FINALLY IT'S DONE! Our Adopt an Alpaca program is now available. This is your chance to have an alpaca without all the chores. There are 21 alpacas in the program and three different Adoption Packages to choose from. These make a terrific gift for the person who is difficult to buy for. Please check it out and let us know what you think. www.adoptanalpaca.ca PS. Okay we may still need a few photos of some of the alpacas. They see the camera and they either all come running up expecting treats or they huddle together with their backs to us. We are trying to get photos of each alpaca individually. EDITED: Amazing in just over 30 minutes of our email being sent out we have a Junior Rancher Adoption. Huge thank you to Paisley S. for adopting Paisley. ********************************************************************************************************************** Help Name Our Crias Once again thank you to everyone for the wonderful name suggestions for our crias. We chose the name Iryna for Princess Emily's daughter. Iryna is Ukrainian for Peace. We felt this name was perfect to honour the brave people of Ukraine and what they are going through at this time. May they soon have Peace. It is pronounced EE ri na. Our next cria still looking for a name is Milky Way's daughter. She is a true black just like her mom. What is special about her? Well she is the first cria at our ranch who has successfully been able to nurse from her own mom and another mom, that would also explain why she is the biggest cria this year. If you would like to suggest a name or two for her please do so on our Facebook post at the link below. If you are the first person to suggest the name we use, as a thank you we will provide you with a complimentary Alpaca Farm Tour for up to 5 guests. ************************************************************************************************************************** May is Shearing Season Spring like weather is here (most days) which means it will soon be time for all 60 alpacas to be sheared. Shearing is our annual harvest of beautiful alpaca fibre. A lot of planning and preparation goes into shearing. The main shearing equipment is brought by the shearer, but we still have our own tables, scales big and small, lamps, snips, scissors, baskets and boards for gathering fibre, etc gathered and ready for shearing. Lists are made to record name, fibre weight, grade of fibre, length of fibre, of each alpaca. One large plastic bag, two smaller plastic bags are labelled and dated for each alpaca, these bags are for the fibre being kept. Two baggies are labelled for each alpaca, these will each contain a fibre sample, one baggie is sent to New Zealand to be tested (more paperwork later) and the second baggie is kept for our records. 120 large sheets (5ft X 4ft) of kraft paper are cut off a large roll, each side of the main blanket of the alpaca is wrapped separately just as it came off the alpaca. Wrapping it in kraft paper keeps the fibre structure and organization just as it came off the alpaca making it easier to class, grade and prepare to be washed at a later date. The alpacas are grateful to get their warm coats off. It is a major job and we are always glad when it is done. As a side note if you wanted to see the alpacas at their fluffiest before they are sheared make sure to book a tour to see them before May 16th. www.alpacatours.ca ************************************************************************************************************************** Other News and Happenings Weaning 2022 was a success, no crias or moms crying for days on end. Milky Way who is a very overprotective mom was probably the last one to accept that her cria was a big girl now. For a few weeks she kept a close eye on her cria now living on the other side of the barn. It is amazing how the crias settle in quickly with a sister, aunt or gramma to watch over them. We weighed all of the crias and the moms before weaning then again 3 weeks later, all the crias were still putting on weight without mom's milk. A few of the moms were still a bit underweight so they were moved to the “Skinny Pen” where they get extra mash twice a day of re-hydrated alfalfa and beet pulp to help then put some weight back on. We will reweigh them in another week to see how they are progressing. Now that the adoption program has launched we'll get the contest going that was put on hold due to the last lockdown. So watch for an email from us for your chance to win a free Alpaca Lovers Tour. For our GTA and southern Ontario visitors please remember to dress warmly it is usually a bit colder up here than the GTA. The tour is in the barn so we are out of the wind and rain but the barn is not heated and will be about the same as the temperature is outside. Don't forget that all of our alpaca products in the gift shop are now available in our on-line shop at Laslyn Alpaca. www.laslynalpaca.com If you are not comfortable attending a tour at this time please consider buying a gift certificate for a tour to use at a later date. It would help us out during this difficult time. Please also consider supporting small local business's where you live. We do still ask guests to please wear a mask if possible and to sanitize hands as you enter the gift shop. We also sanitize between each group of guests. All our staff are fully vaccinated. Thank you for your ongoing support. Doug, Carolyn and all the alpacas at Kickin' Back Alpaca Ranch