"Don't Look Now!

But you have a Posse of Blond Children following you around!" I was at the FFA farm the other day, when I saw my friend feeding her sheep. She quickly came up and alerted me to the situation. I looked behind me... it was true! I had taken my brother Obie, and some family friends on a walk down to see the FFA farm, and when we were walking, it did sort of look like a posse of blond children.

Here they all are. That's Obie posing on the front of the tractor, and then there is JJ, who is two, ready to drive. Lexi, with the sweet little smile and pink dress is four. Will, the explorer in the orange shirt and binoculars is seven, and Percy in the blue sweater and mischievous grin is nine. So that's where I was a couple afternoons ago, at the farm with my very own Posse of wonderful blond children. When my FFA advisor showed up to work on the rabbits, I tried to carefully herd them over the the far field. Apparently, my exciting suggestions "Let's go look at the mini horse in the field over there" were not very convincing. So my Advisor, seeing that we were headed that way, asked if I could feed that pony. Sure! I told her, knowing that this was the perfect moment to enlist some adorable young helpers! "Who wants to climb up and get some hay for the horse?" and "Who wants to push the wheel barrow" were much more appealing, so about five minutes later we were headed, albeit slowly, for the far field. By the time the horse had hay in it's feeder, had been hand fed quite a bit of hay, and had a full water dish, I had five happy kids. We headed back to the barn, (with several wheelbarrow rides along the way), parked the wheelbarrow, took a couple of pictures with the tractor, and raced straight home. All in all it was a fun afternoon, with animals, friends, and sunshine. What more could you need?

(O.K. FINE! Maybe we made one stop at the edge of the farm to jump in some jumbo (around 6 ft) piles of leaves on the way back.... And maybe we skipped part of the way home, but getting there is half the fun right!?!)

The Art of Naming Sheep

Having recently acquired our market lambs for the year, my sister and I now have six sheep that live at the animal pens in our backyard. Now, having six sheep is very fun, and I definitely enjoy working showmanship with them, and walking them is a different, but still enjoyable experience. However, one thing that can get a little bit tricky is keeping their names straight. Once you master that, your golden! Because we have six sheep this year, and have been doing sheep for a while, I have learned a thing or two about naming sheep. It's best if the names are cute and catchy, and, keeping that in mind, there are a few steps that I usually follow:
1. Is the sheep a ewe or a weather?
It is best to keep this in mind when you're considering names that are specific to one gender or the other. My sister wanted to name her ewe's first lamb Orion, but because she was a girl, she tweaked it to Oriana. Now that her ewe has had two lambs, she has both an Oryan and an Oriana.
2. What color is the sheep?
Some names, such as coco puff, Oreo, honey etc. are very cute and can be decided from the color of the sheep's wool. This year I named my market lamb Pooh Bear, because of his honey colored wool.
3. Consider the personality of the sheep.
Does the sheep jump around about? Maybe Tigger or hopper would be a good name. Does the sheep constantly lay down when you try to walk it on a halter? That behavior led my sister to name one lamb London (bridges falling down). This year, because her market lamb is extremely vocal, she named it Enya.
4. Don't forget about flower names.
Although names such as daisy and rose are slightly overused, they are still very cute if they fit the sheep. For something a little more fun and exotic, try unusual flower and plant names. Our breeding ewe's name is Begonia, and my sister also once had a lamb named clover.
5. Think about recent movies.
Last year, half of the sheep at the fair were named Bella or Alice. This year, because the breeding ewe that I chose was marked with a big chalk paint "A" I named her Olive in reference to "Easy A". These names are funny, and can start a conversation about the movie.
Follow these tips and you're sure to come up with something. But if all else fails, just remember that as long as YOU like the name and it sort of fits the sheep, it works!

Llamas on the Loose

There is no downside to keeping a pair of retired Llamas around. They're not loud, they don't chase cars, they don't need to be groomed often, they don't need to be walked for a half hour every day, and they don't kick. They do eat weeds, have kind and unique personalities, put up with unruly dogs and brothers, and have an adventurous spirit. Wait, okay, so I suppose that "adventurous spirit" can get them into a little trouble sometimes. But that's okay, because they don't startle very easily. However, when they do get startled, combine that raw(ma) llama fear with that adventurous spirit, and you might have a bit of a problem on your hands.

Now, you may be getting the idea that I'm speaking from experience, because, well I do have a pair of retired Llamas, and yes I normally do speak from experience. So I will admit right now that yes, my Llamas became startled. Then, they started feeling adventurous, and they sorta broke right through one of the panels on their pen. So that's how my family spent our Sunday morning. Rounding up a couple of spooked Llamas-in the windstorm that had them all riled up in the first place. Needless to say it wasn't easy. We would have our arms around them, ready for a halter, when a gust of wind would come up, and that lovely Llama would take off again. It doesn't really help that we were trying to repair the pen (that Bodie Busted through) at the same time. Eventually though, we had the pen fixed, the Llamas rounded up and sealed in their pen, then we got some hay in those Llamas and they settled right now.

