Favorite Black and White Weaving

I wrote this blog post just after Shades of Black and White opened at the Artery September 30. Monday, October 24 is the last day. Some pieces have sold. Of those that have not sold, some will be incorporated into my space in the main part of the store and the others will go on my website or the Artery’s webstore. I thought I’d share some of my favorites.

This shawl is woven with my locally sourced Timm Ranch yarn except for the three black lines that are Jacob wool. It is a simple pattern, but time consuming. The design is woven on the loom as the weaving progresses.

This is another one. Only a small portion is visible at any one time so it’s a bit of a challenge to keep track of where those right angle designs are happening as you go. .

This was a favorite 8-shaft pattern in 100% Jacob yarn. It is relatively easy to thread and to weave. The two sides look very different.

This is a draft that will produce pinwheels or many other interesting shapes.

This is another favorite. I’ve always liked this tumbling blocks pattern. Jacob yarn on a Timm Ranch wool warp.

What about simple stripes? This is warped with alternating columns of 4 threads black and 4 threads white. The weave structure allows the yarns to open up when this is off the loom. Those stripes look like columns of beads. 100% Jacob yarn.

This was a new pattern for me and I like the movement in it. Jacob weft on Timm Ranch warp.

This is a bag woven of hemp. I didn’t find room for it in the show so it’s at home now. It will probably go on my sebsite.

Another color and weave pattern. Both these scarves were on the same warp. They use 100% Jacob yarn.

This is the last piece I wove—two nights before the show opened. I was talking to someone when the idea of Clasped Warp came up. I had planned to weave a clasped warp shawl, but forgot until now. I had enough time to put on a scarf warp. The photo below is after finishing.

The joined warp threads are placed in a diagonal line to almost the far end of the warp. This is 100% Jacob yarn.

Random Farm Photos

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

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

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

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

He has a very nice, soft fleece.

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

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

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

Then we finished our walk.

A Three Year Anniversary

When you live in the flat land it is nice to climb up high and get a view of the surroundings. This is a panorama view of our property from the top of an 80-bale haystack.

You also have to get on top of the haystack to throw bales down to feed. Here is another photo looking down—that’s Rusty below. That is the last photo I took on October 14, 2019. I have no idea how I fell off, but my husband found me on the cement below in a coma.

I’m almost embarrassed to show these next photos, because I look so terrible, but those of you who follow this blog know it’s about real life, and I’ve been thinking about this a lot this week. I keep seeing posts on social media about the Sheep and Wool Festival in Rhinebeck, NY that was this weekend, and my friends and I were supposed to be there in 2019. We had airline tickets and a place to stay. Then this happened and they all stayed home.

This is the next picture that shows up on my phone, taken November 13 at the Kaiser Rehab Center in Vallejo. A big piece of skull had been removed from my head, so I had to wear that charming helmet (later replaced with my son’s snowboarding helmet). I also had a fracture of T-7/T-8 so had to wear that wonderful brace.

This was taken November 16 when I finally came home.

This was taken November 29. Trying to get into the holiday spirit? What is significant about this photo is that blanket and the paper with the yarns attached. My good friend, Mary, warped her loom and invited a lot of Farm Club and other friends to come to her house and weave their choice of yarns to create a blanket for me.

I still have this card on my wall with the yarn descriptions and all the friends who participated.

And of course I have the blanket—that is a very special gift.

I found this photo from January 8—it looks as though the brace is gone but my husband said I was still wearing it most of the time. I’m wearing the snowboarding helmet because there was only my skin over the big hole in my head. By the way, that would not be the same haystack but it does show how tall they are. I know other people who have fallen from haystacks—one landed on his feet I guess because he broke both ankles. Another suffered multiple broken bones and some internal injuries and had a long recovery.

This was taken later that month—same pjs, different shoes.

There is a lot that I have forgotten, or never knew, about that whole episode. I do remember that it took a long time before we could finally schedule the surgery (“elective”) to replace the part of the skull that was removed. We had a date for about February 7. We showed up for the surgery and were told that the skull piece was on a plane that had broken down in Atlanta. Who knew that body parts are stored somewhere on the East Coast? Fortunately it arrived the next day and I had the surgery. This is with ice packs on my head.

This gives you an indication of how much of the skull was removed. The stitches are where the skin flap was sewn back together. After the surgery recovery was much faster. It seems that when the skull is in place the pressure in the brain is more normal … Or something like that.

