Hey, Hey, Hay!

It seems like EVERYONE has hay cut this weekend. We dropped the Wild Rose Farm trailer off tonight and hopefully we'll be picking up some first cutting hay on Monday. There was a window of opportunity for hay around here before Memorial Day, but if you're not a full time farmer, many times you can't get everything done on schedule. What a gorgeous day for mowing hay or just about any other outdoor activity.

Speaking of outdoor activities, look who was out today with the small group of sheep that we've had in the barn ..... yes, it's our natural colored ewe lamb "U". There are 5 lambs in this group including our last lamb born this week. The 4 older lambs were having a great time racing up and down this strip of grass as it got cooler in the afternoon. These are the sustainable lawn mowers at work!

Wrapped Up .....

OK, the lambing is officially done at Wild Rose Farm. Our last Dorset ewe had a ewe lamb on Tuesday. Both are doing well. We put the rams in on Thanksgiving weekend and don't take them out until a few weeks before lambing. It keeps them from being a separate chore to feed & water and of course, they like to be in with a group of ewes. The other aspect of this plan is to cover exactly what happened here. This ewe didn't get bred in the normal 1st 17 day breeding cycle, but probably on her 3rd cycle. By keeping the ram in longer, we get something, & it's not a total waste. Here we have a good mother who kept stamping her foot at me when I got close to her lamb. And you know that we like protective ewes!

Speaking of protective, look who else was "beside themselves" while I was checking on the new lamb ..... these barn swallows were swooping back and forth. They resigned themselves to perching here because I was too close to their nest. The photo is grainy, but getting closer was impossible and the barn was pretty dark. We have quite a few barn swallows this year. They're supposed to bring good luck we hear! They swoop over the sheep in the evening grabbing the insects that the sheep kick up while grazing.

Like Mother, Like Daughter

They learn from mother ...... here is a ewe happily munching on that bane of the reclaimed pasture, multiflora rose. The sheep will strip every leaf that they can reach. Lambs learn from what the ewes do.
Note these 2 babies striping the leaves off of the weeds in preference to nibbling on grass. In some cases, weeds with their deep tap roots are considered to have more nutrients/minerals because they are pulling them up from the subsoil. Doesn't matter --- sheep will graze brambles, brush, and weeds in preference to straight grass.

Here's a history lesson regarding multiflora rose. It was once promoted by the various conservation agencies as a natural "living fence" and as a shelter plant for birds and wildlife. Louis Bromfield in his noted book, Malabar Farm, spent a page or two extolling the virtues of multiflora rose. He planned, as time permitted, to plant it on both sides of his fencelines so that by the time that the wire failed, a living fence capable of "turning cattle" woud be well established! Aaacckkkk! Hard to believe in retrospect. Other than that interlude, I LOVE the book!

Baa baa BLACK SHEEP ???

Well, here's a first at Wild Rose Farm ...... look at the ewe lamb that was waiting for us when we came home! We've never produced any natural colored lambs here before. I'll be going over the genetics of this lamb. More on genotype & phenotype at a later date. Just suffice it to say that while this is fun, she sure won't qualify for registered Polled Dorset status. I've talked to a few of my "peeps" about how unscrupulous breeders have mixed breeds to obtain a phenotype (the physical appearance of the animal) that is popular in the show ring and then passed the animals off as "purebreds". My feeling was that our last ram had fine wool breeding in his background based on his micron test. Looks like those color genetics had a chance to come together, eh? This very vigorous lamb is the result of breeding a sire to his daughter, aka "inbreeding". It's one way that breeders attempt to "fix" desirable traits. That was not our intent here, it's just how the ewes were split between rams since we didn't intend to keep the offspring for breeding. Here's a little on sheep breeding systems from Susan Schoenian, Sheep & Goat Specialist at the University of Maryland's Western Maryland Research & Education Center.

By the way, the lamb's name is "U". And she may be a keeper. Nothing like adding a "natural colored" fleece to the fair wool entries!

Open House & Exploring Lambs

The first visitor to our Wild Rose Farm Spring Open House was our friend Margaret. She usually comes with friends or with several children to see the farm. This time, everyone was booked into birthday parties, etc., so she made the yarn expedition on her own. Too bad for the kids! This year we actually have 2 lambs that are being "bottle supplemented". Our 11 year old Rambouillet ewe #806 had twins (!) and we decided to help out with some additional milk. Thankfully, we don't usually have bottle babies. Most people want to pet lambs, but unless they're bottle fed, they run away from people as fast as they can ..... just try & catch one in an open field! Bottom line, no kids to feed the lambs. Of course, adults like to help too, so that works out.