I'm looking out my window at the Llamas. Bodie is munching on some tasty weeds, and Superman is acting as our heroic Sentinel, keeping an eye on the road. Yeah, no matter how many "adventures" we might have together, I don't think I will ever see a downside to keeping Llamas.

Keeping An Elephant In My Backyard

I've always imagined that elephants were loud. In fact, whenever I'm making a racket in my bedroom, the kitchen or front porch, my mom asks me to stop "acting like an elephant". But I have just realized that however loud elephants may or may not be, my lambs can make quite the ruckus. Today my sister and I did the most awful, cruel, and insensitive thing, well, according to our market lambs that is. Yeah, that's right, today we weaned our breeding ewe's babies. Well, Begonia had them pretty much weaned as it was, we just finished up by moving Begonia to the next pen. Yes, we separated the lambs from their mother. They now reside a whole foot away in the pen next door, with our other three market lambs. Of course, though this sounds simple and routine to you or me, to the lambs, it is a cataclysmic event. Therefore, when stepping outside my front door, I was bombarded with a cacophony of lamb-type cries. Oreo and Ryan (our ewe's babies) are crying for their mother, Begonia, is crying for her babies, and the other three lambs have decided to join the party also. It is times like these when I realize how lucky I am to have such tolerant neighbors. Because you never know, someday I might just want to keep an elephant in my backyard.



Oreo and Ryan as [happy] newborns with their mother, our family breeding ewe, Begonia.

County Agriculture Spotlight

Let's try something new. Every week I'm going to feature a different county in California for an agricultural spotlight! From going to FFA meetings and leadership conferences where we worked on memorizing the top five ag commodities in California, (dairy products, nursery products, grapes, almonds, and cattle), I have realized that there is a lot more to California agriculture than the ranches and youth opportunities that I see in the desert. This is my way of highlighting the different agriculture industries of California's 58 counties.


This week I will be featuring Alameda county. Alameda County's top agricultural commodity is Nursery Products, which are closely followed by grapes and a variety of livestock production. Alameda county has a lot of urban land use in addition to their agricultural land use. Therefore, they have taken on a major urban agriculture project that involves over 200 community farms and gardens in their urban areas. Alameda county has two FFA chapters, with a total of three ag teachers.






My sources for this spotlight include:



http://www.calaged.org/caescripts/school-listing.asp?Option=County&HasURL=YES



http://www.acgov.org/cda/awm/



And my own experiences at FFA meetings and conferences!

A Tisket A Tasket

A Silent Auction Basket. I'm starting to get really excited for our FFA chapter's big fundraiser that's coming up next weekend! We're having a wine tasting, complete with live music, art displays, and of course- a silent auction. A couple months ago, my advisor asked me if I could get a little help and put together a basket for the silent auction. I was ecstatic! My mind flooded with ideas: I could get a gas card from a local gas station, and arrange it in a basket with some cute hotwheels! Or, I could get some cute fabric, and make an adorable basket with custom made stuffed animals! But with all of my grand ideas, I started to forget some of the basic guidlines of making a Silent Auction Basket, like having stuff that I could get together before the event, or choosing a theme that the guests at the wine tasting would enjoy.

Then I realized that it would be really cool if the basket centered around the goal of the fundraiser: our FFA chapter. I thought of the bumper stickers that my Ag teacher is always passing around "Eat Beef" they say, or "Beef: It's what's for dinner". Then I remembered some vintage cook books I had seen at the local used bookstore. I had my theme, and it was time to ask for help. I partnered up with my mom, and we set out to create the cutest vintage barbecue basket ever. But again, things don't always turn out the way you plan. One thing led to another, the basket looked like a picnic basket, the perfect vintage fabric that would make amazing napkins, the funny vintage cookbooks with unique recipes and adorable pictures, the matching picnic plates and silverware... It wasn't looking like a vintage barbecue basket. This was not the basket I had imagined. But as I looked at the contents of the basket, the perfect fabric, the adorable cook-books, I realized that this basket had most certainly not turned out the way I imagined it. It was much better. While setting out to create the best Vintage Barbecue Basket ever, I accidentally created the best Vintage Outdoor Entertainment Basket ever, perfect for your special picnics, and other outdoor get-togethers.

The Basket is really starting to come together, and I can't wait to show my advisor! I'll be putting the finishing touches on the napkins, picnic tablecloth, and basket liner tomorrow, and then I will have finished my first ever Silent Auction Basket.

(This Experience Was Brought To Me By Agriculture, and My Local FFA Chapter)