Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Fun!

Customers At Michelle's Assortment & Kim Goodman's Punch Needle Design

It seemed that the crowds picked up on Sunday after the rain threatened all day Saturday.  The festival only got about 15 minutes of rain on Saturday!  Not so for the rest of Western PA, but the folks on Sunday said, "enough" and came carrying umbrellas just in case ...  :)

See The Little Sheep In The Middle & In The Sheep Bowl?

It seems that no one can resist touching the yarn from the unique Annadele Alpacas booth set-up running down the center aisle of the building!

Annadele Alpacas - Feel The Alpaca Yarn! 

River Ridge Fiberworks has fantastic handspun yarns, felted flowers & purses, sock yarn, and their famous, great smelling "Mothzilla" sachets, but take a look at these great glass window hangings & mirrors!

River Ridge Fiberworks - Wow!

We had several vendors spinning, felting, rug hooking, pottery decorating, & treenware carving during the festival ...

Spinning At Barbara's Weave 'N Wear

Finally, we have pictures of our fantastic Vendor Booth Award winners.  Vendors are "secretly" judged during the festival by a couple of young adults in 4-H or perhaps a mother/daughter pair who visit each booth.  Booths are judged on signage, visibility of pricing, product display, and ability of the vendor to relate to the public and describe their product or craft.  And the winners are:

HipStrings - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Fiber Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

CasDesigns - 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest - Best Craft Booth - 2nd Year Vendor

2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Day One

Fleece Sold At 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest

I spent all day yesterday in vendor set up activities for the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest ...whew!  Today was the 1st day of the weekend festival.  The weather was generally good - one rain shower around lunch time and then no more rain all day.  The fleece above from Rambouillet #410 was entered into the fleece contest and was sold at the fleece tent.

Rambouillet Fleece For Sale At Waynesburg  Sheep & Fiber Fest!

 We still have spinning fleeces available for sale along with our fine wool combed top.  There are some really great vendors at the festival this year.   After locking up the vendor buildings, I walked down to the Breed Pavillion to take a few pictures at sunset.  This ewe seems to be saying "where is everybody?".

Horned Dorset Ewe - Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Breed Pavillion

See you tomorrow at the festival!

First Lambpede Of The Season!

Wild Rose Farm Lambpede !

Well, there they go!  The first unrestrained, full scale lambpede of the season was underway ...  The temperatures dropped from the 80's on Monday to the 50's tonight with cloudy & overcast skies.  Perfect weather for a lambpede.  By the time I got closer, the lambs had made another lap and were tired and stood panting with their little sides heaving.  I bet they're in the barn taking a nap now!
I spotted them while I was at the kitchen window rinsing indigo dyed yarn for the 2015 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest this weekend May 16th & 17th.   Stay tuned & I'll have some pics of the yarn and some spinning fleeces that will be going to the show!

1st Pasture Outing!

Wild Rose Farm Lambs

We let the ewes with older lambs out to graze in the early evening yesterday.  Of course, the ewes rush out for fresh grass and most of the lambs come along behind bleating in mass confusion!   And quite frankly, it takes about 10 minutes of munching before most of the ewes go looking for their lambs.  We noticed that "U" was the first one to go back to the gate area and pick up her lamb.  Some of the lambs managed to never lose their ewe in the rush, like #403 below ... she's happy, they're happy!  :)

WRF #403 & Twins Nursing

We only had 1 lamb born yesterday evening.  We got caught in a drenching downpour just as we were a couple of hundred feet from the barn.  That also sent the remaining grazing ewes & lambs back up to the barn & the traffic jam slowed us down!   Aaccckkkkk!

And Mother's Day It Was!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #401 With Triplets

Wow, what a day it was!  Mother's Day started at sunrise with a set of triplets from #401 and a large single lamb from #47.  Look closely in the picture above in the distance.  You can see Mr. WRF and #47 heading to the barn with her lamb.  Also notice that one of the triplets is quite content and resting.

Why We Closely Watch Triplets ...

As I was taking pictures, #401 started ambling off towards the barn herself.  The lamb who had recently nursed and was resting could be left behind as the ewe walked off happily with 2 lambs at her side!  This is why we keep a close eye on triplets and have them penned up much longer than twins or singles.  We might need to supplement with a bottle and keeping them close helps with the observation.

Ewe & Triplets At The Barn

I used a lamb carrier to cradle one of the lambs and lead #401 ... the other two lambs followed at her heels all the way to the barn.   It helps by suspending the lamb right at the nose height of the ewe.

Handy Dandy Plastic Lamb Carrier!

That was just the morning exercise though.  Between 3 PM and 7 PM we had five (5) more ewes give birth!  Two ewes with singles and three ewes with twins.  We didn't get back in the house until 9 PM.
Happy Mother's Day !!!

Sunrise & Lambs At Wild Rose Farm!

Wild Rose Farm Sunrise & Lambs!

Last night we penned up #50 in the Loafing Shed ... she definitely was getting ready to go into labor.  Here she is this morning around 7 AM with her set of twins.  We walked her over to the driveway area where she is munching up a storm with the lambs at her side.  She probably hadn't really eaten anything since yesterday afternoon when she started to get that "distracted" look and began to pace around.

Wild Rose Farm #50 Grazing With Twins

We have been impressed with her.  She is an excellent mother & last year she raised a set of triplets with no bottle feeding.  She is a x-bred ewe with a high percentage of Rambouillet.

U & 2 Others!

Wild Rose Farm "U" At The Barn Gate

As we suspected this morning, U was ready to lamb and had this single ewe lamb around 4 PM.  Then two more ewes had singles out in the pasture today.  When we brought the ewes in for the night, one of our Rambouillets had a single lamb and she stayed there with it.  Here are the sheep below coming in at dusk.. The ewe in the lead is #47 & she's due any moment now.  We also penned up another ewe in the Loafing Shed - she had separated off in there, so we set up a pen around her.  It helps to keep other expectant mothers from stealing a lamb!

Wild Rose Farm Flock Coming In At Dusk

After we got some pens cleaned out in the barn, Mr. WRF went back out at 9 PM & brought the Rambouillet ewe & her lamb to the barn.   She was a bit skittish and I watched the LED light moving slowly towards me at the barn while I got water & feed ready for her ... we came in from the barn at 9:45 PM.