Busy With Farm Projects!

Wild Rose Farm Sheep Grazing & Garage Project Excavation

After 27 years, we've finally gotten a garage project underway. The picture above was taken from the kitchen window. With the big pile of excavated soil, it felt like we had a view of the Rocky Mountains! The footer is being formed up today, the temps are going up to around 90 degrees, and it is humid.  The good news is that the room above the garage will be a space for fiber & yarn, plus the floor loom will reside there too!  Fiber is fluffy by nature and it now fills the better part of one bedroom with show set-up stuff & tents squirreled away elsewhere. It will be great to have it all in one spot with easy access and no staircase to negotiate - yay!
Yes - those are the ewes and lambs grazing in the background. They'll probably head for shade in the barn as it gets closer to noon ...

Snow White Enjoys Some Down Time In The Shade!

Here's a look at Snow White watching me skirt Dorset fleeces over the weekend on Saturday. She was relaxing in the barn away from the meddlesome lambs (!). She was the only one who chose to come in at the time. The Dorset fleeces went to a fiber festival in Wooster, Ohio on Sunday to be delivered to Zeilinger's Wool ... they will be custom processed into wool quilt batts.
We're down to only 1 queen & 1 full size quilt batt available for sale right now - yikes!

Lambs Checking Things Out ...

Wild Rose Farm Lambs on Garden Site!

The funny thing about the picture above is that the ewes are all grazing, but the lambs seem to be captivated by the soil in the garden site. They are exploring everything and had just finished racing around when this picture was taken. Once the ground dries up a little, we'll get some seeds planted.
Everything falls behind when lambing starts and festival season is underway ...

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Day Two

Ewe #129 Fleece - Flick Carded, Spun In The Grease, & Washed

Fleece Purchased Saturday - Sample Returned Sunday!

Wow - talk about fast turn around!  This Wild Rose Farm fleece was purchased on Saturday and the happy spinner returned on Sunday with this sample for me. See earlier posts for fleece pics. She said that she flick carded the wool, spun it in the grease - a first for her - and soaked it for 20 minutes to wash it. Just look at how fine it is!
I promised to pull the micron test for the fleeces that she bought, so that will be another day.

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Fiber Booth 

The Crafty Alpaca of Avella, PA

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Craft Booth

Boone Hollow Baskets of Waynesburg, PA

"Best Booth" ribbons are awarded to vendors who are judged anonymously for booth display, clear pricing & signage, and their ability to relate to customers. We had two great winners this year. Boone Hollow is a long time vendor with a great reputation for quality and The Crafty Alpaca is a first time vendor with a great selection and family/friends working together. Congratulations!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Fibernymph Dye Works

Finally, a bright jolt of yarn to enjoy!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Day 1

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Reserve Champion Fleece

Reflections at Roclans - Cormo Fleece

Wow, it was a day for fleeces! Wild Rose Farm sold out our fleeces by noon - yay!  The gorgeous Cormo fleece above is an example of one of the winning show fleeces entered by John & Kate Bostek.

Need a Yarn Bowl?

Ridgetop Pottery - 2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

What a Fun Family Booth - The Crafty Alpaca

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Lace Shawls by Holly Road Fiber Farm - Oh My!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Boone Hollow Baskets - Handcrafted in Greene County!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

PhiFiber - See You On Sunday!

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

Aside from a drenching cloudburst around 2pm, the festival was bright & sunny with a light breeze & perfect temps!  Come join us at the festival today 10am - 4pm!
PS - no pictures of yarn here, but there are plenty of vendors with yarn & fibers of course!

Fleeces For Waynesburg Part Two ...

Maybe My Fleece Will Be In A Show Sometime!

More fleece pictures, but first, here's a nice ewe lamb resting while the fleeces were being skirted in the barn ...

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #554 

Our Rambouillet ewe #554 is a 2 year old & is due to lamb "any day now". This is her second shearing. 

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #555

Ditto the above comments for our Rambouillet ewe #555 ... another fleece from a 2 year old ewe who is due to lamb "any day now", lol. The lighting was a little strange last night with overcast skies, so using the camera flash seemed to yellow out the picture. 

Fleeces For Waynesburg!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ewe #118 Fleece

As promised, here is a look a Dorset fleece from #118. Generally speaking, we use the Dorset wool for wool quilt batts, but they would also make a sock wool or a pillow stuffing wool - in other words, something that isn't supposed to felt.

Wild Rose Farm #129 With Twin Ram Lambs Born Today!

We also skirted a fleece from our Dorset x Rambouillet ewe #129 and it is in 4 bundles. Believe it or not, she lambed today and delivered a set of ram lambs shown above. Here is a picture of her fleece below ...

Wild Rose Farm Dorset x Rambouillet Ewe #129 Fleece

Finally today, here is a fleece pic from another of our Dorset x Rambouillet crosses, ewe #147.  Hey, maybe that's her in the background bleating. Just banging a bucket in the barn starts a cacophony of baas ... it's always feeding time if you're a sheep!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset x Rambouillet Ewe #147 Fleece

Skirting Fleeces For Waynesburg!

Wild Rose Farm #118 Dorset Ewe

My Fleece Is Coming To Waynesburg!

Pictures of the spinning fleeces are coming as soon as we get everything skirted. We've had some windy & rainy days lately, so we haven't been able to skirt fleeces with the barn doors open ...

2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival This Weekend!

