Llama shearing 2013

This past Monday we got our llamas sheared by two wonderful men from Albuquerque. $40/50 a head (depending on how hard they were to catch). Teeth and nails extra.

After we (mainly Richard) had caught and penned them, and tied them all up, the men hobbled the llamas and pulled them down to the ground.

Llamas in a line.

Turbo being led to shearing spot.

Patty hobbled and pulled down.

 

This is a great way to shear, and I've decided it far outdoes the chute method (the llama is held still in a llama chute, but legs are still free). This tie down method leaves little room for error. The animal is completely immobilized, which cuts down on chances of accidental cuts. This is the typical method used to shear alpacas. As you can see, it works great for llamas too.

Frosty getting sheared.

And they all got their nails done. Vader got his done by the shearers, but the rest were done by Richard. Only Frosty had to have his fighting teeth cut back, otherwise all teeth on all llamas looked good.

Vader gets a pedicure.

Vader getting sheared.

And when it was all said and done, two hours later, the llamas sure looked funny, but much cooler and I hope much happier. They didn't get too mad with the whole event. Only Frosty and Turbo filled their mouths with green, nasty, regurgitated goo. Fortunately they never had the opportunity to spit at anyone.

Overall the shearing was a huge success. I will never do it any other way. Turbo and Vader had years of gunk on their legs and necks from never being fully sheared. Now they are naked. We have a field full of naked llamas. I'd recommend these shearers to anyone (in the northern NM, southern CO area)!

Turbo, our guardian, doesn't look so formidable now, does he?

I have three large garbage bags (triple bagged) full of fiber. All of it is very dirty. The wind was so intense on shearing day, the guys did not blow out the fur with the blower, so the wool is full of hay and in some cases sticks (llamas love to roll on the ground, giving themselves dust baths). I'd like to sell it raw, if I could. The moths are so bad here, in the house and in the garage, I'm afraid the wool will get ruined if it hangs around too long. The wool I've been dragging around finally had to be thrown away. After two months of sitting in the garage here, it was infested with moths and larvae.

So, I've got raw, fresh off the animals, 100% llama wool for sale at $1 per oz. I think I have 30 pounds total from this shearing. I do have it divided by animal. We have brown mixed with silver, brown/black with some red undertones, brown and white mix, black, and brown...or some variety depending on the animal. Llama wool is hypoallergenic and extremely warm.  Let me know if you'd like some. Shipping is extra.

Camel Dairy?

How the direction of our lives can change in such a short period of time. Life is truly amazing and unpredictable.

While we have not had much opportunity to get out and work on our land, due to our lack of funds, we have done a few things, like clear more sage for the other leg of the fencing on the west perimeter of the land, and Richard built and installed a door on the shed (out of disassembled pallets), and we had our first experimental try at making adobe bricks.

Richard fills the adobe brick form.

Adobe bricks.

Pallet shed door

Bus shopping center: General store and restaurant.

In other news, I have decided to start a church on our property, or more likely online, with some meetings and ceremonies at our place. This will utilize my minister ordination and allow us to connect with more folks in regard to creating a sustainable community and planet. I learned a new term this week, which aptly  describes my current position in life: Spiritual Activist. I seek to help awaken others in the hope that we can all spiritually evolve in an attempt to save the planet from the destruction that is running rampant with current policies and methodologies, especially in my own home country of the USA.

It is vitally important that we all set aside our differences and come together in order that we may evolve into a new humanity that supports the ideas of peace and equality for all and environmental responsibility. No, I don't support communism, just peace and love, and happiness or the pursuit of, for all people.

Life is full of lessons isn't it? And people who are bigger than me, in the sense that they are more open-minded and forgiving of different belief systems that go against everything they stand for. That is commendable and I am lucky to have made a new friend over the past few weeks who is just such a person. This woman came to my house to buy our extra roosters because we decided they were more than we wanted to take on in regard to processing. Richard's chicken processing classes have not been very popular, and in fact most of the classes we have offered have met with little interest in this community. Perhaps we need to rethink our audience.

It turns out this lovely soul is the mother of three beautiful little girls who all suffer in some form or another from allergies or ailments, including symptoms on the autism spectrum. My daughter was diagnosed with PDD- NOS last year and, although my son did not receive the diagnosis, his behavior mirrors his sisters so much, with a good bout of hyperactivity thrown in, that I have to wonder if his lack of diagnosis was correct. In any case, his allergies are beyond reasonable and he is also on the gluten, casein, soy free diet his sister is on. We also feed only organic, additive free, preservative free, nitrate free, dye free, non-processed foods. It is an expensive diet, but one that should be adopted by everyone concerned with their own good health, and a diet we hope will help to heal our children of the health issues that actually combine to cause the condition of autism.

