Random Farm Photos

I take photos thinking of sharing on the blog and then I never have time. Here is an accumulation of some from the last couple of weeks.

Patchwork Amara and Patchwork Bettylou, the two lambs that came from Georgia last summer.

Daffodils are here. I have a friend who has told me she doesn’t like daffodils because they are trying to be too cheery. (You know who you are.) I don’t agree with that, but I must say that every time I see a daffodil I think of that friend.

What time of year is this?

It is a little worrisome to see roses blooming already.

One of the chickens decided to use the bin where I throw baling twine to make a nest.

Another is using an open bale of straw.

Making compost. Dan turns this pile every so often. You can see the steam rising. The pile is warm inside. Soon we’ll need more moisture to keep it going.

Meridian Jasmine.

One of the things that has been keeping me busy is skirting fleeces and photographing them for the website. I have several listed but they aren’t live on the site yet. They will be soon. This is a coated fleece—look how long and clean it is!

Getting Ready to Shear

It feels like the night before Christmas! …All through the barn the sheep are waiting…The barn is organized. The tools are hung (where is that strike-out thing when you need it—I wanted to say stockings but cross it out) . The rams have been moved to the barn. The water is turned off (empty stomachs are better for shearing). ETC.

Dan did this job earlier in the week. The gate we used to have here didn’t fit the space and I had a panel wired up to stick out into the doorway a couple of feet. The reason is that when the gate swings open (towards me when taking this photo) it would stick out into the south doorway to go in and out of the barn. That is not very pracrtical. So Dan designed and made a folding gate.

Here is is in use. Clever, isn’t it?

Yesterday we went to a friend’s place just up the road to pick up her Jacob sheep and bring them here for shearing. There are 16 or 17 ewes and one ram. This is the ram, born in 2021.

The next few photos are some of her ewes. They weren’t crazy about getting their photos taken—or maybe it was about me being in the pen with them.

A couple of pretty ewe lambs.

It will be fun to get hands-on these sheep and see their fleeces. We sheared them last year as well and they were a lot cleaner than mine as far as the vegetable matter goes—probably because they have winter pasture and are not being fed as much hay.

Tonight I brought my rams over to the barn so that I don’t have to deal with them in the morning. This is Rambler. He’s still a yearling—coming up on 2 years old in March.

Rambler’s fleece

Silverado (Ruby Peak Tamarisk x Meridian Spice), born almost a year ago in 2021.

Meridian Axis, a lilac ram also born in 2021. (Meridian Axle x Meridian Vixen)

Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, the ram lamb I got from the Hillside Farm in Michigan last summer. He is maturing nicely.

Barrett’s fleece.

Remember what I said about the Night Before Christmas? I’d better get to bed and read for awhile to turn my mind off so I can sleep. What’s that? Do I hear little hooves on the roof? Did I shut all the gates in the barn?

The Flock - 2022

I always like to get photos of all the sheep before shearing. I can go back and compare before and after shearing photos (which I find interesting) and I can find photos of some of the favorites as they have grown up. Yesterday I spent a ridiculous amount of time editing the sheep pages on the website to reflect which sheep are in the flock now. That included making sure I had photos of all the sheep—and I do have updated photos of almost all of them. You can view Our Ewes here and The Rams (and wethers) here.

When I post photos on those pages they are usually of the whole sheep, but I’ll include some close-up head shots here.

Meridian Cashew (Meridian Jasper x Meridian Dilly), born in 2020 and bred to Meridian Silverado. I love this ewe’s horns.

This is Dilly, the dam of Cashew, above. She will be 5 this spring.

I plan to start paying better attention to my ewes’ horn growth. A friend has focused on horns for quite awhile and she has a flock full of ewes with stunning horns. See PatchworkFarm.

Dilly is out of Honey, a ewe who also has nice horns. She will be 7 when she lambs this year.

I was thrilled to be able to bring in a couple of Patchwork ewe lambs last summer. This is Patchwork BettyLou.

This is BettyLou’s friend, Patchwork Amara. She is a beautiful lilac ewe. I did not breed them in the fall because I thought they were too small. It will be exciting to see what lambs they will produce next year. In the meantime I’ll enjoy their lovely fleeces.

