On Monday we went on a hike with my brother and sister-in-law. I think it was actually a walk because the trail followed the edge of the lake fairly closely. Doesn’t a hike involved dramatic changes in elevation or at least some level of difficulty? Regardless, it was a beautiful day while the annual growth is still green and not all the trees have fully leafed out. (Is that a word?)
We drove to the north end of Lake Berryessa and stopped at the trail head.
My brother has been here several times and expects to find ospreys and eagles. We saw ospreys in the air on the way here and found another not long after starting on the trail.
This is a view of the landscape and the lake. There is an osprey in this photo also, but you have to look hard to see it.
Here is the osprey, right in the middle of that other photo. Notice there are two here. One is below the nest.
Another view across the lake. What a beautiful site for a ranch headquarters.
I have always taken more photos of plants than birds. Plants sit still longer and I can get closer.
Here is a magnificent oak tree.
The oak woodland landscape.
We noticed several trees with holes in the bark. Can you tell what is in the holes?
The holes are filled with acorns.
The acorn woodpecker is responsible for this. Wikipedia has this to say about this behavior: Acorns are stored in small holes drilled especially for this purpose in “granaries” or “storage trees”—usually snags, dead branches, utility poles, or wooden buildings. Storage holes—always in dead tissue such as bark or dead limbs—are used year after year, and granaries can consist of thousands of holes, each of which may be filled by an acorn in the autumn.
This turkey vulture wasn’t about to leave his meal, although three others did fly off as we walked by.
Can you spot the bird here?
This one is a bald eagle.
We walked about as far as La Pointe (on the map at the top) and turned around because we all had visitors coming for dinner. On the way back we saw the same osprey pair.
This is Dan, me, Kathy, and Dave thoroughly enjoying the day.
I wrote last time about Seeing Triple and all the triplets that have been born. Eilwen was the last one in that post, but early the next morning Honey had her lambs–more triplets.
When I went to the barn I saw the moon setting in the west…
…and the sun rising in the east.
Here is what I saw in the barn. I had put Honey in the night before because she was desperately trying to claim the lambs of the ewe that had just lambed when I was at the barn around midnight. Now she had her own brood. This is the sixth set of triplets. That’s too many, especially for this ewe who had mastitis last year. I thought it had been resolved enough for her to have lambs again. I was wrong.
The lambs had figured out that they were getting milk from only one side. A ewe can nurse a single lamb one one side, and maybe twins, but it’s asking way too much to raise triplets that way. Its important for the lambs to get colostrum during the first day, so I made sure that they all took turns nursing through the day, but I started to supplement that night.
Jannie lambed later that day with twins.
This is Coco with 10-day old twins. Yesterday I found Coco less responsive than normal. She is not one of the tame sheep and she wouldn’t get up when I wanted her to move. The lambs were trying to nurse while she was lying down. I discussed symptoms with one of the vets at the VMTH (UCDavis Vet Hospital).
No fever and, in fact, lower than normal body temperature, her behavior, and the yellow cast to the sclera led her to think copper toxicity. I have dealt with copper toxicity in the past but not for several years.
I took Coco to the VMTH as soon as I could. This story does not have a happy ending, but this is real life. Coco was euthanized. I know she looks like a normal sheep in this photo, but believe me, her body was shutting down. There is a lot more I could tell you about this — details about copper toxicity in sheep, decisions one has to make about animals whether they are considered livestock or pets, and more. That is what Farm Club is all about. Farm Club members get the behind-the-scenes stories in much more detail than works (or is appropriate for) a blog post. They have had daily updates from the beginning of lambing and have been invited out here to participate as well.
This was the bucket I took to the barn this morning. Two bottles for Coco’s lambs and two bottles for Honey’s lambs. As of the noon feeding I added a fifth bottle. I’ll be feeding four times/day for a couple of weeks I think.
Those are Coco’s lambs on the right. I took two of Honey’s lambs out of her pen this morning. The fact that she didn’t care means she doesn’t feel well. I left one with her but will supplement him.
I’ve been having the vets come for ultrasounds the last few years. I tell them the first and last day the rams were with the ewes and they tell me the best date to confirm pregnancy and be able to count fetuses.
