The Results Are In!!

Yay, pretty ribbons! Our first ever fleece show entries did well. Leroy received a 1st Place Blue Ribbon in the juvenile suri male indefinite color class. Lucas received a 3rd Place White Ribbon in his juvenile suri male light color class. The judge also commented that Lucas has "Great Luster!"

We didn't receive the DVD from the AFCNA Fleece Show yet, but I'm sure they are still editing from this past weekend's show. It will be nice to see the comments from the judges on the DVD. One area where I know we have to do better next time is to include more fiber. We scored low on fleece weight. I'm thinking I didn't bag enough fiber from the blanket area and may have thrown some of that fiber into my bag for leg and neck fiber during shearing.

We'll definitely get better at this, but at least our fleeces did well in spite of my mistakes! I'm really glad we finally entered a fleece show. Now that we've gotten the first one done, it doesn't seem as hard to do and we learn as we go. If you've never entered a fleece show or spin-off before, give it a try...you can't win if you don't enter.

Hand shearing suri alpacas

Today, I finally made time to hand shear Leroy and Lucas, our two youngest suri boys. It took me just under four hours to get them both done. Check out the photo of Lucas above that I took after shearing him. The inset is a photo I took of him just a couple of days ago.

This second before and after photo is a close up of Leroy's fiber. Again the shorn photo is from this afternoon and the photo of Leroy's long locks was taken just a few days ago.

I have to say I'm very pleased with the beautiful job on these guys! Rick and my mom agreed. They look almost as though I used the electric clippers, but I actually used really good, sharp (Fiskar) scissors.

This wasn't my first time hand shearing. The first couple of alpacas I hand sheared several years ago, I had given them a layered look. This time I tried a different technique in order to give them a more uniform length. Rather than cutting straight across horizontally, I cut from the top of the back and down. I pulled out each section of fiber and cut straight down, trying to cut at the same length all the way down. It's difficult to describe in words and unfortunately I was unable to take pictures as I did it.

Fortunately, both Leroy and Lucas were relatively cooperative. They did get a little nervous when I sheared their legs and close to any "important parts" but otherwise they were very well behaved. I was hoping to get photos of their really shiny, lustrous fiber close up, but they both decided to roll in the dirt after we let them back out in their pasture...before I got the camera out!

So this officially wrapped up our shearing season. Now it's time to skirt the blanket fiber and prepare it for the fleece show.

Naked alpacas...and llamas, too!

Everywhere you look at Hidden Pond Farm, there are naked alpacas and llamas! For the last few days, I've seen them laying flat on their sides, sunbathing.

Yesterday, Rick and I switched gears a little and sheared five llamas. Since we were shorthanded for a day, we knew we could just put the llamas in the chute and shear them fairly easily. Some of the llamas get a little feisty when shearing around their legs and necks, and toenail trimming on a couple of them can be nearly impossible. Nevertheless, we had a nice feeling of accomplishment at the end of the day.

Today was no different. Rene' was able to help us shear four (big) alpaca boys and one more llama. This weekend, we can finish up with Java Joe, our 400+ lb llama, and three alpaca boys. The two juvenile alpaca boys will be hand shorn instead of using the clippers so that should be interesting!

Wishing you a safe and happy memorial day weekend from all of us at Hidden Pond Farm!

I see spots!

Here's a before and after shearing photo of Frances Bean - what a cutie! She turns a year old next month and this was her very first time being shorn.

I love shearing an alpaca the first time to see how the color has changed and darkened "below the surface" of what you usually see. Franny's dark brown fiber looked like chocolate and then to see her spots - wow! I'm showing a close up of her rear end in the photo below because we found appaloosa spots under all that white fiber. She also has a lot of spots on her neck as well.

Rick has taken the week off and Rene' will also take a couple days this week to get more shearing done - maybe even finish everyone, we'll see. Today though we are taking a day off from shearing. Tomorrow we'll start back up again and we'll have some very grateful alpacas who will enjoy the sunny weather even more with their new haircuts - Wednesday is supposed to get up to 80 degrees!

Have a great day!

Four more shorn...

We sheared four more alpacas today -- two suris and two huacayas.

I'll have to take some shots of Frances Bean and post them on the blog. She looks so incredible now that she's shorn! She had so many appaloosa spots under all that fiber she reminded us of an Oreo Blizzard from Dairy Queen!! She's adorable.

Just a short post today. I'm a little worn out... Only 12 more alpacas left to shear and then we'll do the llamas.

Before and After...Shearing Season at HPF!

Federico ("Rico") was the first to be shorn this past Sunday at the farm. We hesitated to shear because it was very chilly that morning. After we got started though it seemed to warm up.

Rico wasn't extremely excited about the shearing but he's feeling very comfortable now and about 8.5 pounds lighter. We also trim toenails at shearing time. Rico's toenails didn't look too bad but they still needed some trimming.

Our nephew Noah and brother-in-law Rob were there to witness their first alpaca shearing. Rob was kind enough to snap a couple of pictures for the blog. I decided to use the one below with me (Elizabeth) at Rico's head and Rick starting the shearing. That's Rene's arm holding onto the back legs. And, of course, Noah giving a two thumbs up!

Black sweatshirts and flannel were not the best clothing choices for shearing -- we all ended up full of white fiber. Hopefully, we'll have warmer weather these next couple of weeks so we won't have to dress as warm.

Rico was our "practice run" to help us get started. I can't remember how long it took us, but it was not our fastest time. Once we get into the rhythm of shearing, we can usually get each alpaca shorn and toenails trimmed within a half hour.