Things for which I am thankful:
This was pre-pandemic. The pandemic officially started a week or two later. Thank goodness all this hospital time and my “elective” surgery was before that.
My husband had retired a year or two before this. He didn’t have to try and juggle a stressful job with the stress of this accident and he was there to do what was needed. (And thank goodness he retired before the era of teaching on Zoom.)
Family and friends. The original prognosis was guarded—would I come home? Would I walk again? Would there be permanent brain injury? Some close friends were great support for my family as they navigated the uncertainty. As it eventually became evident that recovery was possible, friends helped keep the sheep and shop part of life on track—organizing holiday sales, sheep shearing, etc. There is still so much I don’t remember, but when I think about it I know that everything stayed on track and someone besides me took care of all that.

This may be a strange photo to end this post, but I didn’t take one yesterday when we did our annual Foxy’s Fall bike ride. I took this photo on the tandem as we did a brief ride to make sure the brakes and gears all worked. We got this tandem in 1986 when we got married. Yesterday we rode the metric century which is 62 miles through Solano and Yolo Counties. That seems a suitable way to acknowledge the three year anniversary of this life-changing event.

Helicopter Tour

That title is misleading. We did not take a helicopter tour, but we took a look at the helicopters based at the Placerville Airport on call for fire duty.

My son describes his job as Air Traffic Control in the air. He stays in contact with all the aircraft and ground crews on a fire to make sure that they all stay out of each other’s way. This is the helicopter he has used this fire season and he’s been flying over fires in Idaho, Oregon, and California.

The pilot sits on the right and Matt sits on the left and handles all the radio controls.

If there is a trainee in the left seat then Matt stretches out back here.

We took a look “under the hood” while the mechanic explained how everything works.

We walked to the end of the airstrip and saw the K-Max helicopter. It is very narrow and has two rotors that turn opposite directions. I couldn’t visualize how that could work but the pilot turned them by hand for us and showed how one goes under the other as they turn. Now looking at the photo it still doesn’t make sense but I saw it for myself. The advantage of the two rotors is that there is no tail rotor and not having a tail rotor enables 30% more power.

I sat in this one too! I feel like a little kid getting to visit Dad at work.

This bucket is attached by a chain to the K-Max. It has internal parts that enable it to drop partial loads if necessary.

At the other end of the runway was the Black Hawk. The pilot explained to us that most of these are painted dark or camouflage colors. She was pleased that the company operating this one paints theirs white and blue and that is much more visible in the fire fighting environment.

The Black Hawk was at one end of the airstrip and the other helicopters were at the opposite end. The red one is the Bell that Matt is in and the K-Max is at the far end. Right now these are stationed in Placerville and were used on the Mosquito Fire. When they go farther away all those support vehicles go with them. Each helicopter has a pilot and a mechanic and there are support vehicles with each.

At 3:00 Matt and the pilot of this one went up while we watched. They were off to the north to check on the Mosquito Fire. It started September 6 and burned almost 77,000 acres. According to InciWeb it is 95% contained and fire crews are still working to mop-up and fell hazardous trees.

I recorded video of them lifting off and I’ll see if I can add a link here for that. Helicopter lifting off. I may not know if this works until I click “publish”.

That speck in the center of the blue sky is the helicopter heading toward the fire.

Knowing the tail number of the helicopter I can see Matt’s flight on Flightradar24.com . This was the path on Monday.

Lambtown Last Weekend

It already feels as though Lambtown was a long time ago but I wanted to share some of the photos.

Lambtown was the first weekend of October.

There is a lot to see at Lambtown and it was great to be in person after a couple of years of trying this virtually. I didn’t take many photos because I was mostly in my booth. These photos are from a few brief excursions to check on the Sheep-to-Shawl progress.

I’ve always liked this sheep which used to stand along the road outside the fairgrounds.

I provided items for the Fibershed Coop booth in the vendor hall.

This is two views (above and below) of my booth in the vendor hall.

This straw bale maze complete with pool noodle “ponies” looked like great fun for little kids.

Farm Club members took part in Lambtown. Siobhan taught her first class on spinning with a distaff. There was so much demand that she taught an extra session.

Janelle took Siobhan’s class, learning how to follow in the footsteps of someone depicted in this wood carving that is a family memento.

Dan was asked if he would put in a couple of hours driving the tractor around the fairgrounds to deliver people to and from events.

The Farm Club fielded a Sheep-to-shawl team. At the last minute a couple of people had to drop out but others (including a non-FC member) came to the rescue and filled in.

I am grateful to the team for pulling this all together late in the game and doing it all without asking me for help. I did provide fiber and yarn and the loom, but that was the easy part. They met , mostly virtually, to do all the planning.

Ryan (spinning here) dyed the warp yarn a gorgeous blue with indigo

Reba planned the project, warped the loom and did the weaving. The shawl was very pretty, but wasn’t judged. The team wisely decided to not cut it off too early just to make the timed deadline, but to finish the weaving so that shawl would be the correct size. Reba finished the weaving later that evening.

