Mother's Day Hair Cuts

Shearing Day... oh so busy, 45 alpacas to give hair cuts to... but oh so much fun. Why?  

Here in Adams County, southern PA, the month of May
can start to be quite warm.
Did you know that alpaca fiber
is 30% warmer than wool. How would you
like a warm alpaca coat in 70 degree weather?
So.......

We give them a hair cut to keep them
comfortable and healthy. 

Shear

Collect

  

 Plan 

 Take a look at all the fun....

Check over the heard

Then we stage the alpacas by bringing  in a group from the field.

With all the people and confusion the girls didn't think they wanted anywhere near that barn.
A herding tape with lots of people helps to convenience them that they would rather be in the
 barn then next to these crazy people.
A herding tape is just a nylon flat line
that they are able to see and know that they are to go in the opposite direction.
 Alpacas always want an escape route, or the easy way out. In the barn
was their only way to escape, the easy way out,  so that is the way they went.
Easy!

Once they are in the barn we put them
through some stations before they
see the shearer. 

They need to be cleaned. No shampoo, just a vacuum with
John and ...........

 Bonnie.

Bonnie uses a special tool to knock off the hay and other
unwanted material in the coat. While........

John uses the vacuum to get that deep down dirt. Notice the
hose is coming from over head. That is because the noisy vacuum
is up in the hay loft. It serves two purposes. One to keep the noise away
and more importantly it keeps the hose away from the alpacas' legs.
They really don't like anything near their legs.  

While the cleaning is going on, we prepare four bags by writing the name of the animal, where the fiber came from and the year it is being harvested.
One bag is  for the side sample that will be sent off the Yocom-McColl to measure for micron and evaluation of fiber in general.
One bag for the prime coat or sometimes called "firsts", that comes from the back where one would find a saddle on a horse.
Another bag for "seconds", which aren't as desirable and comes from the neck and belly.
Finally the "thirds" that come from the legs, less desirable of all.
All alpaca fiber is useful in some way. Not all is comfortable next to your skin. 

Once finished with the cleaning, John
then brings the animal to the mat. Where ....

he meets up with Rick, the team member
that comes with the shearer, together
they gently lay the alpaca down and .....

restrain the legs. The alpaca is now ready
for her hair cut.

Yuck!    Most of the time alpacas are very gentle and polite, but some just don't like to be touched.  When they get really frustrated by us humans they will let us know by "spitting."  If they are really mad they pull up some green stinky stuff from the bottom of their stomach and "spit,"  that and, boy, is that ever stinky. YUCK!!!!!!!

Besides getting a hair cut some of the alpacas get some other "herd health" things done, such as trimming toenails and getting shots for deworming. 

Notice the restrains are tight. This is the
same on the front legs as well. Matt is going
to trim this alpaca's toe nails. Alpacas
have a pad on their foot more like a dog. They
have 2 toe nails on each foot. Matt will trim the
extra growth over the pad. This does not hurt the
alpaca. Just like cutting your nails doesn't hurt you.

Joanne is preparing the dectomax,
a deworming medicine to protect the
alpacas from the dangerous meningeal worm.
She is also writing down what is being giving,
good record keeping is important. Once Joanne
is finished filling the needle then ........

  Linda will hand the shearer the
needle to administer the injection.

Are you ready to watch the shearing happening?   Here is Mike Bickley. He comes all the way from Christchurch, New Zealand. What a pro.....

                                                    

Jen collects the leg hairs. We like putting the leg hairs
in a white tie bag. The drawstrings act to hold all three
bags together. Each bag is labeled with the alpacas'
name, date and the location of where on the
alpaca the fiber came from.

It's important that the shearer and his team work together to hold the alpaca still while the shearing is going on. 

Can you see the white alpaca face between Rick's feet?
Yes that is a sock hanging out of Rick's pocket. We use
a sock over the mouth of the alpacas that spit. 

It's been a long day and we have a lot of skinny alpacas now. But remember no laughing as you might hurt their feelings. 

We will need to comfort them. 

Here is the alpaca everyone is waiting for...... Penny..... the last one of 45. 


                           YEA!!!

Thanks Marty for your help.

Yea! we made it to the end. Thanks Keri.

Thanks Boys. The shearing dynamo!!!!!!
Mike, Matt, Rick  

Thanks Phyllis, Brittney, Lee, and Kathy for helping in that hectic but so important fiber room. 

Thanks Holly, and Roy      
                                Thanks Joanne, Linda, Lynne, Jessica


Thanks  John, Bonnie, Jen, Stacey, Heather, David

                                 Thanks to all the visitors too. We had a most                 successful shearing day. Thanks to all that jumped in there to make it run so smoothly. Thanks to LaBella Italiana Restruant in Littlestown, PA for making some delicious food and to Kennie's Market in Littlestown, PA for the lunchtime salads. 

Visit our website: www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com 

Thanks for reading my blog. Hope you enjoyed the day with us. 

