Lambs, Yarn, & Kids!

Holding The Lamb!

Before the Saturday afternoon hay hauling started, we had 2 groups of visitors at Wild Rose Farm.  There's nothing like watching kids being attracted to the lambs.  Of course, only a bottle fed lamb will come anywhere near the kids!  We have 2 lambs that are being supplemented and only one will come right up for the bottle.  This little girl had a great time feeding the lamb and then posed for a picture "holding" the lamb ...... thanks to Dad for helping!

WRF Yarn Color Detail - Indigo & Indigo Overdye

Marge Modeling With WRF Wool Suppliers Resting In The Background!

One of our knitting friends brought over a bunch of friends AND a shrug that she made from our naturally-dyed yarn.  The lower portion is overdyed with indigo & varigated, while the section that shows up as more blue is actually striped blue & green if you look closely.  We really love to see how creatively our yarn is used! 
In the middle of these 2 visits, we had a couple stop in to ask about purchasing freezer lambs and possibly getting some ewe lambs to add to their small flock for breeding.  We like to be able to sell our ewe lambs to good farm homes.  They make very good brood ewes with nice fine fleeces.
Thanks to everyone who visited and made our Memorial Day weekend so much fun despite the heat!

Hay Season Already!

It's been unseasonably warm for most of the spring so haymaking was in full swing around here for the last week or so.  Here are a couple of shots from a very busy day yesterday around Wild Rose Farm.
Highs reached the 90's, so we were thankful to be hauling big round bales, not stacking square bales in the barn loft!

Round Bales In The Field

We had some other fun activities too ...... more pics to post when we get home from visiting the Great Lakes Sheep & Wool Show this afternoon!

Back To The Ranch!

Wild Rose Farm #50 - Twin Ewe Lambs!

We've been talking about the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest, but meanwhile, back at the ranch, the Wild Rose Farm lambs are running around on pasture.  These 2 lambs out of our wonderful x-bred ewe, WRF #50,are both ewe lambs ...... note the tags in the left ear.  The ewe lambs will get their flock tag number in their right ear once they're big enough.

Ewes Grazing & Lambs

We're having a couple of groups over on Saturday.  We aren't having our full blown Wild Rose Farm Spring Open House this year, but we are welcoming guests to see the ewes & lambs.
Drop a quick line if you'd like to come out on Saturday after noon!

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Animals!

Here are a couple of the animals that were at the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest.  We were too late to get pictures of the Angora bunnies at the Sheep Thrills booth ..... they were sold before we got around to taking pictures!

Lippencott Alpacas - Just Sheared!

We got there just in time to see the shearing demonstration on this alpaca that Lena Galing is leading back to his pen.  The topknot is left on to shield the alpaca's eyes from the sun - sort of like a baseball cap - says Phil Galing of Lippencott Alpacas as he commented to the crowd during the demo. 

Sheep At Sunset

These Breed Pavillion was quiet Saturday evening when we took these pictures of the sheep at their evening feeding ......

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Winners!

Admiring The Woven Rugs At All Strings Considered

The winner of the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest "Best Fiber Booth Award" this year went to Birgitta Nostring of All Strings Considered from Meyersdale, PA.  The festival committee sends anonymous judges, usually young people - 4H members, Fair Royalty, etc. - to visit each booth.  They judge the booths on display, signage, labeling, and how the vendor relates to them and decribes their craft.  The vendors are usually surprised to hear that they've been judged and are very pleased to hear that they won. 

All Strings Considered - Felted Hats & Colorful Shawl

The winner of the Best Craft Booth Award was Tustin Run Specialties of Brave, PA in Greene County.  The smell of their soaps & lotions filled the building!
There was a nice crowd at the festival enjoying the perfect weather, beautiful fiber and crafts, chef cooking demos,  and all of the other activities .... stay tuned for more pics & goodies.
 

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - First Look!

Friday Night Early Set Up - The Calm Before The Storm!

This is just a super quick post  - a glimpse of the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest before we call it a day.  Or call it several days ....... Wild Rose Farm has been on the go since the Friday set-up
I promise more pics to follow!

Saturday Morning Fiber Fun Starts!

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest!

Come To Waynesburg!

Just heading out to the barn to skirt some fresh spinning fleeces for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest  this weekend --- if you're in the PA - OH - WV tri-state area I'll see you there!   Check out our vendor list on the web-site.  Stop at the Wild Rose Farm booth and say hello ....
Buying wool & wool products is in this year!  Have you heard of The Campaign For Wool?

