Shearing the Alpacas

Yesterday our neighbors shaved their alpacas. Kind of a neighborhood event. It was so much fun to sit and watch them. We learned a lot about them and the whole process. Very interesting. 1)Yes that green slime is spit. They will spit if they are nervous and some of them are very vocal as well. It's the weirdest sound in the world. Isaac got a little too close to one and actually got slimed too. He'll learn. 2) These two had quite the process. The one would literally wrestle the animals down and strap their legs down to a couple pullies and place a large bean bag on their necks to hold them down. The other guy would use big clippers to shave the fleece off the alpacas, the much easier job!! It really didn't take long once they got going. They also got their booster shots while they were down which they have to get annually, as well as toenails and teeth trimmed. 3)This two toned guy gets the best price for his fleece, and they told us his yarn is always the first to go. 4) Bonnie was a little concerned with the whole process and didn't like the "crying" sound some of them made. She's actually standing by the lone llama in the group, Casper, who is so friendly and just loves people. He likes to come up and say hi. 5) These are some that are still waiting to be shaved, so the before picture. 6) The after shot, although different animals. They remind me of the little lamb in the short Pixar film "Boundin" with the Jackalope. Kind of pathetic & funny looking I think. 7) This is Khora, our neighbor, and Jacob who is standing next to the bags of fleece. They bag the fleece by grade. The stuff that comes off the belly and back is graded differently than the stuff from the legs & neck. The kids liked to collect the "scraps" and came home with 4 ziplock bags of alpaca fleece remnants, which is incredibly soft, much less coarse than wool and also hypoallergenic. Other little tidbits we learned: You can raise 4 alpacas for what it would take to raise one horse. When the economy was good one alpaca was sold for $64,000. They own around 12 animals. They said they will make about $3,000 from all they get this year. We are planning a field trip this summer, where they show how they process the fleece to make it into yarn.