PARDON ME DO YOU WEAVE? Part One.

I went on a fiber adventure yesterday with a friend. We went to look at some Jacob fleeces a shepherdess about 30 minutes from us had from this years shearing. For those who don't know Jacob it is a breed of sheep. And the actual trip to buy these fleeces and the animals they come from is yet another blog post to come. But on the way over we stopped at a local Dutch Brothers coffee for some cooling Frappuccino's . As is the custom at Dutch Bros. the gal getting our drinks inquired how our day was going. So we shared that we were on a fiber adventure to purchase sheep fleece to weave. Of course we would weave it after we spun the fiber up on our spinning wheels. You are going to do what to get what to do what? Pretty much covered what she said about what we do. 

I have found it not unusual that folks either have no clue what spinning and weaving are or can't understand why in the name of everything sane would one go to all the trouble to undertake a process that one can go to the mall and buy and wear "instant gratification". Remember that phrase there will be an analogy latter.  

 The loom to the left is my newest addition to my weaving tools. This is the fourth loom I have owned and I have two others currently. This is a JL Hammett counter balance loom . There are many types of looms and they are distinguished by how they look, how they operate and what they are used for. This loom is considered a floor loom*.

 

Physically, there are several different types of looms that range in size and features:

Floor Loom* - Floor looms are best used for producing longer lengths of fabric, for production work, designs that are more complex and for carpets and rugs. The loom must be solid and stable without being excessively heavy. Three different types of floor looms are: Jack, Counterbalance, and Countermarch.

Table Looms - These smaller, less expensive, portable looms are usually jack looms. Sometimes they have springs under the shafts to hold them down. Table looms are good for learning as they are portable enough to put into a car or even on a plane to take to a workshop.

Rigid Heddle - provide the equivalent of two-shaft weaving and can be adapted to behave as a four shaft loom by adding a second heddle set.

Tapestry Frame Loom - The tapestry frame loom is the most simple form for a weaving loom. The Navajo loom would be considered a frame loom.

Back strap loom - A simple loom comprising two sticks between which the warps are stretched. One bar is attached to a fixed object and the other to the weaver usually by means of a strap around the back.

 The above descriptions and photos were found on The Woolery at woolery.com  just in case you get the weaving bug or other fiber art bug. 

And if any of you enjoy the inter workings of things here is a more detailed description. Remember that a jack loom works in a different manner the the counter balance and counter march. 

Stay tuned for part two . Where we will find out what is the difference in how the floor looms work.

HOME AGAIN JIGGITY JIG PART 2.

Another road. Life is full of them and yesterday I took a side trip to deliver the three wethers to their new home. That is worthy of a blog entry for another time in itself. But it took the starch  out of me. After a fast three day trip to Fresno and then the unloading of loom (another blog entry in the future) plus the boys trip to new home I was pooped! 
So here I am today trying to make up for an empty promise. That part two of the Fresno trip would be up for your viewing pleasure.  The road above is the road to my hay man's place in Fresno county "the golden west side" as we lovingly call the great agricultural expanse west of Hwy 99 .

"Hey it is hay" pun intended. This lovely field is one of many that my hay man Brett grows in his alfalfa operation. It is a second year field and we have had three loads (two last year and one this year) from it. All cuttings were lovely and the dairy quality test* hay we got earlier this summer was from this field. The load I picked up on this trip was from another equally nice field in a different location. 

  
 Loved the fact that Brett was flying our flags in his yard and asked for permission to take a photo to share on my blog. Wouldn't it be great if more people did the same thing? 

Hay picked up 25 bales on that day and another 35 are in storage on his property for me to pick up in October before autumn kicks in with some wet weather. Hauling and then unloading in the rain  is no fun!

Next stop was the studio / warehouse of my friends where I am lucky to have the chance to purchase this loom.  And she is a beauty! First off allow me to credit this photo to Sheep and Shepherd blog. My loom is identical to the one in the photo but mine is completely 

 

unassembled. It is a 45 inch weaving width 1946 JL Hammett counter balance rug loom . The counter balance is in reference to the way the harnessses (shafts) which contain the heddles work. Another post of its own is loom anatomy. The photo below is my loom. Use your imagination please. I am very sure it will be quite lovely once it is put together and dressed. Which is weaver for having a warp on it and then let the weaving commence!

 Time to put some home made sour dough bread into the oven. I am planning on getting in a few post here between cheese and soap making in the coming week. Also working on getting my live feed on visitors back up as it went south yesterday. I love to see where everyone is viewing our post are from. So check back soon.

PS Ah late to the party. I forgot about the asterisk above in the hay portion of my post. *look for the post about hay Heading Out Again for the explanation about test hay.    

 

Heading Out Again?

 It is that wonderful time of the year again. Hay, hey or "Hey we need Hay!" So cause and effect September's first road trip in preparation. We are blessed with the most wonderful hay man. Brett of B and B Farms in the central San Joaquin valley of California. We have been purchasing hay from Brett since about 1991. He and his family have grown hay for 3 generations and Brett grows wonderful dairy quality hay. For those of you who don't know about hay here you go. 