At the same time I brought in BettyLou and Amara, Hillside Hannah’s Grace came from Michigan, another ewe with nice horns. I have a T-shirt that reads “You can’t buy happiness, but you can buy a sheep and it’s almost the same thing.” I agree with that sentiment.

A friend of mine is the one who arranged shipping for sheep from three different flocks and I was lucky enough to be able to include sheep in the trailer. If those three lambs made me happy, adding another sheep would make me happier still, right? This is Sweetgrass Tranquility, a three year old ewe due to lamb in March. She is from the Sweetgrass flock in Michigan.

Sweetgrass Eilwen is Tranquility’s buddy.

Since I have gone off the original track to the sheep I bought this summer I thought I should be thorough. This is Hillside Gabby’s Barrett, a ram lamb who bred 7 or 8 ewes in October. I can’t wait for lambing!

Back to the home-grown sheep. This is Meridian Trina (Meridian Axle x Meridian Terri). You can see that her horns, although acceptable, are not as desirable. She is a 4-horn ewe with horns that are fused and therefore somewhat funky looking.

Trina’s dam is Meridian Terri, a ewe who also has fused horns on one side.

Look at Terri’s fleece. Isn’t that beautiful? It’s not all about the horns. There is a lot to try and get right with this breed.

Meridian Sonata is the oldest ewe here. She’ll be 10 when she lambs in March.

Meridian Sylvia is Sonata’s daughter. She has nice upper horns, but the lateral horns aren’t very stout. She was a ewe worth keeping though.

Soprano is another Sonata daughter. I don’t like putting coats on the sheep because I’d rather see the sheep than the coat (and it’s a lot of work to keep up with coats). But this fleece will be stunning because it will be so clean.

Maybe I’ll share more sheep photos tomorrow.

Across the Road Again...

…With a new phone…or is it a camera? I don’t know that I NEEDED a new phone, but the camera intrigued me. My new iPhone was delivered a couple of days before Christmas but I waited until then so my son could make sure it was set up right. I haven’t taken time to put the camera through its paces until now. I started exploring it today Across the Road.

I took this while doing chores this morning—two Northern Mockingbirds on a fence wire.

When I finished chores I took Ginny Across the Road. There was finally a day without fog. That’s one reason I haven’t been motivated to get out other than taking care of sheep—the fog has been so cold and drippy.

Today the clouds and filtered sun rays were inspiring.

The new camera can handle flower close-ups.

Dog close-ups too.

These great blue herons were still far away across the canal but I was surprised at how close I could bring them.

Ginny’s ball is just out of the photo on the left.

I wanted to go check out those white dots in the alfalfa field but, although the dirt road was hard packed enough to walk on, the field is far too muddy.

The camera did a good job of bringing the mushrooms closer.

I haven’t seen otters in a long time, but there was one today.

More About Rams

I had a couple of comments after the last post “A Ram Retrospective”. One person asked about Rotor. I couldn’t include all the rams I’ve ever had, but how could I forget Rotor?

Rotor had the unimaginable triumph of winning Supreme Champion Ram at the 2016 CA State Fair. That means the judge placed him over all the other breed champions. I don’t know what the talk in the barn was after that. Usually it’s one of the “regular” breeds that win.

This photo isn’t very sharp, but you get the feel of what the Supreme Champion competition looks like. Rotor and I are third from the left dwarfed by those huge rams, all perfectly fitted for the show. Jacob sheep are shown in a much more natural state, at least by those of us showing on the West Coast.

While I was looking for those last photos I came across this one. In the last blog there was a photo of Axle at almost three years and his horns had curled very close to his face. Axle was Breed Champion (Primitive Breeds) at the State Fair when he was a yearling.

At four months old his horns looked very promising. Many lambs are born with nice markings and good fleece, but a ram has to have horns that won’t impact his future well-being. With a two horn ram that means they need a nice wide spread.

Axle at 9 months.

Axle, almost three years. That horn on his right is getting pretty close to the jaw.

This photo was taken a few months after the last one. Axle has broken that right horn—I’m not sure how. Shortly after this he was sold to someone who was moving with her flock to Montana. Hopefully he is still there siring beautiful lambs.

I will remember Axle for the fun time we had at the 2019 Black Sheep Gathering Spinners Lead. I can’t imagine another of my rams standing so patiently on a halter with lots of other sheep around for the hour or so that we were lined up and waiting our turn. By the way, the scarves that he and I are wearing are his wool spun and woven that spring.

