Shearing Llamas

One of my favorite blogs is Whispering acres and Claire did a blog about how to shear a llama the "traditional (ie. South American) way".  You can view it HERE to get all the nitty gritty details that were useful to us.

We were THRILLED to find out that it works and is relatively easy once you get past the body slamming putting the halter thing on (this with Igraine, the tamest of the lot!  Pikachu was just fine).

It LOOKS bad.  In fact, a trussed up Llama looks a lot like a dead llama.

Mmamma Llamma Llilith looks on...she was rather concerned that we were taking her darling Igraine out of the barnyard and made all sorts of interesting llama noises but did refrain from spitting.

They look even more dead when you start removing fiber...a victim of a depredation (a fiber depredation!)

Igraine received plenty of loving...especially from her beloved Will.  She lay prone like this for a long time even after being released from the rope around her hindquarters.  Will is using a nubbly rubbery brush on her and she enjoyed that quite a bit!

Llillith defied capturing.  She is wily.  She witnessed both fiber depredations on Pikachu (background) and her wee Igraine.  She is going to be hard to catch unawares... Both girls received much needed pedicures as well!

Soccer is Over!

That didn't seem over gleeful did it?  Two nights a week and three different games a night...makes for a long summer!  :)  Duncan is sad it is over, but Sam and Lila are glad.

The coach took all sorts of abuse...

Duncan was the experienced player in the U6 team.

This was Sam's first year on the U8 team...he was a goofball...no surprise to anyone but his coaches!

Lila grew some long legs this year.

There were messy ice cream treats at the end.

Grouchy Wren

I didn't take any of these pictures so I'm not sure what the actual scenario was but I know that Lila is not totally awake very early in the morning and that her father tends to find this amusing...

Ignored

Usually when I go out to the pasture to spend time with the woolies I am completely inundated by sheep, llamas and now goats who want pats.  These girls were so into their grass duties that I was completely ignored, even though I called and cajoled....all 12 sheep and 2 goats are in this photo.

"You know lady, if you would have bothered to bring cookies maybe someone would come visit you".

Er, sorry Tea- you are absolutely right.

Amy could use some cookies.  She is the only woolie here not in the best condition.  She is thin and has been wormed a few times with different concoctions but still doesn't put on weight.  I try to sneak her some oats through the fence every couple of days which generally causes quite a commotion amongst the gang.  If anyone has any ideas about how to get some weight on her I'd be happy to hear them.  She is just the sweetest sheep...

Big D's Glasses

I'm not sure where these silly glasses came from but Duncan decided to model them last night as we were reading bedtime stories and I couldn't resist capturing "the mood". 

Time flies...

That old cliche about time flying seems to be more true the older you get and the more work there is to be done I'm finding out.

This weekend was busy finishing up washing fleeces-a chore that I normally enjoy very much but was drawn out to the point of sillyness by all the rainy weather we had this early summer.  It was only completed as quickly as it was because a chunk of it will be sent off to be made into top...some of the beautiful fleeces were just completely full of VM.  Thank goodness for the sheep coats because I certainly can't afford to have more top next year and I cringe at throwing all those individual fleeces with all their character into one big pot to get the weight up for the minimum needed to process the top!

The llamas still need to be shorn and have their toes attended to.  Weeknights this week perhaps working around soccer?  Maybe next weekend as well.

Sunday I spent a few hours at a fellow spinners house playing in the dye pots.  She had a batch of indigo going so I dyed some mohair roving in that pot, and experimented with rainbow dyeing some correidale roving I had.  It was a blue day!    I had experimented with a black bean dye for some mohair last weekend and it turned out more gray than blue...reminds me of the "blueing" that little old ladies used to have done to their hair.  I'm going to try some copper pennies and ammonia next...ideas gleaned from Jane's fertile mind.

Top to bottom: Indigo mohair, "rainbow" corriedale, black bean mohair.

One of my purchasers for the bunnies fell through- a family emergency will be taking her out of town so it is not a good time to add pets to her life. This means I need to place five bunnies instead of three! Will have to work on marketing this week. Speaking of the bunnies....they are starting their Fuzzy without Faces phase.

The agouti buck is really friendly and it is hard to get a picture without him in it!

Eating pellets with gusto... The black kit is also a buck.

Oh me, me, me....take me out please!!  There are three white does and one white buck (last I checked anyway!)

Are you looking for me?

The chocolate vienna marked buck has one blue eye and one brown eye.