How It All Started
Wensleydale Sheep. Magical. Captivating. Enchanting.
Welcome! My name is Debbie Trepanier, and I’m the owner of Camden Highlands Farm.
We fell in love with the Wensleydale breed about 20 years ago when we started the process of upbreeding and bringing the Wensleydales to the U.S with four Lincoln ewes. It all started with a bummer Suffolk lamb (Daisy) that my brother-in-law brought home for my four-year-old daughter Christina. Living on a farm, I always stressed that all of our animals had to have a purpose. So, when we replaced Daisy, we brought home six-week-old Cotton, a Targhee ewe lamb, and Jellybean (a Nubian goat) in my Subaru, and our journey began. We joined a spinning class to learn all about wool, learned to spin and knit, joined a goat 4H club and learned all about animal husbandry and preparing to milk our goat and make cheeses galore.
I home-schooled all three of my children and returned to teaching full-time at a Parent Partnership when my son was in sixth grade. We continued with the sheep and goats and along the way we added cows, hogs, bunnies and more horses. All hands were on deck as we continued to improve our stock and experienced the joy of lambing, kidding, calving and farrowing; there’s nothing more joyful than watching babies come into the world and helping them to adjust to their new environment! During the past five years, we have been growing lavender and pursuing it as well.
With our sheep, our mission is to improve the curl and high luster of the finest hand-spinning long wool in the world. After we lost our first Wenslelydale ram, we replaced him with a Finn ram readily available for the breeding season upon us. Our fleeces were gorgeous, continuing with the long staple length, curl and luster. Plus the Finn enhanced the prolific component, providing babies that were more eager to stand and suckle than our original stock. The Finn added multiple births as well, with many of our ewes consistently producing triplets.
Our current Wensleydale ram will continue improving our stock and their fleeces, as we expand our upbreeding program from England.
Meet the Family
(From left to right) Kyler, Julianna, Hazel, Thad, Debbie, Kyle, Christina, and Thaddeus.