This shawl is not black and white, but blue and white. I just can’t make it show up that way. Good job, team!

Shades of Black and White

For the last couple of months I’ve been weaving in black and white. For years I have thought about presenting a show at The Artery featuring black and white weaving. The Artery in Davis is an artists’ coop with 60+ members. It is set up like a regular store where we all have a small area for our own pieces. There is pottery, woodworking, art quilts, jewelry, paintings, gourd art, other fiber art, and more. There is one room known as the gallery where one or more artists can fill the room for their own show. With 60 members we obviously have to take turns. My turn came this October. When I found out a year ago that I’d have the show I wondered if I’d have enough to fill the room (although in the past I never had that problem), so I asked Jock Hamilton, one of the photographers at the Artery, if he’d like to share the space with black and white photography. It turns out that we could have both done our own shows with the amount of pieces we brought.

I wanted to give Jock most of the wall space since he would exhibit photos. I needed to figure out a way to display my pieces where they could be seen without just making a pile of folded textiles. I gave Dan the task of creating A-frames for me. I also brought home several of the wooden mannequins that needed re-painting.

The show was to be in place by Friday and I brought things in on Wednesday. Jock and I had a plan of sorts—that was to bring all of our things and see how they fit together. Hmmm…maybe not much of a plan. I needed to get things out of boxes and start spreading them out. I had to be home by 2 that day but returned later in the day when Jock could bring his photographs. We spent most of Thursday arranging things and I went back Friday morning to finish with signs and tags. Then I had to go to Lambtown in Dixon to set up my vendor booth for the weekend.

The following photos are how the gallery looks now. This show will be in place through October 24 and I hope many of my followers will be able to see it. Any items that are purchased may be picked up after the 24th or arrangements may be made for shipping. If you can’t get to the Artery but want to see most of the pieces here is a link with Jock’s photos and my woven pieces.

It seems that I turn everything into a learning experience. I added these baskets of wool and the sign to the table at the front. I wanted to somehow make people aware that I didn’t just go to the yarn store for all this yarn. Almost all of it is the wool from my Jacob sheep or the locally grown Timm Ranch wool that I have processed. I have handled every fleece before it ends up in the batch that is spun. Most of this is mill-spun but there are a few pieces woven of handspun yarn as well. There are also a few scarves woven of rayon chenille.

I also wanted to explain the name, Shades of Black and White, so I made this sign.

This is the first view of the show when you walk into this room.

Jock’s photographs are along most of the walls, but I hung a few of my pieces.

These are all v-shawls.

I should say something more about the photographs. They are fabulous views of mostly local landscapes. My photos of the photos can’t really show them, especially with the glare. Make sure you go to the link above to see them properly.

This rack holds shawls and scarves. Two of these are chenille but the rest are all Jacob wool.

Blankets that are woven with Jacob wool weft and Timm Ranch wool warp.

Another view of blankets and shawls. Those pieces on the mannequins are mobius shawls.

You have to touch the textiles to feel how soft they are. I was certainly pleased with the Jacob wool the last couple of years.

I hope that a lot of people will see this show. It was quite an undertaking.

Sunny 2014 to 2022

Sunny showed up here as a half grown kitten. I have no idea if he was dumped by someone or wandered in from a neighbor’s place. Our neighbors aren’t that close so I think that is unlikely. We kept him as an inside-only cat for a few reasons. One is that the house is near to the main road. It’s not busy, but traffic is fast. We find lots of dead animals on the road. Also, my experience with barn cats in the past is that they are always full of fleas and I don’t want to deal with that. It also didn’t help that we had from three to five dogs here at the time and one of them was not to be trusted with a small animal that ran.

So Sunny lived in the house and helped with lots of projects—like working on handwoven blankets to finish the fringe.

Helping with packing boxes to ship.

He supervised painting my office…

…and doing paperwork.

He did his share of cuddling.

He was a support kitty after a late night and early morning during lambing season.

I said that Sunny was an inside-only cat. He got outside two or three times. I saw him run around the corner of the house and into the crawl space. There is a one-room size cellar and the rest is a crawl space (which I crawled into while calling him.) That was the last I saw of him for days. I walked up and down the road and gave out flyers to the neighbors. Then I put a bowl of food under the house. It was eaten but how to know if it was a rat or opossum? My daughter gave me the idea of getting a trail camera. So this is a photo from that camera. Every night he showed up sometime after midnight and then again in early morning. I can’t remember how I got him back this time—if I was able to entice him to come to me (note favorite toy hanging near the food) or if I borrowed a live trap.

This is over a year later and we did it again. He is in the trap here but the door didn’t shut. I spent a few days trying to make this work.

Notice this photo is taken 24 hours after the one above. Eventually I caught him but I don’t remember details.

