I went to a shearing Saturday… in Middleburg, just a few back roads from the shop. 

With mixed emotions, I watched the men flip the first llama.   He didn’t want to stay down and fought hard, it must have hurt, kicking and such on that concrete.  Although, once they had been sheared they seemed lighter on their feet and much cooler.

I watched  a total of seven alpacas and 5 llamas get a hair cut.  It was a fairly breezy day and little puffs of fleece blew about the pen, finally reaching it’s destination just outside, alongside the road.  Brown, white, black…a needlefelter would have made great use of what was just lying in the road.

The owner of the llamas had his first animal sheared and they were starting to bring in the 2nd…the fleece from the first was still just lying there in a pile on the floor. Someone asked what he was going to do with it…”I don’t care, I don’t want it, do you want it?”  The alpaca breeder responds “I don”t want it”.  It took about 1/2 a second before I blurted “I’ll take it!” 

So…once fiber poor, I am now fiber rich!  I have bags and bags of llama which…gives me a great excuse to have a play day!