I gathered all the ewes into the barn and while I was waiting thought I could get a photo of a sheep and me both in wool. The wool I’m wearing is all handspun and knitted. You know that I am not a knitter, but I did knit the hat. One friend spun and knit the sweater and another spun and knit the dickie (which I just pulled out of the drawer today since we are now getting into the 30s at night). COZY, COZY!
That’s Jade on the left, Patchwork Bettylou in the middle, and Betty on the right. Betty is the second oldest sheep here–she’ll be 10 when she lambs in the spring.
Four veterinarians were here. One held the sheep. She was also at the end to do a quick FAMACHA score and check teeth on the old ones. No problems to report. The person who is crouching has the probe and they are all looking at the monitor (about the size of an ipad). The fourth vet recorded results.
They used to bring a small TV-sized monitor that had to be on a table. That meant we had to bring the sheep to the monitor. Now they are using this portable one. We can load all the lambing pens with four or five sheep and the vets move from pen to pen. They looked at about 50 sheep in two hours.
I wonder how long it takes before you are good at interpreting this. All I know is that the black part is fluid. I don’t make out the lambs very well.
They confirmed the breeding dates I had written down and where I had a question mark or two dates they gave an estimate of the correct date.
Results: All ewes I expected to be pregnant are pregnant. Ewes were all bred between September 10 and October 6. Lambs are due from February 5 to March 5. There are 45 pregnant ewes predicted to have 82 lambs. There are six marked 1+. That means they confirmed one but didn’t rule out a second, so there could be more than 82. Last year we had 96 lambs and my goal was to have fewer this time. I guess I met the goal but not by much.
I kept one ewe back when we were finished because I hadn’t changed her coat when I changed the others last week. This is what her fleece looks like. It may be on the coarser side compared to some but it is sure long.
Yesterday I spent time with sheep and weaving and ecoprinting and computer. I did more of the same today but didn’t take any weaving photos.
I changed the fence today to move the sheep into a separate paddock. You can’t tell from this photo but there are 8 paddocks that run north-south on this half of the property. There are 3-wire electric fences that keep the sheep in and I change the net fences at the two ends to open or close paddocks. Notice the hot-air balloons. It’s that time of year. There are four in this photo.
This looks like a lot of grass. It is a lot of grass, but it’s not the desirable grass and forbs I’d like. There is a lot of bermuda grass and dallisgrass. Those two take over this time of year. The sheep don’t like them when they get too coarse and head out. Then they go dormant in the winter and choke out the winter/spring annuals that I’d like to see. At least it’s green right now. That’s because we irrigate–there is no summer rain here.
Close up of one of the balloons. Who remembers Rusty? Blog post from 2011. Rusty even had his own blog for several years. I just got distracted and read back through some of it. Rusty was a pretty good writer and I enjoyed reading through his posts just now. I wonder if I could get Ginny to write a blog.
Anyway, about Rusty. He was afraid of these balloons. During “balloon season” he wouldn’t leave the house first thing in the morning. He knew that they’d be gone by mid-morning and then he would go out. Ginny doesn’t mind the balloons, but she is sure gun-shy and that’s a problem with all the recreational shooting around here.
Speaking of things in the sky, this is the third time there has been a helicopter spraying the tomato field across the road.
Before I went to the house after this morning’s chores I wanted to unroll the ecoprints from yesterday (see yesterday’s blog post). I have taken over this work table in the garage. The ecoprints are still rolled up on the right of the table. This is a look at the other projects I have going on–getting these skulls in some shape that I can sell them.
While I was working on the ecoprint scarves this morning I had a pot cooking with a couple of skulls to see if I could get them cleaned up better.
Here is a pair of square scarves. The photos in yesterday’s post show scarves with leaves or flowers in place. I put a second scarf on top of each of those and then roll them around a PVC pipe to steam. These photos show the pairs of scarves after unrolling. This pair has cosmos leaves and flowers. I am always fascinated by the different looks on the two scarves.
This one is all cannabis leaves (supplied by a friend). These don’t have that classic look of the ones below because by the time I got to this, the remaining leaves had started to fold up and at that point it is very tedious to spread them out again, especially with all these small ones.
Cannabis leaves in the more classic look.
Another set of cannabis leaves with a close-up below.
Some plants print on one scarf and create a resist on the other. These are printing on both scarves.
