Buying Hay ...

Round Bales - Smooth Bromegrass

Yes, it's a bit out of season, but we're buying hay.  Here it is stacked in a barn.  It's the time of year when farmers start to look at their hay supplies and think about where they're going to put the new crop of hay. We keep an eye on the Farm & Dairy weekly paper out of Salem, Ohio, on the chance that someone local to us will advertise.  
We will have hay here on the farm "carried over" and adding this will satisfy us for next winter.   And ... unlike hurrying to haul hay out of the field & get it under cover, we will peck away hauling this as we have time.  We've done this before, but usually with small square bales ...

Shuffling Sheep

Oooooh - Tasty Grass!

Things have been a bit slow lately at Wild Rose Farm.  Cold.  Really Cold. Warm. Cold again.  Frost seeding weather.  Now rain.  Tomorrow cold again.  Saturday colder still.  More frost seeding weather.  You get the picture.   We decided to move the sheep out of the barn area and over to the feeding pad near the Loafing Shed.  We'll need to clean out the barn before the shearing coming up shortly.

Off They Go ... Can There Be More Tasty Grass Ahead?

My role in this activity?  Follow behind hazing any stragglers and closing gates as we go.  Hmmm.  Notice anyone missing from the picture?

Who Me?

I went back into the barn paddock ... Snow White demurred and skittered past me into the barn overhang.   Now folks, she's been shown and can be haltered & led along, but I said to heck with it!  We'll get her another time.  Dinner was waiting.   Fast forward to today ...

Snow White Watching Her Friends

Guess who is standing out in the rain gazing into the distance?  Yes, her sheepy friends are all OVER THERE!    Maybe if we walk down a little closer ...?

Looking At Sheep Is SO Interesting ....

Breaking Ice

Wild Rose Farm - Breaking Ice

I looked out the window in the morning and saw the pup running around in the field ... how did she get down there?   Hmmmm.  She was racing ahead of the Wild Rose Farm ice-breaking crew.  Temps of -6 will do that to you!

Heaving Ice With Pitchfork

The spring water development runs constantly, but it freezes around the edges & the sheep can't reach the open water.  You can see that some algae in the tank is stuck to the bottom of the ice.

Jazzy Playing & Chewing On Ice Chunks! 

Of course, Jazzy takes this as a great adventure, playing and racing around!  The crew looks back to see what the heck she is doing ...

Wild Rose Farm Jazzy On The Move!

It looks like Jazzy is showing her Iditarod racing form as the work continues.  Almost done clearing the water tank now ... and Jazzy banks into the turn on the home stretch!  :)

Clearing The Last Of The Ice

Anybody Out There?

Wild Rose Farm - Whiteout @ 1:39 PM Today!

For all we know, the sheep are trailing down to the water tank, but you couldn't prove it from this picture! The current temperature is 22 degrees F & dropping.  It's looked like this several times today and we've gotten a couple of inches of new snow.
In other news, the applications are flowing in from the vendors for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest.  As the Craft Show Chairman, it's great to see the long time vendors coming back and new vendors sending their pictures in with their application.  A new vendor application came in today - she wrote about her fiber and felted offerings and mentioned that her "fairies have a following"!   It puts a smile on your face on a cold winter day ...   Is the 3rd weekend in May far away now?  ;~)

Wild Rose Farm - Glad to Have Indoor Plumbing!

You can't even see the barn from the porch ...

Sunrise, Sunset

Wild Rose Farm Frosty Sunrise

Nothing like cold weather to keep the sheep happy!  They actually thrive in this weather ... temps in the teens and twenties.  First they trail down to the spring water tank, then they trail back.  Occasionally a single sheep makes a trip alone, but usually it's a group event.

Afternoon Snow & Sun

After a day of bright sun, frisky head butting, and milling around, we usually see some of the ewes trailing back down to the water tank just before sunset.   And scampering back when they get left behind!  :)

 Two Ewes Hurry Back To The Flock - Sunset Soon!

Snow ... finally.

Has it really been a month since our last post ?!?   With holidays, travel, & projects, it must have been!    We finally got some snow that amounted to something more than a dusting and some single digit temperatures to go with it.   The sheep do what they always do ... paw away the snow and keep grazing. 
For some reason, blogger won't upload pics now, so our dear readers will have to use your imagination ...  :~(

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Grazing - Pawing & Plowing! 

Ewe Lambs

Wild Rose Farm Ewe Lambs

The lamb selling season is winding down now and we have several ewe lambs available that would make good replacements or flock starters.   The lamb with her chin on the gate is a Rambouillet.  Notice how she has a greasier or slightly darker fleece.   The other 3 in the picture happen to be Dorset x Rambouillet crossbreds.  We put an ad in the Farm & Dairy classified section.  You never know, but we've been asked in the past to hold lambs to be Christmas presents.   Probably like some of my readers who are farmers, I've also had to by-pass requests for nativity scene lambs.  If they weren't bottle fed as lambs, they can be too skittish to stand peacefully in a little pen while kids reach out to them.    And no one really wants to have bottle babies anyway, so that's a good thing!  ;)