Easter

It looks like we're going to get our cold weather for Easter. I can only remember one Easter in my lifetime that was warm and sunny...and I was sick that year. My brother, Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa hunted eggs in the back yard. I could see them from the couch, where I was stuck. The cold weather is also going to make the first practice of summer softball less pleasant. I'm kind of nervous, but Mom has talked to some of the girls and they seem excited, so that helps. I'll be glad when we get past the shirt ordering business. There's definitely a benefit to being assistant coach if only to avoid that mess.

The three ewes still haven't had their lambs. I'd be worrying, but their eating and grazing habits haven't changed, so I think the lambs are still alive. They are just waiting to get here. Probably sometime between Friday night and Sunday morning, when it's raining/snowing and around freezing.

Baseball!

Baseball season is here. The first full day of MLB. My friend Reggie Willits made the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim team. He's a backup outfielder. GO REGGIE!! I have two fantasy baseball teams this year. One on Yahoo and one on MLB.com. So far I'm seriously under-impressed with MLB.com's.

There are still three more ewes that have to have their lambs within the next few days...or we have a problem. We have 21 live lambs. They all seem to be doing good. The bottle baby is starting to put on a little weight. She's cute as a button (I've always wondered why people say that. Buttons aren't all that cute.).

It's time for Little League summer softball. I'm head coach this year. My brother's going to assistant coach. My mom is taking care of all the paper and leg work. I'll be glad when we get that part over with and can concentrate on softball. The focus is going to be on learning the fundamentals. I figure, if we get those down, winning will come on it's own.

Saturday's Are Nice

It's not a workday and it's not Sunday (where you have to worry about Monday, which is a workday). I spent the morning getting feed, cleaning out self-feeders and fixing fence. Every year I say I'm going to clean out the self-feeders (feeders where the lambs can go and eat their fill whenever they want) after we start individually feeding them and not wait until spring when we have a new lamb crop. And every year I fail to do it, so it's always wet and moldy. Luckily we've figured out that a shop-vac will suck that stuff right outta there. It was really dusty this year. I had it from head to toe. Warning: The black widows and wasps are already out.

We've decided to bottle feed one of the lambs. The mom only has one working food source and the bigger girl seems to be cleaning it out before the little girl can get to it. She ate 1/4 of a bottle this morning and 1/2 tonight. She's really too cute. She's teeny-tiny and has a bleat that breaks your heart. It sounds a lot like a newborn baby when it's really wailing.

I upgraded my Ubuntu to Feisty Fawn. It's a beta version, but for what I've used it for so far today, it's worked great. The best thing is I didn't have to install any printer drivers or anything to get my printer to working. Yea!!

Happy Birthday Sydney!

It's Been a While

I know it's been a while since I posted, but that shows how truly boring I am.

We've had a few more lambs and lost a few. We have four ewes left to lamb, but I think that one of those isn't bred.

I've been playing with Ubuntu; installing, reinstalling, tweaking. I did get MLB.tv/audio working...but then I broke something else and did a clean reinstall.

I always think of things I want to rant about/post on here when I'm away from a computer, and then when I get back to one I've either forgotten what I was going to post or it just seems silly when I think about it.

I want to say a belated happy birthday to my brother. I love ya little bro.

Update: Dad just called and we have two more lambs, a boy and a girl. So now we are down to three (or two if I'm correct).

Ubuntu and Canon

I know that Murphy's Law covers a great many things. I haven't had time to sit down and read them all, so if there isn't one that matches it, or if there is one I want to rename it, that states "If something can go easy or it can go difficult and it always goes difficult" that's Mandi's Law.

So in a previous post, I talked about how I installed Ubuntu on my external hard drive. Well, of course my Canon Pixma ip4200, and all Canon's for that matter, aren't very compatible. Why did I have to have a printer out of thousands that wasn't compatible? That's right, Mandi's Law! So after many frustrating hours of trying to get it right with the driver that's supposed to be for that printer, I may have found a solution using a Canon bjc-8200 model with the recommended driver. It printed the test page and a spreadsheet successfully. I haven't tried a picture, but I'm going to end the night on a successful note and not try it until later.

I still haven't gotten MLB tv/audio to work in Firefox on Ubuntu, but I do think I'm getting closer. I gotta get it working before April 1st for sure. ;)

Huge

Another ram lamb was born last night....and he's HUGE! He is almost as big as the February lambs already. And he got up really quick. I was surprised. Usually when they are big, it takes them a while to get going. Not him. Like all sheep, he was thinking with his stomach as soon as he was born, but it does run in his family. His mom was looking for food in the middle of labor. I'd say that within thirty minutes of being born, he had stood up and found the food source. They always want to shake as soon as they stand up and then always end up falling in a heap. But I learned last night that they really do get rid of some of the wet when they shake, since I was standing right next to him when he did it.

All of the other lambs look good. I will probably let the two others that are in the nursery out today. The babies are running around the pen. That's usually a sure sign they are strong enough to go out.

We may not be up in quantity, but I think our quality is good. As Dad says, "We've taken worse ones that that to the show".

Time Change

The lamb crop is slowly growing. We've lost a few and gained a few. The ones that have made it are looking really good, and are mostly girls. We have eight ewes left to lamb.

I love the long evenings that come with daylight savings as much as the next guy (or girl), but it isn't worth all of the problems it gives me at work. I would be happy if they would leave it one way or the other.

I love seeing the green of the grass and trees budding out this time of the year. I hope we don't get another freeze that, well, freezes them.