Pollinators & Gathering Goldenrod!

Wild Rose Farm - Lots of Bees Here!

There were plenty of honeybees & other native pollinators buzzing around as I gathered more goldenrod for more natural dyeing projects. This picture came from a clump of flowering goldenrod stems next to the roadway. I ended up leaving one of the "not fully opened" stems for the bees ... feeling a little guilty, I guess!  There are also a TON of black walnuts falling everywhere right now. Every walnut that I gather from along the driveway goes right into the pot of water to soak for a dye bath.
We've finally gotten a bit of rain, but not as much as we'd like. Take a look at how dry the soil is here as we broke a little ground for a small garden next year.  The soil test sample has been sent off to the lab at Penn State and we're waiting for the results & soil pH to come back.

Talk About DRY Soil! 

We're Dyeing Now!

Wild Rose Farm Indigo Dye Vat & Our Yarn

We started to do some natural dyeing over the weekend with our new yarns. The indigo dye bath is working out nicely. We've done some of the 2-Ply Bulky Art Yarn in 2 shades of blue so far. The foam & bubbles, aka the "flower" that you see on top is a sign of a healthy indigo dye vat. The bath is yellow-green under the flower.

Indigo Yarn & Goldenrod Dye Bath

Next up is the goldenrod dye bath. The goldenrod flower tops are soaked for 24 hours, simmered for and hour, and then the yarn is added to the bath and also simmered for an hour ...

Rambouillet Wool Yarn Entering the Dyebath

Here's the result!

Wild Rose Farm - Naturally Dyed Goldenrod & Indigo Wool Yarns

Red Squirrel Caught In The Act!

Wild Rose Farm Evening Feeding

I had just taken the photo above from the house when a flash of movement near the bird feeders caught my eye.  There he was, the busy red squirrel stashing away walnuts at sunset ...

Red Squirrel Nibbling On A Black Walnut!

He ran across the rail fence and stopped to chew off the walnut hull.  Then he scampered to the ground and busied himself digging a hole and burying the nut.

Digging To Bury The Walnut ...

Wonder what a boiled walnut tastes like?  He was picking up the spent boiled nuts that had been used for a dye bath. We dump them onto the mulch under the spruce trees when I'm done with them.
Yes, he's a quick little fellow ... I thought that I lost him in the glare, but it's just that my focus was a fraction of a second too late.  I never noticed the mourning dove, but that's him in a blur on the bottom left! :~0

Uhhh ... Which Way Did He Go?

Going In Order ...

Wild Rose Farm #99 With Twins

We had a set of twins on Tuesday and carried them to the barn in the morning after the rain tapered off. Mom & babies are doing well.  Today, we found a newborn set of twins with x-bred ewe #99 in the Loafing Shed.  Here they are pictured above ... the ewe lamb is smaller than the ram lamb, but not nearly as small as she appears all curled up in the picture!
The 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest is approaching fast - May 16th & 17th - so the fiber activity is picking up too.   There will be fleeces to skirt later this week, but for now I've started a dyebath.

"Somerset Sweets" Onion Skins

 Years ago, like 10 years ago, Rick & Rita of Laurel Vista Farm in Somerset County, PA gave me a huge bag of onion skin sweepings from their processing building.  Here's a label to prove it!   I'll finally finish using these skins this summer.  The color starts to soak out very quickly.   I'll probably boil the onion skins & extract the dye tomorrow.

Somerset Sweets - Color After 15 Minutes Of Soaking