Birdwatching in Fairfield

One of these days I’ll write a blog post about one of the Christmas gifts from my family—a calendar with 365 days of “National (fill in the blank) Day”. Then they filled in chosen days to do something with me. For instance my son and DIL came over to watch a movie for National Science Fiction Day. Tuesday was, according to this calendar, National Bird Day. My brother got a new lens for his camera so he could get a better view of his local birds and he has been photographing and identifying birds in his neighborhood. I have been very impressed with his photos because I don’t feel as though I have been very successful at bird photos. He invited me to go on a birdwatching walk with him.

I know…this isn’t a bird. But it was the first wildlife I saw when we walked out the gate of Dave’s backyard. Dave’s house and yard back up to a seasonal creek and there are paths along both sides. At times there have been families of beavers living in the creek and he sees a lot of birds there.

I hate to admit how poor my bird ID skills are, but this jaunt made me decide I can do better. I think when I’m out walking here with my dogs I haven’t been focused well enough to pay attention to the differences in all the little birds that live in the area. And many times it’s easier to ID the bird by looking at photos that I can enlarge on my computer than be trying to see the detail in real life.

I do know that this is a dove—a mourning dove I think.

This one is easy—red-winged blackbird.

We started out in the neighborhood but eventually followed the creek out of town.

These oak galls caught my eye. Stationary objects are easier to photograph than moving birds.

Woodpecker. Hairy or Downy? Dave told me which one, but now I don’t remember.

I noticed several small painted wood blocks in random places. Dave said that he doesn’t know who puts them up but they are changed occasionally.

More interesting and easy-to-photograph objects.

At the edge of town.

I just looked up the history of the area known as Cement Hill. According to an article in the local newspaper:

“The Pacific Portland Cement Co. from 1902 to 1927 quarried the rock and made cement…The castle-like remains in the hills served as the foundation of the rock crusher, with the wooden building and metal equipment now long gone. A rail system transported the rock. At one point, more than 500 workers earned their living in these hills.”

Western meadowlark.

There isn’t much blooming right now, but I love how this Lesser Goldfinch (I think) matches the plants where he is perched.

White-crowned sparrow.

We got to the edge of town and then took a path up into the hills. They are finally getting green after our meager amount of late rainfall. However, these hills burned in October and it is sad to see how little soil cover there is. Lots of bare ground between the little bit of grass sprouting.

Dave’s dog, Daisy was a well-behaved companion on this trek.

We had a great view of Lagoon Valley to the east…

…and Fairfield and the hills to the west and north.

We could see Mt. Diablo, where we hiked last month, to the southwest although I had to tweak this photo to get it to stand out behind the clouds.

Another view east.

Cedar waxwing.

You may have to look closely but there are two Anna’s hummingbirds in this photo. It was one of the few shrubs with flowers (a few flowers) and one of the hummingbirds made repeated dive-bombing approaches, with a call I can only describe as a screech that I never expected to hear from a hummingbird. He’d drop down and then rise straight up as if he was a drone. Very cool to watch and a nice bird to end the day.

Dave kept track of the number of species we saw and he counted 25!

My Version of a Temperature Blanket

Maybe you have never heard of a Temperature Blanket. If you knit or crochet then it’s more likely that you have. They seem to be the rage or maybe it’s just that I have become obsessed now so I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it. The idea is that you record the daily temperature using color in a knitted or crocheted piece. Coming at it from another direction, the temps provide a pattern with which to create a unique or personalized piece. Often people use this as an interesting way to create their project over the period of a year.

I don’t know if this is the origin of the idea but there is a Tempestry Project website. They state: “One of the ongoing problems inherent in discussions about climate change is the vast scale of the conversation. The Tempestry Project’s goal is to scale this down into something that is accurate, tangible, relatable, and beautiful. Tempestry Project blends fiber art with temperature data to create a bridge between global climate and our own personal experiences through knitted or crocheted temperature tapestries, or “Tempestries.” Each Tempestry represents the daily high temperature for a given year and location, January at the bottom and December at the top (think bar graphs!)”

My interest in this began when a customer came to buy yarn for her own blanket. I had just started carrying the new Ashford DK yarn and she thought that would be just right. It comes in great colors and is very affordable. Then I remembered that a friend had knitted a pair of Tempestry Banners to be donated to her favorite National Park for an exhibit about climate. My friend, Lisa, provided these photos:

These banners are knitted using colors that represent the high temperatures for each day of 1916 and 2016. Beads along the right side indicate precipitation.

But wait! I’m a weaver. I want to weave a temperature blanket. There are a lot of factors to consider and it starts to get complicated. Here are some of the things I have thought about with ideas explained below.

1. It’s one thing to knit or crochet a row each day for a year and keep the project in a bag. To weave a row each day that means that the loom is tied up on that one project for a whole year.

2. Color range. Assign a color for every 5 degrees? Every 10 degrees?

3. So far everything I’ve seen uses high temperatures. What about the lows? Aren’t they important too, not only for the discussion of climate change, but even if the intent is to lend an overall feel of how we experienced the year.

4. Use temperatures for where you live? If you travel, use temperatures of where you happened to be each day? Or use temperatures of the year of someone’s birth or marriage or?

5. What yarn?

I’ll give you the answers to some of these later. But first let me explain my thought process. I knew it wasn’t practical to tie up a loom for a whole year but I could do a project that covered a whole year. So for the first blanket I’d weave 2020 temperatures. I explored sources of temperature data made a chart.

I was already December 20 so I’ll have to look up numbers if I want to complete the chart for 2020. I made a similar chart for the lows. A knitted blanket starts at one edge (January 1 temperature) and works forward for 365 rows. With weaving I could use two sets of numbers because I am working with warp and weft. What if the warp was one set of numbers (low temps) and the weft was the highs? There are some issues with number of threads as it relates to the scale of the project and the size of the loom, but I’m still working on that. I wanted to move on to color.

I got out my colored pencils and assigned colors to temperature ranges of 5 degrees. That is 15 colors! Is that realistic? Maybe not for a couple of reasons. But I forged ahead. I photocopied the charts of highs and lows so that I could try out the colors.

