Chores Almost Finished ...

Beautiful Day At Wild Rose Farm!

We're wrapping up the pre-lambing festivities here at the farm.  We had temps in the low 80's this afternoon as we brought the ewes up for their vaccination boosters.  We ease them up in stages through the various fields so there is no rush or overexertion.

Snow White Gets Vaccinated Too ...

I was going to brush out Snow White & even up her clip job, but I ran out of time once we got started giving the ewes their shots.  We'll have plenty of time for that later, I guess.  It was just getting dark as we took the flock back to the Loafing Shed.  Now begins the early morning and late night checks for lambs!

Gathered & Waiting To Move

2016 Shearing Done!

Only 6 Sheep Left To Be Sheared! 

We finished the rest of the shearing yesterday here at Wild Rose Farm. Our shearer has his own flock of 100+ ewes, so he arrives here mid-morning after his chores are done.  Mind you, after he finishes here, he heads home to do his own chores again. We split the sheep into 2 groups here now and do about half at a time.
How does the sheep that you're after know that she is the one?  Rambouillet ewe #332 started to spin around just as the picture above was snapped ... she was next and she knew it!

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #332 - Very Nice Fleece!

This is #332, but the tag you see in her left ear is her scrapie tag - we put flock number tags on the ewe's right ear as you see in the 1st picture.
Guess who got a full body clip this year? Yes, that's llama Snow White & she's standing pretty quietly for her clip job! Her early handling and showing career before she came to us certainly serves us well.

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White - Off Comes That Heavy Fleece!

 One thing that she didn't want to do was stand on the shearing board & carpet.  Oh well ... I got some of the prime fleece as it came cleanly off & now what to do with it?  For the record, by this afternoon, she had found the spot where we had burned brush over the winter.  She enjoyed rolling around and taking a nice dust bath in the ashes.  She is now a dusty gray color & no longer shows up as bright white against the green grass like the ewes ...

Almost Frozen & Temps Dropping!

Drooping Daffs ...

I went out this afternoon to cut the almost blooming early red tulips and did a little yard tour.  First I encountered the big drooping daffodils in the front yard.  It's hard to tell, but only 1 bloom could be saved, the rest were frozen & iced over. The forsythia bushes had been frozen and had turned an orange/yellow color ...

Frosted Forsythias ...

The red tulips around the outhouse looked good, so anything close to blooming was cut to bring inside!

Wild Rose Farm Outhouse Tulips!

Tulips Starting To Open On Windowsill ...

Finally, the rhubarb bed that is used for natural dyeing had a bit of snow, but the hardy leaves shrugged off the cold so far.  Hard to believe, but after dipping into the teens tonight, the long range forecast is calling for temps in the 70's next Saturday ... ahhhh, Spring!

Wild Rose Farm Rhubarb Plants In Recently Edged Bed

Change Of Shearing Plans!

What The Well Dressed Shearers Are Wearing!

We got 25 of 46 sheep sheared yesterday with temps in the mid-40's.  We mutually decided to reschedule the rest for next week after this cold front passes.  The shearing machine is still hanging from the nail in the rafters and the board + carpet are leaning against the wall.  Click to enlarge & notice the footwear repair with sheep duct tape! :)  Our shearer does not wear felt booties like some do when shearing.

Wild Rose Farm - Another Nice Fleece Comes Off!

Once again, all of the fleeces are recorded, evaluated, bagged, & tagged as they are being sheared. With just 2 of us to help catch, sweep, bag, and move fleeces, we don't have time or room to set up a skirting table. I usually have a couple of bags of belly wool, dirty top knots, tags, & hay filled neck wool that I've pulled off as we are shearing. One of the ewes was sick last year and so there was one fleece with "wool break" that will end up in the tag pile at the wool pool.

Wild Rose Farm Fleeces "Bagged & Tagged" ...

Rambouillet ewe #422 with a 19.9 micron test produced a nice spinning fleece that we will sample for the Virginia guild project.  Once again, Rambouillet ewe #410 has another great show fleece - look for this one again at the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Fest Fleece Show in May!

A Glimpse Of Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #410 Coming To A Show Near You! 

As they were sheared, the hungry ewes were released to pasture. They ran around munching until we finished, cleaned up, and then opened up the barn paddock gates to them again.  A sudden downpour sent them running back up to the barn where we closed them inside ... but not before some sheepy confusion about where they were supposed to go.  Typical sheep!

