Scarlet and George

To my surprise, Scarlet, the last yearling had a lamb. Friday night, I happened to glimpse her from behind. Her bag had enlarged since the last time I saw it and decided she might not be pregnant. Plus, she was acting goofy. I consider goofy to be one of the signs of impending parturition, especially amongst yearlings, who aren't quite sure what is happening to their bodies.

I predicted Scarlet was going to lamb very soon, so I checked on her about 11 p.m. I used my spot light to locate her. I scared the other sheep half to death with the spot light. Nothing had happened with Scarlet at this point. When I went out Saturday morning, Scarlet was off by herself , under some trees, with her new baby, a healthy good-sized ram lamb. She was/is a very attentive mother, like most Katahdin yearlings.

Not long after, I saw a large predatory bird hanging around, too close to the new family to suit me. So I moved McComb, my livestock guardian into the yearling pasture. I told him to watch the new lamb. He did, never straying far from his charges.

Scarlet is in a pasture with ten yearling ewes and their lambs. I have one more yearling, but she is with the mature ewes. She lambed first and had a single lamb, so I thought it was okay to put her with the mature ewes. The yearlings have performed well and will be a real boost to future flock productivity. I'm going to try to limit my replacements to four this year.

My niece named Scarlet last year when Scarlet was a young lamb. I told my niece that the naming theme was western characters. I had Butch, Sundance, Annie (Oakley), and Maverick. I guess Samantha thought Gone with the Wind was a western movie so she chose to name the friendly little ewe lamb Scarlet. I guess the ram lamb's name should be Rhett. Scarlet is still gentle and friendly, a flock favorite.

George, the mascot of The Baalands and Sheep 101 is enjoying pen rest and two aspirin per day in a handful of pellets. His back right leg is swollen and he was limping around before I brought him into the hoop house for convelesing. The swelling seems to be going down, but he still holds his leg delicately. Besides, I think he'd rather be waited on than have to find his own food.

George is six years old now. He's biggest challenge in life remains carrying his fat body around. He weighed 213 lbs. last fall. It's hard to keep him from getting fat, since he does absolutely nothing (he's good at it) and it's not usual for him to be in a pen by himself.

Baseball, Idol, and Lambs

A lamb was born on Saturday. A late-born yearling that I had bred late. She has a nice ewe lamb and is a good mom. There's one yearling left to lamb. I don't know if she's pregnant. She, too, was exposed late, and I didn't keep good records towards the end of the breeding season. I'm not sure when the last date is that she can lamb.

The lambs are doing fine. I "weaned" the quads today. They are six weeks old. They're not really weaned since they can still nurse their mom. The lambs are starting to eat a lot more creep feed. Thanks to all the rain, the grass is plentiful.

My dad and I went to our first Hagerstown Suns game of the season. It was all-you-can-eat night. For $10, you could stuff yourself with nachos, hot dogs, pretzels, chicken nuggets, chips, and other "nutritious" fare. You had to pay for drinks.

The Suns got hammered 14-7. We left after the sixth inning. The game was already three hours long and I was cold. There weren't many fans in the stadium, especially at this point. We didn't recognize any players' names from last year, which is to be expected as these young men should have moved up to triple A ball, else given up on their dream to play in the big leagues.

We plan to go to more games this season. There's not much more relaxing than going to a minor league baseball game. When he was a teenager, my dad sold hot dogs at Forbes Field, where the Pittsburgh Pirates used to play. I've always loved baseball.

I've been watching American Idol this year. My favorites are long gone -- the handsome Aussie Michael Johns and country girl Kristy Lee Cook. Of the four remaining Idols -- David Cook, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, and Syesha Mercado -- I don't really have a preference, only that Jason Castro is long overdue for being eliminated.

Mr. Dreadlocks is charming, but lacks the talent of the other three and many who were eliminated before him. On tonight's show, Simon told Jason to "pack his bags." I think that rocker David Cook has been the best and most consistent performer all season and should probably be this year's American Idol. On the other hand, Syesha seems to be peaking now, while young David Archuleta seems to have the most fan support.

Everyone is enjoying spring. Max has been catching bunnies lately. He likes to carry them around in his mouth, let them go, and pursue them all over again. Several times, I've put him in the house to give the bunnies a chance to run away. Why can't Max kill rodents instead? Even birds would be better. Zak likes bunnies too, but his leash doesn't allow him to pursue them.