Keeping Busy Here ...

Finally … Plowing the Garden!

It's been a wet spring until just recently. Then it got really hot this week & went up to the low 90's. During this time, we've had the tractor in the shop and were focused on lambing and moving hay with our skid steer loader. The tractor came back on Tuesday and we immediately plowed the garden area before it rained late the next day.

Glenda & the Brush Hog

 Glenda is always nosing around and was fascinated with the freshly plowed garden soil. She even spent time following the brush hog around as the grass around the garden area was mowed ...
We're expecting our neighbor over this weekend to run his tractor mounted rototiller over the garden.
Now the weather will be cooler for a few days, but should be dry enough to do some planting.

Final Load of Hay ...

The next day we moved the last of the round bales of hay before it clouded up for evening t-storms. The farm across the road was raking and baling this season's new hay in that perfect window of hot weather and sunshine.

Steers & Heifers Watching 

My job is to man the gate. The curious steers & heifers were watching and started to meander over towards me when we pulled in for the first load. They quickly lose interest since we don't have a feed bucket!

Cute Lambs!

Wild Rose Farm Mixing Pen

Here's a glimpse of the "mixing pen" where the ewes and lambs are hanging out now. The only ones not out here are the two ewes with triplets, #129 & #142.  They are doing quite well, but we'll likely keep them in the barn rather than turning them out to graze. That's been our "MO" - method of operation - once we get triplets successfully born and coming along, we don't tempt fate & send them out to possibly lose one!  The ewes are taking great care of them and none are being supplemented with a bottle. They have access to their own lamb creep feeder and will start using it more as each day passes …
Here's an interesting side note - blog statistics are showing that the largest portion of our "audience" right now is coming from Italy.  Hello to all of our Italian visitors and best wishes for your good health!

Sadly - 2020 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival Cancellation!

No Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival This Weekend … :(

Normally at this time, we'd be in the Saturday morning joy of the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival!  Wild Rose Farm would have set up our booth on Friday and headed out around 6AM this morning to be ready for opening day … Unfortunately with the COVID-19 restrictions, the committee was forced to cancel the festival.  Just look at the great art for our Save the Date Cards and t-shirts … we were READY!  Many other fiber festivals have been canceled or may be rescheduled this year. Waynesburg will be back in 2021.
Our farm is still essentially closed for visitors now, but we have had a couple of folks show up asking to buy freezer lambs later this year. People are looking at their food and fiber a little differently these days.  We also have 2 custom made cherry wood shelving units from Pat Zeibers Furniture ready and awaiting pick-up for our studio.  The were ordered after Christmas and were finished just as the Pennsylvania lockdowns started!  Hopefully we'll be able to pick them up in the next couple of weeks and get things organized.

April Shearing Day - Penned Up & Ready!

One thing that did happen during the shutdown is the essential service of sheep shearing! 

 We'll be skirting fleeces and posting pictures of fleeces for sale as soon as we get several warm & dry days to work on them!    

Rambouillet Ewe on Shearing Board

Flock Check @ Evening Feeding

Wild Rose Farm - Did You Say Feeding Time?

The ewes are now grazing in the bottom half of the pasture behind that gate and over the hill. Their bottom water tank is just over to the left near that blooming dogwood tree. While their fresh section of grazing is being set up, they come up to the barn for their evening grain ration.

Snow White Says "Meh" ...

The Ewes Keep Coming! 

Once they've reached the barn, they are completely occupied with eating.  I can do a check of everyone to see if there is any chance of a ewe that is close to lambing in the group … nothing tonight, so they all went back down to the fresh break of grazing!

Wild Rose Farm Evening Feeding

Snow White Feature!

Wild Rose Farm - Radar Llamas - Radars Snow White 

We moved the grazing flock today and that provided a chance for some close-up pictures. Snow White's flock is down to the ewes that haven't lambed yet, plus the ewe lambs that she wintered with in the barn. Here she is in the paddock as I'm looking over the ewes … notice her eye is always on my position!

Snow White Watching Behind Herself ...

She was dewormed yesterday, so she has reason to be suspicious! Now that she's out grazing again, she gets dewormed mainly as a preventative for the deer meningeal worm.

