This is what happens when the trimmer head breaks!

There are still 7 alpaca left to shear. I had my nephew come out to help me shear. I have a few days off work and figured I could get them all done in three days. We left the five volunteers in the barn lot so the rest would be easy to catch.  We started with another white one, they are the most vocal and not my favorite color so I figured practicing on them was good for everyone else.  We snagged one without too much trouble and got him into our shearing area and up against the panel.  We finally laid him on the ground and tied his back feet up.  It went much faster after that.  It took me 2.25 hours to shear him!  This is a dramatic improvement over Saturday’s three hour time, to be exact a 25% improvement.  Pretty good, we also managed to save the saddle portion of this alpaca in a gunny sack.  Unfortunately for the alpaca it came at a cost.  I cut him four times with the electric shears.  The bleeding stopped right away and they were all superficial but it still stung.  Plus, when I trimmed his toes I made one bleed pretty good.  Their toes are way overgrown.  I don’t think the place we got them from did anything with them last year.  So we are playing 2 year catchup.  The shears worked better as I changed the top cutting blade.  We took a break and went inside for lunch.  I had to put Zeke on the run at this time as he had been harassing the alpaca against my strict instructions.  After being chased off the alpaca he had cornered the boy sheep in the ram pasture.  He was not complying with the leave animals alone unless instructed policy.  He spent the entire afternoon on the run watching us but unable to terrorize anyone. 

 

Alpaca #3, it’s easier when they are tied down.

Volunteer number three was the last white boy.  He was not so easy to hold onto.  We finally managed to get him over to the shearing tarp but could not hold him still.  He just would not comply. This one we tied both his front and back feet to opposite rails of the corral.  Heath then held his head while I sheared.  I saved the saddle area in a wool bag and then finished him up in two hours!  This is a 9% improvement over the previous best time and a 33% improvement over our starting time on Saturday.  I managed to only cut him 3 times.  He let me know by trying to kick me every time I knicked him!  The previous one just laid there and took it.  I also did not draw any blood while trimming the toes.  I use the trimmers to dig out all the dirt and crap out of the center of the claws so I can see where the frog is growing in the hollow space so I don’t cut it with the toenail clippers.  It takes a little longer but I am happy not cutting their feet.  I could have done better on time if I had changed out the clipper blades.  I was cutting too long with a dull blade. 



He’s untied and refusing to stand so I can finish his feet.

It was time for some color, we only have two brown alpaca left to shear.  We snagged the all brown one and once I put the halter on him he dropped to his haunches and refused to move!  We had to drag him toward the tarp.  Once in a while he would explode from a sitting position and jump in the air with all four feet.  Looked like a bucking bronco who ended up laying on the ground when it was all over.  We spread him out and tied the front and back legs. I had accidently overtightened one of the blade set screws.  The video said to tighten them.  I stripped the screw out on one side.  I changed to a full set of new blades, top and bottom.  It worked amazingly.  I was a shearing fool, the only problem was the comb would not stay on the shears because one side was not holding pressure.  It was 4:30 pm our time so I called premier supplies to order the new part.  Nope, they close at 5:30 pm CST.  I did find the part I needed in the owners manual and should be able to get them to ship it ASAP.  I also need some more blades.  The super smooth part on the brown alpaca in the picture is done with a ceramic cutting blade.  The stainless steel are not as sharp, but you can get them resharpened.  The ceramic blades are disposable and cost more.  I had to quit shearing less than half way through.  We did get his toenails clipped before letting him back in with the volunteer herd.  I saved half the saddle.  My back was starting to kill me.  I now have to have a shearing table!  Unfortunately, I will not be buying one at a price tag of $1500.  Annmarie found me the plans for one online and I can build it for around $200.  It is made out of black iron threaded pipe and a full sheet of 3/4 inch plywood.  Plus some canvas for the belly strap.  I am totally going to do this!  Tomorrow night I will make myself a parts list so I can start purchasing the needed material.  No more bending over!  The bad part is I still need to trim teeth.   This is the worst part of alpaca care.  I am saving it so my buddy Rob can help!  He loves handling the animals.  Tomorrow will be work on irrigation day.  I have not tested the main irrigation pump yet. 

Just getting started.

