Boss came down this morning for my annual work appraisal.

I passed.

Also had to set my work goals for the coming year. I suggested the one my wife proposed...

"Find less work for Grouse to do this year."

He was not amused.

We agreed I would "evaluate the feasibility of conducting a supplemental transplant" into my only, dying bighorn sheep herd.

First and foremost, if we're gonna do it, we need to do it while there are a few survivors of the old transplants still left around to supplement. Otherwise, it becomes a new transplant, and the political complications go up tremendously.

Why is the existing herd dying away?

Probably several contributing factors, but based upon work I had my field help do for three summers over a decade ago, the primary cause is a lack of high protein foods in the ewes' diets in the latter half of the summer, when milk demand is highest and lamb survival the poorest.

They can't make enough milk to keep their young'uns healthy.

So why look at trying it again? Because we now have a source of bighorns from out-of-state. Sheep that have evolved to survive in a low elevation environment, unlike these high-elevation sheep we tried before.

More importantly, a trait that apparently only I was alert enough to ask about, these sheep lamb earlier than our resident high-elevation sheep. A good two-three weeks earlier.

That means their lambs would be two to three weeks older when our vegetation cures out and loses protein content. And when they're only three to four weeks old in early July as it is now, adding another two to three weeks of growth on top of that should make a huge difference in survival.

Yeah, it's a good goal for the year.

Now, this photo probably should wait until I have an entry written that would include it, but I couldn't wait.

Lake Yellowstone, as we approached from the southwest on Memorial weekend...