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caption:
Before and after. Photos by Stacey Jimenez.
This herd is
helping
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
POMFRET — Sometimes the old ways are the perfect solution to modern day problems.
The Abington Congregational Church owns the old cemetery, home to Revolutionary War heroes and many more. But the church doesn’t have the financial or human resources to maintain it, according to the Pomfret Historical Society’s Donna Dufresne.
And the society is sponsoring a workshop/program there Oct. 19.
They got creative.
Enter the “old” solution — sheep.
“We did some creative fund-raising and raised money to hire Stacey Jimenez to bring her sheep to the yard,” she said. Jimenez said using sheep to “mow” is an old solution but it’s often used in modern times. Jimenez, from Easy Acres Gnomestead, raises Gulf Coast native sheep and sells wool and wool creations.
First Selectman Maureen Nicholson said Jimenez has a memorandum of understanding to do the work. “She has permission from the congregational church,” she said.
Dufresne called the sheep “a flock of a different kind.”
This is not the first time this old solution is at work again. And this may be the restart of bigger things locally for the sheep.
“We used to have goats at the Dennis Cemetery on Murdock Road,” she said. The neighbors brought the sheep over but the sheep wouldn’t keep working unless the neighbor’s children stayed with them.
The town has 11 abandoned cemeteries. There are three active cemeteries: Abington, South Pomfret and North Pomfret but those are run by associations. "We'll see how this goes in Abington and we'll talk about it," Nicholson said.
The tour and workshop at the old cemetery Oct. 19 will include the re-setting of the John Morse gravestone which was returned to Pomfret last fall. The stone had disappeared decades ago and was found in Killingly. The workshop with Ruth Shapleigh Brown and Dufresne will include a demonstration of re-setting colonial and early American slate stones, cleaning lichen from stones, and the history of some of the 61 Revolutionary War soldiers buried there.
The program is free. There is a limit of 20 to 25 people. Pre-register by calling 860-465-7228.
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