Time For Some Shade!

Wild Rose Farm - 25 Degrees in the Shade!

I looked out the window and noticed all of the sheep standing in the SHADE of the Loafing Shed.  I zoomed in on the ewes so that you can see them grouped in the shadow.  Folks, it's 25 degrees out there!  They can be lounging anywhere on the other side of the fence line and they choose to be in the shade where it's cooler.  With their wool fleeces, they are quite comfortable in the cold weather, just like the whitetail deer that you see bedded down in the woods. Just say'in for those that worry about the livestock … they could also be inside the Loafing Shed if they choose to be, but they aren't.

By the way, shearing is scheduled for April 13th this year!

What's Happening On The Farm ...

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Grazing

The cooler weather means that the sheep are happy and frisky now! There's a flush of fresh cool season grass to munch on too.  It also looks like we'll be able to schedule a fence repair "finally". I didn't mention it here on the blog, but for the 3rd time in 3 years, our fence above the Loafing Shed was hit by a car. It happened in late September and after yet another call to the driver's insurance agency, "the check is in the mail".

Fence Damage Above Loafing Shed

Luckily, the gate post wasn't hit. If it had been, there would have been more damage to the electrical wiring and a deeper post to pull and set. After running over some large stones, again even more fortunately, the driver wasn't hurt - the police report didn't say what caused the accident.

Fence Brace Knocked Off - Top "Hot Wire" OK.

Red Switch Open to Cut Power ...

Once we have the check in hand, we'll call our fencing contractor and get this repaired. For now we have welded wire panels secured in place to close the gap.
In other good news, we have almost completed the finishing touches on the "studio" above the new garage. I'll move the wool and yarn, plus the floor loom, in after the show this weekend. No sense moving it twice!  Come see me and another 25 vendors on Sunday, November 11th at The Ace Hotel in Pittsburgh for the November Indie Knit & Spin show!  Scroll down on the link and check out all of the older posts too to see what everyone is bringing!

Growing Wool ...

Wild Rose Farm Ewes At Feeders

Growing and shearing a quality crop of wool takes some effort. Standing there dead center in the picture above is one of the sheep that seems to have a natural talent for finding any burdocks or cockleburs in the pasture! It's an ongoing battle to find and remove the plants before they set seed, but a few plants are all it takes …

Here She Comes … Burrs & All!

The best thing we can say is that burrs & vegetable matter on the head & legs will be sheared off as scrap wool & tags, lol.  Properly skirting a hand-spinning fleece means that any of this will never make it to the spinner, or to the mill if we're having yarn or combed top made for sale. Speaking of wool for sale, we're waiting for a shipment of our wool pencil roving to arrive any day now!
We'll have it in time for our next show in November.

Snow White - "You say there's wool pencil roving coming?"

To The Wool Pool!

2018 Wool Pool 

Washington County Sheep & Wool Growers Association

Stomping Fleeces Into A Wool Sack!

We packed up all of our uncommitted wool fleeces and took them to the wool pool at the Washington County Fairgrounds last week. Generally speaking, "wool pools" are the farmers' outlet for their wool. Wool pools solicit bids on their anticipated wool "clip". The winning bidder is chosen as the one whose overall prices and terms are most favorable to the association. Bids are based on current domestic & global demand for the various grades of wool, as well as what the bidder expects to get from each pool based on the recent history of the pool.  Fleeces sold through the wool pools are considered a commodity product.
This wool is dropped into breathable plastic wool sacks and stomped down to pack it tightly! As the shearing is being done, once the wool gets high enough, usually a kid or young adult steps in and stomps the wool. Pack, stomp, repeat until full, and sew or tie the bag shut!

Unloading Wool Sacks & Adding Producers' Lot Number For Tracking

Each wool sack is logged in and a lot number is assigned on each producers' receipt. The wool sacks (or 3 mil plastic contractor trash bags for those with fewer fleeces) are then loaded onto the waiting semi truck …

Skid Steer Loads 2 Sacks At A Time …

Mid-States Wool Growers Co-op Manager Oversees Loading Semi-Trailer

The wool will be weighed and graded at the buyers' facility. The producers will be paid by checks based on the quoted $/pound by grade agreed to on the bid.  Many pools have gone to selling their clips "ungraded" because of the difficulty in finding wool classers or wool graders to man the pools on drop off days.
Keep in mind that the prices for commodity wool are much different from those that specialty wool growers get for our "curated" fleeces! In fact, most of the long luster wools, double coated wools, and natural colored wools are severely docked in price at the wool pool. Jacketing sheep and selling pristine heavily skirted spinning fleeces is an entirely different market!
Examples from the 2018 Bid: 
Fine Staple wool, aka Merino, Rambouillet, Columbia bid price $1.70/pound
Medium or 3/8 & 1/4 Staple wool, aka Dorset, Suffolk, Cheviot, Texel bid price $.46/pound
Fine & 1/2 Clothing wool, aka fine wool sheep crossbreds bid price $.80/pound
Natural Colored wool, aka anything but white bid price $.02/pound (yes, 2 cents per pound!)
Heavy Vegetable Matter bid price $.12/pound.
That's your sheep wool economics lesson for the year … whew.
Keep in mind that not every fleece is a show fleece or a high quality hand spinner fleece … many specialty wool producers process their wool into yarn, top, roving, batts, etc. to maximize our wool marketing!

