Jim the Shearer came today! We were so excited! There was an incredible amount of anticipation leading up to this day but in true 'Greg and Abi' fashion, very little preparation. So, Shearing Day truly began at 7 PM last night just after we pulled in the driveway from a whirlwind weekend trip to NJ (more on that later).
Haltering Alpacas is not the easiest thing to do when they are just running free in a field, in fact, it's next to impossible. So the first task at hand was to construct a temporary 'catch pen' so that Greg and I could catch and handle Indy and Hayden easily. We did this simply by putting up metal posts and wire fencing just beyond a permanent gate we already had positioned leading into our backyard. Then we herded Indy and Hayden through the gate closing it behind us so they were now in a 10 X 10 area. At that point they were a cinch to halter and lead into our garage. Since we don't have a true barn for them (just a run in shed) we wanted to keep them enclosed for the night and dry as well as make it really easy to halter them in the morning. By the time we constructed the catch area, herded, haltered and brought them into the garage it was 11 PM. So we tucked them in for the night and went to bed excited to wake up first thing in the morning.
{Hayden waiting for his turn}
Indy and Hayden will be 2 years old in July and they had never been shorn. We were a bit worried about how the whole process would unfold. There are two options when you shear Alpacas. The first, which is the way it is typically done commercially, is to lay the Alpaca down and restrain/tie down their legs so that they are splayed out length-wise. The second, is that you hold on tight while the Alpaca is standing up and hope for the best. That is what what we chose and figured if it didn't work we'd have to go to the 'laying-down' method. Thankfully the boys did really well!
{Indy waiting for Hayden to be done}
Indy was the least happy about the situation and took to spitting quite a bit. But he was actually the most unhappy when Hayden was being shorn. They are so attached to each other. I made sure to keep Indy near Hayden the whole time still on his lead. He kept calling out for him though, making sounds I have never heard before. But Hayden was so compliant his turn went very fast and in short order they were back and frolicking in the field together again. Looking awfully silly I might add.
Our chickens are completely freaking out! They share the field and when we turned Indy and Hayden back out there was the loudest 'uproar' 60 plus chickens could possibly make! They were running around, flapping, squawking like crazy. They still are! I feel bad for everyone. Getting a haircut can be a sensitive situation, I hope the hens don't make the boys feel too bad about their new hair-do's ;)
Unfortunately it started to drizzle just as we finished up so I brought their fleeces in right away, wrapped in old sheets, to dry out a bit. Today's light and weather won't let me photograph them with justice. So, it will have to wait but they are AMAZING! I mean, really, truly amazing! Jim said that even the second cut was very high quality and worth going through. The 'barrel' part, which is the prime area, is just outstanding. I want to start working with it right away. I am a knitter though, not a spinner, so I don't really know what to do? Should I send them out to be processed or wait and learn with these? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
In the meantime you can bet there will be a lot of fleece fawning around here. All I can think about as I type this are the two piles of delicious up in the Yellow Room right now! I feel so incredibly thankful. Our boys are just a delight on so many levels, and of course we knew this day would come, but now that it's here I just feel like someone needs to pinch me to be sure this is all real.