Today was the day we were going to bust out the shearing on eight alpaca.  We had a plan, I had attempted to recruit help but it failed miserably so it was just Annmarie and I.  I had to stop and pickup some tent stakes and a wire saw at D and B store before coming home.  When I got home I went upstairs to change but could not find any work pants.  I like the cargo pants as you can fill them up with various handy small tools.  I just grabbed a pair of blue jeans out of the drawer.  All blue jeans are work pants!  I then went down to the dining room and watched a you tube video on how to install cutter heads onto the electric shear we purchased off of Craigslist several months ago.  After 6 minutes I had the head on and adjusted correctly per the video with the understanding that when in use I would need to “find the sweet spot” of tightness to get the cutters at their optimum performance, I love technical terms.  I then went out and put out four flakes of hay in the barn lot and opened up the gates so I could run the alpacas from the orchard into the ram pasture then into the back barn lot then into the front barn lot then into the corral.  It sounded simple enough, we do it all the time with the sheep.  I had strung an extension cord from the front yard up to the corral and gotten some tools and the dremel.  I went over and started to gently coax the alpaca toward the gate into the ram pasture.  Now mind you I was not ready to shear yet as I needed to stake out the canvas tarp and get the hoof trimmers and a hacksaw and install a eye ring into the top of the one of the corral posts.  Annmarie spotted me and asked me if maybe I should be ready to shear the alpaca before getting them all riled up. 

When all else fails, this stops forward movement.

So I went back and got everything ready.  We both then went to get the alpaca.  We managed to get them right in front of the open gate into the ram pasture and they simply would not go through it!  So I went back to the barn and got some sticks.  We use them as arm extensions.  We got them all balled up near the gate opening again and they would not go through, no matter how much poking and prodding we did, until they started escaping.  So the plan to shear does not work if you cannot catch an animal.  We followed them and ended up with five of them on the hillside with fence on one side and front spring ditch on the other side.  Annmarie asked me if they would jump the ditch.  I said “sure, I see them on both sides of the ditch all the time”, after further questioning it was determined that I may have not actually seen them jump the ditch. I jumped the ditch and we cornered them near the end of the fence.  I had a brand new five foot wooden neck crook and was going to hook one then grab it.  This did not work for me earlier as I was staring intently at said alpaca every time I got close to one.  They can smell a predator from fifty feet away!  This time Annmarie told me not to stare and maybe just go with the trusty two handed hair grab technique I had perfected this winter.  The tried and true sounded good after several failures.  I waded in slowly not looking at any beast and then leaped on the nearest victim.  I had two handfuls of hair on the first grab and quickly worked my way up to the neck and head to control the lucky volunteer.  Annmarie put a harness on it and started to “lead”, drag it toward the barn.  I opened the gate and of course half the alpaca wanted to sneak out with us.  We thought they would follow.  Nope, they ran away the opposite direction.  Zeke and I went and chased them back while Annmarie led the volunteer.  He decided at one point that pulling on the lead was not working so sitting on the ground does stop forward momentum.  She managed to get him going again and into the barn lot. I just pointed the other four alpaca in that direction and they followed the volunteer right into the barn lot.  I closed the gate and now we had the first five participants in our little learning exercise. 

Those are my pants! Only about 2.5 hours into the first alpaca shearing.

We kept trading off the shearing.

We tied him up to the ring and started shearing.  It is not easy and we were pretty timid to start out as we did not want to cut him with the shears.  That “sweet spot” on the shears is very hard to find.  I spent a lot of time screwing around with the shears.  We were trying to save the fleece, after the first 30 minutes we decided that just getting the old fleece off was the most important task and salvaging any thing was not going to happen.  I trimmed two feet somewhere in the middle of all this with minimum trouble.  I nicked the blood vessel on the third foot and made his toenail bleed a little.  I did the final foot with no blood.  I noticed Annmarie wearing my favorite work pants about one hour into the process.  It took us three hours!  It is hard work and the sun was beating down.  Annmarie ended up with sun burns to both upper arms.  We had to continuously go back over our cuts to get a better cut.  It is a very hard skill and one I am not sure I will be able to master.  That $30/animal they were charging to shear is looking like a better deal.  We expected the hair to get cleaner closer to the skin but the alpaca just kept getting dirtier.  He really needed a bath by the time we were all done.  I still need to cut off his front teeth and check his fighting teeth but I was unsure how to do that.  I had to go watch more you tube videos!!  I locked all five animals in the barn lot and opened it up so they can get to the back barn lot and the front spring.  I hope to start shearing again on Tuesday. 
As an added bonus, Annmarie spotted another set of new twin baby sheep they are less than five days old and I walked over to them and there are no ear tags.  So they are definitely new since we tagged last.  One more thing to catch up on.  I need to get the animals sheared then I can go back to the irrigation pump. 

I think it is a crazed rabbit!! A Giant Filthy JackRabbit!!

Sheep balled up and watching Zeke warily.