So I met this wonderful mom who is on a crusade to heal her kids, as many parents of children with autism are, who asked me if I had ever heard of the benefits of camel's milk? Well, no, I had not. So she provided me with the beginning research that would lead me down an interesting path indeed. She had noticed my llamas, who are always eager to meet new people and stood hanging their curious faces over the gate.

Camel's milk is a fairly new to the world of autism, but researchers claim the benefits of drinking the milk have had profound positive effects on diminishing the symptoms of autism. Here is an article in Natural News that explains this amazing milk. Also their are claims that donkey's milk might just have similar positive effects. As I began doing my research, I was directed to a site that sells camel's milk, called Camel Milk USA, and a naturopathic doctor named Millie Hinkle, who has helped many people set up camel and/or donkey milk dairies. She in fact got a law passed that allows dairies to sell this milk in the US.  So, I called her.

Yes, she can help us find a dairy to buy the milk for our kids. The milk is incredibly expensive though, so I asked her about starting my own dairy. We have the land, and even some know how...with milking goats, but not camels. Camels are also incredibly expensive. As are Mammoth donkeys, which she recommended. But, we could start with regular donkeys and work our way up. On a whim, and because it has come up, I asked her about llamas. Well, llamas, being of the same family as camels, have milk that is just as beneficial, but milking a llama never produces enough milk to really make a dairy any profit. So what, I thought. Llamas are accessible and I know something about llamas, having three of my own. But, we never bred any of them and all three of our males are gelded. Too bad.

But then, 7 free female llamas show up on a Facebook site my new parent friend has recommended to me. Wow. Talk about miracles. Talk about life jumping in a new direction. Now, I am in the process of acquiring these seven llamas, and wondering how this whole thing can be pulled off. Especially when Richard reminds me how we barely came up with the money to buy hay for our own llamas. I spent the whole night tossing and turning and wondering if a had made a huge mistake. The woman who is giving up the llamas can't afford to feed them through the winter. Will I be in the same position?

I am currently trying to enlist the help of other parents to donate funds to help buy hay and build a shelter for these llama girls. We do not have the llamas yet, and maybe I could back out of it, or even take a few less. However, I feel this is the beginning of an opportunity that won't come again. If I get these llamas and get them bred, then in a year, we will have access to the milk that may help my kids heal inside. Everything is a gamble. There are no guarantees.

I feel that if I can pull this off, I can then graduate my dairy up to donkeys and perhaps even camels one day, A female camel, bred, costs about 15,000$. That's a lot of money we don't have. But we do have seven free llamas at hand with almost the same milk, although, admittedly, there is a lot less of it and we will have to learn how to milk these girls with a syringe. Doesn't that sound interesting? We also will have more llama wool, assuming I find someone to shear them, which we might be able to sell, or at the very least use for insulation in our house building endeavors.

We could try to take the llamas trekking, which might raise more money, but my life partner seems to have very little interest in this whole endeavor at this point. Shame. Maybe I could take them for llama walks to generate some money while he stays home with the kids. I just don't know. I do know this is an opportunity that probably won't present itself again. And, if it doesn't work out, we could re-home the girls in the long run, I suppose. But why not give it a go?

So, I'm running on blind faith now, hoping that within the next few days a solution will present itself in regard to financing this dairy endeavor. I don't have the llamas yet. Nor do I have fencing to contain them or a shelter for them to get out of the harsh, mountain, winter weather that is coming. Thankfully these critters are adapted for living in these conditions.

I have to believe this will all work out for the best. What else can I do? If I don't jump, will I always wonder at an opportunity missed? Don't things have a way of working out?

If you'd like to donate to this endeavor, please follow the link here: Green Desert Sanctuary
If you'd like to buy some art, which will go to support this endeavor anyway, please follow this link: Kerry Bennett and if you are interested in an original piece of artwork, please contact me through the artist website. I will give you a deal. I have seven (plus three) llamas to feed.

Let's get this camelid dairy going! And thank you Vivian for showing up in my life when you did and being such a noble and courageous person and dedicated parent! We can do this!! You have renewed my faith in people and lead me back to the belief that even in spite of our profound different beliefs, we still have so much in common, the very basic being we are simply people, trying to survive and take care of our families in the best ways we know how.