Please email me if you would like to be on the e-mailing list. 

e-mail me at: JuliesAlpacas@gmail.com 

Like us on Facebook QuarryCritters AlpacaRanch 

Enjoy some more pictures from this very special day........

Buddy's Coat 

 Racer, week old cria

White alpaca is Sarah with baby Racer.

Scarlett, after shearing, Racer with Scarlett, his mom.

Monty and Jaxine return for hair cuts. Jaxine rebels by sitting. 

Is that his tongue hanging out?

Penny baby meet Penny alpaca. 

Buddy after shearing

The End.

 Do you have more pictures? Please send them to me. 

Thanks, JuliesAlpacas@ gmail.com 

Surprise !!!! and 10 days early. . . . . VIDEO

As I was out to feed the dogs last evening ......
                           I spied a tiny little cria in the field. What a surprise. I was so excited. I ran to tell David as I had forgotten my phone.
                           Well watch this new life less then an hour old.

                         Fresh from the field the new cria gets it's temperature taken, gets towel dried and weighed.  If the temperature is low then we use a hair dryer to blow dry and  raise the temperature. The new cria must have a  temperature about 100 degrees to process mother's milk.

                              If needed we put a cria coat on the new baby and return to mama.

         After running around the field, hard to catch, we nick-named this little guy "Racer" He is still trying to find the milk sack. He will learn this is not the easiest way to drink. But he found the milk.
          Crias are always a nice surprise and a welcome addition to the family. A healthy cria is the best. So far this one seems very healthy.......

Thank you for reading my blog.  Please visit us on our website:  www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com

or schedule a farm visit you could say, "Hi" to Racer. Be sure you bring your camera. 

                                                                     

Come Join the Fun ................

Shearing Day May 13th  10:00 - 2:00

After many months of careful planning for our big day, 

it will finally arrive May 13th. 

Here is a little about how we expect the day to go. 

Here is the over view from last year. 

Our shearer's name is Mike Bickley. 

He travels all the way from Christchirst, New Zealand. 

This year he will be leaving his new baby son 

for about 3 months to come to the USA to shear alpacas. 

 There are many jobs on shearing day . . . . . . .

We must bring the alpacas in from the field.

It's best to keep the alpacas on green grass.
The grass helps to keep the fleece as clean as can be. 

Next each alpaca is vacuumed to get as much dust, dirt and hay out as possible.
 We want the fleece as clean as possible, as it is much easier to clean it while still on the alpaca.  

After all the cleaning the alpaca waits it's turn to get a spot on the mat with the shearer. 

Each alpaca will need 3 bags. One for the best or prime coat, next for the
neck and belly hairs we call seconds, and another bag for the leg hairs, called thirds. 

Once the alpaca is on the mat, Mike the shearer begins the
hair cut. The alpaca is restrained so not to get hurt or hurt anyone
else. Each alpaca is gentle put down on the mat with many helper
so everyone stays safe.                                                

This is Robbie. He is very happy to have
his coat off. The days are getting warmer
and he was sweaty. Now he looks so
different but the rule is no laughing.
Alpacas have feeling too and are very
sensitive. 

Here is Buddy after shearing.

Here is Buddy's fleece. 

Come on out and have some fun with us on May 13th.                                                                                               

Visitors are welcome 10- 2. 

We will have fleece, roving, yarn 

and many other products and alpacas for sale. 

Visit our website: www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com 

Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch 

will return to the Gettysburg Farmers' Market

 Gettysburg Farmers' Market 

Downtown will return to the square 

this Saturday 

 7:00 Am until 12:00 Noon 

Adams County, PA 

Customers use our alpaca yarn to
make warm soft alpaca socks.

Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch will be bringing more
 hand dyed roving in a variety of colors. 

Be sure to come visit and get your alpaca fibers and products
 this Saturday on Lincoln Square, downtown Lincoln Square, Gettysburg, PA
Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch will be outside the House of Bender. 

Hand spun, hand painted alpaca yarn will also be
available Saturday
at the Gettysburg Farmers' Market.

Many hand made alpaca products will
be available. This strange little man is made from
alpaca fibers. It's made by needle felting. 

  

Happy Customer.
She is wearing a hand knitted alpaca hat.
Doesn't it look great on her? 
Special thanks to everyone that has shared our blog with friends. I'd like to encourage YOU to share our content with a friend as well. Thanks for your interest.

Please visit our website.

Let's Paint Roving

Have you ever thought about hand painting fiber? Well we have and it's fun. We started with white roving. Roving is fiber that has been washed and then carded so that all the fibers are aligned. This prepares the fiber to go through the spinning wheel or to be felted.


Next we thought about what colors would be nice together. A color wheel can be very helpful because when you paint, the colors beside each other will mix and blend and you may not want those colors to be brown.  Some people, like Linda here, just have a great sense of color. Some people need a resource, like the color wheel.  


We picked Cushing Dyes in the colors: American Beauty, Turquoise, Violet, and Silver Gray. We mixed the colors with lots of white vinegar to set the color.


