One More State Fair Post

Before I get back to my Road Trip blogs I have a few more photos to share. No big surprises in this post like there were in the last one, but Dona sent me the great photos that she had taken of the show. And since I'm writing another fair post I'll include a few others as well. I didn't see much of the fair besides the livestock area but I walked around briefly. Here is what caught my eye.

On the wall of the livestock office.

Another longhorn, this time with not-so-symmetrical horns.

A "corn-box" for children.

This seems like a good idea for kids but I think I'd want it far from my house. It's hard to tell in the photo but there are metal bars hanging at each station for banging "music making".

I always like walking through "The Farm" to get ideas for my garden. I like these bricks that made the corners of the raised beds. It would be easy to change the location of the beds.

Back to the show ring. Rotor was sometimes reluctant at moving around the ring.

Here he is at the head of the class of Shetlands and Karakuls.

This is the Primitive Breeds Champion judging.

None of my other sheep did as well as Rotor. The judge preferred his fleece over that of my other sheep, although I think they are just fine. Meridian Honey, shown by my husband, had won Champion Jacob ewe at Black Sheep Gathering in June, but she was last in this class. That is part of showing any livestock, especially Jacob sheep. There is such a wide variety in acceptable traits in our sheep that it may not really be appropriate to judge them against each other. That is why Jacobs used to be judged by "card-grading". Each sheep would get a "grade" based on the characteristics--not putting one of a similar grade above another. But that's not how it's done in traditional livestock shows.

These are my two yearling ewes, Meridian Honey and Meridian Zinnia.

This is the Jacob portion of the Primitive Breeds ewe lamb class. The two lambs without much color have a bit more on the other side. They are sisters and my friend, Mary, has bought one of them.

Here is our Flock entry in the Primitive Breeds Division.

Rotor's debut on the photo stage after winning this show. See the previous blog for his other winning photos.

Seen on the Farm

This one isn't actually on OUR farm. I love this sunflower crop that is Across the Road.

I took the rest of these photos here.

Monarch caterpillar on narrow-leaf milkweed.

Alfalfa butterfly. The caterpillars are considered pests in fields of alfalfa. They also consume other legumes (like clover and trefoil in my pasture).

I still don't know what this one is. Previously I tentatively identified one in a better photo as a forage looper moth. Maybe? Do you know how hard it is to chase a butterfly/moth that doesn't want to be photographed?

California Red Dragonfly. While we're looking at insects here are nasty ones that supposedly the dragonflies eat.

We were doing pretty well keeping the pasture mosquitoes at bay.  I guess it was the last irrigation followed by a heat wave that brought them on to this degree. This morning in the pasture I was covered head to foot--overalls and a hooded sweatshirt with the hood tied around my face. I could still hear them buzzing.

While on the subject of nasty buzzing things in the barn last year's paper wasp nests are active again. I guess I need to find the wasp spray.

Same subject. Different pest. This is another black widow on the hay. You have to be careful pulling bales of hay away from the wall or off the floor.

Also in the barn but no stings or bites (except maybe when the parents dive-bomb the dogs). This is another nest of Brewer's blackbirds. This photo was taken a couple of weeks ago...

...and this one a little later. These birds have left the nest now.

Sheep going to pasture in the morning.

These are some of the new sheep. That's Bronagh who seems to take the lead. They are out with the rest of the flock now and are as anxious to come to the fence for grain when I rattle the bucket as the other sheep.

New Faces on the Farm

The last few blog posts were about Black Sheep Gathering. One reason that I decided to go this year was that I could bring home some new sheep. Here they are:

Windy Acres Bronagh, 3 years old, lilac (that's a gray-brown color in Jacob sheep lingo).

This is her fleece...

...and here is another view.

Another sheep is 2-year old Hunter's Glen Scout.

This is her fleece...

...and another view.

Bide a wee Hallie is a yearling with very pretty horns...

...and a long, open fleece.

 Shadow Mountain Shelby is a yearling...

...with a fine crimpy fleece.

Kenleigh's Sheena is the last yearling.

I brought home two lambs from bide a wee Farm. I just realized that I didn't get a decent photo of the ram lamb, buster. This ewe lamb is Trista and I just love this little lamb. She is one of those sheep who seems to have a friendly nature and is taming herself.

And look at her lovely fleece.

I can't wait to see these fleeces next February and new lambs in March.