Before Shearing!

Dorset Ewe #118 Enjoys Spring!

It's almost time for the shearing ... stay tuned for the "after pictures! The ewes are very fluffy and they're ready to get all of that wool off ...

Saturday April 14th - "Before"

Lambs For Sale

Wild Rose Farm Ewes In August

It's August and we've got ewe lambs & ram lambs for sale. All of the ewes have been separated off from the lambs and they've been grazing with Snow White ... see her in the upper right of the picture? Of course, they have been walking back & forth and she sees no need to follow them each time. Smart llama!
And why are they walking back & forth? We weaned the last 3 ewe lambs from their mothers the evening before this picture was taken. Those 3 ewes keep walking back to the gate to call for their lambs.  Occasionally, the rest of the flock follows them.  The 3 lambs are in the barn (penned up with the older lambs) and they keep bleating for their mothers. It takes about 2 days for them to settle down on both sides. Then it's peaceful & quiet again ...

Three Wild Rose Farm Ewes - Where Are Our Lambs?

Aside from working with the sheep, we were at the Hookstown Fair for several days. Here is the 1st Place wool hooked rug ... very nice entry again from this lady!

2017 Hookstown Fair - 1st Place Hooked Wool Rug 

Take a look at this massive heavy weight team from the Saturday morning draft horse pulling contest. They are from Florida and were on their way to somewhere north of here ... just "pull'in through" as they say!

2017 Hookstown Fair - Unhitching Heavy Weight Draft Horse Team From Florida

I Brake For Wool!

Auction Find - Drawer Box of Wool Tapestry/Needlepoint Yarn - "Before"

Many of our followers know that Wild Rose Farm has a little vintage or "up-cycling" wool goodies sideline.  It started several years back when folks were asking for wool fabric or blankets for felting or crafting. I occasionally found wool items at auctions or estate sales and offered them for resale. A sideline was born and now it seems that I see wool everywhere ... yes, I brake for wool!  One woman even gave me two Norwegian wool sweaters knowing that I will find a good home for them ...

Auction Find - Sorted By Dye Lot - "After"

 This big box of wool yarn came from an auction last weekend ... it was in a large closet full of acrylic yarn and scads of cotton crochet thread stashed in plastic tubs. Guess who won the bid & choice of boxes? :)  Seems that the Amish ladies at the sale were after the sewing & crochet thread ...
But there's more!  My travels over the last 2 months yielded these lovely finds:

Eastern Pennsylvania Stash of Wool Yarn & Corriedale Sliver!

Central Ohio Thrift Shop Collection of Wool Yarns!

I've even stumbled across some G.C. Murphy's wool yarn recently at a random yard sale. You just never know what's hiding in a nest of acrylic yarn. Granted, I've picked through stacks of yarn and found no wool, but here's a funny one ... a mothball scented chest full of acrylic yarn ... uh, what's up with that?!?

Sorted It Out ...

Cones & Skeins

Here's something worth sharing.  My SIL gifted me with a one of those giant Ziploc bags stuffed full of assorted yarns for Christmas. She got all of them for $25 at an auction.  It looks like a weaver's stash to me ... what do you think? The first group above is all wool, with the exception of the blue cone - that's a fine cotton. The 7 Rowan yarn skeins were tagged at $4.10 each ... whoo hoo!

Quite a Mix of Yarns Here

The second group contains the fabulous orange Scottish Shetland skeins & the Noro skeins. The cream is a cotton core spun & the blue cone is a cotton novelty remnant. Blue & white bumpy/funky Orlon (!) and a slightly faded aqua cotton round out this batch.

Wools, Chenille, & Rayon ...

 The third collection has 2 nice French wool singles, a little group of exotic wool, the commercial wool sock yarns, a brown Rayon cone, what looks to be leftovers from a Christmas project, and 2 chenille tubes.

True Miscellany & Thrums!

The last group is a true mishmash of old novelty cotton, wool & wool blends, a ball of jute (can you say macrame?), purple chenille thrums, and the thick ends of various rug yarns.
All in all, a great little haul for the price. I'll sell some, use some, & gift some. It looks much neater now that the project of sorting it and packing it is done.  To think that this stemmed from a comment I made when we were out thrifting/antiquing.  I bought a full cone of wool yarn for $2, but by-passed two big tubs of synthetic novelty yarns for sale at $10 each.  Someone was listening, lol.