Bright White Sheep Flock Back To The Barn

  Yep, they ran past the open paddock gate and stood outside where they had been penned for shearing.  :)

A Bucket Of Grain Calls Them Back To The Gate Behind The Barn ... 

Snow White & the full fleeced ewes were sent back to the Loafing Shed to wait until next week.

Ready For Shearing Day!

Headed For The Barn!

Today is shearing day at Wild Rose Farm ... notice how nice and sunny it was yesterday! Temps are now hovering around 43 degrees and will be falling later today.  Oh ... and it's drizzling with spotty heavier rain throughout the day.  Yuck. Unfortunately, that's the way it goes when you schedule in advance.

Wild Rose Farm - Wait 'Til You See How We Clean Up!

Everyone spent the night in the barn to keep dry and we'll get about half of them sheared today and the other half probably tomorrow if all goes well.  Being newly sheared, they'll have to stay inside for a week or 10 days depending on the weather ... they always have access to the outdoors & they make the choice.

Wild Rose Farm Dorset #115 - I'm Ready To Get This Done!

Dorset ewe #115 was one of the first ewes marked as bred last November ... let's follow along and see if she is one of the first to lamb.  We have an order for a Rambouillet fleece for a guild study project in Virginia, so I'd like to get that put together and shipped by Monday.  :)

Catching Up ...

Annual Vaccinations Before Lambing Season

Wow ... where have we been? Lots of activities going on and since the sheep routine is "so routine" at this time of winter, I just fell out of the habit of posting. Unseasonably warm weather has given us the opportunity to do some brush clearing in the pasture and pruning in the yard. Boring stuff!
We took several of what I refer to as "tail-ender" lambs to the auction this week just ahead of the Easter market.  These are ram lambs that were just too small to be picked out by buyers in the fall holiday season ... Now the only lambs left here are the 7 ewe lambs that we are retaining for our own flock. Of course, that means that the barn is ready to be cleaned out in anticipation of shearing and lambing. This weekend we vaccinated the ewes (and the llama - hey, she was just standing around anyway!) with their annual CDT booster. We're mostly concerned with the "T" portion - tetanus - resistance in the ewes being passed on to the new lambs.  The picture above shows the barn book where we record everything about the sheep, alcohol pads to clean the injection site, the vaccine bottle, & the spray marking paint.  We learned a long time ago to mark the sheep as they are being processed ... "in case" something goes awry and they get scrambled up again, they can easily be sorted without reading ear tags. :~0
Every time we go out to work with the sheep, this tackle box with scissors, hoof trimmers, alcohol pads, assorted sheepy first aid stuff, and the barn book goes out with us!

Daffodils Blooming ... Ewes Heading Back To The Loafing Shed

We also sent Snow White out with the ewes now that the ram is no longer with them. She was delighted to leave the lambs behind and join the ewes for a bit of nibbling on the grass on the way over to the Loafing Shed.

A Quick Snack ... 

Timber Harvest Done At Wild Rose Farm

Log Landing Mulched

The timber harvest was completed and we now have a couple of neighbors who are cutting firewood from the big pieces left over around the log landing. Looking at the picture above, there are still plenty of trees left ... not like a clear cut operation would look. The rest of the tops, or slash as it's called, are left to provide wildlife cover and rot down returning nutrients to the soil.

Tops Left To Decompose

We also quickly put in a new gate just off of the road at the entrance to the log landing. We permit hunting on the farm, but we're closed to motorized vehicles, as the sign below says. Quads & dirt bikes would rut the trails and cause compaction & topsoil erosion.  We'll also walk over the trails in a month or so and do frost seeding in addition to the mulching done by the timber company.

New Farm Gate!

And ... there must be something in the air with escaped livestock around here.  We no sooner had this gate up, than a neighbor on the back road stopped in to report that he had 2 Holstein calves on the loose!  He said they were about 300-400 lbs. At that size I'm afraid that they'll be spooky & fleet like deer and will take a while to settle down and come in with someone else's cattle.  We'll keep an eye out, but ...

Wild Rose Farm Snow White & Ewe Lambs

Meanwhile, back in the barn, Snow White has been keeping company with the ewe lambs while the ram is out with the ewes.  That intent look means that she's waiting for me to hand over a treat!