Red Squirrel Caught In The Act!

Wild Rose Farm Evening Feeding

I had just taken the photo above from the house when a flash of movement near the bird feeders caught my eye.  There he was, the busy red squirrel stashing away walnuts at sunset ...

Red Squirrel Nibbling On A Black Walnut!

He ran across the rail fence and stopped to chew off the walnut hull.  Then he scampered to the ground and busied himself digging a hole and burying the nut.

Digging To Bury The Walnut ...

Wonder what a boiled walnut tastes like?  He was picking up the spent boiled nuts that had been used for a dye bath. We dump them onto the mulch under the spruce trees when I'm done with them.
Yes, he's a quick little fellow ... I thought that I lost him in the glare, but it's just that my focus was a fraction of a second too late.  I never noticed the mourning dove, but that's him in a blur on the bottom left! :~0

Uhhh ... Which Way Did He Go?

That Raiding Rodent!

Sunrise Surprise - Who's Stealing My Walnuts?!?

My stash of black walnuts was being pilfered by a busy little red squirrel! When I let the dog out first thing in the morning, I saw the remains of a walnut - the nut was gone, but the hull was in a neat little pile.  Huh? We didn't spot the culprit until later after the morning chores were done. He/she was a busy little rascal as evidenced by the picture below ...

The Walnut Raid Continued!

The walnuts were being carried from the bucket on the porch over to the stone wall, leaving a trail of evidence along the way. Easy enough to fix ... I just put a pot over the bucket and ended the fun. The rest of the walnuts are now soaking and the first batch of yarn has come out of the dye pot.

Fresh Out Of The Dye Pot

The yarn is really a nice deep color. The second batch of yarn is soaking in rinse water now & it's time to put in another batch ... perhaps a lighter shade from the exhaust dye bath?  Love the way this looks.  See the little piece of walnut hull next to the yarn?

Wild Rose Farm - Black Walnut Naturally Dyed Yarn

Warm & Breezy November!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ewe Prancing In The Breeze!

We had a lovely Indian Summer here this week.  The flock is enjoying their fall grazing and with the temps in the 70's we had a nice breeze to keep them cool. The only color in the woods now comes from the oak and hickory trees.
Here's a fine point of farming, but if you look at the picture below, you can see that the rear section of the pasture is a darker green.  There is a distinct line.  The back section is where we spread composted manure in August.  

Snow White & The Grazing Flock!

We've had a couple of soaking rains since then and you can see the result. That area had been grazed too, it's just much greener.

Close-up Of Compost At Work ... Whoo-hoo! 

The Week In Review ...

Dr. Larry Goelz of Pipestone Veterinary Services
2015 PA Shepherd's Symposium

Last weekend found us at the Pennsylvania Sheep & Wool Grower's Association Annual Meeting & Shepherd's Symposium with sheep owners from all around the state. Over 50 folks of all ages were in the group.  Great presentations & demos by Dr. Larry Goelz of Pipestone Veterinary Services, Pipestone, MN ...

Dr. Goelz Demonstrates Splinting A "Broken Leg"

We had good food - lamb of course - and the association hosted the 2016 PA Lamb & Wool Queen Contest.  We followed with a silent auction & an annual meeting, but keep in mind this broken leg demo. You guessed it!  On Monday afternoon, I got called out to the barn at feeding time. One of the ram lambs in their group pen had a broken rear leg. We haven't had a broken leg FOR YEARS, so what were the chances?!?  :(
Needless to say, with the demo fresh in my mind, we cut a piece of PVC pipe and fashioned a splint. The Pipestone site also has a great video of the process if you need it.

Wild Rose Farm Flock Moves To The Back 40!

Mid-week, the ewes were moved to the Back 40 for some fresh grazing.  We even got Snow White along with them on the first try. She occasionally manages to scoot around or lope off in another direction. Yours truly is bringing up the rear & hazing the crowd ...

Wild Rose Farm - Munching Fresh Grass! 

Weaving Boot Camp!

First Weaving Project - Tabby & Twill!

Well, I've returned from a class that others have termed a "weaving boot camp"! Five days of beginning weaving at The Mannings in East Berlin, PA taught by Thomas Knisely - it's a big deal! :) The cotton dish cloth(s) above represents my very first attempt at weaving - lots of room for improvement, but we all came out with a bunch of towels to be finished at home. I have been wanting to take this class because I have a 1946 Sears & Roebuck 6 harness folding floor loom here at Wild Rose Farm collecting dust in a spare bedroom. It was last used by my Mother-In-Law in the late '70's to produce rag rugs. So ... I signed up & off I went last week!

Classmate Amy At The Warping Board For Her Scarf 

 There were 5 of us in the class and by the middle of the week, we each had projects in process on 3 different looms. Yep - 15 looms in use at one time.  We did a sampler and also a scarf of our own design.

The Mannings - My Beginning Weaving Class Sampler In Process!

We all felt that we learned quite a bit and Tom was an excellent & patient instructor. We had all kinds of "learning opportunities" ... broken warp threads, crossed heddles, treadle tie-up cord breaking, etc. ... you get the picture. "OK, everyone come down here and look at this" was the phrase of the week!

Tom Knisely Teaching Our Warping Lesson

Wool Scarf Project On Warping Board

My personal experiment was to work with a commercial warp to see if it was suitable for use with WRF fine wool yarns or if I should have our own warp thread made.

Tom Knisely Demos Direct Tie On With Wool Warp

Scarf Project On The Loom

My classmate Amy was very artistic and inspired me to flick bits of blue yarn into the scarf to break up the solid green on blue heather ... very subtle, but of course still regimented for those that know me! LOL

Weaving & Using The Warping Mills

What's next? I found the original manual for the 1946 loom and now we need to set it up and hope nothing is missing ...  

Getting Ready

Black Walnuts Gathered & Soaking For Dye

We are having visitors tomorrow at Wild Rose Farm & it happens to tie in with gathering black walnuts to soak out for a natural black walnut dye.
The squirrels already got to the ones on the left and removed the nut meat from both sides of the shell. I need to gather more walnuts (say a 5 gallon bucket full) to make enough for a nice strong dye bath ... then let them soak & ferment for a week or two!  

Apples, Grapes, & Sheep!

Wild Rose Farm Ewes Coming For Apples!

We've been having really sunny & dry weather this week, but it looks like a T-storm is on it's way tonight. Excuse the glare, but you can see that it's perfect fall painting weather and that's where I was when the sheep came trailing along. I had picked up a bucket of fallen apples & pears to throw over the fence.

OK, So Dump The Bucket!  We're Waiting!

These pics were taken with my cell phone, but you get the idea.  Once again, the wise old ewes came right up and waited.  Later today after it got a bit overcast, we noticed an apple that I had missed and got a chuckle out of it lodged in the tree.  :~0

Apple Resting Comfortably In Tree ...

Mr. WRF was out spreading our composted sheep manure & signaled me to come look at something along the fence line. This has been a great year for blackberries, cherries, apples, and now the acorns & walnuts are falling.  Take a look at this huge crop of wild grapes that he spotted in a wild cherry tree!

Lots Of Grapes For The Winter Wildlife!