Washington County Wool Pool

Running The Hydraulic Wool Press - More Wool Please!

It wasn't a bad day at the wool pool ... temps in the high 80's, but with the fans going inside the buildings it was tolerable.  One of the 2 wool presses was acting up all day with electrical problems, so the young workers fell behind. Not sure what time they got to leave!

The "Light Vegetable Matter" Pile - There's More Where That Came From!

The 2 predominant classes of wool in this area are "Medium" wool & "Light VM". The LVM is generally medium wool that has excessive chaff, hay, etc in the fiber, usually from feeding indoors in with hay racks & allowing hay to fall down on the necks & backs of the sheep.

Washington County Wool Pool - Last Load Of The Day!

The last load of the day came in around 5:15PM and consisted of 6 different clips ... meaning that the shearer had fleeces from 6 different flocks in the trailer.
It's back to Washington on Tuesday to start the small flocks of less than 125 sheep. Today our largest flock had 519 fleeces of medium wool - only 1 basket was LVM which is quite an achievement to be so clean.

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!

Busy Holiday Weekend!

Ewes & Lambs Head To Pasture Sunday Morning

We had several sheep & wool related trips over the Memorial Day weekend. After the Friday night Girl Scout visit, we dropped off 35 lbs of Rambouillet fleece to be delivered to The Mill At Meadowlands in Maryland. The plans are to have some yarn made - "thinking" of lace weight and some worsted weight singles at the moment. The wool was delivered Sunday morning.  Ruth at the mill called me to talk about it while I was roaming around at the Great Lakes Sheep & Fiber Show in Wooster. Once the wool is washed, we'll talk in more detail about what it wants to become ... :).  Don't you just love fiber artists? Meadowlands had a representative at the Waynesburg Sheep & Fibe Fest to pick up fleeces, but we're in line behind the wool from Maryland Sheep & Wool, so stay tuned.
The picture above was taken from the driveway as I departed for the show in Wooster, Ohio. It's off to the races for the ewes & lambs in the morning!

Barb Originals - Mini Looms!

It wasn't as hot on Sunday as it was on Saturday & there was no rain in Wooster ... it made for a lot of fun checking out every building!

Say It With Sheep - Crib Full Of Sheep Dolls! 

Ursula's Alcove - Fabulous Felted Hats
"Books & Supplies For The Medieval & Fiber Enthusiast"

Pictures from Ursula's Alcove came out with too much glare, but what a great booth if you're into reenactment, patterns, & period fiber tools!

Champion Rambouillet Sheep - Auction Sale 

There were around 350 sheep in the shows on Saturday & the auction was held on Sunday --- I stopped in to see the Rambouillet sale, but wasn't buying this year!

Fun With Girl Scouts!

Wild Rose Farm - Watching Ewes & Lambs Coming In!

We had fun this afternoon hosting a group of Girl Scouts, leaders & parents, and of course, little brothers who came along. The 3 sets of triplet lambs in the barn were a big hit ... a couple are being supplemented with a bottle, so they are easy to catch & everyone got to pet a lamb. After a discussion on lambing, wool, & yarn, we went outside and called up the ewes & lambs.  It's an impressive sight to see them all streaming up. Snow White was also front & center since she was trying to figure out who all of the people were and what was going on!

Glenda Has A Fan Club!

After the sheep wandered away, attention was turned to Glenda.  She stood just out of reach and wouldn't take a treat, but she seemed to be fascinated by all of the kids looking at her. I explained how donkeys have to think everything is their idea, so having her come up and enjoy the attention was fun. Alas, she also got bored, turned, walked away, and then rolled in the dust. No one had ever seen that before, so it was another teaching moment.  :)

Into The Sunset & Off To Get Ice Cream! 

Warm If You've Got Wool!

Enjoying The Shade At Wild Rose Farm!

If you're wearing wool, it's still warm out there! Here we are in the low-50's, but the flock at Wild Rose Farm has settled down in the "shade" to chew their cuds. Shade is a relative term now that the leaves are gone ... sort of like a "too warm" spring day when there's no good shade to be found.

Snow White & The Dwarfs At Wild Rose Farm ...

Cooler days are ahead with the temps dropping below freezing for a couple of nights!  :~)

New Quilt Batts & New "Sheep"!

New "Watch Sheep" 44 Finds A Package!