Axle has 7 or 8 offspring in the flock now.

Meridian Pecan…

and her twin Meridian Sandie.

Meridian Hazel, daughter of Axle and Jade, the most friendly sheep here. Hazel is #2 in line for scratches (and treats).

A Ram Retrospective

On Christmas Day I took advantage of my son being here to try and track down photos that seem to be “lost” in the depths of my computer. I’m still not sure we found the family photos I think are somewhere, but it prompted me to later go through other photos. I probably don’t really need all 33,000 that Lightroom says I have. There may be other posts like this one later, but I’ll start with rams. I think it’s always fun to see the variety in Jacob rams.

This is Jacquee’s Rugby. I think he might have been the first ram I bought, probably in 2001, because he sired lambs born in 2002 and 2003. I know I used a couple of other rams (from Hillside and Oak Farm) but I don’t find any photos of them. The photos here are of those I bought or that were born here.

Bide a wee Duke sired lambs in 2003 and 2004.

Meridian Apollo, born in 2004, sired lambs born in 2005 and 2006.

Hillside Joy’s Lynn, a lilac (the gray/brown coloration) ram who sired lambs born in 2005. By this time I was using at least two rams each breeding season and maybe more, but I don’t have photos of all of them.

Meridian Rocky (Meridian Apollo x Meridian Diamond) was born in 2006 but I don’t have a photo taken here. This was sent to me later by the person who eventually bought him. He sired Ranger, who is a few photos down.

Hillside Springtime’s Newberg sired lambs in 2007.

Bide a wee Yuri sired lambs born in 2008.

Chicory Lane Houdini was here for about half a year. He came to me because he had become aggressive and the owner needed him off the property. I used him for a breeding season and then didn’t want to risk the potential danger of keeping him around. This is an example of why I have very strong opinions about how rams should be handled while they are growing up.

As the flock grew Meridian Ranger (Meridian Rocky x Meridian Dot) sired a lot of lambs in 2008 and 2009.

Meridian Tioga was Ranger’s son, born in 2009. He sired a lot of the 2010 and 2011 lambs.

Puddleduck Ringo, born in 2014, is the sire of some ewes still in the flock, including everyone’s favorite pet, Jade.

Meridian Catalyst (Meridian Crosby x Meridian Clover) was a 2015 grandson of Yuri, in one of the photos above. Catalyst was a lilac ram who was eventually sold to another California breeder.

Bide a wee Buster, born in 2016, also sired many still in the flock.

Meridian Cayenne was the 2017 son of Catalyst and Mud Ranch’s Foxglove. He was that lilac color pattern with beautiful horns like his sire.

Meridian Jasper (Meridian Clark x Meridian Jade), is a grandson of both Buster and Ringo. He was born in 2019 and the sire of 6 or 7 sheep still in the flock. Jasper is now the flock sire of another California farm.

Meridan Axle (Meridian Catalyst x Meridian Ava) at almost 3 years. Axle was a favorite ram as far as his attitude and his fleece, and some of his offspring remain in the flock. I’ll share photos in another post of how fabulous his horns looked in his first year. This is an example of why you can’t always predict the final outcome of the horn growth. He is now at a farm in Montana but 5 of his offspring are here, including our second best pet sheep, Hazel.

Ruby Peak Tamarisk sired many of the 2021 lambs and we are awaiting more of his in 2022.

Random Farm Photos and a December Surprise

I went out for chores last night and was surprised to find this:

Of course it wasn’t in a pen with nice clean straw. I had no idea that there would be a lamb so I haven’t been watching for them.

Lambs aren’t due until February 28. I checked back on my calendar 5 months and we were in Texas when this ewe would have been bred.

I checked with people who were here to find out if there were any break-outs (or break-ins) while we were gone and no one can think of anything. That means that I didn’t get all of the ram lambs out of the pasture when I had intended to. I meant to do it by the time they were four months old but I must have missed someone.

This ewe, Spice, is one of two ewes for whom I did not have a breeding date. The other has a fertility problem because she has never been bred and was confirmed open when we did ultrasounds a few weeks ago. The vets did ultrasounds on all the ewes and found 2 open that I thought would have been pregnant, but 52 other ewes that are pregnant.

Farm Club members have suggested names: Yule and Surprise so far. I was wondering about OOPS!

