News

Featuring the latest gossip from the fields

Preparing for lambing 2018

Getting ready for lambing 

16th February and all the ewes are ready to come into the party tent (our lambing marquee) – however, one just couldn’t wait and we had a lovely surprise on Friday 16th morning at feeding time.  A very premature ram lamb, but big and doing very well.  She’s a fabulous mother, very protective, looking after him well with all the other curious ewes around her – but she’s now happily in her luxury room and being waited on hand and foot.

The party begins …

and shortly afterwards two sets of Black Lincoln Longwool twins arrive - just a few days early but this time we were ready for them.  Black Lincoln Longwools are a new addition to our farm - another 'at risk' rare breed.  

 

This lamb will be sheared at 15 months old - providing a wonderful heavy and full fleece.

The Lincoln Longwool raw fleece is available in our Flock Box in the raw fleece section of our on-line store.

The raw wool on shearing has been sent to Bradford, Yorkshire, for washing and onwards to Laxtons for spinning into more of our beautiful 4 ply.

 

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Preparing for lambing 2018

Getting ready for lambing 

16th February and all the ewes are ready to come into the party tent (our lambing marquee) – however, one just couldn’t wait and we had a lovely surprise on Friday 16th morning at feeding time.  A very premature ram lamb, but big and doing very well.  She’s a fabulous mother, very protective, looking after him well with all the other curious ewes around her – but she’s now happily in her luxury room and being waited on hand and foot.

The party begins …

and shortly afterwards two sets of Black Lincoln Longwool twins arrive - just a few days early but this time we were ready for them.  Black Lincoln Longwools are a new addition to our farm - another 'at risk' rare breed.  

 

This lamb will be sheared at 15 months old - providing a wonderful heavy and full fleece.

The Lincoln Longwool raw fleece is available in our Flock Box in the raw fleece section of our on-line store.

The raw wool on shearing has been sent to Bradford, Yorkshire, for washing and onwards to Laxtons for spinning into more of our beautiful 4 ply.

 

Read more

Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year to all our friends from Home Farm.   

January started off busy at Home Farm - shearing all of our pregnant Wensleydale ewes.  This should help the lambs find their mother's milk faster and also I believe that with a heavy longwool sheep this will be more hygienic.  

But of course it means more work at Home Farm, as these ewes will be housed now until after lambing. 

We have started preparations putting up the marquee – we do love our ‘Party Tent’, exciting times ahead.  If you want to keep up to date with our lambing from 1 March – join my facebook page ‘JayneDryden’.

Most of this fleece will be heading to Yorkshire for washing and spinning.  However, some of the premium fleece is selected and sold to hand-spinners and crafters.  
This month we had some absolutely spectacular hand spun wool from the Woolly Wizzard - take a look at our on-line store for more details

 

Read more

Happy New Year 2018

Happy New Year to all our friends from Home Farm.   

January started off busy at Home Farm - shearing all of our pregnant Wensleydale ewes.  This should help the lambs find their mother's milk faster and also I believe that with a heavy longwool sheep this will be more hygienic.  

But of course it means more work at Home Farm, as these ewes will be housed now until after lambing. 

We have started preparations putting up the marquee – we do love our ‘Party Tent’, exciting times ahead.  If you want to keep up to date with our lambing from 1 March – join my facebook page ‘JayneDryden’.

Most of this fleece will be heading to Yorkshire for washing and spinning.  However, some of the premium fleece is selected and sold to hand-spinners and crafters.  
This month we had some absolutely spectacular hand spun wool from the Woolly Wizzard - take a look at our on-line store for more details

 

Read more

Oct - Dec 2017

December 2017 - we're scanning ...

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Oct - Dec 2017

December 2017 - we're scanning ...

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April 2016

We've been having a great lambing season here at Home Farm Wensleydales, and thought many of you may appreciate an update on how things are going. 
Our Bluefaced Leicesters and Wensleydales have given us some wonderful lambs, and we are waiting on just three more.

At the weekend, we travelled to Wales for the Wonderwool festival. The timing was tight, but fortunately Laxtons delivered the first batch of our DK yarn to the the festival the day before we started, and we were absolutely delighted to have been able to include this on our stall. The DK comes from our 2015 shear, and we really love how the colours and yarn itself has turned out.
 
This was our first main show of the spring, and throughout summer we will be attending a wide variety of shows throughout the country.

The yarn is in on our website, selling at £6.50 / 50g.  
As well as just washed so natural, we have the most amazing subtle colours of Cotswold Stone, Burford Blue, Moreton Sage and Arlescote Blush.
Bringing some of our sheep to the festival, and having them alongside our stall, was fun  - and despite a few excitable Wensleydales trying their hand at hurdle jumping to meet our customers in person, it went very well indeed!
Thank you so much for having us Wonderwool Wales and we would love to see you all again next year x
http://www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk/home.html

Read more

April 2016

We've been having a great lambing season here at Home Farm Wensleydales, and thought many of you may appreciate an update on how things are going. 
Our Bluefaced Leicesters and Wensleydales have given us some wonderful lambs, and we are waiting on just three more.

