Saturday, May 28, 2016

Among the Camelids

A cousin and her husband have seventy alpacas and a few llamas. Today was the start of shearing season and they asked me to take some photos with their camera. Of course, I also took some with mine.

Sonny, the boss.



The shearing.







Socks on the noses stop them from biting. Alpacas aren't happy campers when they are being sheared.

The product


The herd











My cousin "cowboying up"

In her mobility scooter with her "grabber" working along with everyone else.

Shasa, the Great Pyrenese. She never leaves the alpacas. Along with the llamas, protects the alpacas from coyotes and feral dogs.


Bernese mountain dogs. Protect the farmstead from two legged scavengers. A big problem in the area.



A Pyerenese/St Bernard mix, Shasa's future  replacement.

From this

To this

Never forget the weather.


Hope you enjoyed these. Format is wonky as Blogger and I seem to be having "issues". Tis a poor workman who blames his tools.

6 comments:

Old NFO said...

That's a LOT of work, but from what I understand the 'hair' is worth a considerable amount... And the dogs DO earn their pay too!

Ami said...

I was scrolling through the pictures saying, 'where's the AfTER??' shots? And finally you got there.

The animals look like they don't mind lying down and being sheared, at least they seem very still. Do they really bite or is that a precautionary measure?

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Wool is worth something like $3 to $5 an ounce. I doubt they are in it for the money and many years of hard work and well paying "Town Jobs" went into their operation. Their Alpacas produce 4 to 9 lbs per animal but it isn't all the same quality. And that is the sum total of my alpaca knowledge.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Their alpaca are very gentle but most definitely like being sheared. They are tied down and make complaining sounds during the process. They will bite and kick when they are afraid.

Well Seasoned Fool said...

Should be, "don't like". If you are fluent in Alpaca, you would be shocked by the language.

Anonymous said...

Point of clarification...sock on nose to catch spit. Since they are of the camel family, they spit. Not much for biting. Kicking, sometimes. Bad language...definitely. Sisty