We’re scheduled to shear our alpacas this week and the forecast is for chance of showers every day. This is not good. The alpacas need to be dry – or mostly dry – for shearing. And damp fiber is more work for us as it will need to be aired out to dry and airing out almost 70 fleeces will not be manageable. Fortunately, we roll our fleeces up in brown paper instead of putting them in plastic bags, so that helps.
We have different people lined up to help each day. This allow Ron to shear, someone to hold the alpaca’s head and me to collect/sort fiber. We’ll weigh alpacas before and after shearing, trim toenails and teeth, if necessary, and give injections. Ron and I will try to get all the barns cleaned up each morning before we start, so we have a pretty full week ahead of us. And once we’re finished, I have to skirt all those fleeces and ship the fiber off to the mill.
By fall, our farm store and online store will be restocked with beautiful alpaca yarn and roving!