Last modified: 7/1/2015 7:26:20 PM Malcolm Cooper of Peterborough finished shearing the last alpaca of the year late Sunday afternoon. This spring, like the last 12, he started shearing in early April and finished in late June. Ten weeks. Ten-thousand miles. One hundred twenty-five farms. More than 2,000 alpacas. It’s over. Until next year. Except it’s not exactly over. Every year, he gets a desperate call or two late in the season, with the plea “Can you please come shear, it’s so hot. Please.” So Cooper, 51, will pack up his gear, and go do what he does best.
Traveling from south to north, the first fleece comes off in Annapolis, Maryland. Then on to Harrisburg and Coopersburg, Pennsylvania. Next are Connecticut and Massachusetts. Then New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine before the hottest days of the year.