Day 15 with alpacas: a bit of spit, a lot of skirting

May 4th, 2010 The 1st day of SHEARING:
I will have to add photos later, batteries in camera are dead.

5:15 a.m. : someone on the floor decided to roll a cart of laundry down the hall and do laundry. The laundry room is conveniently located two doors from mine. Really??? 5:15 a.m.??? So instead of 5:45 with the alarm, I was awake at 5:15 with some fool doing laundry.

7:00 a.m. : report to the office for pre-shearing poop raking/food/water of all critters. Then on to the main barn. It DID rain a bit last night, but the 'big girls' were in the barn mostly. Still, the smell of wet alpaca combined with unventilated excrement.....pungent.

Coffee! Square donuts! yum!

8:00 a.m.: all new people (like me) climb to the hayloft to view the first shearing. (will add pictures)

The first one: SO much spit they cover the head with a towel, which is THROWN OUT. She is not at ALL happy about being strapped to a table, having her coat sheared and toenails cut. Not happy at ALL, and very expressive.

There are about two animals sheared in an hour.

9:00 a.m.: the big boss calls the newbies out of the loft to take the two blankets (just sheared) to the skirting room. As we are walking away from the barn, there is a SCREAMING, like an animal is being killed or tortured. THAT, says the boss, is why the shearer wears earplugs, and why we were leaving just then. This particular animal always always responds that way to the shearing table and the shearing. Seems she screams like that the whole time. Wow. That's about 20 minutes of listening to that for the 6+ people in the barn. It was seriously freaky. Anyone just walking outside would have thought there was major torture going on. Really, there was not. Some alpacas don't make a sound the entire time. This one is vocalizing for the entire group.

9:00-noon: skirting. Damp alpaca fleece is similar to wet dog smell, but stronger. Except the alpacas have been rolling in hay, dirt, etc. Very ripe, some of it.

noon-1:00 p.m.: lunch!!  pulled pork, greens from the garden, homemade guacamole, homemade cupcakes! Yum.

1:00 - 4:30: It seems I am to be in the skirting room. Is it due to my Delicate Flower status??  Or is it that I do not mind sorting through all the fiber and picking out gunk? I am getting faster, and more confident in my decisions to throw out fleece. Still, I feel like I am shirking my 'intern' duties and should be out in the stinky barn holding down an animal and getting covered in spit. It was not destined to happen today.
(Lisa, I think you were the only one in that pool....)

4:30: head to barn, help with random chores while they finish an animal

5:00-6:00: dinner at the cafeteria with the crew (and all the Sisters)

6:00-7:30: barn. helped move fences to expand 'holding area'. Filled water buckets. Held leash on youngest one while we tried to pick out a ton of gunk from his fleece. Seems the young ones like to play in the dirt the most. Go figure. Tried, with a few people, to get shorn alpacas in from the field with lovely yummy green grass. They were NOT having that. Not at all interested in going in, thank you very much. That shearer is still in there, and the grass is not. They look at you like you are clearly insane for even asking.

Help take 'trash' fiber to compost, and nasty green spit rags to dumpster, help lock up Kubota and put in feed for a.m.

8:00 p.m. : Home. Shower.  Joint ache creme...

9:30 Sit in recliner. Attempt to get pictures off camera. Batteries dead. No replacements!! ARRRGH.

10:30 Bed

Please do not let the person decide to do laundry at 5:15 a.m.....must be on poo patrol at 7:00 tomorrow.