Alfalfa hay which is higher in protein or "hotter" as we who grow hay or have dairy animals call it than other hays. It is usually the first through third cuttings that make the "cut" so to speak. Dairy producers like to see the test number hit around 53 to 55 percentage of TDN. TDN is total digestible nutrients and is usually made up of a fine stemmed leafy product. And Brett because he had been growing since he could walk is a master at this. So much so that this year the hay from his second cutting second year field was a thicker stem and yet my picky goats ate every last bit of it. Goats aren't big fans of thick stemmed hay. 
 
Goats picky? Don't goats eat everything? Sorry to burst the goat bubble but no they don't . The best way I can explain goat behavior is when there is something new to them they like every good toddler (even the adults) give it a good going over with their lips. They don't have opposing thumbs friends so that is the only way they can check it out. And on occasion it goes down the hatch. Not because they consider the object of their curiosity a food souce but because their lip smacking gets the best of them. In 31 years of goat keeping it has been my experience that unless a goat is starving they will stay pretty much to their regular diet.   

So much in fact I once had a Nubian doe that would dance through her grain bowl with her tongue and deliberately leave every piece of rolled corn in the bowl. Flag was not a big fan of corn apparently. 

So who is eating this wonderful hay on the farm? Well these two Libbie on the left and KC on the right.                                                        

And that good looking boy to the right Cloves. 

Not to be forgotten are Sundance Kid aka Buddy (white buck) and Longfellow Buddy's Sire below. Longfellow is our first home grown buck to linear appraise 90 EVE with the American Dairy Goat Association. That score will get some explaining as we get more into goat life here on Walnetto Farm.

  

 Hay is a very important part of a ruminants diet. Alfalfa is important because alfalfa makes milk. We have worked very hard over the years to establish a breeding program that presents does who give a minimum of 6-8 pounds of milk a day as first freshing two year olds. 8 pounds being a gallon. We have met and exceeded that goal while maintaining a 4-6% butterfat level. We have had some very high producing does in protein, butterfat content and pounds of milk produced in the day. That being when we were on offical milk test through DHIA (Dairy Herd Improvement Association)and had several does make it to Breed Leader status for the LaMancha breed with awards from the American Dairy Goat Association.

On the farm milk goes into just about everyone and everything. From the four legged kids to the orphan rabbits, barn cats, chickens, dogs , humans, cheese and soap. And we like our milk raw with never an illness linked to our raw milk consumption in 31 years. With that said you can see why we are very picky about hay quality here at the farm as there is a lot riding on good quality raw milk.

We wish everyone an epic weekend resting from your daily labor in a way that makes you smile. And look forward to seeing you again on Wednesday when we return with lots of photos of our hay trip.   

 

 

 

WEEK END GET AWAY

 What a wonderful place to land as first stop on our wedding road trip! Saturday morning found us (myself and my good friend Donna) winding our way through the mountains to the west of Redding headed for Ferndale.

 A mutual friend was tying the knot and we were each others "date" to the affair. 

After traveling for about three and one half hours we landed at Trinidad beach in you guessed it Trinidad. We met up with Donna's granddaughter Brittany and her brand new to her fiance Jon. Jon had just proposed to Britt the night before on bended knee and after asking permission of her Grandmother , Grandfather and father. Just love the respect this showed on Jon's part. Not the best photo below but from the smiles one can tell  the future bride and groom are pretty excited!

Then we took a stroll on the beach pictured above and had a nice lunch in a cafe up the hill with the happy couple. A great beginning to an epic weekend!

After checking into the Ferndale Best Western Country Inn (a lovely place by the way) we finished arranging the gift for the happy couple. What did we give? Since the couple are both up to the eye  balls in the cow dairy industry we choose a nice plastic tote with some sturdy clean up towels for the milk room. Added a Jersey crossing sign. Similar to the one to the right only with a Jersey likeness and Jersey Crossing on it. We then added a nice round of Cowgirl Creamery cheese , some cracker selections and a bottle of wine. A change into our party clothes and off we went to the wedding . Whch was in the front cow pasture of the dairy and decorated to the nines in country flair. Below is the tent set up where after the ceramony about 100 folks toasted, ate , drank and danced into the night. Still wondering what the herd of Jersey thought about the invasion.

 

Bright and early we were up and on our way Sunday morning headed south on  California's infamous coastal highway 1. Miles of beautiful ocean to see

 
 and we landed at Glass Beach in Fort Bragg. https://www.mendocino.com/glass-beach.html  
read the link for a bit of history. And this is what we found.

After the beach we turned off at 128 going to Boonville and found some lunch at the Boonville deli in Anderson Valley. The town was pretty quite but won't be in a couple of weeks when the county fair begins. Sheep dog trails and a huge fiber show including a contingent from the Navajo people sharing their many fiber talents. After a brief visit with a goat friend in Hopland off of highway 101 just south of Ukiah we headed home around Clearlake and up I-5. 

Back home for a few days pen cleaning commences today along with a copious amount of laundry. More post to come with the setting up of the new loom, soap making for the revival of the Soap Works on Ash Creek and more. Stay tuned as you won't want to miss what is happening at Walnetto Farm!