Evening Parting Shots ....

Ewes Munching Fresh Hay in Mixing Pen Feed Racks

Here are a couple of shots from the shed roof side of the barn, aka the "mixing pen". Lambs & ewes go over here once they are bonded and moved out of their lambing pen. These feed racks are a great addition to the barn. We had a chance to buy some sturdy used galvanized equipment last fall from another local farmer … very nice and they are set up as a divider.

Wild Rose Farm Lambs Resting in Mixing Pen

Right at their feet, off to the side is a group of lambs resting in a sunny area. Just back in now from a pasture check, all is quiet for the evening. We had a hard freeze last night … even caused the rhubarb flower stems to flop over (got to get those cut off anyway!). And yes, there was a dusting of snow on the roof. Pretty late for snow around here!

Another Set of Triplets at Wild Rose Farm!

Wild Rose Farm #142 Cleaning Her Ewe Lamb!

Both of the ewes that we put in the barn last night had lambs early this morning. When we went out to the barn around 6:30 AM, ewe #142 was standing there with her head in the corner. Hmmmm ... that means she's thinking of something! We let both of them out into the hospital pen and after about an hour of grazing they separated. Ewe #142 went into labor and within an hour had delivered this first lamb in a nice clean grassy area. Here she is earnestly cleaning her lamb and "chuckling" the whole time.

Wild Rose Farm #142 Tending to a Second Ewe Lamb!

In a little over an hour, she delivered a 2nd ewe lamb. At this point we can see that there will be another lamb coming as she continues to work on the two lambs that she has now.

Wild Rose Farm #142 Turns Her Attention to the Ram Lamb!

Within 15 minutes of delivering lamb number two, a third lamb easily joined them! Wow. We were very lucky to have a trouble free birthing on clean pasture to such an attentive ewe.
All three were moved up to the barn and are doing well as of 9PM tonight.
Meanwhile, as we moved this group to the barn, companion ewe #152 was restless and starting into labor nearby. Her she is circling & then laying down to deliver the first of what turned out to be a set of twins.  They are also doing well tonight!

Wild Rose Farm #152 Just Before Delivering Her First Twin

We've Been Busy ...

Wild Rose Farm Sunny Pasture Scene Today

We've had several sets of twins born since our last post and today was no exception. The weather has been mostly "decent" and no one has tempted fate by lambing outside in the rain.  Snow White & the ewes can take shelter underneath the pine trees and they do have access to the barn if we expect a heavy rain.

Wild Rose Farm #141 & Her Twins

Around noon today we found one of our crossbred ewes, #141, in the pasture delivering a ewe lamb. She looked like she was going to have another lamb and we moved her up to the barn. Checking on her later around 2PM she hadn't delivered a second lamb, so an investigation was in order. Yep, there was another lamb in there and he was presenting back feet first. It was time to put on gloves and the long OB sleeve to help and pull the lamb. This must be done carefully, but very quickly. Once the umbilical cord breaks, it triggers the sharp intake of breath in the newborn and the head must come out and be cleaned off immediately ... all's well that ends well! That's him on the left after we wiped him off and now the ewe is taking over. It's also a good idea to towel some of the birthing fluids from him onto the first born lamb to make them both smell similar to the ewe.
By now it was around 3PM and it was time to make the daily pasture fence shift ...

Wild Rose Farm #129 & Her Triplets!

I was puttering around in the barn working on getting a couple of the pens ready when I heard a call from outside. Mr.Wild Rose Farm said that there were more lambs & to get a pen ready while he brought them up. Whoa! Our crossbred ewe #129 had delivered and cleaned off a set of triplets sometime after we brought in #141 and I took that banner picture above.
She followed right up to the barn and into the big corner pen that we have reserved (just in case) for triplets.  She has two ewe lambs and one ram lamb and is taking care of all of them. As time goes on, we'll watch them carefully, but for now they're all active and nursing.
Since the whole flock followed the triplets up to the barn, we did some other work with them & replaced a couple of missing ear tags.  Then we sent them back out to pasture for the evening with Snow White.
The temps are dropping overnight with high winds, so we have 2 ewes that look to be very close to lambing up in the barn tonight … you never know!