Long story short is that we have been watching & waiting for a Serta Sheep for about 10 years!  In late spring, my Waynesburg S&FF friend Marianne found three - yes three! - sheep for sale.  She bought 2 and told me about it.  Aaccckkkkkk, but I wanted one too!  Believe it or not, she contacted the seller again, drove in to Pittsburgh to pick it up, and even negotiated a volume discount ... :)   So #44 came to a festival meeting and then rode home shotgun with me.   Now we have a "watch sheep" keeping an eye on things, like the new kitten in the house, or the arrival of suspicious packages.
While I was at the wool pool, this package showed up and it was bursting at the seams ... hmmm, what is it?

Wow - Wool Quilt Batts - Feels Soft & Dreamy!

I have been looking for uses for our Dorset wool since we only use fine Rambouillet wool for combed top & yarn.  This is the 2nd time that we've had quilt batts made and they are for full & queen size quilts.  These are the "real deal" & they are much nicer than the small batts we had years ago.  Yea!  Hard to believe there were 6 of them smooshed into the box.   And yes, that is the technical term for processed & shipped woolens - ha!  We took them out and refolded them so that they're nice & fluffy now.

Wild Rose Farm #44 Shows Off Wool Quilt Batts! 

Yes, #44 will just be called #44.   A professor from Penn State once told me a long time ago that "if your sheep has a name, it's too fat".   Of course, we have a couple of fat sheep, but everyone goes by a number & a few have nicknames.  Like little Ewok, Alice Cooper, "U", Patches, Miss Piggy, etc.  Whoops - looks like we have more than a few with names ... ahem.

Busy At The Wool Pool!

Washington County Wool Pool - In Line To Unload!

We lucked out on Monday & Tuesday this week at the 2015 Washington County Wool Pool.  Monday was sunny as wool from the large flocks - 125 fleeces or more! - arrived & was unloaded.  Most of the large flocks bring their wool in large burlap wool sacks or in giant heavy duty plastic bags that are stuffed full of fleeces.

Pulling Fleeces Out Of The Wool Sack

The wool fleeces are pulled out of the sacks and are sorted into different large light weight tubular metal "baskets" by the folks doing the wool grading.  Each grade or type of wool is sold at different predetermined prices to the mill that made the successful bid for the total wool brought in to the wool pool.   The teenage 4-H & FFA workers carry the full baskets to the scales to be weighed.  Each producer gets a check based on the price paid for the amount & grades of wool that they bring to the wool pool.
The next step is loading the different grades of wool into the hydraulic wool presses and creating the individual "bales" of wool to be shipped to the mill.

Loading The Wool Press

Closing The Wool Bale

On Tuesday, the smaller flocks of less than 125 fleeces, were graded and added to the piles of wool to be baled.  The smallest flock was a group of 4 fleeces & by 4 PM, everything was baled.  The bales were weighed, marked, and logged in for shipment.

Wool Bales Ready To Ship & Wool Pool Volunteers Close Up For 2015!

 Here's a look at the marking on the graded bales of wool.  They will be cross checked against the log when they are unloaded at the mill.

Washington County Wool Pool - Graded & Weighed Wool Bale

Yes, we lucked out on Tuesday.  The pool closed at 3 PM and at 3:05 PM the skies opened up and we had a drenching downpour for over half an hour!   All of our cell phones started beeping with flash flood alerts for the area ... then the sun was shining again by 4:30 as the semi-truck was being loaded.  :)

2015 Wool Pool Prices & Rules

 

Pure Sheepy Joy!

Wild Rose Farm Ewe #37 - Are You Bringing Apples?

I've been gathering the apple & pear "drops" for the sheep and 'ol #37 keeps an eye open when she sees me with the bucket.  These are the fruits that we can't use for pie or apple sauce, so the next best thing is to let the sheep "Hoover" them!

Wild Rose Farm Ewe #37 Keeps Her Eye On The Prize ...

Only about a third of the ewes seem to be interested and #37 is the ring leader.  Sometimes she'll have 3 or 4 down before the others realize what's happening.

#37 & Friends Munching

It gets a little crazy as the ewes gobble the closest fruit ... we stay nearby until they finish in case one of the apples would get stuck on the way down.

#37 - Don't Talk With Your Mouth Full!

I had noticed that one of the Rambouillet ewes has some green algae on her wool.  We've seen that occasionally when the weather is rainy & overcast.  It will go away eventually in the sunshine.

#37 Scarfs Up The Last Apple

Today they got 2 buckets of apples & pears after saving the "good" ones for a couple of pies.  We didn't spray the trees and it turned out to be a good year for apples.  The pears are ok, but they're a less desirable variety that is an excellent pollinator for the other pears.

Wild Rose Farm #37 - Gotta Love That Face!

As hard as it is to believe, all good things must come to an end.  Two buckets are enough for today #37 --- you don't want to get sick or tipsy on the fermenting apples! 

SERIOUSLY ... No More Apples Out There???