Memorial Day @ Green Valley Country Store!

Wild Rose Farm - Naturally Dyed Wool Yarn
Come See Us @ Green Valley Country Store in Hookstown!

Wild Rose Farm will be set up with other local vendors outside of the Green Valley Country Store in Hookstown, PA on Memorial Day!  If you've never been there (c'mon, really ?!?) it's a bright red building right behind the Hookstown Post Office.  They are a combination farm feed store and general store with their own ice cream & milk, plus meats and all kinds of local artisan food, veggie plants, flowering baskets and handmade items.  Well worth the visit ...  We'll have our wool yarns, combed top, pencil roving, wool quilt batts and spinning fleeces for sale.  We'll probably also have a few selected antique items along, like the enamel green roaster & butterfly wing serving tray that you see in the background behind the yarn above.  Come see the Memorial Day Parade and then stop over for Uncle Sonny's Ice Cream and some yummy soft yarn! 

MORE Fleeces for 2021 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #563 - Beautiful Fleece!

The better part of the day was spent getting ready for the 2021 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest, including skirting more fleeces!  The little notebook in the picture above is our farm "barn book".  On sheep shearing day - this year in March - each fleece is evaluated and notes are taken on promising "show" fleeces. Every fleece isn't suitable for hand spinning or for fleece judging. This makes it easier to pull out the cleanest & best fleeces to skirt and bring to the shows and fairs.

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #574

Wild Rose Farm #764 First Shearing Lamb Fleece

Here are a couple of bundles of lamb fleece that will be bagged for smaller projects. A whole fleece can last quite a while and various parts of the fleece may find different uses like spinning and felting. 

Wild Rose Farm #783 Lamb Fleece Bundles 
Lamb in the Background ...

Ewe Watching the Skirting Table - Almost 90F Today! 

Skirting Fleeces For Waynesburg!

Wild Rose Farm #118 Dorset Ewe

My Fleece Is Coming To Waynesburg!

Pictures of the spinning fleeces are coming as soon as we get everything skirted. We've had some windy & rainy days lately, so we haven't been able to skirt fleeces with the barn doors open ...

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival This Weekend!

Headed For The Wool Pool!

Wild Rose Farm - Loaded For The Washington County Wool Pool!

We're loaded up and ready to leave for the Washington County Wool Pool. We drive to the Washington County Fairgrounds and volunteer for 2 days. Hours are Monday 1PM to 6PM for farms bringing 125 or more fleeces and Tuesday 8AM to 3PM for those bringing less than 125 fleeces. Usually we see the big guys and some sheep shearers bringing in fleeces on Monday. On Tuesday, cars with as few as 5 or 6 fleeces pull in ... some are backyard flocks and some are young shepherds just starting out!
The big bags with the blue ties are skirtings, tags, belly wool, and "heavy vegetable matter" wool - we generate a lot of this when I skirt for spinning fleeces, show fleeces, and wool going to the mill for yarn and combed top.  If you ship junk to a mill, you get junk back!
Not all of the fleeces are suitable for sale individually, so they go to the wool pool ... more pics from the adventure later ...
Hoping for overcast, but no rain, since I'm the one who is outside with the clipboard checking in the farmers!

Setting Up For Harmony Fiber Festival!

I'll post pictures later today, but Wild Rose Farm is heading off after lunch to set up for a 1 day fiber festival on Saturday. The 2016 Harmony Garden Fair & Fiber Festival will be held tomorrow June 11th in Historic Harmony, PA - rain or shine!  The fiber artists & vendors will be indoors in Stewart Hall at the Harmony Museum right in town.
Hours are from 9AM to 3PM - come see us for our fine wool naturally dyed yarn, wool quilt batts, spinning fleeces, & our Rambouillet combed top. 
http://harmonymuseum.org/Event-Details.html
Plant lovers will really enjoy the Garden Fair at the barn just outside of town ...

Change Of Shearing Plans!

What The Well Dressed Shearers Are Wearing!

We got 25 of 46 sheep sheared yesterday with temps in the mid-40's.  We mutually decided to reschedule the rest for next week after this cold front passes.  The shearing machine is still hanging from the nail in the rafters and the board + carpet are leaning against the wall.  Click to enlarge & notice the footwear repair with sheep duct tape! :)  Our shearer does not wear felt booties like some do when shearing.

Wild Rose Farm - Another Nice Fleece Comes Off!

Once again, all of the fleeces are recorded, evaluated, bagged, & tagged as they are being sheared. With just 2 of us to help catch, sweep, bag, and move fleeces, we don't have time or room to set up a skirting table. I usually have a couple of bags of belly wool, dirty top knots, tags, & hay filled neck wool that I've pulled off as we are shearing. One of the ewes was sick last year and so there was one fleece with "wool break" that will end up in the tag pile at the wool pool.