About 6 months ago I realized that I was scooping the cat box at least twice a day and filling bags after bag with wet cat litter, and we noticed that Sunny didn’t race through the house like he used to. I talked to the vet and found that drinking a lot of water, and therefore urinating copious amounts, is a symptom of diabetes. Sunny was 8 years old and that is prime time for cats to develop diabetes. We ran very expensive blood tests and that was the diagnosis. For the last six months I gave Sunny insulin injections twice a day, and he ate an expensive special diabetic cat food, at first limited to a small amount twice/day that the vet recommended. Eventually we upped the amount of food because he was ravenous all the time. I upped the insulin. Even with more adjustments to amount of insulin and amount of food, he didn’t seem to get better. I had been using glucose monitors (at first one that was attached and later by pricking his ear to get a drop of blood) but the level never seemed to change. Sunny was not the same cat he was before all of this—he was lethargic and was less able to jump up on the dryer to get to his food dish. Two weeks ago we decided to euthanize him. I agonized over this decision—it would have been an easier one if there was something more obvious that we knew would get worse and was causing pain. In the long run I think this was the kinder outcome than a continual slow decline.

One of my favorite pictures of Sunny.

Sunny is buried at the edge of the pasture along with some of the dogs. Dan made this marker because I had been talking about putting something in the ground besides the concrete blogs that were on top of the graves. I don’t want to forget where they are. He will make some for the dogs too.

More Random Farm Photos

This is the view from the south edge of the property.

That distinct line between green pasture and dried out plants indicates the difference between irrigating and not irrigating in the Sacramento Valley in the summer. For a variety of reasons parts of the pasture haven’t had enough water this summer. We had to start irrigating much earlier in the spring due to lack of rainfall, and that has an impact on how we spread out our water allotment through the season. Our water allotment is less this year than in the past. Our irrigation “system” isn’t as efficient as we’d like and it’s very difficult to get water to all the areas that need it.

This is the north end of that same paddock. This is dallisgrass that gets coarse and overgrown at this time of year and the sheep don’t keep up with it. They don’t want to walk through it. If you were a prey animal would you want to walk through grass that is over your head—how would you know if there is a lion lying in wait? The sheep are walking in a gap between the tall grass and where I set up the net fence.

They prefer to eat the more vegetative part of the grass and not the coarser stalks and seedheads.

This photo was taken from the road and there is a fence between the sheep and the grass in the foreground. They were on that paddock last and now are on the one with the taller grass. Their heads are down in the shorter grass and that tall overgrown dallisgrass is behind them.

The title of this post says Random Farm Photos. Here is the fleece of one of the ram lambs I have kept for this year. This is Meridian Rascal with fleece like his sire, Meridian Rambler.

When I fed the adult rams last night one of them didn’t show up. I saw Axis in the barn. He and Barrett were fighting the night before, but I guess they continued the squabble through the day. I hosed most of the blood off his head and sprayed fly repellant on him.

When I was in the barn earlier I heard the chirps of ground squirrels. These two were both up on the top of the fence around the ram pen. By the time I took the photo they were on the ground.

This is the seed pod of a plant called devils claw. The ones above are green and closed. When they dry out they open up and spread into claws with very sharp points. This is nasty stuff to find in a fleece. I dug this plant out and put it the trash. I don’t want it in my compost pile or the burn pile where the sheep have access.

I’m still working on weaving items for the show that I will put up next week. These are three blankets spread out to dry. That’s locally grown wool. The dark wool is Jacob.

Random Farm Photos

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rams - the old and the new

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

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

I want to introduce the rams for this year.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meridian Rascal (Meridian Rambler x Meridian Hilda).

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

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

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

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

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

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

TN-NC Adventure--Day 8--The End

I wrote about the last full day of our trip here. I mentioned that we looked up Taylor Swift’s favorite things to do in Nashville. On Tuesday afternoon we walked around Radnor Lake.

Wednesday morning we started with breakfast at Pancake Pantry.

Then we found Centennial Park. That wasn’t on the lists we found but it is mentioned in Taylor’s song, Invisible String. We started at the playground.

Kirby thought that she could swing higher than her mom.

I think it was a draw.

Then we saw the Parthenon. I have a friend who was just there…in Greece.

The sign says that this full-size replica was originally built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897. It was intended to be temporary and built of wood, brick, and plaster. Nashville residents didn’t want it removed and the original remained in place until 1921 when the city began reconstruction, finished in 1931.

In 1987 the interior of the 1931 building was rehabilitated, including addressing accessibility issues. I had a plane to catch so didn’t have a chance to visit the galleries inside. Next time I’m in Nashville.

It is interesting to think of the ancient Parthenon in the same view as the modern office building downtown.