At the weekend, we travelled to Wales for the Wonderwool festival. The timing was tight, but fortunately Laxtons delivered the first batch of our DK yarn to the the festival the day before we started, and we were absolutely delighted to have been able to include this on our stall. The DK comes from our 2015 shear, and we really love how the colours and yarn itself has turned out.
 
This was our first main show of the spring, and throughout summer we will be attending a wide variety of shows throughout the country.

The yarn is in on our website, selling at £6.50 / 50g.  
As well as just washed so natural, we have the most amazing subtle colours of Cotswold Stone, Burford Blue, Moreton Sage and Arlescote Blush.
Bringing some of our sheep to the festival, and having them alongside our stall, was fun  - and despite a few excitable Wensleydales trying their hand at hurdle jumping to meet our customers in person, it went very well indeed!
Thank you so much for having us Wonderwool Wales and we would love to see you all again next year x
http://www.wonderwoolwales.co.uk/home.html

Read more

August 2016

What a busy few months at Home Farm.  
No sooner had we finished lambing then we seemed to be straight into shearing.  What a stressful time, trying to pick the perfect weather window - warm dry weather is essential - and trying to fit in with the shearers' other plans.
I personally stand over the shearers to make sure the sheep are handled properly and that the wool goes into the right bags before sorting.  It's fantastic to see the newly shorn sheep skipping out into the field delighted to be free of their heavy fleeces.  It is exhausting work but my hands finish the day lovely and soft, coated with lanolin from handling and packing the fleeces.
Jason takes all the bags of fleece and stores it by breed and colour into one of our spare stables.  Every sunny day from then until August is spent sorting, picking and weighing the fleece to meet the advanced orders that we have received and the many orders that come in at this time of year.  It is incredibly satisfying to receive the feedback from our many happy customers who receive my washed and unwashed fleece.  
We keep a careful eye on the lambs to make sure they are gaining weight and on the mums to make sure they aren't losing condition.  Its amazing how lambing can impact on the quality of the fleece.  
Through May and June our attention turns to hay and haylage making, and we are really lucky to have Mik and Steven who help us every year with making our haylage.  I have even got them into using the pink bale wrap, which supports a great charity (Breast Cancer) though gets me a few frowns from the local Councillor.  
We also do a number of shows (see events page on our website) and its great fun to meet new customers and catch up with previous customers and hear (and even see) about some of their projects.  
The shows gave us a chance to exhibit our new 4 ply and aran yarn - freshly back from Laxtons.  The 4 ply is a real 'labour of love' as it has taken me years of carefully storing the fleece and building up my flock of Black Wensleydales.  The new yarn feels incredible and has been very popular.  
August is coming to an end and we have decided to 'Blue tongue' vaccinate this year.  It seems incredible to me that the Belgian, German and Spanish Governments will pay for their animals to be vaccinated but we have to rely on the DEFRA website that hasn't been updated since February and pay ourselves!  Its very expensive but gives me peace of mind knowing that I have done my best to protect this wonderful flock of rare breed sheep.

Read more

August 2016

What a busy few months at Home Farm.  
No sooner had we finished lambing then we seemed to be straight into shearing.  What a stressful time, trying to pick the perfect weather window - warm dry weather is essential - and trying to fit in with the shearers' other plans.
I personally stand over the shearers to make sure the sheep are handled properly and that the wool goes into the right bags before sorting.  It's fantastic to see the newly shorn sheep skipping out into the field delighted to be free of their heavy fleeces.  It is exhausting work but my hands finish the day lovely and soft, coated with lanolin from handling and packing the fleeces.
Jason takes all the bags of fleece and stores it by breed and colour into one of our spare stables.  Every sunny day from then until August is spent sorting, picking and weighing the fleece to meet the advanced orders that we have received and the many orders that come in at this time of year.  It is incredibly satisfying to receive the feedback from our many happy customers who receive my washed and unwashed fleece.  
We keep a careful eye on the lambs to make sure they are gaining weight and on the mums to make sure they aren't losing condition.  Its amazing how lambing can impact on the quality of the fleece.  
Through May and June our attention turns to hay and haylage making, and we are really lucky to have Mik and Steven who help us every year with making our haylage.  I have even got them into using the pink bale wrap, which supports a great charity (Breast Cancer) though gets me a few frowns from the local Councillor.  
We also do a number of shows (see events page on our website) and its great fun to meet new customers and catch up with previous customers and hear (and even see) about some of their projects.  
The shows gave us a chance to exhibit our new 4 ply and aran yarn - freshly back from Laxtons.  The 4 ply is a real 'labour of love' as it has taken me years of carefully storing the fleece and building up my flock of Black Wensleydales.  The new yarn feels incredible and has been very popular.  
August is coming to an end and we have decided to 'Blue tongue' vaccinate this year.  It seems incredible to me that the Belgian, German and Spanish Governments will pay for their animals to be vaccinated but we have to rely on the DEFRA website that hasn't been updated since February and pay ourselves!  Its very expensive but gives me peace of mind knowing that I have done my best to protect this wonderful flock of rare breed sheep.

Read more