Today, I went down to Mom’s for a bit this morning.  When I left, the plan was to be gone for a while, so Steve naturally put Zeke on the run when he headed out to work.  Yesterday, we put the boy sheep in to mow the lawn, but with Zeke on the run, all should have been well.  They have a very large space where he can’t reach them, after all.  Mom wasn’t feeling well, so I came back home about 20 minutes after Steve left.  As I drove up to the house, I saw the sheep, all balled up on the hillside in front of the house. Now, this is Zeke’s favorite game, so I look to make sure he’s on the run.  He is.  He’s laying down at the farthest reach of his run staring the sheep down.  Apparently the fact that there is no way he can actually reach them has no bearing whatsoever on their fear of his gaze.  Dang dog.

Zeke, exerting his authority over the sheep.

Sheep barn doors are done, and yes they are barn quality with room for sag and shifting.

It was a sheep morning.  It was looking pretty good, Zeke and Annmarie and Jonathon had gotten the sheep into the mommy area in just a few minutes.  It was looking like it was going to be a quick sort and tag and then onto the barn.  Nope, it was not to be.  The sheep did not want to go into the barn and one of the ewes with a set of twins broke away from the cluster and tried to run by Zeke.  He took offense as we had told him to guard.  He jumped on her side and grabbed a hold of her right side.  We hollered at him and he let go then the ewe turned and rammed him because she had twins.  He did not take kindly to this attempt on his dog ego.  He jumped on her grabbed her side and started to work his way to her throat.  I was running at him, screaming at the top of my lungs and swearing at him to let go.  He had her by the throat and was squeezing by the time I got close.  He let go just before I reached him.  I made him go to the far corner and then rolled him over onto his back and choked him until he submitted.  The dog is far too dominant at times.  He was not allowed to help with the sheep most of the rest of the morning.  Annmarie took him out later and said he was much more subdued and listened very well.  In other words, he found his good boy manners. 
We sorted and tagged the last set of twins.  Jonathon wrote down all the tag numbers as our spread sheet is a little outdated.  After all the mommas and babies were documented we ran in the boys.  The first one we sorted out was the ram.  We tossed him into the middle of the barn to run around until we had everyone else sorted.  Jonathan was sure the ram was going to sneak up and get him at any point.  He kept looking over his shoulder to see where the ram was located in relation to him.  After every one’s tag number was documented we let the ram loose with the girls.  He was very happy when he ran over to see all of them. 
We fixed the lower door from parts of the old one and a few new pieces.  The only compromise was I had to put the boards horizontally instead of vertically.  The boards were too short to go vertically.  I didn’t want a bunch of fresh colored boards on the bottom half of the door.  Again, I left lots of room for door shifting.  Annmarie says its for natural ventilation.  I think it is as good a reason as any.  The barn is totally ready for winter!  I just need to bungie cord the feeders together so the sheep cannot pull them over.  It is the only thing left.  I need to actually buy more bungie cords to make this happen.  I am way more ready for winter than I was last year.  It is getting easier and easier. 
 

Milk room cleaned up so we can walk through.

New sheep feeder in barn.

Yesterday was a barn day.  I had Jonathan come out and help me.  The entire barn was full of old wood we had moved out from the hay rooms.  He put all of that in the overhead walkway and storage room over the tack room.  I made a new 8 foot feeder inside the barn where the old jugs we removed were located.  It turned out very nice!  I was pretty happy with it.  It is good enough I may put one on the other side of jugs or the end of the barn.  Time and use will be the real test.  If it holds up well and the sheep use it we may build a few more in the next couple of years. 
 

New upper barn doors, now split in two.

Annmarie wanted me to put double doors on the sheep entrance to the barn when we first moved here.  Instead I put a large single door on top and the fancy 200# bottom door with the slider door built inside of it.  The door was so heavy it was hard to open.  The sheep all jostled and got stuck in the narrow two foot opening.  The track would fill with snow and straw in the winter and freeze solid.  It made for some hard door utilization.  So, now I am rebuilding the doors to be a double door on top and double door on the bottom.  Amazing how that happened.  I am trying to use up all the old boards from the old door. This time the door is only two layers of wood, so hopefully I will have less sag. 

Grain holder and chute installed.

Barn almost ready for winter.

Annmarie also wanted a funnel and bucket holder under our grain bin.  She had envisioned a box sticking out from the bin that you dropped the bucket into.  I had a hard time envisioning the support for that so came up with a new design.  It holds the grain bucket and directs all the grain to the right spot.  We will see how it holds up to a winters use.
Johnathon also spread straw all over the barn floor.  We were going to work the sheep first thing Saturday morning and it makes the footing a whole lot treacherous when offal is being absorbed by the straw.  Other than it being 105 F outside it was a great day.  It was hot!!