There were several statues throughout Centennial Park. This is the Tennessee Woman Suffrage Monument, recognizing the 19th Amendment.

I had a plane to catch and Katie and Kirby were heading back to Texas, about a 14-hour drive.

Nashville from the air.

I wish I knew what we were flying over. I thought of the Mississippi River, but I have no idea.

I don’t know what state this is, but I like seeing the circles made by the irrigation pivots.

I had a layover in Las Vegas and sent this photo to Kirby. This dog is trained to sniff out explosives.

I think this must be a finger of Lake Mead.

Look at the boat docks. Doesn’t it look like the boat ramp is well out of the water up and to the left of the waterline? The drought is real…and scary.

Lake Tahoe. Almost home.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 7

I ended the last post on the way to Nashville on Monday afternoon. I was flying home Wednesday morning so the plan was to spend Tuesday night in Nashville but find something to do on Tuesday. I don’t remember where we stayed Monday night. I think it was somewhere around Knoxville, Tennessee but the motels on Monday and Tuesday night are less than memorable. You get what you pay for.

Katie had looked up things to do between Asheville and Nashville and found Frozen Head State Park . The criteria was somewhere we could hike in a place that Kirby would enjoy. She’d been a real trooper throughout this trip (and remember that she’d already been away from home for almost 4 weeks) and we didn’t want a hike that was too steep, too long, or where there was a body of water that was off limits (too deep, too rapid, etc).

Katie found Frozen Head State Park and we selected the Panther Branch trail.

This trail followed a creek that was accessible and fit the criteria above.

It would have been easier walking to stay on the trail, but Kirby liked picking her way along the rocks and in the water.

I saw a cluster of swallowtail butterflies in the wet dirt along the creek. Cluster? I googled a “group of butterflies”. The official word seems to be a Kaleidoscope, with other references to flutter, flight, swarm and wing. You learned something reading this blog post!

Eventually we were back on the trail to avoid a lot of branches and trees across the creek. We found that we weren’t alone. We made our was down to this waterfall and talked with a group of moms who meet here with their kids every so often. .

Kirby enjoyed the waterfall.

We spent an hour or so there and then walked back down the creek. I found the kaleidoscope of butterflies at the same place.

I read that adult butterflies consume only liquids and sometimes cluster in places that have extra minerals that they need. I don’t know if that’s the case here.

This is what happens when the photographer gets too close.

Katie and Kirby continued their hike down the creek and I took the trail.

We finished together on the trail. Then we headed for Nashville.

I had never stopped at a Buc-ee’s, but Katie is a big fan. We got gas and food here.

In the continuing theme of doing something that Kirby would find enjoyable we looked up Taylor Swift’s favorite things to do in Nashville. Kirby is a fan. We found a top five list and we visited three places.

It seems that Taylor likes to walk around Radnor Lake for some peace and quiet.

We walked the trail …

…and sat by the lake.

We found another less-than-memorable motel to spend the night. Katie went out for pizza which we ate in the room. I will remember the lightning storm that night—at least the motel was dry.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 6 Part 2

At the end of the last post I said that I’d probably revisit this later. I forgot that those photos were all just from the family’s living area and where they entertained. I have photos from the lower stories where there are recreation facilities and the servants’ domain. So here’s another post.

We followed instructions from our audio tour to go downstairs. This staircase is not as elegant as the staircases in the family area.

The Halloween Room is on the lowest level. The room was originally used for storage, but in the 1920’s Cornelia (daughter of George and Edith) and her husband painted the room for a New Year’s Eve Party. It became known as the Halloween Room because of the colors and some of the motifs painted on the walls.

It currently includes displays about building the Biltmore House.

There is a two-lane bowling alley on the lower level.

There is a hallway with several dressing rooms so that women guests could change into bathing costumes.

The pool was heated and still has the original underwater lighting.

This is a corner of the gymnasium.

A view of the main kitchen.

The large stove in the corner of the kitchen.

This is one of several rooms off the main servants’ hall. In this room floral displays and plant decorations were prepared.

After touring the house we explored the grounds a bit more.

There were several trails around the gardens and going about 1/4 mile to the Bass Pond. This bridge is along that trail.

We drove to the area known as Antler Hill Village. There are farm animals, a playground, and demonstrations of some of the crafts practiced in the early 1900’s. We spoke to a blacksmith…

…and a weaver.

Our last stop before things closed was the Gardens Railway.

There were several model trains running through this garden. The buildings are models of famous landmarks around the world, all constructed of natural materials found on the estate.

There is so much more to see at the estate. If I ever go back to North Carolina, I wouldn’t mind stopping there again.

It was time to get on the road. We headed towards Nashville.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 5

Have you been waiting for the next installment of this Adventure? I have. There was not a program lined up on Sunday of the AGM, but a few people planned to meet at the organizer’s farm which happened to be just up the road from the place where we were staying.

