Last Lamb Of The Season At Wild Rose Farm!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #410 With Ewe Lamb!

The lambing season is finally over here ... roughly 3 weeks after we expected her to lamb, #410 had a single ewe lamb yesterday morning.  That means that she cycled one more time after she was marked the first time. We had her up in the barn with the ewes who have triplets, so it was easy to watch her.  No chasing around out in the pasture with the grazing sheep trying to find her and keep an eye on her!  ;)

New Rambouillet Ram Comes Home!

REP 2513 - Grand Champion Rambouillet Ram @ Great Lakes Eastern Regional Rambouillet  Sale 

Wild Rose Farm had the winning bid and brought home the Grand Champion Rambouillet Ram today from the Great Lakes Sheep Show & Sale in Wooster, OH.   For my Rambouillet junkie friends (!), he is from REP Rambouillets in Cayuga, NY.   He has Cunningham, Powell, Crawford, Bobb, Wall, & Wil-Hi genetics in his background.  Hopefully he'll work out as well for us as the previous Pinckney Farms Rambouillet ram that we purchased at the 2009 PDA Performance Tested Ram Test Sale.  See our 8/5/09 blog post for pics of that ram!

Munching Hay In The Ram Pen

OK, So Where Are The Ewes?

We also took care of other business at the Great Lakes Sheep & Wool Show.  We dropped off Dorset wool with Zeilinger's of Michigan to be processed into quilt batts ... can't wait to see how that turns out!  Lead time is 8 - 10 weeks, so we'll have them in time for fall shows.

Lambs Out & About!

Wild Rose Farm - Ewes & Lambs In Front Paddock

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the ewes & older lambs have been out doing some grazing.  We're having nice, cooler weather with overcast skies & a bit of rain scattered in too.  MUCH nicer than mid to high 80's with the trees not fully leafed out yet.   We have 1 ewe left to lamb and then we're done ... always a straggler in the group, eh?

Lambs Learning To Graze

The lambs learn by watching & doing ... here the lamb is nibbling the seed head off of the grass stem.  If the weather was warmer and sunnier, the local farmers would be out in their fields.  It is time to be making 1st cutting hay.  As it is, we have already mowed or brush hogged down the section of pasture that the sheep have been grazing while they were lambing.  

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Fun!

Customers At Michelle's Assortment & Kim Goodman's Punch Needle Design

It seemed that the crowds picked up on Sunday after the rain threatened all day Saturday.  The festival only got about 15 minutes of rain on Saturday!  Not so for the rest of Western PA, but the folks on Sunday said, "enough" and came carrying umbrellas just in case ...  :)

See The Little Sheep In The Middle & In The Sheep Bowl?

It seems that no one can resist touching the yarn from the unique Annadele Alpacas booth set-up running down the center aisle of the building!

Annadele Alpacas - Feel The Alpaca Yarn! 

River Ridge Fiberworks has fantastic handspun yarns, felted flowers & purses, sock yarn, and their famous, great smelling "Mothzilla" sachets, but take a look at these great glass window hangings & mirrors!

River Ridge Fiberworks - Wow!

We had several vendors spinning, felting, rug hooking, pottery decorating, & treenware carving during the festival ...

Spinning At Barbara's Weave 'N Wear

Finally, we have pictures of our fantastic Vendor Booth Award winners.  Vendors are "secretly" judged during the festival by a couple of young adults in 4-H or perhaps a mother/daughter pair who visit each booth.  Booths are judged on signage, visibility of pricing, product display, and ability of the vendor to relate to the public and describe their product or craft.  And the winners are:

HipStrings - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Fiber Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

CasDesigns - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Craft Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Day One

Fleece Sold At 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

I spent all day yesterday in vendor set up activities for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest ...whew!  Today was the 1st day of the weekend festival.  The weather was generally good - one rain shower around lunch time and then no more rain all day.  The fleece above from Rambouillet #410 was entered into the fleece contest and was sold at the fleece tent.

Rambouillet Fleece For Sale At Waynesburg  Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 We still have spinning fleeces available for sale along with our fine wool combed top.  There are some really great vendors at the festival this year.   After locking up the vendor buildings, I walked down to the Breed Pavillion to take a few pictures at sunset.  This ewe seems to be saying "where is everybody?".

Horned Dorset Ewe - Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Breed Pavillion

See you tomorrow at the festival!

First Lambpede Of The Season!

Wild Rose Farm Lambpede !

Well, there they go!  The first unrestrained, full scale lambpede of the season was underway ...  The temperatures dropped from the 80's on Monday to the 50's tonight with cloudy & overcast skies.  Perfect weather for a lambpede.  By the time I got closer, the lambs had made another lap and were tired and stood panting with their little sides heaving.  I bet they're in the barn taking a nap now!
I spotted them while I was at the kitchen window rinsing indigo dyed yarn for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend May 16th & 17th.   Stay tuned & I'll have some pics of the yarn and some spinning fleeces that will be going to the show!

1st Pasture Outing!

Wild Rose Farm Lambs

We let the ewes with older lambs out to graze in the early evening yesterday.  Of course, the ewes rush out for fresh grass and most of the lambs come along behind bleating in mass confusion!   And quite frankly, it takes about 10 minutes of munching before most of the ewes go looking for their lambs.  We noticed that "U" was the first one to go back to the gate area and pick up her lamb.  Some of the lambs managed to never lose their ewe in the rush, like #403 below ... she's happy, they're happy!  :)

WRF #403 & Twins Nursing

We only had 1 lamb born yesterday evening.  We got caught in a drenching downpour just as we were a couple of hundred feet from the barn.  That also sent the remaining grazing ewes & lambs back up to the barn & the traffic jam slowed us down!   Aaccckkkkk!