2020 National Llama Appreciation Day!

Today is National Llama Appreciation Day, so last night I went in search of Snow White to get some pictures to post ...

Nope, She's Not Resting in the Shade With Us ...

She wasn't in the Loafing Shed resting with some of the ewes and lambs, so I set off to hike around this paddock. We have a secure tightly fenced section around the Loafing Shed where we bring everyone in after the day of grazing.  The spring water development is in this section too.

Snow White At Sunset

Of course, she was all the way up at the highest point of the paddock near the gate along the road. From the piles of "llama beans" nearby, you can tell that she likes this spot. 

"I can see the whole place from here!"

Snow White Can Oversee Her Flock From Gate to Gate

As I was taking pictures, Snow White wandered down to graze closer to her flock. We have been very fortunate to have her as our guardian llama. Officially, she's Radar's Snow White #280010 and she came to us during lambing season in April 2014 from the Suttons at RA DAR LLAMAS. She had never seen sheep before, but she was immediately fascinated by the lambs.  

Snow White Sees First Lamb - April 2014 - Wow! 

 So back to last night, Snow White returns to grazing and watching her flock of ewes and lambs. We really appreciate our llama! 

Wild Rose Farm - Snow White at Work! 

 Here's another way that you can appreciate your llama during these trying times ...

Fiber Festivals ... ?

Missing the Fiber Festivals!

I guess we're all missing our fiber festivals this year! I just talked to some folks today who were asking about when festivals may be starting up again.  Who knows at this point? 

Locally, we also had our wool pool canceled, so that means that the conventional sheep farmers will have wool sitting in their barns for another year. This will make for an interesting wool pool next year - it will be a guess as to what will come in in terms of volume and quality ...

Working on Lambs and Garden ...

Looking Towards the Garden ...

We've gotten the ewes with older lambs out and into the field where we have the garden.  They've just passed through this field and have moved on to the pasture by the Loafing Shed. Even with the electric net fence around the fledgling garden, I'm still nervous! Somehow it seems that one of those goofy lambs will manage to get into the garden!  There are a dozen tomato plants, the sunflowers & summer squash are just starting to sprout, and we've planted popcorn this year … never tried that before, so we'll see how it goes.

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #555 & Twins 

We had a nice delivery of twins out on pasture and we left them out long enough for the ewe to clean them off outside. Here's another ewe with her set of twins in the barn.

Wild Rose Farm Rambouillet #553 & Twins

Oh, and did we mention the barn project? The hemlock board siding got a coat of boiled linseed oil and mineral spirits for preservation … what a chore, but it's done!

Resealing the Barn!

Lambs Out to Pasture!

Wild Rose Farm Lambs Race Out to Pasture!

Our first group of ewes and lambs have been moved out to pasture. We start in this smaller paddock near the barn so that the lambs get used to the routine of following the ewes. They also learn to wade through the high grass and get used to the electric net fence.

Mom Is Grazing & Doesn't Care About Us!

OK ... Now What Do We Do?

After a mad dash into the paddock, most of the lambs are milling around in a group, not sure of what to do next.  So it seems that if in doubt, let's butt heads ...

Lambs Square Off ...

Another Lamb Joins In!

Back Up & Charge!

No Harm, It's a Side Swipe! 

Keeping Busy Here ...

Finally … Plowing the Garden!

It's been a wet spring until just recently. Then it got really hot this week & went up to the low 90's. During this time, we've had the tractor in the shop and were focused on lambing and moving hay with our skid steer loader. The tractor came back on Tuesday and we immediately plowed the garden area before it rained late the next day.

Glenda & the Brush Hog

 Glenda is always nosing around and was fascinated with the freshly plowed garden soil. She even spent time following the brush hog around as the grass around the garden area was mowed ...
We're expecting our neighbor over this weekend to run his tractor mounted rototiller over the garden.
Now the weather will be cooler for a few days, but should be dry enough to do some planting.

Final Load of Hay ...

The next day we moved the last of the round bales of hay before it clouded up for evening t-storms. The farm across the road was raking and baling this season's new hay in that perfect window of hot weather and sunshine.

Steers & Heifers Watching 

My job is to man the gate. The curious steers & heifers were watching and started to meander over towards me when we pulled in for the first load. They quickly lose interest since we don't have a feed bucket!

Cute Lambs!

Wild Rose Farm Mixing Pen

Here's a glimpse of the "mixing pen" where the ewes and lambs are hanging out now. The only ones not out here are the two ewes with triplets, #129 & #142.  They are doing quite well, but we'll likely keep them in the barn rather than turning them out to graze. That's been our "MO" - method of operation - once we get triplets successfully born and coming along, we don't tempt fate & send them out to possibly lose one!  The ewes are taking great care of them and none are being supplemented with a bottle. They have access to their own lamb creep feeder and will start using it more as each day passes …
Here's an interesting side note - blog statistics are showing that the largest portion of our "audience" right now is coming from Italy.  Hello to all of our Italian visitors and best wishes for your good health!

Sadly - 2020 Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival Cancellation!

No Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival This Weekend … :(

Normally at this time, we'd be in the Saturday morning joy of the Waynesburg Sheep & Fiber Festival!  Wild Rose Farm would have set up our booth on Friday and headed out around 6AM this morning to be ready for opening day … Unfortunately with the COVID-19 restrictions, the committee was forced to cancel the festival.  Just look at the great art for our Save the Date Cards and t-shirts … we were READY!  Many other fiber festivals have been canceled or may be rescheduled this year. Waynesburg will be back in 2021.
Our farm is still essentially closed for visitors now, but we have had a couple of folks show up asking to buy freezer lambs later this year. People are looking at their food and fiber a little differently these days.  We also have 2 custom made cherry wood shelving units from Pat Zeibers Furniture ready and awaiting pick-up for our studio.  The were ordered after Christmas and were finished just as the Pennsylvania lockdowns started!  Hopefully we'll be able to pick them up in the next couple of weeks and get things organized.

April Shearing Day - Penned Up & Ready!

One thing that did happen during the shutdown is the essential service of sheep shearing! 

 We'll be skirting fleeces and posting pictures of fleeces for sale as soon as we get several warm & dry days to work on them!    

Rambouillet Ewe on Shearing Board