Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Wrap Up

Very Cool Sheep Signs!

Finally, a report from the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest LAST weekend! Have I told you about the sheep signs before on this blog? They are sponsored by businesses and gather contest votes for favorite sign prior to the festival. Prizes are awarded, but that's not my area so I'm not up on the details, lol! They all have a little dry erase board on them and they're used all over the festival for directional signage.

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Fleece To Shawl Contest

The Fleece to Shawl Contest had 3 teams entered for the competition on Saturday.  Each team has a different theme and you can see the results above. The Loyalhanna Guild has a sea theme and here they are at work!

Loyalhanna Spinners & Weavers Guild - Fleece to Shawl Competition

There were also a lot of entries this year in the fiber arts contest and here are a few in pictures from the hand-spun skeins category.

Best Of Show

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Handspun Skeins

Overall, the weather was good - no rain to speak of until about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon, and then it cleared up as the vendors were packing to leave.  Even the sheep signs weren't having any trouble with the weather and the alpacas were working the crowds!

Couldn't Have Matched Better If You Tried!

Lippencott Alpacas Visit The Vendors ...

More pictures in the next post ... after a week of t-storms and lambing chores here at home, it's off to the Great Lakes Sheep & Wool Show in Wooster, Ohio tomorrow.  We have Rambouillet wool to drop off with Zeilinger Wool to be made into our Wild Rose Farm combed top ... just spent most of the day in the barn skirting fleeces. 

2017 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival

2017 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

It's time for the 14th Annual Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend, May 20th & 21st! We're all tagging and packing up our "stuff".  We've got a great group of vendors this year - it just keeps getting better.  New this year is a Maker's Space on Sunday manned by the Washington County Spinners & Weavers Guild in Building #10 --- come join in! 
Wild Rose Farm will be bringing our new Rambouillet 2-ply Bulky Art Yarn.   Be sure to check it out ... it's so soft.  Thanks to Ruth & the crew at The Mill At Meadowlands! 
We're wrapping up the lambing and the grazing is good. The picture below shows the dwindling group of ewes waiting to lamb grazing with Snow White and the 7 yearling ewe lambs.  We've been brush hogging daily to try and keep up as we graze each section.

Grazing Background, Mowed Foreground

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White & Her Charges In A Sea Of Grass!

Raining Again & More Lambs ...

Wild Rose Farm "Patches" At 6:30AM Pasture Check

We had several very pleasant days earlier this week and nice weather for lambing. It dried out and we were also able to brush hog parts of the pasture that have already been grazed. The lower parts are still soggy so those areas have to wait.  Our lamb checks continue around the clock & we're up to 23 ewes that have lambed. 

7PM May 11th = Left - Snow White Watching, Middle Alone #408, Right Alone #117

The second picture shows what it looks like when ewes are "thinking about" lambing. I walked through the pasture and took this as picture heading back to the barn. By 10PM, #408, who was pawing the ground in the above picture had delivered a ram lamb.

Rambouillet #408 & Ram Lamb - 10PM 

No one else delivered overnight, but our 6AM pasture check found Dorset #117 with a set of twin ram lambs under the pine trees. She had moved on from standing alone near the water tank earlier.
Here's what it looks like at 10AM today ... now #99 is starting to "stare into the distance".  That's her "above" the llama - 2nd ewe in the distance. 

Snow White & Ewes At 10AM 

Hopefully this gives an idea of what we watch for and observe when we are doing our pasture lambing checks!

Sunshine, Twins, & Grazing!

Sunshine At Wild Rose Farm, Finally!

After several rainy, cool, & windy days, we've got sunshine!  The ewes really enjoy a fresh section of pasture and it's not so "washy" to eat. In the rain, we stepped up the pasture checks to every 2 hours to make sure that we got the lambs in to the barn before they chilled. Mission accomplished.
We had 2 sets of twins born in the rain & 2 more sets of twins born today ...

We Were Born In The Rain, But We're Fine Now!

We're Nice & Dry In The Barn ... And Now The Sun Comes Out! 

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ewe #118 With Twin Rams Born This Afternoon

Hey - What's Going On Down In That Sheep Pasture???

We're grazing in the pasture below our neighbors and the Goat Mahal. Of course, the goats come down to the fence to check things out!  When we moved the net fence this afternoon, we saw a doe leave for the back of the field. She probably has a fawn hidden in the pasture so we were careful not to cause too much disturbance.  It's probably gone by now. We've noticed that does will take advantage of the relative safety behind the pasture fences.    

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Rain & Drizzle In The Pasture

The last 2 days have been rainy off & on. We had 2 sets of twins born yesterday - one set in the early morning rain around 6AM and one set around 2PM in a brief sunny period. We had to towel off the morning lambs and milk out a little colostrum to make sure the smaller, 2nd born of the two got off to a good start.

When Will This Rain Stop?

It's critical in weather like this that we keep up the lambing checks about every two hours. Here's my selection of farm footwear for every scenario!

What The Fashionable Farmer Is Wearing ... Complete With Stylish Boot Jack!

Finally, a lamb conference in the barn mixing pen ... they had just finished racing around the hay feeder.  I think they are discussing their Kentucky Derby picks ...

Wild Rose Farm - First Lambs In The Mixing Pen

Lambing Time Routines

Wild Rose Farm #50 & Twin Ram Lambs

It's only been a week, but watching & moving ewes and lambs is starting to be a blur! We have "routines" & routine times to go out and do pasture checks.  As soon as I say that, you know that lambing doesn't go according to schedule, so you just have to roll with it ...
After bringing ewe #50 and her twins in this morning, we did the feeding and settled everyone in for the morning.
Another thing that needs to be done when possible is collecting colostrum to freeze in case it's needed to save a lamb. We milked out one of the ewes who had a single lamb late Wednesday night. Usually a single lamb will use one teat and the other teat can be milked out the first time to collect the colostrum.
Worth it's weight in gold when you need it!

300ml of Colostrum For The Freezer

Watching The Pasture

Snow White With #134 & Her Lamb

We had 3 ewes that lambed today. Thankfully, no one lambed yesterday during the drenching downpours and high winds. Snow White was on duty again ... here she is near our #134 horned ewe and her single lamb. It was windy today too. Just get a look at those clouds!

Snow White Watches #134 & Her Lamb Going To The Barn

While the other sheep act silly and start to follow along, Snow White watched us carry off the lamb with the ewe following. Almost as if "it's ok to take the lamb if you're going to the barn".  We just came back in from the barn where we brought in another ewe & lamb in the dark.  The ewe had lambed under the trees ... and Snow White was camped out just below the pines.