This is Hobbyknob Farm, and some of the sheep were in the barn so we could get a close-up look

Kirby made friends with two goats and was amused by the “fairy house” behind her.

After visiting with AGM attendees at the farm we drove to Asheville. We stopped at the Botanical Gardens of Asheville adjacent to the University of North Carolina and walked a trail through the garden. Most plants are not blooming this time of year, but there were a few with flowers. I took photos but don’t have an ID for any of these.

We lost the main trail briefly and ended up in the creekbed. It was obvious that others had been there as well.

Back on the trail. We were here for a couple of hours and then drove to the River Arts District. I wanted to track down a business whose manager I had met at the AGM.

Our first stop at the River Arts District was a pizza shop. I admired the pizza oven.

After lunch we walked to Local Cloth , headquarters for the Blue Ridge Mountains Fibershed Affiliate.

This is a retail outlet, but there is also space for workshops.

There is clothing, yarn, fiber, and gifts for sale. I was intrigued by these “rocks” that look almost like the real thing.

We finished our time in the city with an ice cream treat.

We spent a relaxing evening “at home”, back at the AirB&B. I had originally reserved it for only two nights, but it was so much better than the motels and it was close enough to Asheville that I rented it for Sunday night also. The host started a fire in the fire pit and set us up with s’more fixings.

Here is the only view I took of the house. Our quarters are the first story of the house with sliding glass doors that open out to the patio under the deck. There is a table and chairs and a nice swinging bench. There are gardens all around and chickens off to the right. This is the link I shared in the last post—click there to see better photos of the house.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 4

If this is the first post you’ve seen about this topic, you can go backwards each day if you want to see more. Here is Day 3.

The plan for this trip began because of the JSBA AGM (Jacob Sheep Breeders Association Annual General Meeting) to be held in North Carolina the first weekend of August. Dan encourages me to go because after my 2019 accident directly followed by the pandemic I had this feeling that “I would never do anything again”. When I was talking to Katie about getting Kirby back to Texas from California, she suggested this idea! A win-win for everyone!

I usually document everything with photos, but I didn’t do a very good job on this part of the trip. After our time at Great Smoky Mountain National Park we drove to Weaverville, North Carolina where we checked in at the AirB&B I had booked. Photos from the AirB&B listing here. It was a great place to stay—a far different experience than the motels we stayed at on the rest of the trip. We drove to Marhsall, NC where the AGM was to be held and were there for dinner and to meet up with some people I have met a few times but mostly communicated with on-line. That was still Day 3.

After a pleasant and relaxing night at our house in Weaverville, on Saturday we drove back to the location of the AGM.

The program began with a talk by Dr. Polly Matzinger who works as an immunologist at NIH, but who also raises Gotland sheep and has an interest in sheep color genetics. She had lots of slides and explained how color is determined in sheep. I thought she explained things clearly, but at some point I got sort of lost—its a lot to take in all at once.

I took photos of some of the slides so I could review this later.

This is the part that got more confusing. I’d really like to hear this again. I think the second time around I might follow better.

So now I have gone down the rabbit hole on my computer by googling ASIP and ITCH and color. One reference was Australian Researchers Decipher Sheep Coat Color Genes . What follows here is a screenshot of what I read. I include this, not because I think you’ll read it all (but maybe a few of you will), but to illustrate how frustrating it is to read something written in English but is still a mystery.

Here is one more example I tried to read. Check it out at this link or read the abstract below.

A gene duplication affecting expression of the ovine ASIP gene is responsible for white and black sheep.

Polly included some slides about the lilac color in Jacob sheep, but now I couldn’t explain that either.

Are you ready for sheep time?

Time for the barn. A few people had brought sheep to the AGM and we went to the barn to look at them. This was time reserved for the inspectors (me included) to discuss traits and answer questions. I did a skirting demo for those that wanted to watch that.

Two of the people who brought sheep are those from whom I got the sheep last summer (Patchwork Farm and Sweegrass).

We had a good dinner and enjoyed talking with Polly Matzinger who sat at our table and talked about her experiences with her own sheep and her job with NIH that is now focused on COVID research.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 3

This was Friday, the last day we had for Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We were to be in Marshall, North Carolina by the evening for the next part of this trip. There is a main road through the park from north to south and Newfound Gap is half way across.

I cropped this photo from a sign that explained that the development of Great Smoky Mountains National Park was “led more by economic boosters than conservationists”. Auto clubs pushed hard for the park and in the late 1920’s crews from North Carolina and Tennessee worked to meet up at Newfound Gap and the road was completed in 1932.

This is cropped from the same photo of that sign.

The current state line marker.

