Winter Weather Coming!

Wild Rose Farm had a great time at the Christmas At The Village event yesterday.  We saw several of our regular yarn & wool customers and got to meet a couple more!  We've been handing out the "Save The Date" cards for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival.  Last night bunches of them made their way into the hands of knitters & fiber folks to take back to their friends and their clubs or guilds.  The camera battery ran out, so no pictures of the show ..... :(    I hate when that happens!
It sounds like we have the snow and cold coming our way tonight.  It was raining earlier today, but the temps dropped and the flurries have started.  It may be a winter wonderland tomorrow ..... we brought Glenda up to the barn yesterday so she has shelter from the cold rain.
As of today, 14 ewes are marked as being bred ..... 7 more to go!

Christmas At The Village

Wild Rose Farm will be at Old Economy Village  on Saturday December 11th for their "Christmas At The Village" event.  We will be selling our yarns, wool, quilt batts, combed top, etc at the Weihnachtsmarkt located in the Granary building.  There will be other local craftsman & artists selling their own unique gifts & hand-crafted items.  The event is from 2PM - 8:30PM ...... you get to stroll through this historical site along lantern lit walkways ..... it's really a great family activity for Christmas.  I always find some really neat one-of-a-kind gifts here. 
The theme this year is Christmas Around The World ..... Hope to see you there!

The Ram

Ram & Ewe #329

We put our Rambouillet ram in with the ewes on Sunday.  After first stopping at the mineral feeder for a few minutes, he quickly found a girlfriend.  She was none other than Wild Rose Farm #329!  She's been in the news lately because we shipped her prize winning fleece to the  Lancaster Spinners & Weavers Guild   a couple of weeks ago.  They are studying different breed fleeces, and this was their Rambouillet review.  Here she is hanging around with the ram.

Yearling Rambouillet #403 &Aged Rambouillet #321

  The rest of the ewes decided that the mineral feeder was a good place to loaf too.  Their ear tag numbers are spray painted on their hips .... makes it much easier to identify who is marked with the ram's breeding harness crayon in the light at dusk.

Sorting Sheep

#802 & Ewe Lambs

On Sunday we put our Rambouillet ram in with the breeding ewes.  It's a multi-step process that started with us first sorting off the lambs.  Some are being retained as breeding stock and some are freezer lambs.  We're keeping one registered Rambouillet ram lamb out of our #802 ewe.  We're also keeping about 10 Rambouillet ewe lambs and 3 crossbred ewe lambs.  Here are the "keepers" and a few others out with #802 (on the left), the Wild Rose Farm "grandma".  She'll be 13 years old and we're not going to breed her this year.  Believe me dear readers, she is not happy to be stuck with the lambs ..... she is looking towards the other sheep and of course, the lambs will follow her lead. 
Some of these lambs are for sale.  All are sired by our Rambouillet ram.

Temperatures Dropping!

Boy did the wind start kicking up this afternoon at Wild Rose Farm ..... we had rain, some heavy, for the last 2 days and now the temperature is dropping to 23 degrees F overnight.  At least we don't have to take water back to the sheep any more.  The rain was enough to soak in and recharge the water table, so the middle water tank is flowing now.  The ewes and ewe lambs were really frisky tonight at feeding time.  Jumping and running and head butting.  It's the cold weather and the time of year - breeding season - causing that behavior!   I even got to drive the tractor ....... you can really feel the wind when you're perched up on the seat. 

How Dry Is It?

It seems that if you're not a farmer or not relying on a well for water, you may not be aware of how dry it is around here.  The ewes have been moved to a section of pasture served by our "middle water tank".  This tank is fed by a spring development that always goes dry seasonally.  That season is usually August through September.  Unfortunately, it's not producing a flow of water right now.  That means carrying buckets or running our portable 35 gallon poly tank out on a wagon to where the sheep are grazing.  Of course the temperature "spiked" today up into the high 60's, so the ewes were thirsty.  Time for some heavier rains to get the ground charged up again! 
Here's a look at one of our other dependable spring developments.  This tank is gravity fed by a spring that originally came from the farm spring house.  When we bought "Wild Rose Farm", all that was left of the spring house were a few stones and a collapsed & rotted roof.  We developed the spring as part of our farm conservation plan.  This summer we replaced the old tank and directed it's outflow to a new 2nd tank.  In the picture you can just see the light colored tip of the 2nd tank in the upper right of the picture.  Now what's that floating in the tank?  A bundle of barley straw!  Yes, an old time solution to the green slime build-up in tanks & ponds ..... the water is now clear enough that you can see the inflow pipe under water and the overflow stand pipe.   So ...... these water tanks are full and flowing, but the sheep are somewhere else grazing!  

Moving To New Pasture

Fall Sunset

There was a glimmer of sunshine this evening after a mostly overcast day.  The skies are really clear overnight and the moon is really bright out there right now.  We'll be bringing the ewes up to the barn tomorrow to de-worm and "tag" them in preparation for breeding season.  Thanksgiving weekend is when we traditionally turn in the ram at Wild Rose Farm.