Settling In ........

Lisa has started to get used to the routines here at Wild Rose Farm.  She is in with the lambs now and seems to be doing fine.  Amazing that such a large creature won't push her way into the feeder when we put grain out to call the lambs over.  Her feed has to be placed out of reach of the piggish sheep! 

Here she is "grazing" off of the top of the rack with her little friends .....!

And The Ears Have It!

Lamb Ears .......

Maybe it's just me, but the ears have it!  Looking through pictures from today, it seems that the animals are all ears.  If you've been around animals, you know how alert they are. 

Llama Ears

We've often said that no one can sneak up on you when you're out in the pasture.  All you have to do is look at the sheep .... if anything is unusual, they're focused on it!

Donkey Ears

I happened to be hanging around in the barnyard late this afternoon just to get our llama Lisa used to me.  She has settled down & is doing well with the lambs, but she is not near being ready to be handled.  This will take time.  Today she cruised by me about 4 feet away going back into the hayrack in the barn.  She moves freely in & out of the barn and she likes to walk over to the lower side of the paddock to look over the pasture.

Amusing story from 2 weeks ago ..... we have a bowhunter who has been hunting from a tree stand in the wooded pasture over in the background.  Seems he heard some loud crashing through the brush and saw Glenda come bucking & kicking along chasing 3 deer towards him!  Who knows what she was up to?   That ended any chance of a buck coming by his treestand for that morning! 

Maple Tree Saga

WRF Sugar Maple "Before"

Well, our beautiful Sugar Maple finally had to go.  The first sign of trouble was 2 years ago when we noticed leaves drying up early on a big branch on the left side.  Then last fall, about a third of the left side looked anemic before the leaves dropped.  This summer, the whole left side died out, bark started to peel, & the leaves on the front branches withered early.  Now was the time to remove the tree.  We'll still have time to plant several evergreens to shield us from the busy road.

First Big Branch

Half Way

Last Branch

Almost ........

Timberrrrrrr !!!!!!!!!

Rotten Center ...... :(

Given the choice of "do you want me to drop it on the dogwood or the holly bush?", we chose the holly bush.  Actually, the damage wasn't too bad.  A severe pruning for Christmas greens should fix that right up!  Now what else to plant??? 



Meet Wild Rose Farm Lisa!

There's always something new when you live on a farm.  Today we picked up Lisa the Llama!  Lisa was part of a group of 4 llamas who needed to find a new farm.  We were approached about giving a home to a llama & after going to visit the group, we made arrangements to take one.  We called a friend who already has a nice group of llamas and other fiber animals.  The other 3 went to her farm. 
So begins the process of introducing Lisa to the sheep and to us.  The 4 were not halter broken and will need to be able to be handled so that they can get a much overdue shearing in the spring.  Lisa has never been an "only llama" and she will be looking for her former herdmates for a while.  We'll see what time & patience will do. For now she's in the ram pen by herself next to the lambs in the barn.   

Request For Yarn Pics .....

We got a request for pictures of Wild Rose Farm worsted weight yarn, so here we go.  Always a caution when taking pictures of what the true color is, so there are a few angles & a close up.  Natural dyes listed. The dark brown has a greenish cast & the madder & logwood are varigated since we used a tie dye effect in the dye bath.  Probably should take some pictures of the sport weight too ..... different colors there ......

Dark Gold Onion, Lighter Yellow Osage Orange 

Teal w/yellow underlights overdyed with Indigo 

Dark Brown Sumac & Reddish Brown Cutch

Orange Madder, Purple Tie Dye Logwood, Magenta Cochineal

New Sheep Friends!

Wild Rose Farm took some time today to visit with Dave, Vanessa, their children and their 3 sheep.  This spring, we referred them to our sheep shearer and today we stopped by to work with them to do some hoof trimmng.  It's not a tough thing to do, but learning to flip the sheep over & then how much to trim takes a little practice.  The good news is that, judging by the looks of things, these sheep probably will only need to have their feet trimmed about twice a year.  Yeah!  They have a completely different type of sheep than most everyone around here.  They are East Friesian x Lacuane crosses ---- dairy sheep!  The ewes are about 18 months old & they are considering breeding them this fall if they can get a suitable ram.  It just dawned on me that we didn't get a group photo of the ewes, just the hoof trimming exercise .......  :(
Anyway the other 2 sheep were white.  It looks like they're going to have a 4 or 5 inch fleece by next spring.  They have nice clean wool free heads and legs and naturally short tails.  I imagine that they'll give quite a bit of milk, so could sheep milk cheese be a possibility?  I know that most of the beginning cheese making classes & seminars are jam packed! 

More Color Before The Rain!

Wild Rose Farm Fall Color!

More fall color at Wild Rose Farm taken before the rain & wind came last night .....  The next pictures won't have nearly as many leaves in the background.  The ewes are always curious when someone comes out to the pasture since it could mean a bucket of grain!  Then back to grazing once that hope is dashed .......