U - Hoo!

Time for an update on Wild Rose Farm "U" for all of her fans ...... several people have asked about her lately and here she is. She seems to be a very active grazer, but is it just that we notice her because of her color? Speaking of color, we have some new naturally-dyed skeins of yarn washed and ready to be labeled. The dark indigo and yellow/green are full skeins. The other colors in the middle are on shorter, "irregular" skeins. We offer these in "mini skeins" for accent colors (when you don't need/want another full skein) and also for punch needle & rug hooking projects. The yarn can also be "un-plyed" and used as a single strand. Here they are with the sheep that make them possible! It was very sunny & in the high 60's today .... the forecast is for 70 tomorrow. We did a little hoof trimming & deworming of a few lambs today. Also made note of a couple of ear tags that need to be replaced. Our 11 year old ewe, #802, was checked and she still has her teeth. Good for another year!

Save the Date

We just posted an upcoming event on Local Harvest. Our Wild Rose Farm naturally dyed yarns, fleece, & combed top will be available December 5th at the Christmas At The Village celebration at Old Economy Village in Ambridge, PA. Check their event calendar for details. This is a fun way to get some Christmas shopping done and tour this historical site decorated for the holidays. You'll have an opportunity to see handcrafting demos and buy unusual handmade gifts. <--- And folks, we're not talking crocheted toilet paper covers here!
Blog followers will recall that we've also demonstrated indigo natural dyeing at OEV in the summer ...... no demo in December since we'll be inside the historical buildings!

Halloween Special!

Here's a "haunting" sign ...... especially if you're a lamb! We spotted this Halloween "Gyro Special" while driving through Monaca, PA. Needless to say, we had to circle the block and come back for a picture. This is the Original Pita Parlor, a new business in Monaca, and it looks like a creative place ..... wonder if the pitas are good???

Happy Halloween from Wild Rose Farm!

Same View, Color Changing!

It's about the same background from all of the recent pictures, but you can see the color changing ..... a little more subdued and a lot of the tree trunks showing through. We had just moved a round bale of hay down to the sheep, so they're temporarily roaming around while the bale is put in place. What a beautiful day for outside work. We'll be on vacation later in the week and hopefully I'll find some time to sort through some Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet fleeces. Let's see how that goes! Painting, yardwork, & a field trip or two are also on the agenda.

Making Plans

For the record, there was a Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival committee meeting today. We met at Groovy's American Cafe --- during the festival last spring, we recommended this local restaurant to a group of vendors who were staying overnight in Waynesburg. Plans have been underway for the 2010 festival to be held again at the Greene County Fairgrounds. As craft/fiber vendor chairman, WRF will be reporting on our vendor survey from last year's festival. 2009 was our first year at the fairgrounds. Of course, there's always room to improve and we welcome any feedback and new volunteers. Stay tuned for updates here and for the WS&FF website to be updated for 2010.

Hurried home since we were expecting John to pick up the 4 Dorset ewes that he bought. It rained for the whole drive back on Rt 18. Too bad, because the leaf peeping would have been really nice. John, his father, and a friend arrived at Wild Rose Farm before dusk and we loaded the ewes plus an additional Dorset ewe lamb into the stock trailer. She was the first lamb born this year and is a very good sized lamb. Hopefully the sheep do well at their new farm. No pictures since it was dark & rainy! :~(

Honk, Honk, Honk ......

Talk about perfect timing. I wanted to get a few pictures of the sheep with the maples in the background. Today was a gorgeous October day, temps in the 60's. Just as I was lining up my first shot, I heard the geese overhead ..... they were flying to the north, so it wasn't a migration, but I was able to just get them in the picture. Click on the picture for a closer view. They look good in the sky, but they're probably just those annoying resident geese that we all love to hate "pooping" in the parks!

The Sun Came Out Again!

After 3 rainy days, the sun came out on Sunday ..... a nice, crisp fall day at Wild Rose Farm. Here comes the flock just before dusk. We're in the process of setting up another area to feed round bales, so they're roaming around for a day or two, which rarely happens around here. With everyone milling around, I finally got a picture of #113, one of our 4 young Dorset ewes that is going to a new farm this weekend.