Spinners' Lead at BSG

The Spinner's Lead is one of the events I enjoy most at Black Sheep Gathering. It is a competition in which entrants show off their handspun or felted items and bring the animal that was the fiber source (or borrow a representative one from one of the animal exhibitors). There are two categories--one for Owner and one for Non-Owner. Alison and I both entered Jacob yarn vests. Alison's vest is incredible. She started this project three or four years ago, spinning Jacob wool into 4-ply yarn. She knit the vest using twined knitting to create a fabric that is windproof but stretchy--a natural alternative to Polartech. At one point Alison had knit the vest almost to the top but was not happy with it and ripped it all the way back to the cast-on row! It features i-cord band, sewn in zipper, and pockets.

I started working on my vest about four weeks before BSG, inspired when I figured out that the fleece of the sheep I was entering, was still in the barn and was a beautiful one. After spinning the yarn the fabric took two days to warp and weave and another to turn into a vest. On Tuesday of the BSG week I wove scarves using white and the leftover black yarn. Weaving is so much faster than knitting!

Honey was my selected sheep for the Spinners' Lead because it was her fleece I used. I chose Marv for Alison because he seemed the best most compliant of the other sheep. She spent a little time practicing with him before the event.

I handed my i-phone off to a friend who took most of these photos, and it's not easy to get good photos standing at the outside of the show ring. (Thanks, Deb.)

Alpaca shawl. Red hair, red shawl, red alpaca. (Honey did not like the alpaca when it showed up in the line near her.)

BFL sheep with her young owner. This one was the winner of the Owner category.

This was the most unusual entry this year--felted sheep masks. The wearers are leading sheep, but they needed to be guided as well.

Sweater knitted from natural colored fleece.

Waiting to hear the results. Alison won the non-owner category! It was well-deserved.

Morning at the Barn

The sheep were all locked in the barn/corral area while I was irrigating. Here are some morning photos.Ginseng and BFL-X lambs.Fandango with lambs.Hot Lips and lamb.Alexandria and her lambs.Isabelle with lambs.Melinda and lambs.These were the last ones born this year.Amaryllis.Sheep looking hopeful as I climb back over the gate.

Playful Lambs

Farm Day & Another Lamb Graft

Last Saturday was a Farm Day. Some of the Farm Club members have been coming during the last month to help with all the barn chores during lambing, but this was the "official" Farm Day.We caught all the lambs to check for number of horns and split eyelids (a trait that is sometimes seen in 4-horn lambs). This was also a good time to check the paperwork and make sure that I had recorded the gender and sires correctly.My neighbor who recently purchased sheep was here also to get some hands-on experience. He told me that a recently purchased goat had kidded that morning and he wasn't sure the kid had nursed.I went to his place at lunchtime to check on the kid and while he held the doe (very skittish) I got the kid nursing.Back at our place, we finished moving sheep around. I moved "Ginny's flock" of wethers and she was so hot when she was finished that she found the only accessible mud puddle to sit in.Last in the afternoon we decided to try grafting a lamb onto a ewe whose lamb had been killed the day before. I had debated it that day and at the time didn't want to deal with it. But I had some new twins and though it was worth a try. This method of grafting is not as pleasant or as satisfying as "slime" grafting where you just cover the adopted baby in the birth fluids so that the mom will think the lamb is hers. With this method there is a dead lamb and you need to use it's skin to cover the adoptive lamb to trick the mom into thinking it's hers. That photo above is the lamb in the skin before I cut it to fit better. Bea, the young ewe, was unsure. The scent of her lamb was there but the sound wasn't right. The lamb didn't want to nurse at first and when it did Bea wasn't happy about it.This photo is blurry because I must have smeared my iPhone lens while working with the lamb. When Bea finally lay down while trying to avoid me attaching the lamb to her teat I was able to get the lamb to nurse on the engorged udder. For a day or two I needed to halter her or just stand there.At this point Bea has completely claimed the lamb as her own. (The dead lamb's skin is gone in this photo--I took it off the next morning.)We were impatiently waiting for Jazz to lamb. I was sure that she would have triplets because she was so huge. She surprised me with twins the day after Farm Day. They are 9.6 and 12 pounds. At that size it's good there were only two of them.

