Alpaca Shearing

About 9:00 AM we arrived.  

It was the beginning of May, and there was a chilly wind. 

We walked up to the barn, through the door, and inside.

Our adventure begins here.

Adorable looking alpacas waiting their turn for the shearing table.

Sarah compares the fleece color to a chart for registering purposes.

Before they're sheared, Alex and David blow as much dust as they can off with a blower.

Rebecca leads them to the shearing table....

On the table.  It provides a safe and clean way to shear the alpacas.  

They're almost completely immobilized when they're on the table.

The fleece is bagged and saved.

It's rather dusty work, hence the bandannas.

The alpacas next stop is the "Beauty Salon", where Esther and I are stationed.

We used scissors to trim the wool around their eyes (so they could see) and on the sides of their faces where their halter sits.  Basically, we gave them haircuts. *grin*

Every once in a while, Sarah would enter the "salon" to either put an ear tag on a young one or ultrasound an expecting female.  Don't worry, the ear tagging doesn't hurt them.  *smile*

The young ones who were born last year were the most fun to trim.  For the most part, they just stood still while we worked, unlike some of the adults.  One customer got a lightening fast job, because she insisted on spitting the entire time.  No worries, she didn't get me - I made sure of that.  *grin*

Samuel and Alex watching us work and eating...again. *wink*

And a short video montage...enjoy!

It was one of the most fun days I've ever had, and I'd do it again.
In fact, Lord willing, I'll be there next year! *smile*

: :Thank you to everyone who picked up the camera! : :

Happy Trails, y'all!

Miscellany

After several days of silence, we now have our internet back.  Hooray!!  Due to the wonderful, snowy weather we've been having lately, our internet was knocked-out for a bit.  In all honesty, it was rather pleasant not having access to the internet for a few days.  It definitely made the day less busy.  More time for reading, crocheting, spending time with my mom and watching movies.

Ah, yes - movies.   I have official broken my record for movies checked out from the library in one day.

24

I repeat, 24.  Before you look completely shocked, it was not my intention to take home twenty four movies.  No, that was the library's idea.  All of my requests (some of which I have been waiting for for months) all decided to come in on the same day.  Thank you, library dear, I love you too. *sarcasm*

I felt like sinking through the floor.  My brother said it was embarrassing, walking out of the library with me toting two bags full of DVDs.  I it makes it look better, I also took home five more books.

One of those books was titled Teach Yourself Visually: Knitting.  This book finally unlocked the mysteries of knitting for me.  I can now knit.

*applause*

And I completely recommend that book.  Very clear, easy to understand instructions and pictures.

Now to invest in a few more knitting needles and I'll be off and running.  Who knows, you may be seeing some knitted items in the shop soon.

About a month ago I received a chain letter in the mail.  The old-fashioned kind with a stamp on it.  It was from one of my new church friends, and it contained two, purple quilt squares.  The idea is for me to pass on copies of the letter with quilt squares of my own to four people and eventually I'll have enough squares to make a Purple Charm Quilt.  How fun is that?!  The only problem is, I've run short on people to send them to.

So, I had an idea - would any of you ladies be interested in receiving and passing on this quilt chain letter?  If so, please send me an email here:

edithmacalpine{at}gmail{dot}com

And our power just went out...but we have a HUGE generator which kicked in after 30 seconds.  Thank goodness for that!

Our church's Christmas Program last Sunday was excellent.  They took the story of the census, Mary and Joseph and turned it into a Channel 7 News Report.  Very, very well done.  Especially the hilarious inn keeper who kept popping out of his "inn" and saying "Helllloooo".  His inn was a small cubicle about 5'x2'.  Very roomy.  My favorite was the "commercial".  The shepherds came up on stage and were beating their socks on rocks to clean them, and then a guy comes on and sings a catchy jingle about Star Beam, the #1 detergent for cleaning socks!  It was awesome.   I think the best part was seeing all of these adults and kids from our church up on stage in costume.  So much fun, especially the pastor's cameo as a wise man.  My bro and I sat with a friend and whispered and chuckled through the whole thing. ;) 

Who all has seen The Hobbit already?   I keep telling myself, "You waited a whole year, you can wait a few days more...", but I cannot wait!!  Hopefully this Saturday we'll be able to go.

And that's all I have time for now.  I've got to get outside and do some snow removal from the top of the chicken coop ASAP before it collapses.

Have a wonderful day and Merry Christmas!