No, I am not selling cannabis. These are purple hollyhocks and cosmos flowers that I have added to my website and will have at Lambtown.
Tomorrow is a Farm Day and we’re setting up breeding groups! I need to look at my list one ore time.
No matter how many times I have dyed with plant material I feel as though it is always an experiment. There are a lot of variables. After I decided to sell dye material I wanted to be able to almost guarantee an outcome. So I experimented.
Isn’t Cosmos a cheery plant?
Earlier in the year I saw a lot of swallowtail butterflies on the flowers. Now they are full of bees.
These plants have grown as tall as me. I pick the flowers every three days and there are always more. It’s amazing.
Here is one day’s crop drying in the sun.
Every time I picked flowers I weighed the fresh flowers and the dried flowers. I calculated that the dried flowers weighed 19% the weight of the fresh flowers. I found my gram scale so I could be more accurate than trying to work in fractions of ounces.
I did some calculations based on a 1:1 weight ratio of fresh flowers to fiber. I could use 4 ounces (112 gms) of fresh flowers or 21 gms of dried flowers to dye 4 ounces of yarn. I wanted to find out if there was a difference in the yarn color if I used fresh or dried flowers. The first step is to heat the flowers. I heat to 160 degrees, trying to not go over 175 degrees.
After 30 to 60 minutes I add yarn that has been mordanted with alum. I keep the dye pot at about the same temperature for another hour. I find the easiest way to do that is to put a lid on the pot and turn it off. I check the temperature in about 20 minutes and if it is going under 160 degrees I turn the stove on for 5 minutes, bring the temperature up, and then turn it off again. Using this method I don’t have to worry about it getting too hot and boiling. I let the yarn cool in the pot overnight before removing it. Then I can the next batch in the pot. I used these two dye pots three times before discarding the liquid in the garden.
This shows the results of those dye pots. In each pair, the yarn dyed with fresh flowers is on the left and yarn dyed with dried flowers is on the right. There is not a significant difference.
Here is an earlier experiment using the same dye three times. In the first pot one skein was gray yarn and the other white.
Lots of Cosmos dyed yarn.
The result of all this is not only yarn that I can use in weaving but dye products for sale. These are on my website.
How much time and energy do you spend making decision? Sometimes it seems overwhelming and it’s often about something trivial.
I’m helping with a new website. I’m not really helping, but being a guinea pig about how it all works for a non-tech person to enter things and helping to find glitches and things that are confusing. Is that a beta-tester? Or do you have to know more to have that title?
There is a place that asks for a banner across the part that will have Meridian Jacobs info. How to decide what photo? Sheep? Weaving? Yarn? The point of the website is to sell things. How do I choose one? The photo needs to fit the banner space. The software will supposedly take the appropriate size piece out of whatever photo you send, but I thought I should start with something the right size. I started with these below. Some were just experimental to see how they would fit the space.
A sheep photo? This is an older photo but I suppose that doesn’t matter as long as the quality of the photo is good enough.
I wanted to try something with more sheep and a background. This is not a good background.
This photo looks a bit washed out–maybe I can adjust that but at this point I was looking for any photo that fit the sheep into the landscape with a bit of horizon.
What about yarn or weaving? I’d sure like to sell blankets. Version 1.
Version 2.
Version 3.
I have a series of these photos that I have always liked.
I have used this photo (full size) a lot because it shows the difference between black and white sheep and lilac sheep. Townes, the lilac on the right, got the tips of the top horns caught in a fence two days ago and I found him dead.
Back to landscape photos. Here is one with a horizon and a lot of sheep and lush grass. The sheep are pregnant and recently shorn.
I walked across the road this morning and had just changed the fences so the sheep have this field near the road. That’s the view I was after. It is a narrow band but it shows sheep and the horizon. I like that this one shows our position in the Sacramento Valley. That notch you see in the hills is where the road goes to Lake Berryessa. Its a landmark for me.
This is a little different cropping of this morning’s photo.
A closer up view makes the sheep and the barn more prominent and removes the white fence on the right but cuts off the trees and my notch on the hills.
Back to yarn. This is what I did the last few days. Indigo on the left and Cosmos and Dahlia on the right.
But maybe I need black and white.
