Christmas Pumpkin Treat!

After a bit of procrastination, the pumpkins finally made it in to the field. Several of them were starting to "melt down" with the freeze/thaw cycle, so they suffered the fate of most pumpkins at Wild Rose Farm ..... sheep treats! This wrought iron "pumpkin smasher" was discovered at Van Why's Antiques about a dozen years ago when they still had their shop open in Zelienople. As a collector of hand forged tools, I was intrigued and had to have this before I knew what it was. Pretty cool, huh? I mean, you could just STOMP them, but this is way more fun! It doesn't take the lambs long to jump in and start munching. They'll pick over these for several days until most of the seeds and flesh are gone.

Christmas Tree Time

The trees planted here have gotten too tall to be the "table top" trees that my brother wants, so this year we topped a blue spruce. The fresh snow from yesterday dusted everything!
No trip into the pasture fields is complete without Claire closely following along. From a donkey's perspective, this adventure beats just about anything else that was going on out in pastures today. She was a bit startled & had to kick up her heels at the cry of "timber". Here she is circling back to check things out.

Snow Flying!

There's nothing like snow to put us in the Christmas spirit here at Wild Rose Farm. Most of the East Coast was getting socked by a foot or more of snow, but we probably got 4 inches.

Three of the lambs in their pasture were head butting 1st thing this morning. The older ewes - not just the yearlings - were jumping and frisking around this afternoon. The temps were in the high 20's. Perfect weather for wooly sheep. Look closely for their snow covered shapes in the picture. Even Claire was out and about with a snow cover on her fuzzy well insulated self this morning!

Our birdfeeder was loaded with birds. Cardinals were flying in and out of this burning bush in the front yard eating the berries. The glass cardinal watching the action was a Christmas gift from last year ......

We Find Historic Sheep!

Wild Rose Farm (seated above) just returned from a long weekend trip to Virginia that included a surprise tour of Mount Vernon. "Surprise" because I didn't plan it ahead of time, and little did my family know that we would find a rare breed of sheep there! Of course, I knew about the Hog Island sheep that are kept at Mount Vernon along with the Red Devon cattle. "One of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn't belong"! This group of sheep was enjoying the pleasant December day. Interestingly, the sheep in the foreground below appeared to be a Leicester Longwool, but no one available could confirm that. How about it, sheepy friends?

We waited in line about 10 minutes before our mansion tour started. In the summer, the line snakes around the front driveway and people wait for hours. As luck would have it, the 3rd floor is only open on the tour in December ..... the narrow turning staircase leads up to one of the rooms that Martha Washington used after George passed away. Finally, in one of the outbuildings we saw the Spinning Room. Just couldn't get a picture without the glare from the setting sun ......

Family Photo

Remember the picture of Wild Rose Farm #806? Well, this is her half sister, #327. They really don't look alike at all. In fact, #327 looks more like #806's dearly departed twin (#807 or "Alice Cooper" for her dark eyeliner!). 806 & 327 are from different rams, but are both out of one of our original foundation ewes, #166, aka "Lunkhead". Lunkhead was just that .... rather blocky, but she had a really unique fine, but heavily crimped fleece that sold well as raw fleece packaged in lock formation.

This ewe had twin ewe lambs this spring and we are keeping both of them!

Great Crowd at Old Economy Village!

Christmas At The Village was packed last night. The marketplace vendors were in the Granary and it got pretty crowded at times. This was the biggest crowd we've seen since we've been doing shows & demonstrating at OEV.
We forgot to take a camera, so unfortunately there are no pictures. Two of our featured skeins of varigated brown yarn were snapped up quickly as a Christmas gift --- the back story that they were from walnuts gathered at OEV sealed the deal! Thanks to all of our new customers, past customers (some still working on their projects ...), and friends who stopped by to chat. Some of the other vendors were:
Nutt Road Honey Farm - practically sold out this year - beautiful beeswax candles, gifts, honey, etc!
McConnell Forge blacksmithing - also had great handcrafted "broom corn" brooms
The Pine Knoll Shops - restored antique mantel clocks & cuckoo clocks + an extensive herbal products selection
JPW Pottery - hand thrown pottery - no lead based glazes

Uncle Pete's Wood Toys - what a selection of cars, trucks, tractors, helicopters, engines, etc!

Little Europe - European glass ornaments

Hall and Parlor - wood furniture & clocks

See You There!

Wild Rose Farm will be set up with our naturally dyed yarn, Rambouillet combed top, quilt batts, and fleeces at Old Economy Village this Saturday. Christmas At The Village is a great chance to get some unique handmade gift items.

We will be introducing our new "Yarn Tales" 5 yard mini-skeins. They are perfect for when you need an accent color or are working on a punch needle or rug hooking project. Here they are "resting on a bed" of our fresh walnut dyed sport weight skeins.

Come out, enjoy the Christmas spirit, and help support Old Economy Village!

Ram In Search Of .....

The ram pays a lot of attention to receptive ewes, courting them all day long ...... he'll put on a few miles following the ewes around. He's settled down since he was turned in on Saturday. This is Wild Rose Farm #330. Remember her? This Rambouillet ewe had twins this spring and was a triplet herself.