ranching

In May 2010, I went to a sheep shearing school at the University of California's Hopland Field Station in Mendocino County.  Over the course of 5 days, I struggled to learn how to shear sheep - despite my experience with sheep, I found learning to...

I belong to an email list based in the next county north of us that includes small-scale farmers, local food advocates, and homesteaders.  The listserve is a great forum for discussing issues, advertising products and seeking advice on a wide rang...

This spring marks the third season that we've provided sheep for vegetation management at the historic Chinese cemetery here in Auburn.  The 2+ acre property on Highway 49 is managed by a nonprofit that also takes care of the Joss House in old Aub...

Wednesday afternoon, a fairly intense (at least for our Sierra Nevada foothill region) thunderstorm blew through Auburn.  We had lightening, thunder, wind, heavy rain and even some small hail.  The storm was intense enough and close enough th...

In my line of work, I put up and take down a lot of electric fence.  We use Electro-Net from Premier 1 Supplies - these are 164-foot rolls of electrified netting with integrated fence posts.  With 16 of these nets, I can fence a 10-acre pastu...

My friend and fellow sheep producer Lana Rowley posted an interesting perspective on working stock dogs on facebook recently:"There is a giant disconnect between trial and ranch folks who use dogs...if I hear a ranch person bad mouth 'those trial dogs'...

Of the more than 250 lambs born so far at Flying Mule Farm, we've only had to bring 10 home to be raised as "bottle" lambs.  Here's a fun video of Sami feeding her youngsters!

We're working with some homeowners near Auburn to try to control yellow starthistle using sheep.  As part of this experiment, the homeowners are also spraying some of the starthistle patches.  Several weeks ago, I heard second hand that the m...

Perseverance and discipline are characteristic of most of the successful small farmers I know.  The work of farming requires us to work until the work is done - there's no "in basket" that can wait until tomorrow.  A job that's started must b...

We're officially in the midst of lambing season - we now have a newborn lamb in the living room!  We'll be offering him a bottle every several hours for the next week or two, and he'll be transitioning to outdoor life as soon as the weather improv...