s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

We shore two animals this morning, and that marks the “end” of the shearing. The end of the list we know about, that is. I am sure a few more will emerge from the woodwork over the next few weeks, but at least the long weeks of seemingly-endless shearing are done. All up we shore about 150 animals this season, including our own.

The alpaca stuff is generally winding down for the season now. We have a few cria due in Feb/March, but hopefully that goes easily. Most of the matings are now for other peopl’s animals, which is nice, because it is business and a bit of income.

Looks like I will be busy bottle feeding for the next few weeks, though. A friend, who has also had a very tough year with her alpaca, had a new mum fall over dead on Saturday- leaving a 3-day old cria at foot. For the first few weeks, the young cria needs about 6 feed per day, so I will take care of it since I can. When the cria is a bit older it can get by on 3 or 4 feeds a day, and it can go home. For better or worse, I have gotten quite experienced at bottle feeding.