Next Linda made a plan as to how she was going to paint the roving. She could make the stripes go towards her or even dot the paint. Linda decided to make short stripes in a pattern. Then she started to paint. 

 Notice that we have laid out the plastic wrap under the roving. It will make it easier once the painting is completed. Watch this next video to see how she made a jelly roll of the plastic wrap. Roll the short sides in and then the roll the long sides over and then make the rest in thirds. Well it's just easier to watch. 

After the roving is rolled up in the plastic wrap it is put into the steamer pot to set the color. A steamer pot has 2 parts, the big outer pot and then a smaller inner pot with holes for the steam to come through. The inner pot keeps the fiber and plastic wrap out of the water. With a little bit of water in the bottom of the pan, turn on the burner and let the water come to a boil and then turn off the burner. Let the roving steam for about 30 minutes.  


There are different ways to steam the hand painted roving but this is the way I prefer. 

After the 30 minutes has passed then rinse the fiber and let sit for another 30 minutes. We added a tablespoon of fabric softener to this big canning pot to make the fiber smell nice and to cut down on the static that may occur during spinning. It really is a step that you can choose to skip if you want. 


We used the spin drain cycle on the washer machine to get most of the water and moisture out of the fiber. Linda put it on a hanger, took it home to hang it in her backyard to make sure it was fully dry. She will bring it back for Knitty Knotty Knight, our fiber fun night. She plans on spinning it then. 




Knitty Knotty Knight is here. . . . . . 

We always have so much fun. 

Here is Linda spinning the roving that she handpainted. I wonder what she is going to make from the yarn? I will have to let you know. Stay tuned. . . . . . . 

Thank you for reading my blog. I hope that you found the information useful. If you have any questions about hand painting roving or fiber let me know and I will help you find the answer. 
http://www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com
http://www.JuliesAlpacas.com 
JuliesAlpacas@gmail.co    

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Your thoughts are . . . . . .. .

This blogging stuff is a lot of fun. I started blogging last month. I know that there are a lot of you out there that are reading it. Thanks so much! It really makes me want to keep writing. It would be even more fun if you would let me know what you think of my blog. Do you have questions about alpacas?? How about questions about their fiber?? Do alpacas really spit? How do we make baby Alpacas? What are their mating habbits like?? But they are so cute! Do they make good pets? I've heard that they go to the bathroom in the same spot, is that really true? Maybe you have a funny story or picture you would like to share...

Help me out. What would you like to know about alpacas? Are there any specific educational videos you think would be helpful or fun? I have, if anything, too many ideas I'd plan to share with you and will be sharing with you over the next year or more. I just want to hear from you! Come on, it will be fun. Tell me what you want to see me blog about alpacas. Comment below whereever you are seeing this. Best answer will recieve a 5$ starbucks gift certificate.

  

AND THANKS AGAIN FOR READING! STAY TUNNED.

visit us at www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com or
JuliesAlpacas.com
You can send your questions in the text box below or juliesalpaca@gmail.com

What is a micron?

A micron?
When I first started looking into alpacas I kept hearing this word micron. What the heck is a micron? After listening, asking questions and reading research I think I have it figured out. Pretty important word to know as an alpaca breeder.  So here is what I found. . . .

Micron count is a way of evaluating each hair or fiber on the alpaca. So in many ways a micron is a tool. It's a way to figure out  the value of your alpaca's fleece. Like this . . . . .

I shear my alpacas, send the side sample off to Yocom-McColl which is a lab that use microscopes, scanners and computers to evaluate that sample and then tells me the results. Based on the micron count, that they tell me, I then know the best use of the fiber. Like this. . . . . . .

Very fine 20 - 22 micron count

I have an alpaca that has a micro count of less than 20 up to 22 microns then I'll want to make something that is next to the skin and will be gently used maybe a shawl or baby items.

Most versatile 23 - 28 Micron count 

Micron counts that are 23 - 28 are the most versatile and can be used for lots of items that are worn very comfortable next to your skin. Because alpaca is so soft alpaca breeders want everyone to feel this comfortable fiber.

Then there is the higher number of micron count such as 29 - 32  this might start to feel a little less comfortable.  There is still a use for this warm and cozy alpaca fiber and that would be to use it  in batts, felt or outerwear.

What is a micron? 

A micron is a tool that alpaca breeders use, to determine what  product to make from the raw alpaca fiber that comes off their alpacas. A micron is a tool that helps alpaca breeders breed for that product. Do you want your alpacas to make rugs, felt, batts, outerwear OR baby soft blankets and shawl? It's helpful to know this word micron. What is your goal for breeding alpacas?  Now you know, plan accordingly.

         If you need answers to important questions like this then contact

                     Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch

                                                      JuliesAlpacas@gamil.com

                                            

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Julies Alpacas of Quarry Critters Alpaca Ranch.

Thank you for visiting our blog and reading all the way to the end. I hope that you enjoy what you find here. Please visit our website to find out more about alpacas and all the fine items and clothing that can be made by their fleece.  

www.QuarryCrittersAlpacas.com