I couldn’t believe how smooth everything went. With our shearer, Ann Kizer, we exceeded our goal of 20 alpacas per day, sheared 42 alpacas in two days, and finished with time to spare on Monday. I enjoyed working with Ann and we have made a reservation to use her again next year in May.
When I got home and unloaded the bags of fleece, I ended up just sitting there fondling Brightsmith’s & Cuppajoe’s fleeces. I couldn’t believe how nice all of Smitty’s 2nds felt and the brightness I found, especially in the white fleece from his neck, but in the rose-grey areas as well. I compared a sample of the rose-grey fleece to my fleece samples from the Fiber Workshop by Wade Gese I attended at Misty Ridge Alpaca Farm, and I think Smitty’s fleece is about 20 micron in the rose-grey. Mindy you, that was not a sample taken from the blanket, because the blankets will be processed as show fleeces! Well, you can probably tell that I’m pretty pleased. I just hope that I can properly skirt the show fleeces and do them justice.
The only bummer is that I was moving around some bags of fleece (fleece that was given to me from another farm) in the basement to make room for the new stuff, and I discovered MOTHS inside a couple of bags that weren’t sealed up tight! I was taking the bags outside and trying to get the moths out of the house. I hate moths with a passion! Fortunately, it appears that they haven’t done much damage yet so I hope this fleece can be salvaged. I told Walt I needed to freeze the bags of fleece to kill the moths, but he said we don’t have room in our regular freezer. So, bless his heart, he went on Craigslist and found a freezer that somebody was giving away for free. Then I’m going to have to use foggers in the house to kill any other moths lurking around just looking for some tasty wool to destroy. Of course, the birds will have to be out of the house when I do that. Did I mention that I hate moths?
Brightsmith, before
Brightsmith, after
Cuppajoe, before
Cuppajoe, after