No decision made yet. Any suggestions are welcome…
This is a post I debated not writing. But it is part of my life. These photos are mostly from Friday. which was a full day…as are most days.
One of my regular customers wanted 8 lambs for Friday. This is the rack that Dan built for drying salted hides. It’s far better than having 9 pallets spread out on the floor. And even better, that orange netting like they use for construction work was given to us by someone who was cleaning up a property and didn’t want it.
I took these three hides off the rack so that I could fill it up with new ones. That is two Jacob sheep and the neighbor’s goat. One of my customers wanted to add a goat to the order and there happened to be one next door.
I have learned to take photos of hides before I send them to the tannery so that I can keep track.
This is the previous batch of hides…
…and the reverse side. This is what you get when a professional does the work. There are no holes and no big chunks of fat left on these. I sent these and the three above to Driftless Tannery in Wisconsin.
This batch went to Vermont. The tannery is up and running again after being sold. Why send these so far away? Tanneries are few and far between and I like the natural mimosa tan that is offered. There was a tannery in Idaho that did a great job for a year, but they moved and didn’t start up again.
Warning: dead sheep parts in the next few photos.
If I’m going to sell sheep for butcher then I want to use as much of the other parts as possible. The hide is an obvious option, but there is also a market for skulls with horns and horns by themselves. With the sheepskins all I have to do is salt them and then ship them to a tannery where all the work is done. I have to deal with the other parts. I’ll write a button post one of these days to explain the process I use to make buttons from the horns.
I have a hard time getting the skulls in shape to sell. I used to put the skulls out in back, wiring them inside a fence so they couldn’t be dragged off. After I retrieve them from “outback” there is still a lot of work to do. They are not completely cleaned and definitely not ready to list on the website.
One year I bought a “starter kit” of the kind of beetles that will do the work for you. But that is a whole other story and it’s not that simple. Also that was the year of my accident and I wasn’t able to keep the beetle colony working.
This is my new method which is not yet perfected. Last fall I buried several heads and left them for the winter. There was so much rain for so long, that there was plenty of insect and/or microbial action. When I dug the skulls up I found that they were still not perfect, but much better than the “outback” method. They mainly need some work on whitening, after turning brown in the dirt, and there is a risk of the horns deteriorating faster than the bone. I don’t know how long these need to stay in the ground and I don’t know how much difference it makes if I add water occasionally. There are some heads under the dirt pile in the middle of the photo and there are some under the black tub. There are some IN the black tub as well. The last few that are buried have baling twine tied to the horns so I know where they are. The new ones in the foreground have baling wire around the horns that sticks up through the dirt when they were covered.
When I make buttons I need just the horns so I cut them off the skull. There is a bony core that is attached to the skull. You have to soak the horn or otherwise allow the tissue between the horn core and the outer part to deteriorate or be eaten by something so that you can get the outer part off.
This was a ewe lamb with horns that tipped forward. One was so wobbly that it didn’t seem attached to the skull. You can see here that it wasn’t. I think that would be an example of a scur.
Friday’s harvest was fast. The farm harvest guy dealt with all those sheep within two hours and did a great job with the pelts. After I finished salting hides I spent the rest of the morning sorting and organizing sheep coats. I don’t coat a lot of sheep, but usually have about five coated through the summer and up until shearing. These are usually the sheep that go to Black Sheep Gathering and/or State Fair. Right now there are only two with coats. I’d rather see my sheep without the coats and it adds work to keep up with changing coats as the fleeces grow out. You can see that there is also a lot of coat repair to keep up with.
The coats I have always used are those lined up in the middle and the left. I recently bought a new brand of coats that was recommended when I was at the Jacob show in Estes Park. My original coats are sized by number. The new ones have a color tab that indicates size. I matched them up to the old coats to figure out where they fit as far as size and I added the numbers to match the others. The coats on the right are the new ones. I guess I didn’t get the sizes I’ll need as the fleeces grow out.
As you know I like to take photos. I think that most of them (at least the ones I share) are decent. I know the basics of photography and am familiar with the importance of exposure, focal length, white balance, etc. But its one think to know ABOUT the concepts. It’s another to put them into practice.
When you base most of your business on online sales, obviously the photos are very important. I really need to update all the products on my website and there is soon to be a launch of a new website with some of my pieces. I NEED to have decent photos.
