We came all the way to Atlantic Canada to find . . . Alpacas?

 As most of you know, in 2015 we served in Cusco, Peru, the home of llamas and alpacas.  The alpacas are smaller, and are prized for their wool, as it is so fine and soft.  My skin is sensitive and I can't tolerate sheep wool against my skin, especially my neck, but alpaca wool is so fine and soft that it never irritates.  We were quite surprised to discover that our new Branch President an his wife have an alpaca farm!  We made a plan to go help them on shearing day.  Here's a "before" picture, the fleece is quite dense and about 3" long



Here's the same critter after shearing.  They look quite different.



Here's Sister Johnson helping to calm the animal during shearing.  The fleece comes off in 3 sections:  back/blanket is the best grade, leg and neck fleece are bagged separately.  I assisted with securing the front and back legs with ratchet straps so the shearers could do their work.  Halfway done requires a flip to the other side.  As I was flipping this one and saw at her swollen belly and udder, it didn't take this farm boy long to determine she was pregnant, and would deliver soon.  This was a surprise to the owners, as with the heavy fleece on you can't really tell.



Less than 2 weeks later, here's the prize!  This little critter was on her feet in a few minutes, nursing within 20 minutes, by all counts very healthy, and 19 lbs!  Since we have a connection to this one and her mother, the owners decided to name her .  .  .



Dawn!  Now Sister Johnson will have a namesake in Canada.  We feel like aunt and uncle to this little alpaca, and will look forward to seeing her grow over the next few months!  She is only 1.5 days old in this photo, already furred out and running playfully around the pasture.


In case you're wondering, we actually do missionary work here, this was just another adventure in our experiences here.  We are grateful that we get to travel quite a bit and meet lots of different people.

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