Early Morning Scene ...

Wild Rose Farm At 6:00AM Pasture Check

Yesterday started out cool & foggy ... here is the early morning pasture check with Snow White & the sheep in the background. Nothing going on here!

Busy Saturday Lambing!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #416 - "B4" Lambing

We had a really busy day on Saturday the 12th with 6 ewes lambing over the day, and they used all of the 24 hours!  The picture above is our Rambouillet ewe #416 about 8 hours before she delivered a set of twins. You can see her starting to "drop" in front of her hips. She was in labor and closely followed another ewe & her lamb up to the barn, so she delivered in a lambing pen.

Rambouillet Ewe #416 Cleaning 1st Twin Ewe Lamb 

Here's another of the ewes that delivered on Sunday ... she had one lamb in the field and promptly dropped the second lamb on the way to the barn. We paused for about 5 minutes and then proceeded on, #141 coming right along with her newborn lambs ...

Wild Rose Farm #141 With Ram Lambs

Then we had one ewe that delivered on Sunday, which became a day to catch up on other chores & do some napping ...
Footnote: Folks, it's not all sweetness & light on a farm. Some social media accounts make it look easy, fun, & tell only happy stories. It's not pleasant to share some of the realities. A couple of nights ago during the midnight pasture checking, a coyote was spotted sitting and watching in our head lamp beams. The llama is with the ewes inside the electric net fencing that you see in the grazing scenes. The donkey is patrolling the perimeter outside of the net fencing. We've talked about that before. Two nights later, in the midnight rain, vigilance paid off.

Watching & Checking For Lambs!

Wild Rose Farm Snow White Isn't The Only One Watching!

The one constant thing about lambing season here at Wild Rose Farm is the watching and regular checking for ewes in labor.  Or ewes with newborn lambs since the last time we checked.  Or a white plastic bag that blew into the pasture and looked like a lamb left behind by an errant ewe under the pine trees ... yikes!  Yes, that happened yesterday to Mr. WRF & he was not happy ... "luckily" it was a bag.  But look at the picture above and enlarge it to see another watcher.  This was taken at 6:30AM today when I thought I heard a noise coming from up above. Yes I did!
Closely scan the skyline and you'll see either Otis or Lotus - one of our goat neighbors - watching from atop the Goat Mahal Annex!

Dorset Ewe #117 With Newborn Ewe Lambs

 Here's another reason to keep a close check on the ewes. Today our Dorset ewe #117 had a set of twin lambs under the pine trees. When we went out to pick them up, one of them had crawled or rolled around and was head first partially in a groundhog hole!  If several more hours had passed, that would have been a disaster. As Roseanne Roseannadanna used to say, "it just goes to show you, it's always something!".  She and her lambs are safely in the barn now.

More Lambs Since Monday ...

Wild Rose Farm - #148 & Ram Lamb

We've had a half-dozen more ewes that have lambed since Monday evening. Cross-bred ewe #148, a "first timer", delivered a large ram lamb and is taking great care of him! Ditto for another "first timer", #150 - she delivered a large ewe lamb.

Horned Crossbred Ewe #134 Cleaning Her Twins

 Blog followers will recognize this horned ewe, #134 from previous years, She has a nice set of twins, one of each. We'll have to see if they have horn buds like their dam. These lambs were sired by the Dorset ram.

Wild Rose Farm #134 & Lambs

We also had another set of Rambouillet twin lambs born yesterday - Rambouillet ewe #407 had a ram lamb & a ewe lamb. Here she is with her newborns below ...

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #407 With Newborn Twins!

All four of these ewes above lambed between 3PM and 8PM yesterday!  It was a busy afternoon & evening here at the farm!
And ... today this afternoon, Dorset ewe #1445 delivered a set of twins too - one of each. They will be registered and are out of our performance tested Dorset ram.
Time to get some sleep!!!

Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival Sneak Preview!

The Official T-shirt of the 2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival!

Here they are, fresh out of the box!  During our festival committee "walk-through" meeting at the Greene County Fairgrounds, we got to see the 2018 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival t-shirts. They feature our custom festival art from local artist Colleen Nelson. The festival is in it's 15th year of "Celebrating the History of Sheep & Wool in Greene County". Vendor profiles can be found on the festival web-site ... or stay tuned by following our FB page here!

Spring Grazing Pics!

Snow White & Ewes On Pasture

We think that the grass is about a week or so behind this year. We've heard other local folks saying that the trees are leafing out later too.  I don't know about that, but we're marching along in our intensive grazing program.

Wild Rose Farm - Setting Up For Grazing Tomorrow

In the picture above, you can see where the sheep had grazed behind the fresh section of pasture that the sheep are munching now.  The fence will extend up between the pine trees to give the ewes some shade if needed. It was overcast today, but the temperature is going up by mid-week.

Wild Rose Farm - Got Grass?

Oh yes ... we had one ewe lamb born today too ...

More Lambs Coming!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #332 & Twin Ram Lambs

We've been busy the last few days with grazing moves & new lambs coming.  Here are a few pictures of what's been going on in the barn as we bring the newborn lambs in from the pasture!

Wild Rose Farm X-bred #127 & Twin Ewe Lambs

Dorset Ewe #118 came up to the barn with #127 and her twins ... she really wanted to steal one of them!  As expected, she delivered her own single ewe lamb about 5 hours later ...

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #333 & First of Twin Ewe Lambs