You Too Can Learn To Spin - Charles Is A Big Supporter Of Wool!

Ewe Lamb @ 1 Hour!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet # 327 With Ewe Lamb

Here's one of our 9 year old ewes, Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #327, with her ewe lamb.  The lamb is just 1 hour old and she has her pretty well cleaned off.  This is the 1st time she's had a single lamb and she looks very good for a 9 year old ewe.  See how the lambs ears are still folded back?  In a couple of days she will be filled out and we'll see if she has the characteristic Ramboullet "propeller ears"! 

WRF #327 Working On Her New Lamb!

Pasture Check!

Hen Turkey Near The Sheep ......

The hen turkey beat a quick retreat as we approached the barnstone pile on our pasture check.  We've seen several individual hens out and about over the last weekend.  We think that they are off of their nests & looking for food.  Livestock pastures are excellent places to scratch around ...... dropped grain and/or grain in the droppings!  Easy pickings for a turkey.   Once we actually had a group of turkeys peck & scratch their way right past the resting sheep.

Rain Doesn't Stop The Lambing!

Afternoon Feeding

Our last check Saturday night ended with Wild Rose Farm Dorset #109 having a set of twins - one of each.  A field check this morning found Rambouillet ewe #329 getting ready to lamb.  By 9:30AM, she had a single ram lamb in the pasture & it was just starting to sprinkle.  We got them up to the barn easily and the rain was light, but finally got a little harder in the late afternoon.  The 6:30 pasture check found 1st timer WRF Rambouillet #408 with a lamb about as far away as she could get from the barn.  Another good mother & she followed us carrying her lamb up to the barn. 

Group Of Barn Lambs - Triplet 01E Looks Good!

Just completed another pasture check in a gentle rain .... at least it's around 55 degrees outside & nothing is happening!

Quick Lamb Update

More travel this week, but here's an update on what happened at Wild Rose Farm since the last post.  3 single ewe lambs and 1 single ram lamb all week.  Then this evening we found one of our x-bred ewes, #50, in the pasture with a set of twin ewe lambs!  WRF #109, a Dorset ewe who looked like she was also ready to lamb was brought up to the barn with #50 and her twins.  At 10PM, #109 had delivered a ewe lamb.  We'll go back out to the barn in  little while to check her progress.
Right now I'm working on completing the vendor list for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest  next weekend ...... the booth assignments are almost completed & we're adding another outdoor booth with Suri alpacas.  Yea! 

A Quiet Day .....

Lisa Watching The Ewes & Lambs Running Back & Forth!

We had a nice quiet day at Wild Rose Farm ..... no lambs born today and the 10PM pasture check didn't turn anything up either.  We processed 22 lambs today - the lambs get eartags and we spray the ewe on her right hip with her own eartag number.  It makes it easier to tell if a ewe has her lambs and which ewes are left to lamb.  Then we turned out the ewes and lambs for the first time back out into the pasture. The ewes are happy to be back on grass again & the lambs get confused and start running around looking for their mothers.  Here's Llama Lisa watching the proceedings with great curiosity ..... what's all the noise about?

Another Day Of Lambing

Moonrise

The evening barn & pasture check was uneventful.  We had beautiful moon rise over the farm and the ewes were moving up towards the barn in single file.  None of them had separated themselves off from the flock, so no lambs were coming soon. 

WRF Rambouillet #401 Triplets - 2 Rams & 1 Ewe Lamb!

Early this morning, Wild Rose Farm #401 had a set of triplets in the pasture.  This is only her 2nd lambing .....last year she had a single .... so this is a surprise.  The lambs are all the same size and are doing well.  This is the first time in years that we've had 2 sets of triplets.  We'll keep a close watch on them in the barn for quite a while. 

The Lambs Are Coming!

In Order - Twins, Twins, Triplets, Twins, Twins!

Here's another look at the lambing pens now.  After returning home from more business out of town, a bunch of lambs awaited me!  Lambing really does take off once it gets started.  We numbered the lambs with scourable spray paint tonight & released 4 pens to let them "mix" together.  Lambs walking up to the wrong ewe get butted away.  They quickly learn to stay with their own mother!

Wild Rose Farm #34 With Triplets!

The triplets from #34 are small but completely uniform in size right now.  They all seem to be nursing fine, but we'll kep them penned up for a while to make sure that they're securely bonded together with each other.  It's vey easy for a lamb to go downhill if it doesn't get enough to eat.

Triplet Resting

Nothing new at the 10:30PM pasture check .........