This is not how the blanket would look because these months are shown with the days in columns. A woven project would be made with each of those days indicating one thread, either in warp or weft.

This is the chart with the lows for each day. Quite different! Next I thought about yarn. I had already decided that the new Ashford DK yarn would be perfect for this. I know that part of my business is in promoting our own locally grown fiber, and I do love the wool yarn that I am having spun by three U.S. mills (2 in California). But I don’t feel bad promoting this yarn—it is “locally produced” in New Zealand from sustainable New Zealand sheep farms and I think Ashford is a reputable company to support…and the yarn is very affordable and easy to use with a lot of color choices. It compliments my own Timm Ranch yarn very well. Here is the link to this yarn.

This is 12 of the colors that I chose for my initial sampling. I wanted three additional colors but they are backordered and will be here in a few weeks.

I wound a warp for some samples. I didn’t use a particular color order or specific number of threads. I wanted to see how the cloth would look if some of the stripes were as few as 2 threads (one day because it’s easier to wind warp in pairs) and some up to an inch. I used the same color order in the weft for two of the samples and I used two different weave structures.

Here is how the sample looks when woven in broken twill.

This weave structure alternates plain weave and twill picks and looks different on each side.

These samples are based on the assumption that there will be color changes in warp and weft. What about setting up an easier project where one direction uses a solid color?

This is the same warp woven in broken twill with black or white.

This sample uses that plain weave/twill pattern but with the solid black weft.

So there is a lot to think about in planning this woven project.

1. Color changes in warp and weft. Too much going on? Will be more interesting if the lows are one direction and the highs are the other. A fun project to plan and weave.

2. Color changes in warp with solid weft. All the planning and paying attention is for the warp. Easy to weave.

3. Solid warp with color changes in weft. Easy to wind warp. Not as easy to weave with color changes. Stopping and starting yarn. Fulling these samples prevented loose ends from being a problem.

4. Use fewer colors? I tried the same chart using 10 degree increments for color changes. That requires only 8 colors.

The highs in 10 degree color change increments.

The chart of lows in 10 degree color increments is above.

One reason for writing this blog post is to get all my thoughts in one place. Another is to generate some interest in this project (and maybe sell some yarn to be honest). Who wants to work on a color blanket or scarf or wall hanging? You don’t have to weave it. I’ll happily show my yarn to knitters and crocheters too. Here is one more idea for those who might want to do a little each day.

This yarn works great with the Schacht Zoom Loom and you can weave a square in 15 minutes. I am going to weave all the 2020 colors and put the blanket together as an example. Hmmm. 365 days x 15 minutes = 91.25 hours. Don’t hold your breath waiting for me to finish this one.

Look for future posts about the progress of this idea.

Exploring Berryessa-Snow Mountain National Monument

Long-time followers of this blog know that we love visiting our National Parks and National Monuments. There is one in our own backyard that we have hardly seen. Berryessa-Snow Mountain NM was created in 2015 and encompasses 330,780 acres. The website states: “Public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and Forest Service in the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument are some of the most scenic and biologically diverse landscapes in northern California. They range from rolling, oak-studded hillsides to steep creek canyons and ridgelines with expansive views.”

My wool was ready at Mendocino Wool and Fiber in Ukiah and we decided to pick it up rather than have it shipped and then have an afternoon of hiking on the way back. I researched (googled) where to hike and found some trails that were in the southern part of the Monument.

We decided to try the Judge Davis Trail in the Cache Creek area. According to the AllTrails that would be a 5 mile out and back trail for a total of 10 miles.

There were some signs in place, but it wasn’t until I started sorting these photos that I finally realized that we weren’t on the trail we thought we were. The very limited map I had printed from a computer screenshot was from the non-paid for access to AllTrails that showed Cache Creek Ridge and Judge Davis trails. It turns out that they were two separate trails and we didn’t even see the start of the Judge Davis trail from where we parked. No big deal—I just like to be accurate.

I’d read reviews of the trails in this area that warned about ticks (especially if you are hiking with dogs) and lack of shade and water. At this time of year we certainly didn’t need to worry about shade, but I can see how that would be a huge concern in the summer. This is a hot, rugged landscape.

Another sign—we were entering an area designated wilderness. I found it interesting that hang gliding is on the list of unacceptable activities in this area.

According to an app on my phone I think we’d gone about 2.5 miles be the time we saw this sign that pointed to the Judge Davis Trailhead (ahead of us on the trail).

There was a trail that took off to the left and this was the sign, burned in one of the previous years’ fires. We could barely make out that it says Cache Creek 4 miles. Acccording to the map I had we didn’t think the Judge Davis Trail made a loop so we continued down this Cache Creek trail.

The view to the northeast. The only other people we saw were on a trail near the ridge in this photo.

Along the trail in some areas I saw small bits of fluff caught on the brush. It was the most dramatic here and I wondered which animals were the right height to be rubbing and lose some undercoat. My guess is that it is the elk that had bedded down nearby.

View northwest. I’d like to know what mountain that is. We thought that Cache Creek is over a few ridges to the left of where we were standing. It was getting later in the day and we decided that we should probably turn back since we had to follow this same trail back and with all the uphill it would take awhile. The phone app said that we’d gone about 3.5 miles.

View south.

On the earlier part of the trail there was a lot of manzanita that glowed red in the sun.

Back at the parking lot I took a photo of this sign and we saw the beginning (and end) of the Judge Davis Trail, a short distance from the trail that we had taken. . I finally matched up the trails with our printed map. The trail we took is the one on the right side of that blue square and I think the signs we saw were at the junction where you can continue south or go northwest to the Judge Davis trail. We went south but not all the way. Now we’ll have to go back and try again. I’m sure the wildflowers will be fantastic in a few months.

Christmas Day 2020

This was nobody’s normal Christmas Day. Part of that was due of course to COVID. Part was that one of my sons was still on fire duty in southern California where there had not been enough rain to dampen the threat of fire. We had a quiet Christmas Day here and I took Ginny Across the Road. Rusty doesn’t go with us any more because he is gets too sore.

