Alpaca shearing: Rain stopped play

The elements finally defeated us last night at about 7pm. After a horrendous day in which we experienced several hail storms, three absolutely torrential downpours and endless gusts of freezing cold wind that burst on the scene as each alpaca hit the table. Horrendous!!

Still we managed to shear 90 alpacas and we have roughly 95 still to go. We are leaving the alpacas to dry this morning in the sun and will shed them up this afternoon ready for the return of the shearer lunchtime to mid afternoon when we shall carry on where we left off. 

Kerry and I spent. Most of the day sorting and skirting fleeces in the brick barn which was a bit like a wind tunnel. Ben Wheeler the shearer, his helper John and Harriett from the Toft Alpaca Shop worked the table holding alpaca and fleece in place throughout the gales. Linda  our herds woman was running about like a squirrel on speed shedding up and moving alpacas back and forth to keep the shearer in alpacas. She was ably assisted in this important task by Paul Beswick one of our clients who kindly volunteered to help throughout shearing. We were all serviced with tea and coffee and cake throughout by the wonderful Claire from the Toft Alpaca Shop where we also adjourned for lunch.Even young Eddie Lord made his presence felt offering 'words' of encouragement from his mothers back.

Lets hope that rain gives us a miss today as we run through the second half of the herd.