The Week Following Dental Surgery--rams, Lambtown, Fibershed

Not a very good title... and it doesn't describe what I want to share in this post, but dental surgery was the event on Monday that set the tone for the week. I stayed on the codeine less than 24 hours because I don't like feeling so...well, drugged. I didn't feel too bad on Wednesday and some Farm Club friends came to help me set up breeding groups. It is always a challenge to find enough places to put the groups where there is no fence-line contact between rams.I left Faulkner in his area but expanded it to include the run next to it.

Ringo got the most ewes so he had the pasture.Rotor, one of the lambs born in March, went with his ewes to the horse pasture. We wondered if he'd be able to reach those ewes, but he's had no problem. I don't have a photo of Nash, the lilac ram. He went to the field behind the shop. Crosby and Alex were left in the ram pen.The non-breeding group includes the ewes to be bred in February for lambing at the State Fair, their lambs, some of the ewe lambs that I'm keeping, other ewe lambs for sale, and this year 4 ewe lambs that are sold but haven't left yet. It's a lot of sheep to keep away from the rams but I barricaded them in the area around the barn.Our resident white-tailed kites, seen from the barn.

One of the adult rams, Alex, was picked up by his new owner on Thursday so I put the few remaining ram lambs with Crosby to keep him company for the day. On Friday I took 7 sheep, including Crosby, Nash, and Rotor to Lambtown for the sheep show on Sunday. Normally I am a vendor at Lambtown but this year there was a conflict with an event I had really wanted to attend and where I knew that I'd sell well. So I took sheep for the weekend but attended Fibershed on Saturday. It's a good thing. I probably should have stayed home entirely but at least the Fibershed event was easier than doing a full vendor booth at Lambtown.Here are two of the sheep pens at Lambtown and my meager display.Saturday was the Grow Your Jeans event that was the culmination of over a year's planning and work by the Fibershed team. There are photos and a description of the work involved in growing cotton and indigo in the nearby Capay Valley and the dyeing, weaving, and pattern-making of these locally produced jeans at this link. The Grow Your Jeans event featured these jeans as well as "grass-fed tops", the shirts and accessories worn with them on the straw-bale fashion show runway. The new felt banner was made by FC friend, Jackie, of Sheep to Shop.

Prior to the fashion show attendees could shop at the vendor booths and eat fabulous local food. (At least it looked fabulous. I stuck to my yogurt and cottage cheese.)I brought handwoven pieces, horn buttons, and lambskins. I did very well as far as sales, but, unfortunately by this point, I was not in the best of shape. I just wanted to be home on the couch. These pillows are stuffed with local wool in an cover of organic cotton. They both sold. This is my "grass-fed top" on the left. It is Timm Ranch wool woven in 16-shaft huck lace. The weft is dyed with osage orange from across the road.The fashion show took place in an old dairy barn. Prior to the show, Rebecca and the others involved in creating the jeans told about their parts in the project.I stood just outside to get a photo of the model wearing my shawl.  I stepped back inside to see the last part of the show. Two of the models came out carrying this flag.Along with all of the other aspects of Fibershed that Rebecca spearheads, she has also been involved with the re-introduction of hemp as a valued agricultural crop in Kentucky. It's a long story and you can read some interesting articles here. This is one of five flags to be woven from the veteran-grown hemp project. They use Sally Fox's California grown cotton for warp and Kentucky hemp for weft. The first flag went to Farm Aid and this is the second one. I thought it was a fabulous way to end the evening's program. Kind of gives you chills.

I am not doing justice here to the whole event. Everything that Fibershed puts on is exceedingly well done and the message is so important. I am grateful to be involved in this movement even in a small way.

It was a long drive home to Bolinas that night and then there was still Lambtown the next day. I had a ride to and from so started in on the codeine. On Saturday Farm Club friends had been on the winning Sheep to Shawl team. This is the fabulous blanket that they spun and wove.

After the sheep show I doubled up on the codeine and waited for my husband to come drive the sheep home.