I don’t have to worry about getting lost between my house the the dirt road along the canal.

The ditches are full of irrigation water during the summer and into fall, but usually have rain water this time of year. We read in a report that in a “normal” year we would have had 8” of rain by now and there has been only 2”.

Bare Trees. Anytime I think that I want to break into a Fleetwood Mac song.

The mistletoe isn’t a good thing but it does add some greenery to the landscape.

Was there a party here?

I purposely did not bring a ball with us. Sometimes I’d rather just walk and not have to deal with the ball. Ginny found one though, probably one of the many that we’ve lost in the canal. It’s not what you’d think from the photo. Look down into the water. I had to use a long stick to get it close enough to reach. I didn’t want her getting in that yucky stagnant water.

This is the “ball” that is next to her above the water. That’s an osage orange fruit.

There is her new old ball.

There was just enough rain about a month ago to get seeds sprouted. The 1/2” last week revived those tiny seedlings and got them growing. Now we just need more to keep things growing.

Ginny somehow thought that maybe she had a chance at catching a great blue heron. To her credit she ran with the ball and didn’t lose it.

She didn’t try for the buzzard, but only because she didn’t scare it up off the ground.

This one was across the canal so Ginny didn’t see it.

Back home at our driveway. At least the colored lights add some cheer to the gray day.

Two days later Matt was back home and we met there for our Christmas celebration. We took a walk before dinner and pies.

My great family! Just missing the Texas contingent and my brother’s family who were also distancing themselves from others.

The Night Before The Night Before...

That would be the eve of Christmas Eve. But who is keeping track of what day it is this year?

We put up a Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. That is early for us but I’m glad we did. I love smelling the Douglas Fir Christmas smell in the house. I put lights up but not all of our ornaments. We have accumulated a lot over the years and I never like the task of putting them all away again.

So I just hung ornaments until I got tired of sorting through them. These are some of the favorites.

I don’t think I’ve bought ornaments in years, except for this one. I couldn’t resist a Clydsedale.

This cow whose legs move has been in our family since our dairy days that started in 1985

Of course I have been given sheep ornaments.

Dan and I got a tandem the year we were married and used to ride a lot. In recent years we managed one training ride and the Foxy’s Fall Century (metric) every year (until 2019).

Another farm related ornament.

Now into the archives. When my brother and I were kids we got to choose one ornament each year and my mom labeled them. The labels are now gone but this is an owl that I chose back when I was very young.

This is another from that era.

I think this is one that I chose when I was 4 or 5 years old. That’s a pink angel in a green sphere.

The year 2020 has a pretty bad reputation and I agree that it’s been rough. However in our family we could make the argument that 2019 was worse—at least the last 3 months. In October 2019 I had a near fatal accident and 2020 is when I recovered, but just as I was rehabbing and recovering, the pandemic hit. So let’s look ahead to 2021. It has to get better, right? Merry Christmas!

Looking Forward to 2021 with Lambs

Here is one thing to look forward to…in 2-1/2 months. Believe it or not that photo below shows lambs!

I have never learned to read an ultrasound. Maybe next year when we do this I’ll make sure that I have a lesson. I was preoccupied this time with catching sheep so that we kept the flow moving. But the biggest problem was wearing glasses with a mask on a cold morning. My glasses fogged up so much that I had to take them off. Then I couldn’t make out anything on the screen.

Three UC Davis veterinarians were here to ultrasound all the ewes.

I haven’t done this for the whole flock before. We used to ultrasound those ewes that we bred out of season to lamb at the State Fair Nursery. That program was managed by UC Davis so they provided this service. The Nursery was discontinued a few years ago and I haven’t had ultrasounds since then.

This is Belle, my granddaughter Kirby’s sheep and I will take every opportunity I get to share this all-time favorite photo.

This is Belle’s and Kirby’s debut at the State Fair last year. Kirby was so excited to get a PINK ribbon. Who needs blue when you can get pink?

This is a photo of Belle’s twins. Wouldn’t it be great to think that Kirby could show these lambs at the 2021 State Fair? I’m afraid that may be wishful thinking. But maybe she can at least come from Texas to see them.

I kept taking photos even though I really couldn’t identify what I was seeing.

Here are the ewes lined up for their turns.

This is afterwards. Remember the green marks on their rears that indicated breeding? Now the green marks on their faces were our marks that they had been checked and were confirmed pregnant.

The results? Fifty ewes are pregnant. Of those, at least 38 are carrying twins. Three of the six ewe lambs that I put with the rams are pregnant. Fortunately they all have single lambs. It’s hard on those young ewes who are lambing as yearlings to carry twins—they are still growing themselves. By doing ultrasounds I know which ewe lambs to monitor. In January I will start bringing them in for a little extra food and the upside of that will be that I will end up with more friendly sheep!

Hiking at Bassi Falls

Monday we drove to Pollock Pines where we met up with our personal tour guides of the El Dorado National Forest, our son and DIL, who have both worked there for years. My brother and his wife (our recent Mt. Diablo hiking companions) met us there too.

I have always loved the way the creeks run in this granite landscape. When we have been here in the spring and summer Big Silver Creek runs with a lot more water.

The theme today seemed to be ice. The day was relatively warm but the amount of ice on the still pools and in the shade indicated that it’s been cold at night.

Some of the ice was reminiscent of sparkly diamonds.

That prompted Matt to get down on one knee.

I can remember when water almost filled this area.

Matt brought his drone and took overhead videos.

Ginny is not a big fan of the drone. She barks at it and tries to chase it down.

Kaleena and Kirin in matching scarves.

Usually I take photos of flowers when we’re hiking, but it’s too late in the year now.

Like I said before, there were plenty of interesting ice shapes.

Why Matt thought it would be a good idea to get in the icy water, I have no idea.

I don’t know if invigorating is the right word for this ice bath.

Chasing Kaleena with icy hands.

After hiking further up the creek and hanging out on the granite it was time to head back. It was a lovely day in the forest.