After so many years of drought, maybe we’ll start to catch up. There is a lot of snow in the mountains and we got more rain yesterday. In the late October storm and this series of storms we have alsost more rainfall already than we got all last year. This photo is last night’s total. We had 3” a couple of days ago.

That much rain all at once makes for a mucky mess. Dan made a bridge for my wheelbarrow. This is why farmers don’t throw things away. That structure was one that has been around here for quite awhile—I think we may have got it from a friend when he moved years ago. It’s been the elevated path between the two houses since we had that October rain. Now it’s going to work as a bridge out here.

I looked at this view over the gate this morning and thought that the sheep looked very festive with their red and green markings.

One last photo. This was on Saturday as I was driving home from Sacramento. (Traffic was stopped so I as able to get this photo at no risk.)

Follow up on Coated Fleece Post OR Am I Smarter than a Goat?

In yesterday’s post I talked about trying to keep fleeces clean and mentioned the problem of the goats dropping hay on neighboring sheep. This morning I noticed this:

This is just what I mean about how goats eat.

Here is the other goat.

She turned her head to the side and dropped a big chunk of alfalfa on the sheep next to her.

Not a good sight when I plan to shear soon.

I outsmarted the goats. They are now in another pen by themselves. I feel bad about that because they are not happy. But they have each other, there is plenty of room for two goats, and they won’t get into trouble. Maybe I’ll put the back with the sheep after shearing.

Why I Charge More for a Coated Fleece

People always ask why some sheep have coats or covers. If you’re a spinner you know the answer. Spinners want to work with the cleanest wool possible. We’re not so worried about dust and dirt that accumulates from living outside. It’s the vegetable matter (known as VM) that is the problem. VM includes bits of alfalfa or grass hay in the fleeces of sheep fed in the barn or foxtails and other seedheads from pasture or range plants that have gone to seed. What do you know about seed dispersal? The most successful plants have developed means to get their seeds spread as far as possible. That often refers to foxtails or burrs or stickers that get caught in sheep fleece or your socks or your dogs’ fur. Washing does not remove VM. Some of it drops out with carding or combing, but much does not. In large (huge) commercial mills there are chemical processes to remove VM, but those are not available (or desirable) in our small and mid-size mills.

So how do we avoid contaminating fleeces?

KEEP HAY FROM DROPPING ON SHEEP. When I feed I chase them all out of the barn and close the gate. Then I put hay in the feeders before letting the sheep back in. At least that way I’m not dropping hay on sheep. Notice the wood panels in the feeders. The sheep feed from the base of the panels…EXCEPT for those sheep who insist on putting feet on the feeder and grabbing mouthfuls over the top. The goats do that all the time—grab a mouthful and then turn their heads and drop it on the nearest sheep. This is not a perfect system.

Coating sheep is another way to promote VM-free fleece. Some farmers who are well known for growing premium wool coat all their sheep. I choose a few to coat. It is usually those sheep that have been shown at a fair or fiber show. I use coats during transportation and at the show and then continue to coat them for the rest of the year. There have been no shows now for two years so I chose a few to coat anyway.

There are issues with coats. One is that I don’t like looking at coated sheep. I like the spots and the natural look of my sheep and that is how I’d rather see them. The other issue though is the amount of work involved. Not only do you need to change coats at least 3 or 4 times a year as the fleeces grow out, but there is a lot of coat maintenance, something that is worse when you have horned sheep. The coat on the sheep above is doing much good at this point.

Another problem coat. In this photo you can tell one of the benefits of coating sheep. The fleece maintains a darker color throughout because the tips aren’t sunbleached. This is a lilac sheep so her fleece is a brown color instead of black. You can tell the difference the coat makes by comparing the uncoated neck wool with what was under the coat that is now torn and dragging.

This is Quora, a ewe who will be two at her next shearing. The coat is not only torn but is getting too tight as the wool grows. This photo was from August of this year.

Here is how the fleece looks.

These are the coats I replaced earlier in the year. These have all been washed but now need to be repaired. I do not have an industrial sewing machine and a home machine can only do so much. I can sew rips and use patches, but it gets tricky when you have seams in multiple layers of thick fabric.

I changed four coats this morning. This is Quora, the ewe whose torn coat was replaced in August. This one is getting tight around the neck and is also torn.

Notice the true black color where the coat was protecting the wool.

