The fat lady sings

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I went out to feed the sheep. The fat ewe had given birth to twin lambs, a ram and a ewe. They are colorful. The female is red and the male is red and white. They are doing fine. I will keep the fat ewe, now.

We took our administrative assistants out for lunch today at Cracker Barrel. It was nice. There was 11 of us. Afterwards, I had a doctor's appointment in Hancock.

I got home early and cut grass. I'll probably have to cut it in another week. Afterwards, I took Zak for a run/walk. I'm going to try to do that every day. He enjoys it, and I need the exercise. Actually, he needs the exercise, too. He's a bit chunky.

This year, I'm hooked on American Idol. I never watched it in previous years, but decided to give it a try this year. I've enjoyed it immensely. There are six contestants left and all are good. It's hard to say who will win. I'm not even sure I care who wins. Anyone of them could and would be worthy of the title. I'm sure all will get contracts doing something in the entertainment field.

Last night, the judges, even Randy and Paula were kind of mean. They liked Elliot. I think his performance was the best of the night. They liked Chris. I didn't care for his performance much. They thought Paris gave the best female performance. She was okay, but I preferred Catherine, who they didn't like last night. She sang Whitney Houston's "I've have nothing." I thought she sang it well and is the most talented and versatile in the group. Kelly didn't give her greatest performance -- her song was boring -- but I thought the judges were hard on her. It's obvious they don't like country music. Simon's even admitted it. The judges didn't care for Taylor's performance either. I didn't think it was one his best efforts, but I don't think he'll be voted off yet.

Who will go tonight? Kelly? Paris? It's hard to say. It could be any of them. I tried to vote for Elliot last night, but couldn't get through on the phone lines. Apparently, it was an all-time record vote.

. . . Kelly got voted off. Then, there were five.

Frolicking Lambs

Nothing makes it seem more like spring than seeing lambs frolicking in the field. Here are some pictures. But, they're not frolicking. Did you ever try to take pictures of frolicking lambs? I wanted to get a picture of Peter, the bottle lamb, but forget that. He's always on my heels, and when I try to take pictures of other lambs, he hits me looking for milk. So, I've got a lot of blurry pictures of lambs. These aren't so bad.

#18 and one of her triplets (I might keep this lamb).

One of the yearlings with her twin lambs, their first day outside.

The Proud Papas (Hurricane and Bull's Eye) and George

Still waiting for the goat and fat ewe to have their babies. It could be as long as a month. I think the goat will kid sooner, but who knows. The babies will come out when they are ready.

Downsizing

Wow. It's been awhile since my last post. The lambs seem to be doing well. Peter is 6 weeks old today and can be weaned anytime from the bottle. I still offer a few of the yearlings' lambs a bottle once a day. The black yearling (#536) gave birth to a solid black ram lamb a week or so ago. I dubbed him Jet. Clover, the Boer x Alpine doe, has still not had her kids. Her daughters are not likely pregnant. One yearling sheep, the young one, doesn't look pregnant either. I think the fat ewe is pregnant, with at least two lambs, maybe three.

I've decided to cut my flock back to somewhere between 25 and 30 ewes. I am getting rid of the goats because they complicate my management. There are times when I need to separate them, which creates additional work. They get into the creep area which infuriates me. It's amazing how they get through the small openings, but they do. It's like Santa Clause going down the chimney.

I'm having a hard time deciding who to get rid of. I started with 40. If I substract the four goats, that leaves 36. One ewe died. That leaves 35. Two ewes need to be culled. That brings me down to 33. Peter's mother, the ewe that prolapsed, and the fat ewe, that hasn't had any lambs, should probably go, though if the fat ewe lambs, I'll probably keep her since she's only 3 and is registered. Otherwise, that would put me at 31. The rest of the ewes have all been productive and problem-free, so the decisions become more difficult.

A smaller flock will make management easier. Though I have a nice hoop house, I really don't have enough space during lambing or enough space to store hay. I also have only 7 acres of pasture. 40 is too many for that resource.

I received cost-share from NRCS and will be having a heavy-use area and concrete pad for manure storage installed at one end of the hoop house. I may do something similar at the other end of the hoop house, but other than that I don't plan to spend any more money on my facilities.

I think my flock will be more productive if I do a better job matching my resources. It will also be more enjoyable. We always want more animals -- it's human nature -- but we'd probablly all do better with less. I'm going to take my own advice.

Finally, we've been getting some rain. It's been raining all weekend. The grass is green and primed to grow. It just needs some moisture. This should do the trick.