Here's a look at some of the yarn that we had on display. The gorgeous blue/green skiens above were sold first thing. They were still drying, but we just had to have them out. You can see why we like the colors from natural dyes. The 2nd picture shows dark brown from walnut, deep gold from onion skins, magenta & pinks from cochineal, & blue from indigo.

During the open house the garden was being plowed. It's been several years since we had a garden. After the open house was over, the ewes & lambs were moved back to the front paddock. The lambs just "flocked" over to the plowed ground. One of the Dorset yearlings joined them too. They sniffed and pawed the soil and just jumped around over the clods left after plowing. Don't they look so intent poking around in the dirt? It's just like having deer around. The morning after a field is plowed, you'll see deer tracks all over it. They probably also pick up some minerals nibbling on the roots & soil.

Wild Rose Farm Open House Tomorrow!

It's finally upon us. The Wild Rose Farm Spring Open House is tomorrow, May 23rd from 11am to 5pm. We get folks every year who have asked about coming out to the farm to see the sheep or to buy yarn & fleeces. Having one day each spring while the grass is green and it's not TOO hot seems to work out for everyone. We are usually done lambing - this year we have 2 holdouts still to go - so we bring all of the ewes and lambs into the paddock next to the barn where they're easy to see. It's time to make a list of what we have this year in the way of potential lambs for sale. I know that there will be a good selection of registered Rambouillet ram lambs available for sale. That's a great way to get some fine wool into your flock if you're not starting with a bunch of fine wool ewes.

We're waiting for it to cool down a little this evening before setting up the tent next to the barn. It looks like we've avoided an afternoon thunderstorm today, so hopefully our luck will hold out tomorrow when we have visitors. There is a last batch of yarn to finish rinsing tonight - we currently have an indigo dyebath going ...... beautiful blue/green multi colored yarn coming out! Next I'll have to do another rhubarb dyebath since the last skeins sold out at the Waynesburg show.

Fiber note: this weekend is the Great Lakes Fiber Show in Wooster, Ohio at the Wayne County Fairgrounds ...... it's worth the trip!

Another One for the Record Books

The 6th Annual Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival is now history. This was a year of change for the festival. We moved from downtown Waynesburg to the Greene County Fairgrounds due to a scheduling conflict with the Waynesburg University Commencement festivities. We had more vendors than in prior years and what a quality group they were! There were some last minute changes, but the concensus from visitors & vendors alike was that it was a great weekend!

We started off Saturday morning before the festival officially opened with the sheep shearing for the Sheep to Shawl Contest.
Three teams competed for first prize with a shawl that they created from freshly shorn sheep. Two women were shearing this year. One of them was the Greene County Lamb & Wool Queen, Rachel Finnegan. After the sheep were sheared, the fleeces went to be carded, spun into yarn, and woven into shawls on a prewarped loom.

The shawls were judged by a panel and then auctioned off Saturday afternoon.

The Lamb & Wool Queen wasn't done for the day though ..... she and her escort also judged the vendor booths. There's an award for the best fiber booth and the best non-fiber booth. Rachel & her escort are making their way through the building to check booths and talk with each vendor. Best fiber booth went to Aboundingful Farm and best non-fiber booth went to Wilson Stained & Fused Glass. Here's a shot of one side of the Wild Rose Farm booth and some of our naturally dyed Rambouillet yarn. The gorgeous fleece on the floor was the one that was reserved on shearing day this spring and it was picked up by Misty at the festival. Looking back at the records, this fleece came from the same ewe who had the Reserve Grand Champion Fleece at the Hookstown Fair in 2008.
Next to the Wild Rose Farm booth was Shipyard Point Glassworks. They had a fantastic selection of image art glass buttons, stitch markers, beads, earrings, and glass embellished knitting needles, crochet hooks, needle threaders, and orifice hooks for spinners. I kept going back and looking at all of the buttons ..... I finally settled on the bright yellow button with blue dots and millefiore accent at the bottom middle of the picture. Go ahead & zoom in on it! I couldn't resist & also bought a button and a fun cat's head bead for a knitting friend.

For the spinners out there, the festival had some rare breed wool for sale ..... hope you got some! Wensleydale was available from Flying Fibers and Navajo-Churro was available from Walks Far Acres.