About Windy Hamlet and Sheep2Chic
The farm is located on 50 acres in the town of West Brookfield, Massachusetts. Windy Hamlet was home to a goat milk cheese dairy until ten years ago . The dairy was sold to a start up cheese producer but some goats remained. When we discovered that the goats were not eating as much grass as expected Icelandic sheep were purchased to keep the pastures down.
Some people would say that our sheep
are spoiled. While that may be true, we
can't imagine why they shouldn't be. Sheep not
only respond to the shepherd's voice, also recognize
the shepherd's face.
They develop life long bonds with their
offspring as well as other members of the flock.
Many fine lambs were born into the flock during the Spring of 2007. Two exceptional lambs are Emma and Esmerelda. These two ewe lambs were very tiny at birth. Each one was rejected by their mother (for different reasons). This gave us the opportunity to raise them by hand. They lived in the kitchen of the farmhouse for the first month and gradually made the move out to the barn. Although they are large now and integrating into the flock, they still want to come into the house and sleep on the sofa and annoy the cats.
Shearing is done twice a year , Spring and Fall and then washed and carded to prepare it for felting or spinning and weaving. Icelandics are famous for their earth tone fleeces. As of Spring 2007 the flock consists of 37 ewes and wethers (castrated rams) ,as we use all our wool all of the sheep are important to the development of the farm.
- Under the watchful eye of Melody our Standard donkey jenny, they grow up with unlimited grass during the day and hay in the barn at night . Melody is in charge of predator protection since we have coyotes, bears and the occasional mountain lion roaming through the fields.
- A recent addition to our security system is Emily, a Maremma /Karakachan guard dog. These dogs have been bred for centuries to guard flocks all over Europe and Asia. The sheep have access to the barn at all times to protect them from inclement weather as well.
- Weaving is a recent addition to Windy Hamlet with our purchase of a rigid heddle loom and a large tapestry loom. We also sell wool to other fiber artists for spinning or felting.