On the way down the mountain we took a detour off of Ice House Road up to Big Hill, the lookout and helispot where Matt used to work. This photo was taken from Big Hill and is the view back to where we had been hiking. Bassi Falls is slightly above center and to the left, below that granite mound.

This is the view southwest. You can just make out the peak in the background, rising above the smog layer. That is Mt. Diablo, 150 miles away.

Looking northwest we could see the Coast Range in the background with the Sutter Buttes, about 130 miles away in the valley.

This is the same view looking east toward Bassi Falls, but is a panorama from stitching together three photos.

Good Morning From The Flock

Yesterday’s photos will have to do for the Happy Thanksgiving morning post. There is a strong cold north wind this morning and I’m glad I took photos yesterday.

Meridian Rambler (Jasper x Ruth), the ram lamb born in March. He and one other ram are the lucky ones who stayed here this year.

You have seen these adult rams in other photos. They seem to pose as a a threesome whenever I am out in the field. That’s Meridian Axle on the left, Meridian Jasper on the right, and Ruby Peak Tamarisk in the center. Thankfully they all get along just fine.

I walked out into the pasture to the west and the flock followed. This is three photos stitched together in Lightroom to create a panoramic view.

This is the view as we walk into the pasture. Notice how dry everything is. That is the dallisgrass that has gone dormant. We haven’t had enough rain to start much else growing yet.

Goats of course are front and center. These are the two doe kids from this year. They have become friendly and would really like back scratches.

Ewe lamb, Coco (Jasper x Ruthie) has what look like will be a beautiful hornset.

Another ewe lamb, Roca (Jasper x Raquel).

Jasmine is a 3-year-old ewe.

Betty is 6 years old.

Quartz, in the back, is two years old and Pistachio is a lamb born in March. Sheep are considered lambs until they reach one year old.

Bide a wee Marion is from the bide a wee flock in Oregon. She came to visit the year we hosted the Jacob Sheep Breeders Annual meeting and she stayed.

And now for some fall colors…

Rusty is still hanging in here at age 14. He’ll be 15 in the spring. You wouldn’t know he’s that old when he chanses Ginny with the ball, but he is stiff and has a hard time with stairs. Now that it is cold both dogs sleep in the house at night.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hiking at Mt. Diablo State Park

I have lived in California for all my life except for four years in the late 70’s/early 80s and all that time in the Bay Area Counties. I have been at the edge of the Central Valley in Solano County for 35 years. From this area when you have a clear view looking south (away from hills and trees) you can see a large mountain. Mt. Diablo is 50 miles away and rises 3,849’ in elevation. The State Park now encompasses about 20,000 acres.

We met my brother and sister-in-law at the Mitchel Canyon Visitor Center (closed for now) and chose a trail.

There are always plenty of warning signs at park trailheads…

…but this was a new one for me. No, we did not see any tarantulas.

We picked up the last map in the box at the start of the trail. Even with the map and plenty of signs it seemed to take a committee to figure out which way to go.

We started on a dirt road but soon turned off the road on the Mitchell Canyon Trail (or was it the Black Creek Trail or ?) Whichever it was, it seems as though they all went UP.

My brother, Dave, recently got a new lens and has become a photography buff. That is good because then I wasn’t the only one stopping to take photos of random things along the way.

This is not the season for the spectacular wildflowers that I’m sure will be here in the spring, but neverhtless there is a lot to catch one’s attention. Seed pods alone are interesting from the Clematis below left to California Buckeye above, the colorful Juniper berries, and the unknown (below right).

I saw only one plant blooming and you have to give the California Fuschia a lot of credit for blooming at this time of year.

Did I say that the trail went UP?

And UP? A lot of it was through the canyon filled with chaparral. With all the fires that burned through California this year it seems amazing that this landscape was spared.

We got to a top. Not THE top, but a top.

Once we got above the brush the view was incredible. Those white towers are the windmills near Birds Landing and Rio Vista.

As we continued we saw more views. This is a panorama stitched together by Lightroom after getting home.

We had been heading south but now the trail turned north. This view shows that the Park and adjacent county or state preserves are an oasis of nature in the middle of the surrounding urban centers.

The view to the south. I think that is the Mt. Diablo peak, although there was another peak to the left of this shot, so I’m not sure which is the real summit.

The view east. Can you see the snow-capped Sierras in the distance?

We knew which peak we were on. This is the view northwest.

We eventually headed downhill.

But there were still more peaks to climb if one desired.

More map consultation too. Is this trail going to take us back to the parking lot or around another mountain?

A few of the last photos show another person with us. That is a young woman who lives in nearby Clayton and was venturing out alone. Way back near the beginning she saw us on the trail and asked directions. We told her that we’d never been here but we had a map, so she came along with us. We wondered later if she would ever choose to go hiking again after teaming up with all of us “old” folks who just kept at it for 7 miles, most of which seemed to be UP.

I was going to write more about some of the last photos but for some reason I can’t add any more text boxes to this post. Is that Squarespace telling me that the post is already long enough?

THE END.

Just Another Sheep Post

You’re not tired yet of sheep posts, are you? These sheep all lined up for the photoshoot.

This is Coco, one of the March lambs.

Hazel, who is becoming one of the tamest sheep here, just like her mom, Jade.

Belle, my granddaughter’s sheep born last year.

This is a wether, Rocky. The wethers are the lucky ones—they didn’t end up in someone’s freezer. He would not have made it as a breeding ram. He has six horns and that’s acceptable for registration as long as four are differentiated and balanced. I keep a few wethers around so that there is always a buddy sheep in case I have to isolate a ram for some reason.

Here is Addy, a BFL x Jacob ewe. She is so much a pet that she won’t move out of the way when I want her to.

This is her gorgeous fleece.

Enough of sheep? How about a goat? This happens when I clean the barn with goats around.

Hearing that we might finally get some rain, Dan focused on getting the pasture mowed one last time. It is good to mow the dallisgrass as close as possible to give other plants a better chance to grow.

Hug A Sheep

For the last few years we have celebrated Hug a Sheep Day on the last Saturday of October along with our virtual friends in Kentucky at Equinox Farm who started the tradition. The pandemic has changed that and I just realized that we missed last year too because I was in the hospital following a severe injury. To recognize this tradition I thought that I’d share some sheep hugging memories. The first few photos were taken at Hug A Sheep Day during some of the previous years.

