!!! VICTORY !!!


Persistence pays!! Ah! Saturday was a GOOD day! Hubby & I, DD#2, DS #2 (who is 6"2") all headed out to the large corral where our fugitive llama had spent the week. He preferred to stay on high ground and left the bunch of us to plow through the ooze and water, as we tried to direct him around the fence to the open gate leading to a smaller corral. It was not a short-lived affair with a precision team, let me assure you! The low point was when DS lunged the wrong direction and stepped where the mud sucked his booted foot in an iron grip and he went for a dive... essentially everything but his head and back went in. He not-so-graciously declined to be photographed, as did the rest of the disgruntled group. We did, however, manage to get his royal highness into the smaller pen, corner him and install a brand new, "royal" blue sturdy halter. High five's and (very dirty) smiles all around! I almost skipped back to the house for the shears, bags and camera!


First side done!



And finished! All told it took me about 2 hours. True, a "professional" shearer would have been done in under 20 minutes using electric clippers but I was using my classic traditional spring steel hand shears. I was also taking a slower approach because I am NOT a "professional" shearer by any stretch of the imagination! I also wanted to be sure not to pinch or poke either of us in the process. I clipped small bunches at a time and then shook them out to get rid of any second cuts - which worked marvelously - and sorted the bunches into one of 3 bags - White fleece, Black fleece and Garbage.
I was also mindful of the biblical proportion mosquitoes we have so I left him with pretty much a full inch of fleece everywhere plus, the tip of the tail I didn't clip at all so he'd have a fly swatter for that area, one of the few without fleece at all. It always amazes me just how scrawny llamas are. They're built more like a goat than a sheep - pretty pathetic looking without all that fleece! LOL!

Once released, the prisoner of war didn't waste any time making a run for it! He left faster than I could get the camera out! I took these shots using the zoom feature or he'd have been only a small dot in the photo!



You can sure see how much mud there is here - everything blackish is usually solid green - even the parts with water!
So that was my weekend! Victory! Sweet victory! Cheers all!


Posted by Gloria Patre at 6/21/2010 5:15 PM
Categories: Spinning, Fiber
Tags: catching a llama spinning llama fiber
 

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  • 6/21/2010 7:01 PM Doris wrote:
    A friend asked a bunch of us to help in shearing day at her sheep farm as she had just undergone surgery and we were glad to pitch in. I was a skirter/ sweeper after the professional shearer did his thing. I loved every minute and took lots of pictures for my school kids. Congrats on a day's great work.
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    1. 6/22/2010 12:36 PM Gloria Patre wrote:
      Oh that brings back SO many happy memories of sheep shearing day here! It's been 7 years already! Gosh I miss my sheep! Somehow shearing a single llama just isn't the same! LOL!!
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  • 6/23/2010 8:58 AM Cathy wrote:
    Glad to see that the shearers were victorious! Also glad to see that your farm is drying out a bit.
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