Roadtrip For Supplies

We took a roadtrip to Lehman's Hardware in Kidron, Ohio on Saturday. Here's a look at the rear parking lot!
Among other things, we picked up some supplies & spare parts for our new Aladdin oil lamp. We're considering a wood burner and there's nowhere better to go and look at all of the options & models available.

Out & About!

We're getting ready to put out a new round bale of hay, so the remains of an old bale were spread around to provide a bedding area. The ewes are released from the area where they're feeding so that the tractor can get in to drop off the new bale. At this point, the sheep decide to follow along for the "adventure". But once they get into the fresh open snow, their heads go down and the pawing begins! The ewes are doing a combination of eating fresh snow for water and pawing to get down to the grass. Another thing to notice is the snow on Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet ewe #321 ..... again showing how well insulated the sheep are. The Rambouillet fleeces are especially dense & thick.
Here are 2 more happy Rambouillet ewes working together .....Yum! Of course, as soon as the new hay bale is in place, they all run to the bale and munch like they've never tasted hay before.

Hey - I'm a Keeper!

Today we sorted the lambs and put permanent apricot eartags on the 4 Rambouillet ewe lambs. We had a lot more Rambouillet ram lambs this year, so we only have 4 ewe lambs to keep. The good news is that they were all born as twins .... yea!
We're also keeping "U", but you knew that already!

The older bred ewes were out foraging around while we put a fresh round bale of hay out for them. They really go through the feed in cold weather like this. The baling twine has to be cut & pulled off of the bale before it is ready to feed. The bale sits on a pallet to keep it dry & off of the ground and then a round bale feeder is set up around the hay. That keeps the sheep from pulling hay out and wasting it and from jumping up on top of the bale and making a mess of it.

The sheep were doing just fine, but this "bundled up" blogger was ready to come in out of the cold. Let's just say that we're not in the group of shepherds that lambs this time of year ..... Brrrrrr!

Frolicking Sheep!

Here are the lambs taking a break after a frolic in the snow. It may be cold outside for us, but the sheep are perfectly comfortable. We looked out the picture window this afternoon and the lambs were racing around, head butting, twisting, and jumping up into the air! Throwing on a coat and sneaking up on the lambs got us this shot of them running in the field.
Meanwhile, the ewes were more sedate and focused on their feed! No silly galloping around for them .........
By the way, here's the thermometer to put it all in perspective .......

Snow Keeps Falling .....

A little snow is falling every day in SW PA. Another couple of inches fell since this picture was taken yesterday. Our temps are in the mid 20's, but it's supposed to get colder & down into the teens for the weekend. Nothing like a little energy in the form of shelled corn for the lambs!

Off They Go!

Last night was a flurry of activity here. Here's the stack of Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival vendor applications waiting to be mailed on Monday! Lots of printing, folding, & stuffing. The fellow at the post office says he has a customer who can't remember the name of the "Forever" stamps, so she calls them "Whatever" stamps. Well, I bought 100 of the "Whatever" stamps yesterday for the festival mailing. We just got the new festival artwork on the 2010 flyer. Local Greene County graphic artist Colleen Nelson did another great job. This time, the festival art features sheep gathered around open barn doors as a woman works inside on her pottery wheel.

Happy New Year!

Wild Rose Farm rings in the New Year with a Christmas gift of preparedness. Wow. This Aladdin Lamp comes from the "branch of the family" who believes that you can never be too prepared for whatever comes along out here in the country ..... ice storms, snow storms, hurricanes, and just plain old civil insurrection(!). Some people got Y2K generators, but most of us on farms already had generators and/or wood burners. Has it been 10 years since everyone was worried about Y2K???
If you want to look at all kinds of neat "non-electric" stuff like this, check out Lehman's Hardware Store in Kidron, Ohio and their virtual catalog. It's definitely worth a day trip from the Pittsburgh area.