is a motorized roller behind the table that will help to remove debris and pull off matted parts.

I realize that I really need another visit to thoroughly understand the whole process. I’ll look forward to that next year. We were welcomed by and thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Kimberly and Duane, but felt rushed because we wanted to get to McCall before it got too late.

For now all of this year’s lambskins are at 4 different tanneries so that I can see which one does best with my Jacob pelts and to compare processing and shipping costs. We left 16 lambskins at Living Sky and have others at tanneries in Wisconsin, Oregon and one that I just heard about in central California.

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.

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.

When Wednesday Weavers Meet on Thursday

The description of Wednesday Weavers on my website includes: Do you need help...Figuring out how much yarn is needed for a project? Deciphering a threading draft? Deciding on warp & weft yarns and sett? Troubleshooting? This class is an opportunity for you to have your questions answered and to learn from others' weaving questions and experiences. I have been offering this opportunity for years, meeting from 1-3 most Wednesdays. Now that we’re meeting on Zoom it is accessible to many more people. When participants send me photos ahead of time then I create a slide show so we can all see the draft, yarn, weaving, etc clearly and I have time to research questions.

In August and September in addition to our regular Wednesday get togethers we met IN PERSON (gasp!) on a Thursday for a dye day!

Dan and I are now sharing the space known as G-1 (Garage #1) so that there is a great workspace for a project like this.

I do most of my dying with natural dyes, but I don’t teach a class in that. And I must admit that dying with all this color is fun.

When we met last month I was still preparing for the virtual V-Shawl class at the virtual Lambtown and focused on dying warps to be woven into v-shawls. One of the shawls is for sale here. Another is at the Artery in Davis and others will be posted when I get time.

The rest of these photos are examples of what the participants dyed. Won’t it be fun to see the end results after these are woven?

This is a machine knitted piece that will be unraveled to provide yarn for a woven project.

These are what I ended up with, most done after everyone went home so I had time to think and there was room in a pot. I actually have a plan for each of these—most are experiments to see if they end up like I hope. I’ll report back at some point.

Winners All Around

A friend who raises Jacob sheep in Pennsylvania emailed me that a ewe that came from here won Champion Jacob ewe at the Garden State Sheep & Fiber Festival in New Jersey. Since all the shows I might have gone to out here were cancelled I’ll live vicariously through others’ fun events, and this news prompted me to write this blog post.

This is Royal Unzicker of Ivy Brook Meadows with Meridian Saffron. At the shows I attend in California and Oregon sheep are shown as lambs and yearlings, but Royal was able to enter Saffron in an Aged Ewe class at this show. (Thanks to Brittany Smith for this photo and the one of the ram.)

Here is a baby picture of Saffron in 2017.

Here she is after her first shearing.

This is what her fleece looked like before shearing. Royal bought Saffron in 2018 with the plan that she and two other yearlings could make it to Maryland Sheep & Wool Festival in May by catching a ride with the sheep of another friend who shows back there every year.

Saffron’s sire is bide a wee Buster of the Bide a Wee farm in Oregon. This is a photo from his first season of breeding here.

Buster is on the left with Clark, one of his sons, on the right. I find it interesting to compare the lamb and adult photos. Buster has sired a lot of sheep, some of whom are still here.

The combination of Sonata (the ewe in this photo) and Buster produced another nice lamb, Soprano, in 2018.

This is Soprano as a yearling at Black Sheep Gathering in 2019.

Royal did very well at the show where he showed the Champion Jacob ewe. He also showed the Champion Jacob ram, the Reserve Champions, and Best Flock. This is Patchwork Cooper. Patchwork Farm is where two of my new lambs came from and I think Cooper is somehow related but now I don’t remember how. I sure love those horns.

I think that I should add here, that it’s not all about the showing. All of us have plenty of nice sheep that have never won awards and we all point out that it is just one person’s opinion on one day so it’s not really that important. But, hey, the shows are fun and why not brag when you have the chance? I hope that we’ll be able to do a little bragging next year, but the first step will be that the shows won’t be cancelled. The biggest news I heard about the California State Fair for 2022 is that they have a new category to enter—Cannabis. Is that enough to make sure the fair goes ahead as planned?

Random Photos 920

I had so much fun looking at photos that showed up when I was searching for a particular one and creating a blog post of them yesterday that I thought I’d that again. This time I chose 920 since it’s September 20.

I didn’t take this one. It’s a scan of one dated 1920 and was taken at Lake Tahoe. That’s my mom, second from the right with her two older sisters and her younger brother. She would have been 4 years old here.

This ram photo showed up. He is Meridian Fogerty born in 2011.

This is Matt working in his side job—tree trimming.

Here is a 2016 visit to Arches National Monument. Bighorn sheep with a horse and rider.

Farm Club 2016. Taken in the days when we could all get together without worrying about it.

Kirby visiting here in 2017 at age 2-1/2. This prompted me to find the photo below.

Different chicken. Different girl. That is Katie, Kirby’s mom.

Kirby again. I visited Texas in 2018 and it seems that when you’re 3 years old its OK to visit the zoo wearing your nightgown.

This is Dan and me in 2018 getting our sheep faces on.

The next one I thought I’d share is this bottle lamb from 2019. She is still here, all grown up.

This is that lamb’s grown-up photo. It’s Addy.

Using the trail camera in the chicken house to see what was really going on a night when the chickens were sleeping. Party time for rats!

This is a better way to end—two-tone Jacob roving.

I hope you enjoyed this look through what I found searching 920. (By the way, this is only a selection of the dozens that showed up.)

