We had the sheep shorn over the long weekend in May ~ Jerry came by and had the 14 done in a little over an hour.  The sheep were so happy to be naked - and from the weight of the fleeces, I can understand why!  Buckwheat (the ram) gave us 14 lbs for his first clip. 
May 28 was alpaca shearing... Rob and his team from AGR Shearing showed up bright and early (in the new bus!) and by noon we had shorn 16 of ours ~ Michele and I had already shorn little Rudy and Phoenix when Jerry had come by, and Santana was still feeling the effects of being sick so we postponed his shearing until he was stronger.  Those 3 fewer animals gave us enough time to shear Leslie Comfort's 6 new females and still have lunch at 1215. The shearing bus left at 1:30 for another farm.
We were thrilled to have Peggy-Sue Deaven-Smiltnieks from the Peggy Sue Collection come and help out.  Her amazing company sources not only locally-produced fibre, but supports local processing and craftsmanship.  We are so excited to be part of her journey.  Her story can be found at www.peggysuecollection.com.

We've spent the weeks since sorting and classing the fibre (white is almost done) and creating more things for our farmer's market.  

We have been building Felt-Your-Own soap kits, which give you the opportunity to do a craft, while making something practical as well as pretty.   

We are also in the process of starting up our own Etsy Store!  I have to admit that it's hard to find the time to really take advantage of social media and all the amazing tools the internet has to offer when we're busy taking care of animals (not to mention mucking out the barn!) and making stuff, but we are progressing slowly.  It's exciting for us to imagine getting our awesome fibre out to people who are looking for raw materials for their own work, or finished products that echo their own beliefs in how we should live in this world.   

August 22 this little charmer was born!  We knew her mom was in labour the night before, and despite the fact that we hovered in and around the barn the next morning, Shauna-Marie found a brief moment alone to give birth so we missed it!  
The cria didn't nurse on her own all day so we had to milk the mom and feed it to her via syringe.  By Day 2 she was still not nursing, so we were bottle feeding her lamb-replacer along with the milk we nursed from the dam.  No matter how hard we tried to teach her to nurse she refused.  The mom was willing but the cria was stubborn!
We had to leave the farm for the weekend, and on Sunday night the "farm-sitter" called to say that the cria had started to nurse.  After 4 days of bottle feeding she had decided to give mom a try.
We've called her "Nugget" because when we'd show up for her feeding we'd call out "come on little nugget, come get your bottle" and her ears would prick up.  We decided she liked the name.  It suits her - she was very little when she was born ( 13 lbs) and even at Day 11 she is only up to 18.4 lbs.  She's a feisty one, though.   She loves to run outside and chase her shadow.  She's also not afraid of the other alpacas or the sheep, which is a huge relief.

Yesterday we took our latest batch of chickens up to Country Poultry Processor, which is 2 hours away from us.  Knowing we had all day to kill, I had arranged for us to visit Shears to You Fibre Pros in Palmerston, ON.  They were only a 30 minute drive away, so after an awesome breakfast at Diana Sweets in Listowel, we went to the fibre mill.
We had an informative and interesting tour of the mill and learned a lot that will help us produce a better product ourselves.  Then we spent some time with Dar and Lee who own the alpacas on the property, learning about good nutrition.  It was a really helpful and gratifying visit, and we both want to extend our appreciation to the ladies at Shears to You!

Last night Shauna-Marie showed signs of labour.
Today, she was in full labour when I went to work.  Michele and I were beside ourselves with excitement, to see the little cria that we had been waiting so eagerly for.
Michele called me around 10 to say that the cria had been stillborn.
It's impossible to believe.  Dr. Sherry says it can happen - the mom gets jostled and the placenta detaches.  I worry that I'm doing something wrong.  It's just been the worst spring ever for birthing.  
The cria was a female.  Shauna-Marie stayed with her all day, and at night we buried her beside Buckwheat.  
Shauna-Marie and Daisy keep crying for her.  It's just so sad.

We have been trying to decide what to do about the males.  The barn isn't really set up to accomodate males and females - they live in too close proximity for either group to be completely relaxed. And we have 1 yearling male that has been living with the females as he hasn't gone through puberty yet.  Or so we thought.  

The vet called and the ewes (including Elsie) are O.P.P free.  So they can go out into the paddock with the alpacas.  
The ewes are still incredibly skittish, but Elsie is calm enough that the alpacas have been able to get to know her to to accept her as part of their herd.
It's such a pleasure to let them get outside!  I feel for Buckwheat, though - he is in his stall, watching them run.  We can't let him out for fear he will infect the girls.  It's no way for him to live, always watching from behind the gate.  Dr. Sherry is coming on Wednesday to put him down.  I dread it.

We have begun to breed the alpacas.   It's a lot more challenging than one would think - the females are induced ovulators as opposed to having a distinct breeding season where they are in heat.  Their proximity to and the behaviour of the males induces them to ovulate and so breeding is actually part of a whole courtship it seems. 
We think it will take may tries for us to learn the trick of it- and even experience doesn't guarantee conception.  After the first breeding, the females are reintroduced to the males every few days to see if they show interest.  If they do, then the mating takes place again. Then the whole "test / remate" thing goes on again. 
Once they have conceived, the females carry the baby for 11.5 months, which is a long time for a girl to wait!
Shauna-Marie is getting so big, we are really excited to see her baby (which is called a cria).

The tractors are finally done.  So the meat birds have been moved in - 15 to a tractor.  It turns out we had 63 birds (extras from the hatchery) so one has 18.  We've started them off with water and feed inside the coop to get them settled in but eventually the waterers will be moved outside.  
I started the tractors off alongside the big garden so that hopefully the bad bug population will be knocked down.  Since the garden is freshly planted, the chickens can't roam freely in there - they dig everything up.  Last year they did keep the Colorado beetle population under control, but the potatoes were well established when I let them in.  Hopefully bugs migrate from the pasture past the tractors so that those chicks will become excellent hunters and the garden will be spared.

Around 4 pm we hitched up the horse trailer and headed off to John's to pick up the alpacas.  We took 3 trips: 1 with the boys (and I can't describe how much spit was lining the trailer when we arrived at our barn!) and then 2 with the girls.  We had thought to fit all the girls in together, but since Shauna-Marie is pregnant, we didn't want to risk crowding or trampling.  Some of the girls were very resistant to getting into the trailer (Phebee performed an excellent lie-down-I'm-not-moving trick), but eventually they were all moved to our place.  And curious to look around and check out the sheep!

Susan's daughter, Cam, meets Johnny.  It seems that kids are naturally drawn to the alpaca's gentle and curious nature.