Open House & 1st Cutting Hay

Yes, of course our 1st cutting hay was ready to be picked up out of the field the same day as the Wild Rose Farm Spring Open House.  Well, it hardly felt like spring!  Temps in the mid-80's and a little breeze.   This was the first year that we didn't put the ewes and lambs in the pen next to the driveway ..... too hot!  It wouldn't be fair to them to be hanging around all day in the sun.  At least we had the day old twins in the barn and 2 ewes with their twins.   Our first visitors of the day came early and had a chance to feed our bottle lambs.  We have 2 lambs that are being supplemented since the ewe wasn't giving quite enough milk for them.  The kids really enjoyed the bottle feeding and then we went down into the pasture field to find "U".   She seems to be developing her own fan club!  No sooner was the open house over than we were packing it up, grilling some supper, and heading off to pick up our hay.   We unloaded the first trailer load and then brought the 2nd load back at dusk and parked it in the barn to be unloaded Monday morning.  Why Monday?  Because we headed out to Wooster, Ohio for the Great Lakes Sheep & Wool Show on Sunday!

Open House At Wild Rose Farm!

"U" reminds everyone that tomorrow, Saturday 5/29 11AM - 6PM is our annual open house ......
Just in time for the Wild Rose Farm Spring Open House,  Rambouillet ewe #315 had a set of twin ewe lambs today.   Readers know that we've been waiting for her to lamb for a little over a week now.  She was put in a pen at 8:00AM, and by 9:30 there were 2 lambs.  We got an inquiry on a Rambouillet ram lamb and another ewe lamb today from a young woman who has 3 Rambouillets from our last ram, the Schaffer ram out of Colorado.  Time to pull the records and see the bloodlines on the sheep that she has so that we can pick an unrelated ram lamb for breeding. 

Pasture Check

Here are some of the sights while we're conducting a Wild Rose Farm pasture check.   First, the ewes and lambs seem to be swimming in the tall grass!  They follow little pathways and mowed strips.  But not all is sweetness and light ...... Just over the fence, below the right side of the picture above, we find this view over the hill!

Many old farmsteads have a dump on the property.  Sometimes the dump is in an old house foundation like my grandfather's farm.  They are usually over a hill, or as far as someone could heave their trash over the fenceline.   As I walked along the fenceline patrolling for any potential lost lambs, I rediscovered this mini-dump over the hill.  It must have been out of sight, out of mind for the prior owners ........  :(

Big Sky Country???

Is this Montana or just another slice of Western Pennsylvania?   One of our neighbor's farms is much closer to West Virginia than we are at Wild Rose Farm.  We stopped over to ask a "technical" sheep question and found him working on his tractor in the driveway.  The no-till corn planter is hooked up and ready to plant 10 acres of corn tomorrow.  There is level ground on this farm and as you can see, the "steep" sections are properly devoted to permanent sheep & cattle pasture.   This is the view "up" from the driveway. 
Several farms around here have their 1st cutting hay down and raked, so haying season begins for another year ....... 

Looks Good For Her Age!

This is Wild Rose Farm #802, a 12 year old Rambouillet ewe.  She is standing to the right of a yearling ewe and we think that she looks pretty good for her age.  At first we didn't think that she was bred, but now she seems to be filling out.  Time will tell, so we'll keep watching.   One of her companions is #315 and she is huge!   She's giving us a funny look as we come up behind her to check things out ..... "any day now", she says.

And begging the indulgence of the audience, here's a shot of some of our gorgeous peonies shown off in a classic "Lady Head Vase" .   I clearly remember us picking this out at the Thrift Drugstore on Brodhead Road in Aliquippa, in the mid-60's, as a present for my mother.  We walked to the store with my father to buy it.  This lady looks best in lush peonies .....  and she also looks good for her age!  :) 

Rainy Day @ Wild Rose Farm

Thank goodness after the downpours today that it wasn't last weekend during the WS&FF!  We had another set of twins born in the field yesterday, but we brought them into the barn last night.  No sense leaving them out at this early stage.  Here is #35 and her twins ..... one ewe lamb and one ram lamb.

While out tonight on "pasture patrol" we spotted a deer in the far corner of the field.  This is where 2 sections of our fence come together.  The doe jumped up and over the fence into the pasture ..... I suspect that she has fawns inside the fence.  We've noticed this in other years and we think that they may find the fenced pasture a safer place to keep their fawns. 

Look closely at the picture --- it's starting to get misty & foggy.  Double click on it to enlarge it and you can see the "V" of the doe's tail on the other side of the 10 strand high tensile fence. 
Aaaaaccccckkkkk!!!!!!!  Blogger is having trouble uploading pictures right now!   It's time to move on, so we'll try to add the pictures tomorrow. :(
Yea ..... pictures successfully added.

And the WINNERS ARE ........

At this year's 7th Annual Waynesburg Sheep and Fiber Festival , we had all kinds of great vendor booths.  There were fiber show veterans and several vendors on their 1st, 2nd, or 3rd show.  We all know how it is just starting out and we like to encourage artists who have really good hand crafted specialties.  During the weekend, we have an anonymous judge or two circulating through the festival.  They look at the booths for things such as signage, clear pricing, & product display.  They also engage the vendors by asking questions, etc. and judge their ability to relate to the public about their fiber, art, or craft.  With so many fantastic vendors, it's hard too pick just one, so we pick two!   "BEST FIBER VENDOR" and "BEST NON-FIBER VENDOR".   Blue ribbons and 2010 crocks to our happy winners ....   Thank you to all of our vendors for a great show and the positive feedback that you gave to the festival!

Best Fiber Vendor ----- River Ridge Fiberworks <-- Check out their sign! 

Best Non-Fiber Vendor ----- Tatting By Tabitha <-- Exquisite work & demos at the festival!