Hug a Sheep Day in October is well after lambs are grown up, but during lambing season there area lot of opportunities to Hug a Lamb too. This is my friend, Claire, hugging a lamb, and she is also the sheep hugger in the photo above this one.

Farm Club members get plenty of chances to hug lambs. I hope that next year we will be able to offer FC members the same opportunities as in the past to be here at lambing time. We will probably still have to think about safe procedures of distance and masks, but I hope that we’ll be able to make it work. The photos below are all of Farm Club members who spend time here during lambing season .

These are photos (above and below) of Jade, our most huggable sheep.

I get a chance to hug lambs occasionally too.

The photos above and below are Jade again, this time with my granddaughter visiting from Texas.

Sheep

The other day as I walked to the barn I took photos of some of the sheep.

These first few are the non-breeding group. I chose to keep a few of the March lambs out of breeding groups. If we have an opportunity to show at Black Sheep Gathering next year in June it’s good to have some yearling ewes that don’t have lambs to wean.

This is Roca (Meridian Jasper x Meridian Raquel), a nice looking 4-horn ewe.

Pecan is another nice looking 4-horn ewe who has a twin here. (Meridian Axle x Meridian Ginger)

Hazel is a tame lamb who likes forehead scratches. (Meridian Axle x Meridian Jade)

Pistachio (Unzicker Shenandoah x Windy Acres Zeus) is unrelated to any of the rest of the sheep (except for her half sibling sisters from the last couple of years) and maybe I should have put her out with the new ram, Ruby Peak Tamarisk, because her offspring would be unrelated. Next year.

The rest of these are just photos of random sheep. This is Skye who is in with Axle right now.

This is Quartz, in the pasture with Tamarisk. Notice how she wears her breakfast caught in her horns. People like to say that Jacob sheep can have six horns. Yes, they can, but there isn’t room on their heads for six really nice big horns. Here are photos of Quartz when she was younger.

Here she is at two months old.

This was taken at 10 months of age. You can see how two of the horns are starting to fuse and there isn’t much space between the others at the base.

This is a wether who is kept around as a buddy to a ram or other sheep that needs to be separated for some reason. Notice how funky his 6 horns (two fused on each side) look. As a wether the horn growth slowed dramatically but you can imagine how those horns would look if he had not been castrated and they grew as fast as intact ram horns grow. There is a lot of leeway in registration for ewes’ horns, but the Breed Standard fails rams with “undifferentiated and unbalanced set tp four-horned rams , i.e., fused in an irregular pattern on one or both sides” .

Ginny Entertaining Herself

I took Ginny Across the Road a couple of days ago. I did not take the ball thrower thing but she knows how to entertain herself with the ball. She drops it over the edge of the canal into the water and then goes after it. There is a video here. I wasn’t thinking in terms of a blog post at the beginning of this little story so I didn’t take photos to explain this. The photo below shows what this canal (more of a a cement lined ditch) looks like at a different point in our walk.

Most of the time it is fine for Ginny to purposely put the ball in the canal because she gets it out herself but this time she put it in a part of the canal where the water is backed up be a dam and then flows through in a kind of waterfall. That is what is shown at the end of the video.

At that point there is a drop off of a four or five feet and the water flows quickly and swirls in continuous eddies. Ginny is too smart (or too timid) to go in after the ball at that location. That’s a good thing because I think it would be dangerous for her. However I couldn’t get to the ball either. This is the tail end of the “rapids” but doesn’t really catch the swirling action of the water. And the angle of the cement wall is such that I couldn’t keep my feet under me and try to reach. There is are wood planks over the ditch but they are too high from the water for me to reach. I was sitting or kneeling here at the edge of the ditch to try and get to the ball but couldn’t reach it. Ginny doesn’t understand why I don’t just get it for her.

I found a stick and could reach the ball some of the time when it appeared but the water was swirling too much to be able to make any progress getting the ball closer to me with the stick. I found a forked stick thinking I would maybe have better luck. That still didn’t help. I needed a net. I had a leash with me.

I made enough of a net with the leash that I was finally able to drag the ball close enough to the edge where I could get it.

Then we continued our walk. I was proud of my newly made tool.

Here is the next obstacle. There isn’t a steep drop off here but there is a culvert where the two roads connect. Notice where Ginny is.

She dropped her ball there and it didn’t take long for it to disappear into the culvert.

You’d think it would be a simple enough thing to get it at the other end.

We waited. ..

…and tried the other end again. I dropped a few sticks in to see when they would come out. The sticks and the ball never appeared. That’s the second ball we’ve lost to this part of the canal. I don’t know if there is a whole cache of balls there but they are stuck in there somehow, along with the sticks that I dropped..

We continued the walk.

I found this a ways down the road. They had just disked the filed and I wonder if this turned up and someone threw it out of the field onto the road. Between my dogs and C&M’s dogs we have lost plenty of balls out in those fields.

This ball has seen better days.

This was the next place that Ginny rolled the ball over the edge. This time it didn’t go very far—just to the rocks a few feet down.

Ginny took the newly found ball down into the big canal where she got a drink of water and the ball didn’t make it back. I think that one probably sank.

Most of you have seen this view before. That’s our barn on the right and the house is hidden by the trees. What is remarkable about this photo is the view of the hills. and the blue sky—such a refreshing change after what seemed like months of smoke-filled skies that completely hid those hills.

High Mountains and Blue Skies

We celebrated my one year recovery from a serious accident by hiking in the mountains with our private guides (son and daughter-in-law who live near El Dorado National Forest and are both wildland firefighters in various capacities).

I’ve been seeing Instagram posts by my Artery colleague, photographer Jock Hamilton, about his hikes in the Sierras and the fabulous fall colors. I wanted to make sure we got there before the color was gone.

Daughter-in-law Kaleena planned the day. We met at their house outside of Pollock Pines and drove to a campground near Woods Lake not far from Carson Pass. Some of the photos in this post were taken by Matt or Kaleena.