Youth Ag Day

Last week two Farm Club members and I took sheep to the Solano County Fairgrounds for the annual Youth Ag Day.This event is attended by almost 3000 third graders and their teacher and parent helpers.I was amused by this sign.Kids are exposed to everything involving agriculture.A variety of local volunteer groups, agencies, and 4-H/FFA members bring exhibits and hands-on activities.Kids sat in bleachers while learning about dairy products and dairy cows.This 4-Her had labeled the parts of her horse.There was even a roping demonstration. There were also herding dogs, police dogs and horses, and dozens of other activities over the whole fairgrounds.This equipment is what they use to shake nut trees, but it was fun to see the leaves shake in this demo.We brought two ewes with month old and week old lambs. The morning started out calm.Kids enjoyed petting the lambs.But that was when the kids were just starting to get there.After awhile the ewes and lambs were stressed with the number of people and the noise level. So we talked to the kids, but didn't handle the lambs anymore. Fortunately I had brought out tame sheep, Jade.I took her out on a halter and she loved the attention. I told the kids who were standing around watching that they could pet......and pet they did......feeling horns......and wool.This sheep is amazing. When people wandered away she wanted more.Eventually her handler (me) got tired and put her away......but she still hadn't had enough.

Faces in the Barn

We're up to 66 lambs now. Here are some of them.

Babies in the Barn

Some of this week's lambs:Lilac twin ewes: Meridian Nash x Mud Ranch's Foxglove.Esmerelda's twins, 75% Jacob/25% BFL.Fandango's BFL/Jacob twins.This morning's lilac triplet rams: Meridian Nash x Meridian Celeste. These bring the count to 55. And look who came to the barn with me this morning......in her camo boots and pj's.Kirby will be helping me in the barn for the next couple of days.

Nine Days In

This is when lambing season starts to take it's toll. Everything has been going OK, but there is starting to be some sleep deficit. Thank goodness that during the two days I was driving to the Bay Area to teach classes it was slow here. Yesterday started just after midnight when Mable's lambs were born. All OK. I think I didn't go back out until just after 6 a.m. and Sophia had new twins.  They seemed fine although I had a little trouble making sure they nursed OK. The answer for that was to go back to the house to eat breakfast and then the "problem" lamb was ready to eat.

Mary came out to help and that help is so appreciated. We were completely backed up in the lambing jugs and the alleyway of the lambing area. (I think that's like when you see on TV shows the gurneys with patients lined up in the hall of the hospital.) So the first thing to do was to  start moving sheep around in the cycle from lambing jug to group pen for a few days to mom and baby part of the barn and field which hadn't been set up yet. We worked on that at the same time as watching Lana in labor.Lana had a very pretty lilac ewe lamb. Eventually, after it seemed things were taking a long time, I checked and found another lamb, pulled it, and spent about twenty minutes trying to make it live. I don't know if it was doomed from the start or aspirated fluid during birth, but it could never get a good enough breath and it died.  In the meantime Raquel was in labor. I have been in touch with some students at the UC Davis vet school who are interested in coming out for some hands-on practice. It's been difficult to coordinate their schedules with sheep lambing, but they were able to come out then for a couple of hours. Unfortunately Raquel didn't lamb while they were here but they did do some ear tagging, tail banding......and they listened to the normal and the not-as-healthy lungs of these twins, one of whom has been getting penicillin because he almost died from pneumonia following a difficult birth (in this post).We finally got the ewes with the first lambs out on the pasture. Can you tell where all the mom's food is going now?After getting the ewe through the end of pregnancy and then lambing in good health, the next challenge is keeping an eye on the udder health. As the milk is coming in (the lesser amount of colostrum giving way to a greater quantity of milk) the udder may become engorged. If there is tenderness and the ewe doesn't let the lambs nurse on one side it becomes a vicious cycle. Sore udder and teat...no nursing...more milk backing up...udder more full and sore. This can eventually lead to mastitis which, if not treated, can ultimately kill the ewe or at least ruin her udder.Walking back to the house I noticed Mae standing like this. "Lameness" in a ewe who in nursing lambs may have nothing to do with the feet at all, but be because her udder is full and painful.I went out to get her and bring her to the barn. I am amused by her response to me approaching.This is why. Her lambs are hidden in the grass.This is how Mae looked walking back to the barn.This is from the front.  I tied her to the fence and milked the one side, taking 7.5 ounces.Then it looked and felt balanced.  I milked her again this morning. There was another ewe in a similar situation and I had to milk her a couple of times. I have to remember to be watching for that over the next few weeks as these ewes lamb.We set up the creep for the lambs. They can get through the narrow slots on that panel. The ewes aren't always happy that their babies can go somewhere that they can't follow.These are BFL-X lambs born the night before.The last lambing of the day was Raquel. After the vet students had left and I had finished working outside I finally went to the house. I went back to the barn to check and these lambs had been born. It wasn't until later at the last check around midnight that I realized that Raquel didn't want one of them. But that is another story.