I may need to claim this fleece for myself.

Here’s the new coat—Size 4+ .

I don’t have a photo of this ewe, Pecan, before removing the coat but you can see from the neck and tail now tight that coat was on her. Pecan is another lilac ewe (that gray brown color instead of black).

Pecan’s fleece. Wait! Maybe I need to keep this one.

Pecan in her new coat—still sort of tight on that fleece. We have 7 weeks until shearing. Can this coat last?

This is Pecan’s twin, Sandie, with her coat removed. Her fleece is still in good shape, but when coats get too tight they can contribute to felting on the sheep.

Sandie’s fleece.

Sandie’s new coat.

Soprano’s coat wasn’t as tight as some of the others, but it definitely needs repair.

Soprano’s fleece.

This coat is a better fit and has no repairs… yet.

These are the four ewes whose coats were changed today. I think there are two or three other coated sheep in the flock.

Yarn

This title leaves the focus of this blog post wide open, but the intent is to share some of the steps in getting the yarn ready to sell. Never mind the part about raising the sheep, shearing the sheep, sorting the fleece, shipping the fleece, scouring, carding, and spinning. I’m starting with the stage where I get the yarn back from the mill. I divided my 2021 Jacob fiber into two batches. The first batch went to the Valley Oak Wool & Fiber Mill in Woodland and the second to Mendocino Wool & Fiber in Ukiah. The Valley Oak yarn has been back for awhile and is on my website here.

This is the yarn I got a couple of weeks ago from Mendocino. When I skirt and sort fleeces I first separate the coarser britch wool from the rest of the fleece. This is fiber that grows on the back leg of the Jacob sheep and it needs to be removed to keep the bulk of the fleece feeling soft and not scratchy. (More about this later.) Then I sort for color. In this case you can see the white and the black and two grays. Gray is mostly a mix of white and black fiber that isn’t realistic to sort. The lighter gray happens to be the britch wool that I don’t sort for color—the black and white mix together in whatever proportion I sorted out. The darker gray on the left is the blend of white and black fibers from the main part of the fleece.

Also notice that there are cones and skeins for each color. This is the exact same yarn, just different “packaging”.

When I get the yarn back my first step is to measure the yarn. Using a yarn gauge (for sale here) allows me to compare this yarn to other yarns and to make a judgement about sett (ends per inch) for weaving or about needle size if I was planning to knit with it. The yarn on the cone measures 17 wpi.

However the yarn in the skeins measures 15 wpi. How can this be? It’s the SAME yarn. It makes sense when you see how tightly the cones are wound. The yarn in the skeins has had a chance to relax and bloom a bit.

What about this one at 12 wpi? It’s also the SAME yarn. The difference is that it has been soaked in water and then air dried. The yarn blooms even more. The significance of this is that the end user needs to know about the final state of the yarn. If the user makes a project (weave, knit, crochet) based on the measurement of the coned yarn the finished piece will likely be more dense than anticipated. The yarn will bloom when the project is washed. When customers buy yarn in a regular yarn store they expect that yarn to be in its final state and they don’t plan to wash the yarn before using it. I have to choose how to sell this yarn. In this case I soaked and then dried the yarn before re-skeining and labeling it. The customer can be confident that the yarn is ready to use.

The three colors of the yarn are very similar in size, but I went through this process anyway. The black yarn on the cone measured 17 wpi.

Skeined but not washed—15 wpi.

Washed—12 wpi.

This is the britch wool. You can see some of the hairier fibers. This yarn is great for rugs, bags, table runners and placemats, and even blankets. It’s just not as good as the other yarn for next to the skin wear. This one measure 15 wpi for the coned yarn.

The washed britch wool measures 13 wpi.

This and the one below are the final product photos for the website.

You can find this yarn on the website or in person at the shop (hours are here).

I should share some projects from this yarn, but that will have to be the topic of another post.

Family Time

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kirby in one of her several holiday outfits.

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

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

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

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

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

Random Farm Photos

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

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

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

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

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

Ewes heading to pasture on an overcast morning.

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

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

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

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

Axis is the other ram lamb who is staying here.

Rambler is the yearling ram.

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

Above the Fog

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Birthday and Christmas Tree

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are a few close-ups.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So this was a fun activity for my birthday.

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

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

Last Weekend - Family & Rain - Part 2

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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