We took the trail to Winnemucca Lake.

There are some impressive trees along this trail. We saw a few junipers that must be several hundred years old.

It wasn’t too long before we got above the tree line and into the Mokelumne Wilderness.

The landscape was very dry even though we are in mid-October. The dogs were grateful that there was a small creek where there was still water.

Matt brought his drone to get some aerial footage of the area. That’s it just above the big rock.

We have lift off!

As she has does when Matt flies the drone here, Ginny went a little nutty chasing and barking at the drone…

…until I called her off. I didn’t like her barking disturbing the peacefulness of the area.

Winnemucca Lake. It was windy enough here that there were white caps on the water.

The trail continued on to other lakes. We were between 8500’ and 9400’ for most of this hike. The “kids” and dogs were ahead of us on this part.

Nothing will make you feel more out of shape than living at sea level and hiking uphill in the high mountains. This is the view back down to Winnemucca Lake.

There was a small amount of snow on the north side of this peak. We were after fall color and found it in the low plants growing along the trail.

If you get up high enough on the rocks near the trail then you can see Lake Tahoe.

Just off to the left in the last photo but too far away to really see there are aspen that have changed color.

The next lake was Round Top Lake surrounded by willows that have turned yellow.

On the way down.

We found the site of the long-closed Lost Cabin Mine. One report says there is an old Model T there. I can’t identify this vehicle but Matt thought he’d try it.

Here is another massive juniper on the trail back to where we parked.

On the drive back to Pollock Pines we stopped at a couple of places to immerse oursevles in the brilliance of the changing aspens.

The glow of the trees in the sunlight is incredible.

Thanks to Matt and Kaleena for a truly great day!

One Year Later

Most of you know about the could-have-been-fatal accident I had last year. That was October 14, 2019. Things started to get back to normal about March during lambing time. Then the pandemic hit. So life has not been normal, but I’m doing great.

I will celebrate my health and the smoke-free skies tomorrow with a trip to the mountains to go on a hike. But I wanted to acknowledge this milestone tonight. I had the unwavering support of my husband and my kids and kids-in-law…and of my Farm Club friends who helped during the darkest hours and days immediately following the accident. They pitched in to help with the fiber business, holiday sales, planning shearing day, and other support.

At the time of the accident my rink was cut off and I never got it back. Both Dan’s and my rings had become thin and misshapen from 33 years of wearing them. On our anniversary last summer Dan suggested that we get new rings and we talked to one of the jewelers at the Artery. Meg Blacksmith made new rings with subtle hammer marks that we picked up last week.

With the pandemic happening it feels as though life is not normal. We don’t have the events that we used to have or people coming to the farm. But the fiber work and farm work carries on and I’m learning to do more in the tech realm to develop classes and promote products. I am grateful to be here and to have recovered 100%.

Lambtown was held virtually and Farm Club members wanted to compete in the Sheep to Shawl Contest. Because as a virtual vendor I didn’t have to sit in a booth on S2S day I was the weaver. We were thrilled to place second out of 10 teams that competed. Here is a blog post with photos of some of the process.

I’ve spent more time weaving than I am able to some years. This is a blanket that is for sale on the Fibershed Marketplace website.

These are examples of scarves that we will be weaving in an on-line class in which I’ll teach weaving on a rigid heddle loom.

I recently wove some plain white fabric that I used for botanical printing. The story of this blanket is in this blog post.

Then of course there are the sheep. This is Ruby Peak Tamarisk. I told the story about traveling to Oregon to pick him up earlier this month in a blog post you can find if you scroll back a little ways. Breeding season started when we sorted out groups on October 1. That is two weeks now and almost all the ewes are marked. Tamarisk has half of them.

Meridian Rambler is a ram lamb that I chose to keep. His markings aren’t as good as I would have liked, but I love his fleece and his horns look very promising. He has a few ewes in his group.

Peyton always gets a half dozen ewes in his group. They produce crossbred lambs which are easy to sell earlier than the Jacob lambs.

Meridian Axle has bred most of his ewes at this point. I missed getting a photo of Jasper but he is the fifth ram we used.

Introducing Meridian Quora, a lamb who by chance I hadn’t sold and is now in with Rambler’s group. For those of you who like to keep track her parents are Axle x Quartz (Jade’s daughter).

The last random photo for the night is of the non-breeding group. This includes the goats and three ewe lambs. This could be filed in the why-we-don’t-get-rid-of-anything department. The goats seemed bored so Dan dragged the old staircase from my shop into this paddock for their use.

Thanks to those of you who have supported us through this year of trauma, pandemic, and smoke-filled skies.

Ecoprint Experiments

I don’t think there is anything except an experiment when doing ecoprint (or maybe more correctly called botanical printing(). Mine are certainly not predictable. Here is a blog post about the last time I did this on September 2. The wool fabric did not come out how I had hoped it would, so I was ready to try again.

I wanted to print on two throws that I wove specifically with this idea in mind. They were woven in plain weave using a mix of natural colored white wool yarns (more of a cream color). The wool fabric was washed and fulled after weaving and then mordanted in alum.

Here is the selection of leaves for throw #1. The last time I did this the most interesting effect was from those pecan leaves—the ones with multiple leaflets. They left brown tones on the fabric. For this one I also used maple and oak leaves, which have printed well on cotton and silk. There is a bit of sheoak as well and I sprinkled on some chips of madder root for good measure.

I used cotton fabric for the “blanket” layer. This fabric was soaked in an iron solution.

The layers of wool, plants, and cotton are rolled up in plastic around a PVC pipe and tied tightly.

The next step is to steam the whole thing and I used the contraption that I got Dan to put together when I wanted to do a piece that was too large to steam in the canning kettle (shown in that last blog post). The PVC roll is hanging from the dowel that is at the top of the chimney made of roofing metal. It sits on top of the canning kettle that is on a propane burner. I steamed this for about 90 minutes.

While the first throw steamed I prepared the second. This one has redwood. locust, maple, and redbud leaves. After the first bundle was finished I put this in the steamer. I waited until the next morning to unroll them.

