With the impending first heat wave of summer, we decided that we needed to get the llama sheared before it became too miserable for the big guy. We didn't get around to shearing him last year (it costs a pretty penny to have the shearer to come out for 1 llama), so Zorro spent the hotter days under a sprinkler that we had set up in the pasture. With 2 years worth of a fur coat and not calling the shearer in a timely fashion, we had to get down to business and shear him ourselves. Thankfully, a friend of ours was more than willing to help. You see, back in high school, he did 4H llamas, and he :really: wanted some llama time. So we set aside a Saturday to tackle the project. Nathan came up wearing his 4H llama shirt from yonder llama days and armed with the biggest, baddest shears I ever did behold. After some llama wrangling, we set to work taking off the mat of a fur coat.
With Nathan working on one side of the llama with his shears, and Dad working on the other side with the clippers, we finished in a fairly decent amount of time. The impressive part was when the mat of fur came tumbling down the llama's side like a giant shag rug - one big, tangled mess. We really didn't care about saving the wool for spinning because we still have bins full of the wool from past shearings with all our other llamas. The sole purpose of this shearing session was to make the summer heat more bearable.
Before:
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| Sorry for the blurry picture... |
And after:
Silly llama doesn't like any sort of drama, but he'll feel much better without that heavy coat.
Now if anyone would like to help give the billy goats a buzzcut... :P
Until next time!
SG
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