Random Photos 2107

I use Lightroom for photo editing and to keep track of my thousands of photos. If I have kept up with keywording and moving photos into files that make sense to me then I am usually pretty good at being able to find a particular photo. I was posting silk scarves to The Artery webstore today after selling a couple last week. I found the scarves that I still had here and sorted which ones to post for sale. The deciding factor was to post those for which I already had photos.

Scarf 2107 was one of those and when I searched Lightroom for 2107 I found this photo. But I found other photos also.

This photo is randomly numbered 2107 by my camera and I took it during a visit from Katie in 2017 when Kasen (in the backpack)was about 6 months old.

This is lamb # 2107 born in February to the ewe named Anise. The sire is the BFL ram, Peyton. That’s why the lamb is black.

This is the scarf at the top of this post before rolling up and steaming to create the leaf print.

This is the best photo of all. Somehow it got sorted into the 2107 batch. This is granddaughter, Kirby after learning what it means to train and then run a race after running in a 1-km event in Texas earlier in the summer. The participants in this race all got medals that were left over from previous years.

I like these theme for blog posts—choosing a random number and finding out what shows up. Its kind of like throwing a dart at a map and then heading to that spot. I’ll try more of these.

Learn to Weave a V-Shawl!

Are you a weaver and you’re looking for something to do on Sunday morning? Yes, this Sunday, September 19. You can attend my virtual class hosted by Lambtown, our local fiber festival which has gone virtual for the second time. You don’t have to be local to attend a virtual event. The class is only 3 hours but it will open up a lifetime of exploration for you. I’ve been weaving these shawls for several years, but in preparing to teach this class (and convert a 2-day in-person workshop to a 3-hour virtual one, I have spent hours and hours weaving and designing and now I wish I had even more time.

What is a v-shawl? Check out the examples below. It is a shawl that stays put on the shoulders and covers the back with a flattering design. When I’m finished getting ready for this class I’ll be putting a lot on the website for sale.

I don’t want to give away all the secrets here but I’ll whet your appetite with a few examples. The one above is handspun Jacob yarn.

Here is a locally sourced very soft wool hand dyed by me.

How about one in rich purple chenille? If you think about it this is a W-shawl and not a V-shawl. There is a story about that to be revealed in the class.

This one is all natural colored, American-grown cotton yarn!

Here are some happy students from back in the take-a-class-in-person days.

This is an example of several wool kits that are on the website now. The cotton kits will be added later. You can take this class without having your loom warped! You will have access to the video through the end of the year so you can sign up at the last minute and take your time with the weaving later. Register here.

Hope to see you there!

Introducing the Boys

I introduced the girls yesterday. These are the boys who are staying.

Meridian Silverado (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Spice) has promising horns and nice fleece. I hope the horns continue to grow as wide as they look in this photo.

This view shows that the horns could be aiming for the neck, but in person it looks as though there is a slight curve at the tips so I hope they grow pointing away.

Meridian Dylan (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Lavendar) is very similar to Silverado and I will keep watching his horns as well.

Meridian Atlas (Meridian Axle x Meridian Vixen) is a lilac ram, twin to Lupine who was in yesterday’s post.

Meridian Orion (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Skye) is the last ram I have here for sale as a breeding ram. He has a great horn spread and nice looking fleece. He is listed on the ram lamb page.

Hillside Barrett came from Michigan last month along with the ewes in yesterday’s post. He is about a month younger than the other ram lambs, but hopefully he’ll be able to handle a few ewes in October.

Sheep Introductions

I just spent the last few hours submitting registration applications for this year’s lambs. So I have current photos and thought I’d make introductions of these and new sheep that I got last month.

Meridian Betsy (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Betty) is a ewe lamb that is still on the sale page. I wouldn’t mind keeping her but I probably have too many sheep and I’ll have more next spring.

Meridian Columbine is a ewe lamb out of Cashew, who lambed this spring as a lamb herself.

Meridian Juniper is one of the few lambs sired by the the ram lamb (now yearling), Rambler. Her dam is Jasmine.

Meridian Lupine (Meridian Axle x Meridian Vixen) is the only lilac ewe lamb I kept. She also has almost the most color of all the lambs staying. It seems I ended up with a lot of light lambs.

Meridian Quinci (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Quartz) is on the sale page and may be spoken for but if she doesn’t sell I’ll be happy to keep her.

Her sister, Quail, is one that I had my eye on not long after they were born. I thought she looked very flashy. Now that they have grown up I like Quinci’s horns much better than her sister’s. This photo was taken several months ago. I need to get a current photo.

This is another photo from a few months ago. This is Beauty (Meridian Jasper x Meridian Belle), owned and named by my granddaughter.

Isn’t this a cute lamb? She is Patchwork Amara, a lilac lamb from Georgia and is a real sweetheart. I have a t-shirt that reads “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy a sheep and that’s almost the same thing”. I am very happy because I bought six new sheep that arrived last month. A friend made all the convoluted transportation arrangements and she and I both got sheep from three breeders in Georgia and Michigan.

This is Amara’s BFF, Patchwork BettyLou. They are both very sweet lambs who come up to the fence for treats if the big scary ewes aren’t in the way.

They are now friends with Hillside Grace, a pretty lamb from Michigan.

These three all hang out together, often away from the other sheep.

BettyLou and Amara have no qualms about approaching for treats. Grace is much more hesitant but if I’m very still and her friends are right there, she’ll risk it.

Sweetgrass Tranquility and Eilwen are two-year-old ewes who came on the same trip with the lambs. I sure look forward to seeing what their lambs will look like next year.

At first the five new ewes didn’t mingle with the rest of the flock. The two older ewes and the three lambs still associate mostly with each other. I also got a new ram lamb, but I’ll do another post to introduce all the rams.