This is what the first bundle looked like after I unrolled it. That is the cotton fabric that was on top.

I took the cotton fabric off and this is how the wool looked with the leaves still there.

The final unveiling.

Here is what I find surprising—the pecan leaves “printed” brown but all the other leaves only acted as a resist. It is the reaction of the tannin (in which the wool soaked) and the iron (in which the cotton soaked) that causes the fabric to turn gray. All of the leaves prevented that reaction from happening. I wonder if the brown color from the pecan leaves was a result of the sticky honeydew secretion from aphids in that tree or from the ash that coated the leaves, a result of the wildfires that have burned in California for weeks.

Another thing I didn’t anticipate was the red spots left by the pieces of madder root. One could think that someone was wrapped up in this blanket while eating something that dripped catsup.

On the second blanket all the leaves acted as resist.

These are photos that will be used to put these for sale on the Fibershed Marketplace website tomorrow.

Breeding Season is Here

I wrote a blog post about picking up the new ram in Oregon a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t ready to turn him out with ewes at that point, but today was the day. Yesterday I went through registration papers and made my lists. This morning we started sorting sheep. We brought all the ewes into the barn and as we looked at the list we either marked the faces or moved them through one gate or another. Then it was time to catch the rams, fit the marking harnesses and put them with their ewes.

Peyton is a Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) and the crossbred lambs he produces are ready to sell for market earlier and at a higher weight than the purebred Jacobs. Peyton gets the few ewes who are not registered and a couple of very freckled ewes. Freckling of the wool is a trait that is very heritable, and I don’t want to be tempted to keep lambs from those freckled ewes. There is also a 50:50 BFL:Jacob ewe that was sired by my previous BFL ram. Her lambs will be 75% BFL. Peyton has 7 ewes.

Ruby Peak Tamarisk is the new ram and we gave him about half the flock. I think he ended up with 30 ewes. He now gets to go out on the pasture instead of being cooped up in a smaller area.

Jasper (third from right) bred the largest group of ewes last year and produced some nice lambs, but he is also related to many of the ewes. He has 7 in his group.

Axle, a 2-horn ram near the front part of this group has 8 ewes and gets to go to a paddock in the south pasture. One of the challenges of using multiple rams is keeping them apart. Ideally they should not share a fenceline because they may fight through it. I’m taking my changes at the beginning of the season thinking that these rams will have enough to keep them happy until all their ewes are bred. Then I may have to do some rearranging.

At first I didn’t plan to use five rams but I wanted to see how this ram lamb (Jasper’s son, Rambler) would do. So he has a group of five ewes. One of the ewes is a big one (on the large size for a Jacob) and I almost wondered if we’d need to provide a ladder.

I have to allow some space for the non-breeding group also. I put a few 2020 ewe lambs out with the rams but saved some back. I may reevaluate these and put a couple more of them with rams. The ewe lambs usually breed later than the mature ewes and almost always have single lambs instead of twins. If we are going to shows next year I’d like to have a few of these lambs to show as yearlings and not worry about their condition and weaning lambs. But who knows if that will happen.

The goats are also in the non-breeding group, along with a few more lambs that are still for sale.

It didn’t take long to see some action. This is Jasper and Dilly.

Tamarisk and Terri and Betty.

Zinnia is one of Tamarisk’s ewes but I don’t know if she is bred. She certainly has green marks but they aren’t as solid as the others. Time will tell if this is adequate. I will change the markers to another color in about two weeks and I’ll be able to tell if ewes are marked again. They won’t stand for being mounted unless they are in heat.

Peyton and Anise.

Anise isn’t the only one with color everywhere.

Another view of Axle. The green mark on Ginger is more on her side than her rear, but it’s a nice solid mark.

Rambler didn’t mark any yet. There are only five ewes so it’s likely that no one is in heat yet. He’ll get his chance.

I know where I’ll be February 26. The barn will be a busy place.

Making Horn Buttons

I have been making buttons from Jacob horns for years but I’m not sure that I’ve shared that process here. Sheep have horns with a bony core that is attached to the skull. The horns don’t shed like antlers do. So the first step to making buttons is to have a horn that has been cut off a sheep and that is normally a sheep that has been butchered. It take awhile for the outer part of the horn to come off the bone.

I usually soak the horns in a bucket of water for a couple of days. It gets smelly and disgusting but hopefully the horn loosens from the bone. If it’s a large horn from an older animal that doesn’t always happen.

These are some of the horns from the last ram lambs to be butchered. That is a skull from an older ram that was butchered last year. Those horns never did loosen and come off the skull.

I used to make the buttons in the barn, but Dan has been trying to create some space for more of my farm stuff in the garage. He brought the band saw and the sander to the garage and found a spot for them on this tool bench that was something he made for the kids when they were much younger. He added wheels to the bench so that I can move the whole thing outside to work on the horns. It’s a very dusty (bone dust) process and it will be nice to be able to clean off the work surface outside and then wheel the tools back in.

I decided to use one horn to illustrate the process.

The bony core goes up 4 or 5 inches into a horn this size and the end is solid horn. When I cut the horn on the band saw I slice pieces off the solid part and that gives those curvy oval shapes—not very many from this horn. The bony core is where the horn is wider and hollow. I get squares and rectangles from that part of the horn.

The next step is to drill holes. I used to use a Dremel to drill the holes but Dan just got a drill press, and he showed me how to use it.

This is how the buttons look after drilling and before sanding.

This is a batch from the day before to show you that some of the horns are black and white.

Sanding is next.

I can’t sand these perfectly smooth on all surfaces because of the odd shapes, but I try to knock off the loose bits on the outside of the horns and remove the marks left by the saw.

I put a light coat of shellac on the horns to help protect them. I have figured a process that works for me. I put several on a piece of wire and then dip them in the can of shellac. Then I poke the ends of that wire into an old piece of Styrofoam that came from packaging something. (Another reason that I don’t throw things away—at least these get some more use before they end up in a landfill.)

Now the horns are ready to sell. When I go to a show people like to search through the basket of buttons and choose their favorites. If I’m trying to sell these on-line I have to organize them in a way that they can be displayed and they do look nice that way. I have some on the Fibershed Marketplace site and others on my own website.

