11:54 PM, 24 March 2010
Overcast but calm; moonbow visible

We had a surprise birth in the all-ewe flock today; a very tiny, possibly premature lamb, single birth. Its mother did nuzzle it and allow it to suckle, but it was curious enough about the farmer out there to wander through the mesh. This prompted immediate erection of new pasture for said ewes using the smaller mesh fencing, too small for a lamb to walk through and hopefully too small for it to become entangled in. It continued to occasionally follow the farmer, who had to lift it towards its mother more than once; it was a young enough lamb for its umbilical blood to still be wet, despite the dryness of the day overall.

The only other excitement was a paranoid gander hissing and rushing at the pizza delivery boy, who appeared unperturbed. Presumably delivering pizza in rural areas has far worse threats than those.

Tomorrow will entail more arranging for the security of the lamb and its mother and her flock; many of said ewes have gone more or less overnight from not looking particularly pregnant to being watermelon-smugglers. As this flock of ewes appears younger than our other flock, we expect a higher percentage of single births. However, it seems likely that they'll begin coming sooner rather than later, possibly premature in delivery; they did delight, though, in the fresh pasture.

The younger ewes seem more than pleased with fir branches but not so keen on the wild carrot, whereas the older flock don't mind chewing down the wild carrot and display less interest in the Douglas fir. Perhaps meaningless, but interesting.