Shearing Day 2025

The alpacas get their annual haircut

Today was one of our biggest alpaca days of the year. The girls got their summer haircuts, toenail and tooth trims, and vaccines.

Usually, the most dramatic moment of the day is Moira screaming and spitting the whole time she is being sheared, but this year I accidentally caused a brawl in the barn.

See the nice spit patch on the barn in the background?

I spent much of September and October of last year skirting two years’ worth of alpaca fleece before we sent it to the fiber mill. There was a noticeable difference between the 2023 blankets, when Julio brushed the alpacas before shearing, and 2024, when he did not. Right after he brushed them in ‘23, they took big dustbaths in the barn, so we thought it was a waste of energy, but that was innacurate. I asked him to please brush the alpacas before the shearing crew arrived.

While my friend Rachele and I hung out in the garden, we could hear him getting screamed at on the other side of the barn.

I suggested that if he put them in the barn to brush them, they would be contained and also they couldn’t immediately get hay in their fleece.

My friends, I forgot a very key piece of information. The barn tends to make Julio’s asthma flare up. Also, I should have known it was a two-person job. And alpacas do not like to feel trapped. I was thinking about skirting the fleece, not Julio. Mea culpa.

Julio and I spent the last several nights watching The Four Seasons on Netflix, and feeling smug about our communication with each other as the show’s couples navigate the fallout of their friends’ divorce. One of the pairs, Jack (Will Forte) and Kate (Tina Fey), have a pretty stable bond, but Kate has a habit of not trusting Jack to take care of things and then undermining/steamrolling him when he tries. To be fair, Jack usually sticks her with awkward/hard stuff. But anyway, I did a real Kate thing.

I was real wrong.

We got the alpacas in the barn and the screaming and fighting escalated. When Julio tried to brush the smaller alpacas, Nell and Luna, the big girls got agitated. He was covered in spit. Even though he was wearing a mask, Miss Firecracker and Theodora spit in his eyes and up his nose.

I knew I had really messed up, so I tried to get involved and help. I also got pelted with spit. In my hair. All over my clothes. I created a momentary peace by singing a song from my daughter’s Montessori Music playlist, “I Am a Pizza.” I think it just confused them. But it bought Julio enough time to get out of the corner he was backed into.

When he started brushing Luna, Miss Firecracker reared up on her back legs like a stallion and about attacked Julio. That was scary (for me).

When the shearing crew arrived, Julio was inside getting cleaned up and trying to clear his lungs. I shrugged and said, “So, we’ve had some issues today.”

“I see that,” the crewleader said. The rest of the afternoon went pretty smoothly, though.

We have never had drama like this on shearing day in the past, but their angst is also why we do not brush the alpacas more than once a year. They aren’t show ponies. They hate it. It’s not worth it. It also destroys the structural inegrity of the fleece.

But I will try to keep on top of cleaning up dropped hay in the future.

And, once he could breathe again, Julio wasn’t mad at me anymore.

Anyway, onto the main event.

Before Shearing Photos

Top: Clementine, Theodora, Nell Bottom: Luna, Miss Firecracker, Moira

After Shearing Photos

Top: Clementine, Theodora, Nell Bottom: Luna, Miss Firecracker, Moira

The blankets on our girls averaged three pounds, with Moira producing a big blanket of 3.6 pounds and little Luna producing 2.4 pounds.

Over the summer, I will work on skirting the fleece, pulling the bits of hay and other dirt out of the fleece so it can be sent to the fiber mill.

Which alpaca makeover is your favorite? Let me know in the comments.

Mine is Nell, who finally got the insane topknot cut. I bet she feels so much better.