I’d like some feedback here. I cut these off the ends of the horns in the photo near the top of this post. They have not been sanded yet. I’m thinking that they would great napkin rings. Does anyone use napkin rings? Do you even know what napkin rings are? I just googled and found napkin rings so I guess people do still use them. That will be my next project—sand and shellac these and figure out how to offer them for sale.

Sheep Delivery Road Trip

I was excited to plan a sheep delivery trip and think that we could make it a Road Trip. Many have read the blog posts about our annual Road Trips. We camp along the way, visit National Parks, and stop at all the road side markers about historical events and natural wonders. Last year we visited Rocky Mountain National Park and ended the trip at Schacht Spindle Company’s 50th anniversary dealer weekend. I just looked back to find the posts about that one. I wrote the first in September not long after we got home, but got distracted by breeding season, Lambtown, and then a severe injury in October, and I did’t complete the stories until March, 2020.

It turns out that it doesn’t make much sense to combine sheep and the kind of road trip we like—back roads, through National Parks, hiking when we feel like it—especially when there are active wildfires and horrible air quality (and besides there is a pandemic going on). So the sheep part of the trip was successful—but I can’t really call it a Road Trip. I don’t have great photos of beautiful scenery, but there are photos of the experience.

We were on our way at about 7:20 Wednesday morning, only 20 minutes after our planned departure. By this time we were used to seeing an orange sun in a gray sky.

This is not how the Sierras are supposed to look. It didn’t get any better. The majestic views we are used to just weren’t there.

We chose the route that was supposed to be the most direct to get to northeast Oregon—I-80 to Nevada, turn north at Winnemucca.

Driving across Nevada.

Air quality in Oregon wasn’t any better than Nevada and California. I assume that anyone who is reading this is aware of the devastating fires that have been burning all along the west coast.

My attempt at acting like this was a normal road trip. The map showed that there was the Vale Project Grazing Interpretive Site and Overlook. It amounted to this sign and a worn out shade where there probably used to be a picnic table. If there was an overlook I didn’t see it and there wouldn’t have been much to look over anyway.

This route took us into a sliver of Idaho. I had seen this sign last summer on the way to visit our smokejumper son in McCall. I don’t think there are any long-lost relatives here, but it’s sort of an unusual name. It would be interesting to pursue someday.

It was interesting to see hops growing in Oregon.

We knew that it would be well after dark when we arrived if we continued the drive all the way to our destination, and I really couldn’t face another three hours in the truck anyway. I always follow our route in those big map books and I found Farewell Bend State Park on the Snake River. We got there around dusk and were able to stretch our legs a bit after selecting a campsite. All we really needed was a place to park because we weren’t setting up a tent or cooking (cold homemade pizza for dinner). At home we decided that we wouldn’t both fit well in the trailer so Dan had fixed up a platform so that I could have a sleeping area in the trailer above the sheep and he would sleep in the bed of the truck.

This is the view from my sleeping bag. There were some unanticipated problems. There was kind of a tight fit with four sheep on the right and three on the left. The ewes on the right weren’t much problem once I figured out how to secure one of the loose gates so it didn’t clank against the wall every time one of them moved. The rams were another story. They didn’t fight but every time one of them moved his head a horn would clank on the wall or a gate. That gate that is separating two of them from another was NOT closed when the night started. With their movement the catch was released and it shut sometime during the night. There was continual clanking of horns against walls. There was pawing as they either were looking for food or trying to bed down. And they are actually pretty noisy when they are chewing. The clanking was the worst though. Needless to say I slept only on and off that night. I had planned to read and could have done to kill the time, but the light of the iPad drew all the bugs in the area. Does this sound like complaining? I know that there were a lot worse things going on in the world (and in all the fire zones) but I’m just telling the story they way it felt. I did like my special platform, but having sheep with horns below was the problem.

This is the view of our “camp” the next morning.

On the road again. heading to the Wallowa area. The last time I was in this part of Oregon I was on a camping trip with friends in college. I have always remembered that it was gorgeous country.

We got to our destination about 10:00. This is the ewe flock (and a goat) at Ruby Peak Farm.

I had brought three ram lambs with me so that Kate could choose which she liked best. It’s hard to choose a lamb from just looking at photos and they change quickly as they mature. I felt a lot better offering a choice. This is the lucky ram who got to stay in Oregon.

This is Ruby Peak Tamarisk, a yearling ram, who made the trip back to California with us.

Driving along the Wallowa River.

There were miles of hay fields with big barns. The smoke still hung over the landscape.

I am reminded of those postcards that say “Hawaii (or anywhere) at night” and they are black. This is driving right next to the Columbia River. You can barely see the other side of the river right across the middle of the photo.

We turned south at Portland and met up with another sheep buyer in Albany in the late afternoon. We transferred the ewes from our trailer to hers and then got on the road again. The original plan had been to be gone three full days, returning late on Friday. By this time we knew that conditions didn’t lend themselves to the leisurely trip I had thought about. There was smoke, less than perfect sleeping conditions, and covid concerns. We both decided that we really just wanted to be home. So we drove. Well, Dan drove. I slept a lot in the truck. We both slept for awhile at a rest stop near Redding, but for the most part just drove. We pulled into our driveway about 5:30 a.m. on Friday.

I’ve made a big deal about the smoke throughout this post. That was most obvious to us and was a major factor in decisions while we were on the road, but of course the most important aspect is that the smoke was there only because of the horrendous fires that were (are) burning. With two sons and a DIL on the fire lines and friends who were directly affected here in California I don’t forget that the fires are the real story.

I also hope that we’ll be able to take a real Road Trip next year and maybe focus on that beautiful part of Oregon in the northeast corner and make it to some National Parks along the way.

We slept a few hours and then unloaded sheep at home. I didn’t dare put Tamarisk with the other rams right away because they would fight. I found a wether to be his buddy and put him in a stall for a few days. This is Jade welcoming him to the flock. Tamarisk and the other rams will be turned out with ewes October 1. That will be another story