Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Darren Kennedy shears Mario Lemieux, an alpaca at Pittsburgh Alpacas, a farm in Fombell.

By Doug Oster, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Darren Kennedy parks his car in the grass close to a barn in Beaver County and unloads two large toolboxes filled with assorted clippers and other implements.

The muscular New Zealander has spent the past three months crossing the country shearing alpacas seven days a week, a job he has done for years.

Today, he's at Paige Beal's Pittsburgh Alpacas farm in the Fombell section of Marion to shear her animals, plus others brought from small farms in the area.

Mr. Kennedy, 39, who now lives in Wyoming, has spent much of his adult life shearing sheep. He taught himself the skill. As a child, he worked collecting wool in the sheep barns of New Zealand and learning to shear was the next logical step.

"In New Zealand, there's so many sheep, you just start blazing into them," he said with a grin. He laughs easily and his eyes are alive with mischief as he tells his trademark jokes while preparing to shear a dozen or so alpacas.

"Do you know what state I've been in the most?" he asked.

"The state of confusion," he replied, answering his own question.

It's that sense of humor and his work ethic that has endeared him to farmers.

That's why they ask him to return each year, said Kim Harnett, of Jackson Center, Mercer County, who brought her alpacas to Ms. Beal's farm to be sheared.

"He is irreverent. ... He's very good, fast and he's fun to work with."

Her daughters, Rachel and Sarah Sigler, help Mr. Kennedy during the shearing, following a precise procedure: The animals are restrained by their feet, laid down and sheared. Some like it better than others, but all of them seem to enjoy a lighter coat when the ordeal is over.

Ms. Beal has six alpacas at this farm and two others that she co-owns at another farm. The fleece gathered today is one reason she raises alpacas, but the offspring are the main reason.

On average, each young alpaca is worth $20,000, depending on the quality of the animal.

Ms. Beal had worked as a media and marketing specialist and was looking for a change. She narrowed it down to working in the stock market or with "fuzzy cute animals." The alpacas won out.

"They are very friendly," she said.

"They are docile, curious, intelligent," Ms. Harnett added. "They have personalities. They are a huggable investment."

Mr. Kennedy is able to shear an alpaca in about 15 minutes. As he runs his clippers over the animal, the owners carefully pick up the most precious fleece, the first fleece sheared.

"It's a beautiful luxurious fleece, comparable to cashmere, and people love it," Ms. Harnett said.

As the fleece flies, so do Mr. Kennedy's jokes.

"Got to have fun while you're working or you go nutty. I like to make a few bad jokes. I think I'm here for the entertainment," he said, grinning again.

The alpaca is rolled over, sheared and then escorted back to the holding pen, where it looks significantly smaller without its thick winter coat.

Afternoon sunlight streaming through a couple of small windows in the barn illuminates the fleece.

Before he started on his cross-country alpaca-shearing trek, Mr. Kennedy sheared 5,000 sheep this year in Wyoming. In the past three days, he traveled to as many states and sheared hundreds of alpacas. He'll work at about 20 small farms in the area until he heads east to York for an alpaca show.

	Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette Darren Kennedy, left, travels the country, shearing sheep, alpacas and llamas for big and large farms. He is taking a little off the top an animal owned by Paige Beal, far left, of Pittsburgh Alpacas in Fombell. Click photo for larger image.

The shearing season here lasts until mid-June. The job has to be done before the weather gets too hot.

"It's bit of a niche market," Mr. Kennedy said. "You've got to be prepared to drive and be away from home. You've also got to make a good job because they spend a lot of money on them."

When the work is done, Ms. Beal cooks burgers for the other alpaca owners and for Mr. Kennedy, an annual tradition.

"This new generation of small farmers, people searching for a connection with the land, I just love it," she said. "It's very centering."

His workday done, Mr. Kennedy walked over to the picnic table and sat down with two cold beers, which he somehow opened using the cap of one of the bottles.

He joked about his long days on the road as he relaxed. "I got two things that keep me going: a wife with a credit card and a big mortgage."

He said his work wasn't limited to sheep, alpacas and llamas.

"I've done one or two haircuts," he said, "and they're not pretty."