Today was an exciting and exhausting day at Saguaro Hill.  Today was spring shearing day.  Danny and his wife, Marilyn, arrived at about 10:30 am and the work began.

We decided to start off with Falkor because he is the biggest goat and the most difficult to handle.  It turned out he was not the most difficult.  Donald ended up being the most difficult.  He bit Danny and tried to wrestle away and refused to sit on his behind.  Danny promptly showed him who was boss though.  Then there were no more problems.  Caramel definitely looked pregnant.  She is due at the end of next month or early in May.

After each goat was sheared, it received a CD&T vaccine and a toe trimming.  Falkor also got a dose of Ivomec, which gets rid of lice and other parasites.  I only had one dose left so I will have to get more for the others before their coats grow very much.  It hardly took any time to do the goats and then it was on to the alpacas.

We went in the backyard pen first.  My intention was to do Tinker first, again because he is the biggest.  Also after his foot injury, I thought he would be the hardest to handle.  He ended up running and being more elusive than Kardigan or Cimarron, so Cimarron got caught first.  He was a very good boy.  He hardly kicked and he stood more still than any of the others.  Danny sheared all the alpacas standing up, well, except Stewie! Ha!  He cushed!  But he was also very well behaved.  He likes putting his head next to my chest which is where his head comes to on me.  He is much smaller than Tinker who towers over me.  Kardigan has the blackest nicest fleece.  Stewie has the thickest nicest fleece overall.  It was everywhere and filled two bags with his blanket.  The "Blanket" is the most desirable fleece on the alpaca.  It is the area that would hold a saddle on a horse.  

Taking one alpaca out of the pen and then returning him causes much commotion and aggression in the ones still in the pen.  They think it is a new alpaca and get all weird.  They spit and rear up on each other.  Then they have to sniff behinds and spit some more.  Handlers have to be quick and agile to keep from getting spit on and to get that halter off before any of the free alpacas can do harm to the animal you are holding or yourself.  Kardigan and Cimarron had the most spectacular reunion.  They reared up as high as they could and rammed chests together.  Glad I got out of the way.

So now the goats are short haired again and good for 6 months.  The alpacas will not be sheared again until next spring.  So now I've got another ton of fleece.  It needs to be washed and  carded and spun into yarn.  It would be cool to get the alpaca and goat fleeces spun into one yarn.  I still have much work to do.  And that is good.  That is why I have the animals.