Wild Rose Farm Fleeces "Bagged & Tagged" ...

Rambouillet ewe #422 with a 19.9 micron test produced a nice spinning fleece that we will sample for the Virginia guild project.  Once again, Rambouillet ewe #410 has another great show fleece - look for this one again at the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Fleece Show in May!

A Glimpse Of Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #410 Coming To A Show Near You! 

As they were sheared, the hungry ewes were released to pasture. They ran around munching until we finished, cleaned up, and then opened up the barn paddock gates to them again.  A sudden downpour sent them running back up to the barn where we closed them inside ... but not before some sheepy confusion about where they were supposed to go.  Typical sheep!

Bright White Sheep Flock Back To The Barn

  Yep, they ran past the open paddock gate and stood outside where they had been penned for shearing.  :)

A Bucket Of Grain Calls Them Back To The Gate Behind The Barn ... 

Snow White & the full fleeced ewes were sent back to the Loafing Shed to wait until next week.

Fleece At The Hookstown Fair!

Wild Rose Farm - 1st Place Dorset Fleece At The Hookstown Fair

It's fair season again and that means taking fleeces to the Hookstown Fair.  Here is a Dorset fleece from ewe lamb #118.  I can't wait to see what her 2 year old fleece will look like next spring.  Funny thing with the fleeces is that this is the only one we had to show.  The other Dorset fleeces were processed into wool quilt batts this summer by Zeilinger Wool.  This one eluded me, likely because it was the nicest Dorset fleece we had and it was in the "spinning fleeces for sale" group!

2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Day One

Fleece Sold At 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

I spent all day yesterday in vendor set up activities for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest ...whew!  Today was the 1st day of the weekend festival.  The weather was generally good - one rain shower around lunch time and then no more rain all day.  The fleece above from Rambouillet #410 was entered into the fleece contest and was sold at the fleece tent.

Rambouillet Fleece For Sale At Waynesburg  Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 We still have spinning fleeces available for sale along with our fine wool combed top.  There are some really great vendors at the festival this year.   After locking up the vendor buildings, I walked down to the Breed Pavillion to take a few pictures at sunset.  This ewe seems to be saying "where is everybody?".

Horned Dorset Ewe - Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Breed Pavillion

See you tomorrow at the festival!

First Lambpede Of The Season!

Wild Rose Farm Lambpede !

Well, there they go!  The first unrestrained, full scale lambpede of the season was underway ...  The temperatures dropped from the 80's on Monday to the 50's tonight with cloudy & overcast skies.  Perfect weather for a lambpede.  By the time I got closer, the lambs had made another lap and were tired and stood panting with their little sides heaving.  I bet they're in the barn taking a nap now!
I spotted them while I was at the kitchen window rinsing indigo dyed yarn for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend May 16th & 17th.   Stay tuned & I'll have some pics of the yarn and some spinning fleeces that will be going to the show!

Wool 101 - A Lesson From Wild Rose Farm

Dear blog readers -
Ever wonder how wool is grown & how it turns into a nice handspinning fleece?  The condition of pastures plays a key role, like keeping out burdocks, etc.  But ...

Picture #1 - Your handspinning fleece on the hoof, staying clean.

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Grazing

Picture #2 - Your handspinning fleece at rest, staying clean.

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Resting

Picture #3 - Your handspinning fleece at rest, NOT!

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Also Resting

I was amused by this Rambouillet ewe who decided to plop right down in the middle of the only nasty spot in a couple of acres!  The Dorset ewe lamb on the left & the crossbred ewe on the right had more sense.  We had burned a pile of fence line brush cuttings on the roadway and she couldn't resist.  Usually, we see sooty noses when the sheep have access to where we've had a bonfire - they  like the ash and minerals.  The donkey and the llama also like dust baths and will roll in ashes.

The good news is that most of this will wash off over the fall & winter before spring shearing.  Ha.  This is why the most spectacular spinning fleeces come from jacketed sheeep!  :)

Lambs & Dams Out Grazing

The 2nd "batch" of ewes and lambs were out grazing this evening while another round bale of hay was being placed in the barn for them.

Wild Rose Farm Ewe #136 Grazing With Her Lamb

Those who buy our spinning fleeces know that the tag that comes with the fleece has a picture of the actual ewe that produced the fleece.  I'm always looking out for the picture that shows the ear tag and tells a little story ... here's a picture of X-bred ewe #136 that will be saved for the ewe photo file!