Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Twins Arrive!

Wild Rose Farm Dorset Ewe #118  With Twins
Yesterday morning, #118 delivered her first set of lambs - one ram lamb & one ewe lamb. That's what shepherds look for ... twins from ewes on their first lambing and good mothering instincts!
Nothing else as of this morning, but here are some nice pasture scenes to set the mood.
Snow White Resting
Grazing In Front Of Stone Pile & Dogwood
Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet Ewe #401 Coming For A Treat
Triplets Last Year - Hmmm - Wha'cha Think?
In the bottom picture, you can see both of our ewes that have horns. #401 is a Rambouillet with small horns (too long to be called scurs) & X-bred #134 behind her with true horns. I've got a small bruise on my arm right now from her hooking me as we were doing vaccinations last week ...

Monday, April 25, 2016

The Storks Arrive At Wild Rose Farm!

A Pair Of Geese Arrive Early This Morning!
The storks geese arrived this morning just after the 6:30AM pasture check.  Huh? I know that storks bring babies, but I guess geese bring lambs! We had heard the honking and didn't see any geese in the sky. Then the dogs saw them & started to bark. We've had geese land in the pasture before, but this was a first.  :)
Dorset Ewe #1445 Separated From Flock At Dawn
 This is what a ewe close to lambing does ... she begins to separate herself from the rest of the flock.
Glenda On Patrol In The Next Pasture
Finally, this evening around 6:40PM, Dorset ewe #1445 went into labor. By 7:10 she had a single ram lamb, the first of our 2016 lambing season. This is her first lamb and she immediately started to take care of it and clean it off.
Wild Rose Farm Ewe & Newborn Lamb Nearing Dusk
Wild Rose Farm - Snow White Is Fascinated By The New Lamb!
Snow White couldn't take her eyes off of the new lamb. After several of the other ewes had sniffed the new lamb and moved on, Snow White approached and gently sniffed at her new charge.  Ewe and lamb are now in the barn resting ...

Sunday, April 24, 2016

All Is Calm ...

Hey Lady - Why Do You Keep Coming Out Here To Look At Us? 
Everyone is still standing around as of this evening with nothing going on.  We'll just keep checking!  Just before I was going out to the barn to work on more fleeces, we got a visit from one of our blog followers. It's nice to know that folks are out there watching the comings and going of the flock ... I promised lamb pictures "soon", so now we're feeling the pressure to perform.
We got another lamb's wool fleece and another Rambouillet fleece skirted today ... at least something is getting done around here! :~0
Wild Rose Farm - #420 Rambouillet Fleece In Dazzling Sunshine! 
Wild Rose Farm - Ewe Lamb 0538 X-bred Fleece
Wild Rose Farm - Ewe Lamb 0538 Fleece Close-up

Saturday, April 23, 2016

In Other News ...

Dusk Cell Phone Pic Of Nothing Happening!
We moved the ewes last night so that they are now grazing close to the barn. The waiting continues at Wild Rose Farm ... nothing as of this morning.
Yesterday our Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival committee had our "walk-thru" meeting at the fairgrounds. Building #8 has been renovated & expanded, so that called for me to whip out the 100' tape measure and get updated dimensions. Next comes a new booth layout map ... the fun never ends!
Lena With Felted Flower Purse From 2015 WS&FF
The building looks so empty without the vendors, but Lena from Lippencott Alpacas decided to show off a felted flower purse that she got last year from long time returning vendor River Ridge Fiberworks. That's the 2016 festival t-shirt tucked under her arm ... sneak preview below:
2016 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival T-shirt!
The featured art sheep are Katahdins from one of the Breed Pavilion flocks at their home farm.  We're less than a month away from the festival now!
2016 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival Poster 

Friday, April 22, 2016

Other Activities Around The Barn

Glenda & Diamond Playing
It's funny what you see when you spend time around animals in their environment. This was the scene above the barn near me while I was skirting fleeces yesterday. Glenda had been hanging around outside watching me because skirting fleeces is just so interesting.  Since it was close to afternoon feeding time, Diamond appeared and went out through the wire panels to see Glenda.  I've seen them from a distance before, but this time I was close enough to get some pictures ...
"Take That!" Says Diamond
We've seen Diamond sitting on a fence rail next to Glenda & walking up to her in the pasture, but never this part of the relationship. The cat pictures make a kind of transition to another event. I came in for the evening to find an email relaying the news of the passing of my cousin, the "original" Dr. Phil. Dr Philip Edward Kaldon and his wife debbie, aka Mrs. Dr. Phil, were well known cat people.  Dr. Phil wrote Sci-fi and had more acclaimed works, but here is a link to a fun(?) little story, Brooding in the Dark
It's one of my favorites. If you've ever pondered the "internet of things" and AI (not the agricultural kind of AI!), you might enjoy the personality of 193.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Waiting & Skirting ...

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White & Ewes Under The Pine Trees
No lambs yet as of this evening, so work continued without interruption on the fleeces today. Taking a break at noon, by walking out to the ewes to check on them, we turned up some pushy ewes ...
WRF Rambouillet #403 Would Like A Treat!
And "as long as you're handing out treats", #401 says, "I might as well push up to the front of the line". It's hard for me to get back far enough to take a picture! :)
WRF Rambouillet #401 Pushes Her Way In Too! 
Since there are no pictures of lambs yet, we'll have to settle for 2 more yummy Rambouillet fleeces that we skirted today.
Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #332 Fleece
Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #410 Fleece Fills The Bag!
Rambouillet #332 Fleece Close-up
Rambouillet #410 Fleece Close-up

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Watching The Calendar!

Wild Rose Farm Lamb Fleece
We need to put a calendar up in the barn. Our lambing season should start any minute now, so we need to let the ewes know what today's date is! As of this morning, no new lambs ...
With the sunny weather & temperatures in the mid-70's for two days, it's time to skirt some fleeces. This is a nice lamb fleece from a twin daughter of Rambouillet #405, so it is a 50/50 Rambouillet/Dorset cross. The skirted fleece now weighs about 4 lbs.  The 0477 number is her lamb ear tag. We will put permanent flock tags in over the next month or so ... I need to order another batch of tags.
0477 Lamb Fleece Close-up