Love those Babies!

Since our last post, we had our 2 anticipated crias for this spring. Eternity & Lili (mom and daughter) delivered baby boys a day apart in late June. Both girls were bred to fawn herdsires, so we were hoping to see a little color from these girls, but alas, both fellas turned out white - or maybe beige if I push it a little.



They look so much alike that we called them Fluffy and Curly because their fiber characteristics were different. These aren't their real names, but they work in a pinch. Just like the rest of the animals, we shear the spring babies so that they too can enjoy a little less fleece over the hot summer months. So after the curls and fluff were gone, all that was left to distinguish the boys was a tiny dark spot on Fluffy's lip.

Here's a short video showing how everyone likes to meet the new babies.


Both boys are growing well and are learning all about things like halters and leading thanks to Anna, my super-duper 4H helper. She's been putting halters on the babies and "leading" them around a bit. Leading isn't exactly what I'd call it, but she does a great job with them.

Anna comes almost every morning to help with the feeding and to work with her 4H alpaca Sea Splash.
Here's Anna at a 4H meeting dressing up Splash in preparation for the 4H Fair and show next week. The 4Her's will show their alpacas over obstacles, in Showmanship and even in a costume class. If you'd like to attend, it is at the 4H center on Stoverstown Rd at 7pm on Thursday August 12th.

If you think your kids would be interested in working with the alpacas in 4H, just drop me a line. We'd love to have them join us!

Hope to see you there!

Spring Time / Fiber Time

After all the shows are over in the spring of the year, the next big thing we do is get ready to shear the alpacas. Not only do they love to be free of their heavy winter coat, but we get to reap the harvest that we've been waiting all year for. 2009 was an exciting year for me because I was able to process all of the fiber that we sheared that year. In years past I wasn't so diligent about it and a lot of fiber sat around in bags just waiting to be turned into something fantastic.

Typically it takes us a few weekends to complete the shearing of the entire herd. Somehow, this year we were a bit more organized. Neal and I were able to shear the yearlings by ourselves on Thursday and Friday. Then for the adults, we recruited as many friends as possible to help on the weekend. We had a wonderful crew of helpers this year and were able to complete all 28 animals by Sunday afternoon.

Here are a few pictures of shearing day.

First step is to get the alpaca on the mat and put ties on all 4 of their legs. Once the ties are on, several people lift the alpaca and put it on it's side. The legs are then stretched out so that they don't fight with the shearer or jump up in the middle of the process. Once down, the shearing of the blanket begins. Everything on their sides and back is considered the prime fiber. Fiber from the neck, and upper legs is considered seconds and is usually not as high a quality as the prime blanket. Fiber from their lower legs, tail and head is usually considered thirds because of it's short length and coarser texture.

We even take care to give them a nice hairdoo on their top-knot. Sometimes, not often, we get one that is none too happy about the shearing event and shows their displeasure with the smelly spit that llamas and alpacas are known for. We have a simple solution for this. It may not be pretty, but it does keep everyone working on the animal clean and stink free.

Because I'm not what is considered a professional shearer, I do each animal in about 20 minutes. (The professionals take about 5). It's a back breaking weekend, but in the end, we have bags and bags of fiber to work with.

For everyone, it's a weekend, well spent!