If you ever have a chance to see a professional shearing demonstration done at an alpaca show, I highly recommend it. We watched a demonstration at the show in Madison. The professional shearers were able to completely shear one alpaca in about six minutes! Of course they had several people helping and they didn't have to worry about toenail trimming either. Two men would hold up the alpaca while two others would place the feet in ropes. Then the alpaca would be lowered to the floor and stretched out. As one man sheared, someone would collect the fiber off the alpaca and bag it up for the owner.

Personally, I'm happy getting them done in 30 minutes. We usually have about three people -- one to shear and one at each end of the table holding down the feet and head. We'll stop every few minutes to gather up the fiber and place it in bags. The shearing table makes it a lot easier on our backs, too.

So this is what we're up to lately at Hidden Pond Farm and most every alpaca farm across the country at this time of year.

Tis the season for shearing alpacas...

And we will definitely get started this weekend. We'll start with our huacayas because their fiber is so thick, and it is actually easier for us to shear than the slippery suri fiber. The huacaya fiber will come off in a nice, full blanket, followed by all the leg and neck fiber. The suri fiber is more loosely connected because of the individual locks throughout the body. Once we start shearing, we gather up the suri fiber in clumps as it falls off the alpaca.

Whether we're shearing a suri or a huacaya, our separation process is the same. We have a three bag system where we place the blanket fleece in one bag, the upper leg and neck fiber in a second bag, and in the third bag all of the extra fiber (second cuts and the less desirable, coarser and dirtier fiber from the lower legs, etc). I always mark the bags or slip a note inside with the alpaca name and shearing date as well as the bag contents (blanket or leg/neck fiber).

We're planning on entering some fleece shows and spin-offs this year so everyone will be working on skirting fleeces and preparing entries. I've been compiling a list of show dates and entry deadlines this week. I'll post more about skirting later.

I hope to find time to post some shearing pictures and comments from the weekend by Tuesday...

It's that time again...

Shearing season is upon us and we had great intentions to start this weekend. Unfortunately, we didn't set a gameplan and got too involved in other projects that needed to be done. Pastures needed cleaning, AlpacaNation pages needed updating, fences needed mending....now that the snow is gone and the weather is nice, we find so many projects that need our attention.

Rick fertilized our hay field some more yesterday with our own "home-made" alpaca fertilizer. He filled the spreader with a second load of composted manure and it turned out to be too much for the old spreader. The chain broke before he even got started so the manure had to be emptied manually - that's right, he started shoveling it! Poor guy did a lot on his own before he had to take a break.

After lunch, he went back out and I gave him a hand as well. Our older brother Terry came out soon after and the three of us unloaded the spreader out onto the hayfield. Now Rick will have to add fixing the chain on the manure spreader to his list of priorities.

The weather is going to be in the 60's over the next couple of days, with rain later on this week. We may try to shear a few alpacas in the evenings after Rick gets home from work. This afternoon I'll be setting up the shearing table and getting things ready to go. Rene' will come out and help with the shearing too.

Yes, you can sell alpaca fiber!

We just did! I know...a lot of people sell it all the time but this is new to us. It's funny because we've been so busy for the past few years with our day to day chores, jobs, etc that I never took the time to even try to sell fiber. I knew we needed to do it, but that was one more thing on the list. Now that we sold some I've got so many ideas for selling more!

The tough part is skirting the fiber to take out all the short "second cuts" and all the pieces of hay, etc. These are farm animals that like to roll around in the grass and dirt. Before we shear them, we try to get as much vegetable matter out of the fiber as we can but we can't get it all out. The only way to do it is to find a comfortable spot to lay it all out and start picking through it. Over the last several weeks we've worked on skirting some fiber for a friend to buy. Rene' and her kids, Rick and I all worked off and on to get it done. It was definitely a team effort! Thank you Kathy W. (and Abbie) for your purchase!

Well, we are finished shearing all of our alpacas for the season and now have only four female llamas to shear this weekend. I think last year we were still shearing in July so we're way ahead of schedule!

I mentioned last week that we are expecting a cria any day now...well it could be any day or any week now. I'm not going to try to predict it and Misty isn't going to tell us until she's good and ready.

It's shearing season

Every spring we shear our alpacas and llamas. It's amazing how long and thick that fiber grows on them over the winter. By spring, some of them are practically begging to get it shorn off so they can enjoy the cool breezes.

We got started a couple of weeks ago, just shearing our suri male, Moe. He allowed us to shear him standing up in a chute. We didn't want to risk tying him onto the shearing table since he had broken his leg last November. It should be well-healed by now, but the thought of tying that leg down made us nervous.

Two weekends ago Sunday, we sheared five males. Rick, Rene' and I were worn out by the end of the day but we had a really good feeling of accomplishment. All of our alpaca males in outside pastures were shorn, their toenails clipped, vaccinations and worming completed. They were all in good shape and looking pretty cool with their new haircuts. I was a bit bruised and a little battered....some of them like to put up a struggle getting onto the shearing table. This picture shows our shearing table and Rick and Rene' working together with our mom (you can see her hands on the far left) to shear one of the alpacas. They stay pretty calm on the table so it's very easy to work on them that way.

Last weekend, Rick and I sheared our three llama males. The shearing wasn't so bad as long as they stood still. These guys are way too big to use a shearing table so we put them in the chute and shear them standing up. Our biggest guy is Java Joe and he weighed in a 432 pounds! He doesn't like getting his toenails trimmed at all! I'll have to post a picture of him...I can't find one at the moment but I know I've taken pictures of him.

This weekend we'll start shearing the girls...there's about 7 alpacas and 4 more llamas to go and we'll be finished with shearing for the year.