I am writing this post as a tool to analyze what I’m doing and share the info with some people who might have advice. Comments are welcome.
I have used that white (but not really white) board for a couple of years. Dan put wheels on the edge so I could store it upright and roll it around to where I need it. It is cut the dimension to match the photos when I use my Nikon. That was very helpful since the template for my current website uses horizontal photos for the product pages. However I have had to provide square photos for other websites and that is what the new one will use. So I have to keep that in mind when I’m photographing products. The request for the new website is that all the main product photos have a consistent look as far as color. White? Gray? Wood? Purple??? I have to choose one. I have to choose one that will help me take good photos.
The part I struggle with is white balance. That means that the backgrounds look like what I’m seeing in real life and the products are represented properly. I am not going to try and include all the photos I took here. I tried four backgrounds with each product–the white (not quite white) board, a gray piece of fabric to decide if I want to paint something gray, a piece of raw plywood, and the deck in front of my shop. I took photos of each product on each background with my Nikon and with the iPhone. I am disappointed that I have a harder time getting the color right, at least on the white background, with my real camera. Most of these are with the iPhone. My goal is to take photos that are correct and not have to spend time with post-processing on the computer.
It would be simpler if I could put all these photos side-by-side or at least in a block of four, but I can’t make that work. Besides maybe when you look on a phone that would make it more difficult.
This herringbone scarf looks most natural on the wood of my deck. At least the color I see on my computer looks like the scarf. The background isn’t a good choice for smaller projects however. It’t the spaces between the boards that are the problem.
My so-called white background. The whole thing looks dingy and the scarf is not the true color.
The color of the scarf is better here, but that gray looks darker than it should and there is a blue cast. (I know its wrinkled–it is a stand-in for a painted board.)
The color of the scarf on the natural light plywood is wrong.
The next two photos are taken with the Nikon.
This is without editing. The exposure is too dark. I lightened it on my computer and it was OK.
I lightened the exposure and shifted the white balance in the computer on this one, also taken with the Nikon.
Light gray yarn on the wood deck. The lines are definitely distracting as are the speckles that weren’t as noticeable in the photo that wasn’t as close.
Even without the wrinkled cloth, this color doesn’t do much for me as a background.
It bothers me that the background looks dingy here. This is the same skein of yarn in all four photos. It sure looks darker here than in the first one, which is more correct.
The yarn color looks even darker here. I thought about having several skeins of yarn in one photo–I think that would help with the color. However, it has to be really clear that a purchase is for only one skein of yarn, unless the customer chooses more.
This is the iPhone photo from above with exposure adjusted in Lightroom.
I think the color of the blanket is the best on the wood background.
The color is a little darker here and the gray fabric is darker.
The blanket looks more black white or at least dark gray than it really is.
Here is that “white” background. The blanket still looks darker and the background has a blue cast.
This was taken with the camera. The exposure was wrong and the background looked dark gray. I lightened it and shifted the color temp from the blue side to the yellow side. But now this looks browner. The colors of the first photo in this series look more true, at least on my screen.
I have this set of grayscale cards, but just because I have it doesn’t mean that I can use it properly. That white one is true white, but I don’t think it looks true white in this photo. It does show how far off the board is. Some of that may be the photo though. If you look at the very first photo with the sheepskin you can see this set of cards on the board and it looks different there.
While mulling this over I saw my white truck right there. That is the truest white so far. This photo was taken in the sun and all the others were in shade.
So where does this leave me? I think that I should be able to use a white background but I’ve never felt successful with that. I think it’s easier to get true color on the wood deck. Is that because the camera is sensing more variety of color and contrast than when you use just a solid color? What if I stained a piece of plywood to have it lighter than the deck, but with some variation from grain?
Last night I experimented with ways to remove background from iPhone photos. I used one for which I didn’t have to use an app. Some look OK but it’s not foolproof.
The edges don’t look right here.
Definitely a problem here. It couldn’t distinguish the fringe yarns. I think that dark line is from the deck space.
As I type this my screen lags behind the keyboard. In addition to the photo issues my computer is full. Now what? I thought using iCloud would help but I don’t understand enough to set it up properly. As I’ve said before, where’s a millennial when you need one? Or even a 12 year old?