The Appalachian Trail follows the Tennessee/North Carolina State line almost all the way through the park from southwest to northeast borders. (At the western end the trail drops south off the state border before it reaches the Park boundary.)

I wanted to remember these details and photographing a sign is the easiest way for me to do that.

According to that earlier photo we could have hiked all the way to Maine but this stop was our only experience with the Appalachian Trail.

We stopped at the trail to the observation tower on Clingmans Dome, at 6643’, the highest peak in the National Park and in Tennessee. The elevation is higher than the other parts of the park and the vegetation is different. We saw more flowers blooming here and plenty of pollinating insects.

There is a half mile trail up to the peak and then this ramp to the observation tower.

From the tower there is a 360 degree view of the mountains in Tennessee and North Carolina .

Selfie time.

A panorama view of the ramp.

That’s Katie and Kirby heading down.

More flowers and insects along the trail.

Maybe there is such dense congregation of insects because it is too late in the season for flowers in the lower elevations.

Just an interesting leaf.

By early afternoon we were on our way to Marshall, North Carolina.

One last shot of the mountains near the park.

TN-NC Adventure--Day 2

Here is Day 1 of this adventure. At this rate I won’t finish for months. I’d better speed up—there is lots more going on here to share. We had all of Thursday to spend at Great Smoky Mountains National Park. We chose to explore Cades Cove and hike a trail to a waterfall in that area. We tried to get an early start because we saw from the previous day how crowded the roads and parking areas could get as more visitors showed up.

We started the the Cades Cove loop drive. Our first stop was not a marked one, but we were on a one-way loop road with no traffic and there was a horse at the fence!

I like to follow a map as we explore and I learned new terminology. I was not familiar with points on the map called Bald or Gap or Cove. In the west I think Gregory Bald, Andrews Bald, Silers Bald would be called Mountain. Newfound Gap, Deals Gap, and Black Camp Gap would be called Pass. And a Cove might be called Valley. Maybe it all has to do with scale of the geographical features or it’s just something particular to this region.

We picked up the auto tour booklet for Cades Cove, and followed along while we drove, getting out of the car at the points of interest. According to the booklet the area was probably originally inhabited by Cherokee people, but “various conflicts, epidemics, and treaties made it difficult…to remain in Tennessee lands”. In the early 1800’s white families settled. They cleared land and built log homes. Corn was a major crop. The cove is encircled by an 11-mile one-way road. On Wednesdays this road is closed to vehicles and open only for bicycles and pedestrians—that’s a great idea! Fortunately we were there on Thursday.

John Oliver Place is one of 80 historic buildings in the park. We were interested in the construction of the various buildings. The materials range from round logs with notched corners to later frame buildings that use sawed wood. Katie, still trying to design a barn on her rocky Texas property, kept pointing out the “foundation”—piles of rocks that held up many of the structures.

I thought that I would remember everything I photographed, but of course I don’t, especially since it has now been a busy three weeks since this trip. I think I have everything identified correctly with the help of the tour booklet I kept. The booklet tells that a Methodist Church was built of logs in the 1820s and then replaced by this one in 1902. It pointed out the two front doors, indicated a custom of men and women sitting on different sides. However this church didn’t follow that custom, but used the building plans of a congregation that did.

Inside the Methodist Church.

We drove to the half way point on the loop road and parked at the beginning of the Abrams Falls Trail. The trail to the falls is about 2-1/2 miles through the woods.

The map indicates “moderate” difficulty. It is a well-maintained trail with a fair amount of uphill.

This bridge is over a creek that flows into Abrams Creek.

People were spread out on the trail and it didn’t seem too crowded, but there was a crowd at the falls.

It looks as though Kirby is about to dive, but she just enjoyed climbing on the rocks in the middle of the water. No diving.

Katie is photographing Kirby with a butterfly on her knee.

I often like to identify plants in my photos, but I it was a strange feeling here because I didn’t recognize anything…

…even the trees and shrubs. It is all so different than what I am used to. It would sure be interesting to see in the fall and spring.

After the hike we continued the Cades Cove loop drive. There are several buildings at the Cable Mill Historic area. This is a blacksmith shop.

I took photos of several interesting details of construction, but they aren’t all included here. I admire this horseshoe hinge.

Cantilever barn.

There is a long ditch and then earthen flume from a mill-pond to the wheel of the grist mill. It is still operating for demonstrations.

Inside the mill building is a grist mill where corn is ground.

Another large barn.

I think this is the Henry Whitehead Place. According to the tour brochure, the small building in the back was built with logs when a cabin was needed quickly. The larger house was built of square sawn logs and the two buildings are a contrast in construction types in the Smokies.

Another cantilever barn, a replica of an earlier one that was here. Hay could be stored above and fed to animals in the stalls below.

