Growing Wool ...

Wild Rose Farm Ewes At Feeders

Growing and shearing a quality crop of wool takes some effort. Standing there dead center in the picture above is one of the sheep that seems to have a natural talent for finding any burdocks or cockleburs in the pasture! It's an ongoing battle to find and remove the plants before they set seed, but a few plants are all it takes …

Here She Comes … Burrs & All!

The best thing we can say is that burrs & vegetable matter on the head & legs will be sheared off as scrap wool & tags, lol.  Properly skirting a hand-spinning fleece means that any of this will never make it to the spinner, or to the mill if we're having yarn or combed top made for sale. Speaking of wool for sale, we're waiting for a shipment of our wool pencil roving to arrive any day now!
We'll have it in time for our next show in November.

Snow White - "You say there's wool pencil roving coming?"

Unusual Visitors To The Show!

Abe & Mary Todd Lincoln Stopped By & Visited Wild Rose Farm!

We had a great weekend at Pioneer Craft Days and got to meet lots of interesting folks. Everyone was surprised to see Honest Abe & Mary Todd with her parasol strolling the grounds on Sunday!
The kids (and their parents) were flocking around for selfies. After they all took a picture, Abe gave each child a "picture" of himself … a bright shiny new penny fresh out of a roll from the mint. The kids were delighted!  They had to be roasting under those costumes. Temperatures were in the mid-80's and it was humid …

Some of the Outdoor Vendors - Beautiful Setting!

Wild Rose Farm @ Pioneer Craft Days!

Wild Rose Farm - Set-up For Pioneer Craft Days October 6th & 7th!

Here's a chance to come see Wild Rose Farm this weekend at Beaver Creek State Park and enjoy Pioneer Craft Days!  Follow the signs to the Pioneer Village. We are set up in the middle of the covered bridge & I expect to see a vendor on either side of our booth by Saturday morning. We just got a shipment of our Dorset wool quilt batts in September … we have Queen, Full, and now, by request, a new Lap size at 45"x72". Stop in and see us and all of the other hand-made craft vendors!

Coverlet & Blanket

We're also allowed to offer up to 20% real antiques at the show ("no flea market items"!). The persimmon & white antique coverlet will be for sale. Provenance is Sewickley, PA. I'm keeping the Welsh wool double woven green multi queen blanket for myself, lol …

Snow White, Ewes, & Garden Sunflowers

Finally, a look around at the farm! We've had downpours of rain on and off over the last couple of weeks. In the picture above, the garden sunflowers are in full bloom and they're top heavy.

Wet Ewes & Garden Sunflowers AFTER Storms

A week or so later, the sunflowers were decimated by the rains. We've pulled the electric net fence around the garden and interestingly, the sheep munched on the remnants of the sunflower heads. They also grazed off the parsley & nibbled the basil ...

Lambs Ready To Go!

Wild Rose Farm - Sorting Ewe Lambs 

It's time & the lambs are ready to start leaving the farm now! Here we were above, sorting through some of the ewe lambs at the beginning of August. We have Dorset/Rambouillet crossbred ewe lambs and several Dorset ewe lambs sired by our performance tested Dorset ram available, as well as one registered Dorset ram lamb. We're planning to keep several of the registered Rambouillet ewe lambs for our own flock, but we do have a couple of registered Rambouillet ewe lambs and and ram lambs for sale.
We had good weather last week for the local Hookstown Fair and now it's back to focusing on the chores here … we have a routine farm visit from the veterinarian scheduled this week. Glenda & Snow White get their annual shots and a check-up, plus we review the lambs for sale in case health papers are needed to sell across the state line. Unfortunately, it looks like a hot week with temperatures in the 90's … yikes!

Thank You Shoppers!

Wild Rose Farm Naturally Dyed Yarns

COG Mini Farmers' Market

We met a nice group of folks today at the Beaver County Council Of Governments "Town & Country: Connecting The Places We Love" event hosted by the Community College of Beaver County. Wild Rose Farm was invited to be part of a "mini farmers' market" at the meeting, representing agriculture & the rural part of the county. We were set up between the Independence Conservancy and Broadrun Farms.
Thank you to the buyers of our yarn today, including a Pennsylvania COG representative from the Harrisburg area … she spent time texting back & forth and sending pictures to a yarn loving friend at home. Now that's a true friend!

Just Curious ...

Wild Rose Farm Snow White - Now What's Going On? 

Maybe it's just me, but I'm amused by the curiosity of our animals. Looks like big do'ins if you're a llama!

Snow White Intently Watches Gate Hinge Adjustment

Llama Snow White Studies The New Garage

The next day, after a bit of rain, I caught Snow White above staring at the new garage. Keep in mind that she has not been in this pasture since the construction started!  Then in the picture below, she turned her gaze to study the big dirt pile in front of the house …

Llama Snow White Turns Her Attention To The Big Pile Of Dirt!

Do the sheep notice any of this? Of course not, lol.

Summer Activity ...

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White & Ewes Ready To Join The Flock

We've had some really hot weather in July & a group of ewes have been under the barn shed roof with Snow White. This week we weaned the last two sets of twin lambs, so the barn ewes went out to join the other ewes who've been hanging out at the Loafing Shed.  We sorted off & dewormed the ewes and the llama.  Deworming is particularly important for her to prevent her from picking up the deer meningeal brain worm (disgusting, I know!). The garage project continues as you can see in the background. I swear the roof was put on during the hottest day of July at 96 degrees!

Sheep Oblivious, Snow White Concerned!

The concrete floor placement (note to readers - you pour milk & you place concrete!) was underway when we headed for the pasture. The ewes were so excited to be munching grass that they were oblivious to the trucks & activity.  Snow White was not so sure that she liked this! You can see that in her ears as she was watching & side stepping …

Wild Rose Farm - Fencing Around The Garden

The funny part was that the sheep kept on grazing across the paddock, but Snow White stayed nearer to the driveway munching and swiveling her head to watch the activity ...