Mommy, how could you let them do that to me?

Contessa and Opal's boys at play
Johanna's little girl strikes a pose

Jen, Kim, and Sam spent most of yesterday afternoon doing what will most likely be the final cria shearings of 2011. We’ve learned the hard way over the years that if we push that activity much past September 1st around here, the weather can get sketchy at a moment’s notice. No one, after all, wants the guilt of shivering crias on their conscience! The weather yesterday was of course 82 and muggy, warmer than a good chunk of August, though we know that that’s just Mother Nature — she who gave us the lovely Ms. Irene — lulling us into a false sense of security. We’re watching you sister.

In any case wanting to do as many of the crias as possible, there were several little buggers that got shorn yesterday that were a tad bit younger than normal, as we usually shear crias at around a month of age. The end result is that for at least a day or two we can claim with a straight face that every cria that can be shorn at CCNF — we have a couple of mom’s with very rejective tendencies if their kids change their look, so we just don’t bother with those — is in fact shorn. How novel. Though when I passed through the Arena yesterday evening that feed group was filled with many forlorn and frankly ticked-off looking little alpacas, by this afternoon when I went up to take the accompanying pictures they all seemed to have adjusted to life with their new hairdos. Oh, the suffering! This too shall pass.