No, you didn’t miss the first, second, and third days. I haven’t had time to sort photos or write anything. So I’ll start with the last day which was our show day.
We tied our sheep to the outside of the pens while waiting our turn so we could get the straw off the bellies. We had 11 sheep at the fair this year. I was missing a yearling ram because I sold Turbo at the Estes Park show. My show string consisted of 2 ram lambs, 2 yearling ewes, and 2 ewe lambs. Kirby has sheep that are the descendants of the ewe I gave her in 2019–I don’t give her sheep each year for the show. Kirby had twin yearlings (ram and ewe), and three lambs (two ewes and a ram) to show. I just looked at the blog post I wrote after the 2019 State Fair. There are some of my favorite photos of Kirby there, and you’ll see some of the same other characters in 2019 as in this post.
Kirby with the yearling ram, KJ Royalty Thorn, twin to KJ Royalty Rose. It’s the breeder’s prefix that is part of a registered sheep’s name, and Kirby’s prefix is KJ Royalty. She was the owner of Meridian Belle when she was bred. Now all the offspring of Belle and Belle’s offspring will have that prefix. There is a theme here for some of the sheep names. You’ll pick up on that if you’re a Disney fan.
Thorn was the only entry in the Yearling Ram class and the judge gave him high praise for conformation and fleece.
It is too bad that there are no other breeders showing up for the Primitive Breeds sheep show now. Pre-pandemic we had some Shetlands, Icelandic, and other breeds so there was competition. Now it’s just Kirby and me as separate breeders. This is the Champion drive for rams. That’s Thorn as the yearling. My ram lamb, Meridian Cyclone (weather theme for 2023 lambs) was first place ram lamb and Kirby’s Gusgus was second. Thorn was given Champion Ram and Cyclone was Reserve.
There were three Farm Club members helping on this day and it took all of us to make sure the sheep were where they were supposed to be and Kirby had an adult helper so we don’t have more photos of the show. But we have photos of After. Thorn’s sister, Rose was awarded Champion Ewe so Kirby made out with the banners.
Fair week is always exhausting and Kirby’s four fair days were at the end of being away from home for six weeks. Her birthday was the previous day, and there was a lot going on then as well.
After the show we were back to educating (entertaining / enlightening?) the public. I am grateful to the Farm Club members who came to help. Siobhan was there Thursday and brought a local friend to help also. Lisa came Friday and Saturday. Marina, Beth, and Doris were there Saturday and Sunday. I couldn’t have done this and stayed sane without them there.
This entertainer showed up in that 2019 post.
He rides all over the fair and makes balloon characters for kids. This is a dinosaur that Kirby plans to take home to her brother. Hopefully it will survive a road trip back to Texas.
The last event of the day was the Supreme Champion show. Both of Kirby’s Champion sheep needed to be in their respective classes. This photo shows Rose and Thorn together. I don’t have photos of the Supreme show because I was in the show ring with Kirby. Afterwards they announced the Herdsman and Marketing awards.
We did it! First in Herdsman and first in Marketing. These awards have more meaning for me than the sheep show awards because there wasn’t competition in the sheep show ring. Actually there wasn’t that much competition this year for these, but there was some and we really worked for it.
If you look at that 2019 post you’ll see that this is the same crew as then, with the addition of Kirby.
While we were loading the trailer and my car I let Kirby watch one last horse performance if she stood at the corner where I could see her (easy in the bright green shirt). When we finished loading I joined her.
There hasn’t been time or focus for a blog post with a specific subject, so you get Random Farm Photos.
This is how 4th of July looks with a very gun-shy Border Collie. Ginny is next to Kirby’s bed and Kirby covered Ginny with her “special” blanket.
Part of the dye garden. These dahlias are taller than me.
Cosmos in the dye garden.
There is a gate and a driveway under those wild grape vines. This is the result of a truly wet winter.
Sheepskins that were just sent to the tannery.
Skulls that have been buried. Some will need more time to get really clean.
Kirby is here for another three weeks. A couple of nights ago she wanted to make dinner. She described her process and we just got out of the way (and handled the iron frying pan).
Baby blankets almost ready to come off the loom. The same style that I’ve made since 1980.
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