I think this is the Carter Shields cabin, build in the early 1900s.

We spent a full day exploring all the things to see on the Cades Cove loop and hiking to Abrams Falls. One of the most exciting things was on the drive at the end of the day when we spotted this black bear!

TN-NC Adventure -- Day 1

It’s about time that I sorted my photos and told the story of this trip. We finished the State Fair (blog post) on Sunday, July31. It was time for Kirby to get home to Texas after being in California for three weeks. I wanted to go to the Jacob Sheep Breeders meeting in North Carolina on the following weekend, so considered delivering her to Texas on my way to North Carolina. Instead, Katie had proposed the idea that became this adventure.

On Tuesday Kirby said her goodbyes to the sheep, giving Jade a last hug.

We boarded a Southwest flight in Sacramento that left at 6:15 p.m. and arrived in Nashville, Tennessee around 2 a.m.

Kirby and I gathered the luggage. I didn’t really need two big suitcases except that it was a way to transport Kirby’s birthday presents, including a Breyer horse stable (see photo at the end of this blog post), home. Katie had driven from her home in Texas to meet us. That was about a 14 hour drive for her. She’d been sleeping in the parking lot but was ready to continue the journey. We headed east towards our first stop, Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Kirby had been asking for a meal at Denny’s, and we found one on our way to the park, in Pigeon Forge or Gatlinburg—I don’t remember which.

We all loaded up on breakfast, figuring that our next main meal would be dinner.

We made it to the park a little after 8 a.m.

Our first hike was on a nature trail along Fighting Creek behind the Visitor Center.

There are several cabins and other buildings left in the park, although many are gone. This is the Ownby cabin. There was once a school, store, church, and post office in this area.

One thing that struck me when I first started walking on these trails, was the fact that I didn’t know any of the plants. All my hiking has been in the western states. I may not remember all the plant names at this point, but at least the plants are familiar. This was a whole different world. The Visitor Center has a display that describes five different forest ecosystems—Spruce-Fir Forest, Northern Hardwood Forest, Cove Hardwood Forest, Hemlock Forest, and Pine-and-Oak Forest. Sadly, there are also serious threats to many of these forests from infestations of non-native insects and fungus.

The first of many species of butterflies that we saw.

One of the signs said that mushrooms “reach record diversity” here. I took photos of some that I had never seen.

We took a short trail to the farm of Noah “Bud” Ogle, who lived here from 1883-1925.

There is a barn and house still standing.

Signs said that the forest is reclaiming the land which once included cornfields.

The forest seems to be reclaiming this mill, complete with flume that directed river water to the grindstone.

Another view of the flume.

At the end of this day we stopped at a place called The Sinks. This is a spot of cascading water on the Little River created in the early 1900’s when loggers used dynamite to break up a log jam in the river. My photo doesn’t show the rushing water but part of the river that provided a refreshing break for visitors.

We ended our day at a motel in Gatlinburg. To be continued…

CA State Fair - Day 4 - Another Award

I have one more post to finish out the State Fair. The last is here. Then I can move on to last week’s adventures with Kirby and Katie.

Kirby does a great job with the sheep and certainly loves some of the pet sheep here, but my guess is that if you asked her favorite animal she would say “horse”. We waited until late in the day on Saturday to see one of the presentations at the Cavalcade of Horses. After the show kids were able to pet some of the horses.

This particular show had a pirate theme and included gymnastics on horse back as well.

Then we went to the barn where the mares and foals were stalled. They had been the stars of a show we saw earlier. The youngest foal liked rubbing his rear on the fence and appreciated even more scratches by Kirby.

On Sunday morning we watched the Longhorn show. The first classes were Haltered Heifers. Those were young longhorns shown by some kids. The larger longhorns are shown in a sort of free-for-all. They don’t try to halter these. They are numbered and the judge looks at them as they wander around the show ring.

In this class there were cows with calves. It was entertaining to watch and interesting to hear the judge’s comments, especially since I had just heard that Kirby’s family are now the owners of a cow-calf pair of longhorns. That was something for Kirby to look forward to when she went home.

Back at the sheep barn, we spent some time with this performer who occasionally rides through the barn. Kirby asked if he could make a balloon sheep. He made a bighorn sheep ram! Side note…Did you know that these bikes were created so that the riders would be more visible to the transportation mode of the day (horses and carriages) and eye level with horseback riders?

At the end of the day the Marketing Awards were announced. We won the Marketing Award. We also had Best Program directed at the general public. The blue ribbon is for Best Educational Presentation under the Herdsman award for the sheep show. The white ribbon is for 3rd Best Educational Presentation over the whole two weeks of the fair.

I was glad that Kirby had a fancy ribbon too.