Treathro Blog
Stories from David & Debbie

The grass in the garden at the front and side of the house, plus the walled garden just keeps growing.  Clearly this had to be cut somehow… but how?   I really could not be bothered to get the mower out… but luckily, we had 98 lawn mowers that needed to be moved from the 20-acre...

We have lots of ditches in need of clearing.  We have gorse to clear from walls ready for fencing to go up.  We have “modifications” required to one of the sheds (removing old cattle stalls and dividing walls).  That was how we have justified the latest purchase!       Very shining and just too...

Debbie caught this on camera this morning.  What good girls they are!  Just following me out.  Actually, I don’t think I needed to be there at all.  I could just open the gate and they know the way!

After some delay, we have finally taken steps to wean the calves.  Rather than separate them from their mothers, with all the associated balling and shouting, we decided to try QuietWean flaps for the calves… We’ve been running the animals through the new Rotex cattle handling system and crush for the last few days, so...

It struck me the other day that we have no pictures or information about the sheep that we have here now.  We actually have 180 tack sheep here – 80 Cheviots and 100 Welsh Mules.  We don’t own these animals, the arrangement with tack grazing is that the owner pays per head per week for...

We have closed in the open front of the workshop / diesel store.  We needed a secure store protected from the weather and this open-fronted lean-to shed was a good candidate.  A couple of block-work dwarf walls, with a simple timber framing to take the corrugated steel sheets has done the job.   The constant...

    What a working environment – you cannot beat it! Absolutely stupendous day, gorgeous sunshine and completely calm.  Wild windy weather is great too but in a very different way…….  

Beautiful calm sunny day and our first frost of the season – way behind most of the rest of the country! Maggie enjoyed it, along with our new additions, 3 welsh ponies on loan to help conserve the coastal area by eating all the young gorse shoots and other unwanted vegetation. They will be with...

Slightly scary, but yesterday Debbie was at the wheel of the new tractor!  This was her first time on a tractor of this size and made a little more difficult with the front loader on.  Nothing damaged!

Planning for the house and holiday lets was submitted on 10th November 2017, apparently we should get a decision by January 20th 2018. We were obviously rather ambitious (and naïve) in thinking we would be able to move into our renovated farmhouse by the end of March! This is when we have to move out...

Since we arrived, the block wall in the yard has been getting in the way of the views a bit.  Blockwork is never the prettiest!  This is what it looked like…   Until… man with a sledgehammer got to work.  As always, our watch-word here is “safety”…  But not “safety-net”…Still need to clear the rubble, but...

As winter is upon us, the dry pond is no longer dry.  Here’s a few of Debbie’s shots of the watery pond…  

We have been removing the hanging slates from the outside on 2 elevations of the house.  These are not just slates, but slates that have been rendered over.  It’s our belief that a lot of the damp problems may be caused (or at least not helped) by damp being trapped behind these slates/render.  The water...

6 big bales of barley straw delivered today from M&S Transport.  We had to wait for the tractor to arrive before we could receive the straw… these are bales that you don’t throw around by hand!       The gap between the old buildings was only just wide enough for these bales to get...

Well… the new New Holland T5 tractor has finally arrived.  Very shiny and big and blue! It arrived on a 60-foot low loader at 7am and he managed to immediately get the lorry stuck by running off the edge of the drive!  This meant that the first job of the new tractor was to pull...

Finally the cattle have arrived.  This is the start of what it’s really about!  Four Red Ruby Devon cows, each in-calf (due next April) and each with this year’s heifer calf at foot. Slightly scary moment for one of the calves as it took a slide on the wet concrete, but all ok. They are...

After hunting for a second hand trailer, and failing, we bought a new Fleming TR6 (6 tonne) trailer.  This was harder than it sounds!  Small drop-side trailers appear to be hard to find.  If you have to order one, it takes months to deliver from the manufacturer.  I thought I’d found one of these from...

The electrics in the outbuildings are… interesting… well, dangerous really!  We also had no working outside lights around the buildings.  So, the decision was made to get electricians in to review, renew and install.  Steve Ouseley and Alex have been a brilliant and reliable team working with us to deal with this. Steve measured and...

It’s taken 2 months, but we finally got the huge pile of old plastic bale wrap removed from our big shed.  With the help of Nicky (previous owner’s farm hand) and another neighbour, Kevin, with his Matbro telehandler, all the plastic was cleared and put into 4 skips waiting for collection… That leaves us with...

We may only be planning a small herd, but with an eye to safety, we have bought and now set up a new cattle handling system (Rotex and new cattle crush).  This arrived courtesy of our local supplier (Brian Llewelyn who have been great) and was off-loaded thanks to our neighbour, Mike…   Luckily for...