Before and After

This is Ginseng above and below. This is Betty.

Esmerelda.

Lauren, one of last year's lambs, almost a yearling. The yearlings look a lot skinnier than the older ewes with no wool.

Jillian, another yearling.

Jerry, a wether.

Isabelle

More About Shearing Day

I've written a couple of posts about shearing day already, but I have so many photos to share. As John worked through the main flock I brought in the sheep from other areas. The two ewes with two-week old lambs were shorn (last post) and then the three Jacob rams.This is the yearling ram, Rotor.A good comparison of a lilac Jacob (Nash) and black & white (Rotor).This is Rotor's fleece.They aren't all spotted. This is one of the BFL-Jacob cross ewes.Lots of people help to make Shearing Day fun and easy for me. Kathleen weighed fleeces.Stephany and Gynna wrangled sheep all morning.Alison and many others helped at the skirting table.People are welcome to skirt their fleeces before buying or ask for advice about fleeces. It was a great day to stand in the sun with your hands in freshly shorn wool.One more ewe to be shorn and then it was Faulkner's turn.His buddy, Jerry looked on. Faulkner weighed in at 235 lbs (down about 30 pounds from what he sometimes weighs in the summer).Fresh Jacob fleece.Faulkner's fleece.While the shearing and wool sorting was going on, friends were helping buyers in the shop.Later we got everyone (almost) to the barn for a group photo. That's a lot of enthusiastic friends!

Shearing Day

We sheared on Sunday. What a gorgeous day for shearing (but hoping that the weather doesn't continue this way--winter shouldn't be over yet).The day before we were cleaning up the area around the barn and pushed the brush pile into the corral area where it's safer to burn. The sheep thought that there might be something worth eating......or scratching on. I didn't want them ruining a whole year of wool growth the night before being shorn so it was time to move them to the barn.I called the dogs in and Ginny got to help with the big group. Sunday: Farm Club members are ready for action.First sheep.Mary is ready to grab and bag the fleece.Wait a minute. These sheep don't look right.Cute, but not the right sheep.We started the day with 10 sheep from another farm.  We told John (shearer) that was his warm-up.We got underway with the Jacobs. Farm Club members did all the work. Visitors watched. and I changed gates and moved sheep while playing with my camera.Here John is shearing Dazzle......while Amy holds her lamb.I think this is my favorite photo of the day. Peggy and Caroline babysit twins while their mom is being shorn.

Itchy

In the last post I shared photos of sheep that were overdue for shearing. I'm pleased to say that most of the fleeces looked great when they came off today. There will be other blog posts, but this is a quick one with photos of shorn sheep with something in common.

Overdue for Shearing

The flock is looking rather ragged. It's a good thing we're shearing in two days.Mable.Ginseng.Shelby.Jazz.Noel.Petra.Petra again.I'm not sure who this is but she's certainly round.Speaking of big and round, this is Spring. Last year she was so big that we had a couple of wagers on lambing--when and how many?Isabelle sporting her tech head-gear. The video will be coming soon.

Cute, Cute, Cute

It will still be a few weeks before I have any more lambs so the first three have more than their share of photos.This is Delight with her twins. This is Dazzle with her single lamb. One of the problems I have photographing Jacob sheep is the fact that they have black markings around their eyes. I find that it is hard to expose the photo properly and also be able to see the faces. I edited this lower photo to where I could see the lamb's eyes, although they aren't showing up here very well and the photo looks washed out compared to the top one. Here is another example.

The original is on the left. The black is too black, but I'm not very good at lightening it up just enough to see the eyes better. I lightened the shadows on the one on the right and it looks OK when it stands alone and is not next to the first version. I also tried dodging around that right eye, but it didn't help much. I think I need a lesson.Here is another pair of photos. Which is better? Top or bottom?At least I have CUTE going for me. 

Speaking of cute, can you tell the difference in these two photos? It's not in editing. Try the focus...Ginny's focus, that is.