Shearing day started out with rain the night before. We had the boys trapped in their shed because the number one rule in shearing is KEEP THEM DRY! Unfortunately the rain came in sideways so we woke up to moist animals. A fan blowing directly on them helped out some but luckily by noon the sun came out and we were able to turn them out to finish drying. We had lots of wonderful people show up for shearing day to join in the fun of alpacas. We learned that our boys will follow our blue feed scoop anywhere! Poor Mark didn't realize this when he went after the boys with feed.

The kids really enjoyed meeting the boys and giving them tons of treats..I think its pretty obvious that the alpacas like little kids.
When our shearer Kathy from Special K Alpacas came we enlisted the help of several of Scott's co-workers to hold down some feet and stand within spitting distance as we sheared the boys. Thankfully there was no spitting involved, and a big thanks to Mike, Laura and Cindy for helping us out. Kathy did a great job at shearing the boys fast with very minimal second cuts which is important because it means less waste. Lucky for the boys she decided their teeth were ok and there was no dentistry performed. So now we have approximately 6 pounds of good blanket fiber washed up and going out to Spinderlla's mill on Monday to be made into roving.

Our Etsy shop is up and running and I"ll be adding more to it as I get it made up. Keep an eye out for felted alpacas,  and bird nesting materials. Get your birds the finest in nest linings with our suet cages stuffed with alpaca fiber!!

Finally on the Vlad front, I think he is starting to get a clue that he's a guard dog. We caught him watching the chickens instead of chasing them the other day. But the fact that he is licking his lips does make me worry a bit.