Feeding Time Before Another Storm!

Off To Feed The Wild Rose Farm Ewes, But Let's Zoom On The Bird Feeder!

It's late afternoon feeding time for all of the animals on the farm ..... first the dogs, the cats, the donkey, the sheep, and then the birds.  Now zoom in & look at all of the activity before the next front moves in.  The forecast is for high winds & another 2-4 inches of snow overnight!

Five Different Types of Birds At The Feeder .......
 

The birds were all flocking around the feeders .........



Now Add A Woodpecker......

And Another Woodpecker .....

You can pull out your birding books and have fun identifying the birds.  There were also mourning doves on the ground picking up seeds.  We counted a dozen male cardinals and as many or more females.  The only common birds that weren't around this afternoon were the blue jays .... must have been annoying the birds at another feeder!   

Mid Winter Snow Continues!

Wild Rose Farm Barn Through Streambank River Birch

On our way over to the afternoon sheep feeding, I turned back & got this angle of the barn.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see Frank, one of the Redbone coonhounds, on the far left standing up and watching us!  I've said it before, but you can't sneak up on the farm with that watchful kennel of hounds.

WRF Ewes At Feeding Time

The sheep really aren't doing anything at this time of year, but they are frisky in the cold weather.  The crust on the snow keeps them on paths between their hay in the loafing shed, the feed bunks for corn, and the spring water tank. 

"U" Shows Us The PathTo The H2O Tank!

Once the snow softens, the sheep will wander around more in the paddock.  But for now .... we stay to the path!


Wild Rose Farm Ewes - Watching & Waiting - "Where's The Corn?"

Snuggled In For A Nap!

Who's That Taking Advantage of A Snug Nest?

Left to their own devices, the animals all find a way to be comfortable in the cold weather.  Of course, the sheep go in and out of the buildings at will.  The ewe above was on her way out the door when I snapped this picture.  I went into the barn to check the water buckets and something in the hollowed out middle of the round bale caught my eye! 

Morris Quite Comfortably Napping!

The sheep munched out a nice spot for Morris, our fluffy orange barn cat.  He was nice & toasty and showed no inclination to come out to be petted.  He appeared at Wild Rose Farm as a tom cat several years ago & you couldn't touch him ...... we called him Morris for obvious reasons.  Orange & grumpy.  We did finally get him "fixed" and he's now a fairly friendly fellow. 

Sunshine, Snow, & Sheep!

Wild Rose Farm Sheep Resting In The Snow

The view from the road ...... here are some of the ewes pictured chewing their cuds outside of the loafing shed. There are some inside munching on the round bales, but the rest are just out of sight  bedded down behind the building.  Weather reports call for highs in the low single digits tomorrow ...... brrrrr!
P.S. - can you see the dusting of snow on some of the sheep?

Sheep On A Snowy Sunday

WRF Flock Below Loafing Shed - Way Out There!

We picked up about 4 inches of snow and the temperatures are now in the mid-teens at Wild Rose Farm.  There was a lot of wind, so the light snow was blowing in from the north this time.  That's odd for us ..... we've never had snow blow into the upper side of our main barn.  That's the side where you see the ewes in the lambing pens in April/May when you look at our pictures.  Above is our view from the kitchen window of the ewes over at the loafing shed.  It's an hour before feeding time, so they are standing around waiting!


There they are ...... looking through the pines & river birch trees!

After zooming in, you can make out some of the sheep behind the trees.  They're in a sheltered spot and I noticed their "snow coats" when we drove by earlier.  They're so well insulated that they all have a half an inch of snow on their backs.  They can go in the shed where the hay is, but they prefer to bed down outside & chew their cuds ......
The horizontal shape in the background behind them is the "great pyramid".  It's about 12 cords of firewood under a silver tarp.   That's the by-product of the clearing done for the shed & fence line.  
Someone was very busy last year.  There are used railroad ties with slabwood laid over them as a base & the split wood is stacked up off of the ground on top.  The slabwood came from the wild cherry trees that were sawn into boards for the shed siding.  So .... most of the cordwood came from the trees & tops that weren't suitable for 1" cherry siding boards.  

More January Cold Weather .....

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ram With Ewes

Well, another weekend and the temperature dropped again.  We're in the teens now.  Here is the last round bale that we put out before the new couple of inches of snow, winds, & dropping temps.  That's the new Dorset ram out front ..... he ambled closer to see what was going on, but then went back to the group.  He's still young enough that he usually is in the back of the flock.  Being a Dorset, he's easier to spot in this flock since Dorsets are "white" with less lanolin than the Rambouillets.
And here are the distracted ewes a few minutes later.  All it takes is a little shelled corn in the feed bunks and you can get some work done without sheepy interference!

Wild Rose Farm Winter Ewes

And what do the ear tags tell us?  Yellow ear tags = crossbreds, Apricot ear tags = Rambouillets, White ear tags = Dorsets.

Mild Weather Again ........

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Above Loafing Shed

The weather changed again by the end of the week ..... blue/grey skies and temperatures in the 50's.  We're having some rain now, but the local streams are full of ice.  So is the Ohio River just above the locks & dams - we had a chance to see several of them on the way back from Wheeling this weekend. 
Here's one of our conservaton spring water development tanks .......

Spring Development Water Tank Running Full

And here's the outfall ...... 

Spring Water Tank Outfall

This is the water tank that the flock is using this winter.  Nice to not have to carry water or worry about pipes freezing.  The pad surrounding the tank is deep gravel, so there's no standing in mud either.  The source of this particular spring fed an old barn that's long since been gone ......