Shearing Day! Before and After


Last Wednesday, our alpacas had their "favorite" day of the year: shearing day. Alpacas are only sheared once a year in the spring, and while it can be a little stressful, for their health it is a necessity. Especially since it got up to 87 degrees the day after shearing: we know they wouldn't want to be wearing their heavy winter coats for that!

Micah Before Shearing
Micah After Shearing



Smudge Before Shearing
Smudge After Shearing. Rio's a little confused.













Our boys each had about 4 inches of fleece on them. It's amazing how much they change when it all comes off! Even the alpacas can't recognize each other at first.

Rio Before Shearing
Rio After Shearing and feeling a little sorry for himself





















Speed Bump Before Shearing
Speed Bump After Shearing













We have processed most of our fleece from 2017, but now we have a whole new mountain to climb!


So much fleece!


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Some happy news, some sad news, and a birthday

Image
A lot has been happening on our farm lately. So much so that we've had a hard time keeping this blog updated! In August we added two new baby goats to our farm as a "mobile mowing unit." Bruce and Banner have settled into their new role quite well! We also added a rogue rooster, who wandered onto our property and has made his home with the goats. We decided to name him Tony. And in December we will be adding three new alpacas to our herd! Jack, Bailey, and Ayden are three, two, and six months old respectively and will be wonderful additions to our farm family! In sadder news, we had to say goodbye to Mister Bilbo, our angora rabbit at the beginning of this month. He had been fighting an infection and it finally got the better of him. We all miss him dearly but he will live on in his lovely fiber he gave to us through the years. Last but not least, today is Speed Bump's 7th birthday! All the alpacas got some alfalfa and cranberry treats ...
Read more

Our Man Jack

Image
What a face! A very long delayed introduction to the eldest of the brothers we added to our farm on the very last day of last year. It seems like yesterday and a million years ago - time in 2020 does not work in the normal way. Cracker Jacks Prize was born on May 26, 2016 not to far from our farm and grew up just off the mountain. He is one of our smaller alpacas, weighing in around 135 pounds. His back legs are a little stiff so he has a bit of a bow-legged walk - so we also call him Cowboy Jack. Jack cushed after a long day on the pasture We shear our alpacas in late April to early May, so he has grown a decent amount of new fleece. He is a white alpaca - although you wouldn't know it unless you part his fleece - like all alpacas he loves to roll in the dirt. Good thing it washes out! He has very dense fleece and last year he produced about three pounds of firsts and a pound of seconds. We use the first fiber in yarn and the seconds in felted items.   Fleece after six months...
Read more