Farming In Devon, England

Welcome to the county of Devon with amazing green rolling hills, narrow hedge lined roads and the nicest people around! Devon is one of the counties of England where our dairy farming host lives. It is beautiful! We knew England was going to be wonderful, but our hosts and the beauty of this country impress and awe us everyday! 

Julie and I arrived in Exeter on July 20 and were met by our fantastic hosts. It was immediately after arriving and driving down the road to the farm that Julie and I were able to take in the amazing greenery of the pastures and fields and the giant hedges that line the roads.

We started our first days with our new host surrounded by sweet, cute and wonderful Holstein cows and calves! We love good looking dairy animals!  We have walked the milking cows, dry cows and small calves down and around back roads and along main highways to new paddocks and pasture. The hedges are amazing fences! We've never even had to chase an animal yet! The system here is fantastic for moving the girls and boys! 

Julie and I have been out on the Kubota buggy checking the heifers and steers and enjoying the views from the bed of the gator. Julie is a rockstar milker and helps each morning! I've been busy with all the new baby calves and feeding and caring for them! I love baby calves! 

One of our first days here, we were able to help fix fence! I was actually impressed with my hammer skills. Julie is always the best assistant, too and was busy handing the herdsman and I the tools. We also came across two men who thatch roofs working on a home in the nearby village. It was fantastic to go up on top of the roof, learn about thatching and see the work being done. Many houses in Devon, especially in and near this village, have thatched roofs. It's so incredible to see such a traditional craft still being used today in such a developed country as England.

While seeing and doing so much, we have the best company and host to share it all with us. The family on the farm consists of the Mom and Dad and two children, a son and daughter. The farm also has three employees who keep the farm running smoothly along with our hosts. This dairy and beef operation milks 100 to 150 cows and sells steers for meat. In addition, most of the grain and haylage is grown and harvested on the over 400 acres of land. The feed the family produces is fed right back to the animals they are raising. 

It's amazing how similar agriculture is throughout the world. Here in England it is no different. The milking parlor is like those in the US, we have most of the same brands of tractors and Julie and I feel right at home doing all of the chores and tasks with the animals. 

We've been able to do so much already since arriving in Devon and hope you enjoy all the updates to follow! 

Milking cows headed down the road to milking. 

Feeding time!

Babies enjoying supper!

The cows and the milking parlor! Double 10! 

Julie working hard on the fence, trying to count the black and white girls. Brown cows are easier to see when trying to count them!

Fixing fence and wielding a hammer! 

Down the road in the buggy!

Grass for thatching! This is up on the house you can see in the photo above!

Julie and the expert thatchers!

View from the bed of the Kubota!

Happy cows are in England, too! These dry cows are running to explore their new pasture!

Julie tries to keep up with her massive wellies!

Amazing blue skies and the greenest hills around!

Sunset in Devon

Life in London

Leaving Austria wasn't easy but we knew we had a new adventure ahead of us! On July 15th, we flew into London to start the last leg of our journey. After standing in line for customs for longer than expected we found our way to the "fake country" of London to stay with a friend Dana met on a hitch (hitch hiking) in Zambia. Dana had kept in contact with this friend and she was gracious enough to host us for a few days. In the mornings of our stay we helped our host clean and organize. In the afternoon we ventured out into the city to check out the sights!

As always, our favorite part of London was the parks. We visited many parks including Kensington, Green Park and St. James. Hanging out in parks is truly one of our favorite things to do, especially in cities! Such fun!

Our host is part of a Toastmasters club, the friendliest club in London to be exact, and we had the chance to attend a meeting with her! If you are like me, you might not know what Toastmasters is. Toastmasters is an international organization which focuses on public speaking. We heard some very interesting and informational speeches, and a few funny ones! Then we got to participate as well! We both signed up to do a one minute improvisational speech. We were told an introduction to a story and then had to finish it or answer the question asked. Dana's impromptu speech was a very riveting, action filled demonstration for her part of the topic narration.  I shared about forgetting my words while talking to others or giving speeches. It was a very fun evening and we really enjoyed learning more! To get home, we got to ride in the Mini Cooper of our host's friend from Czech Republic!

Our hosts near Vienna told us about a friend of theirs who is the owner and chef at a restaurant in London; so we decided to check it out! We want everyone to know that if they are ever in London, they MUST go to Pitt Cue Co. We had the most wonderful experience enjoying conversation with our table mates and being treated to a Pickle Back - shot of whiskey followed by a shot of pickle juice. The barbeque pork was the absolute best we have ever had. So yummy!

Across the street from the restaurant was a store full of Redwing Boots from Redwing, Minnesota!

One day we visited a few of the London Museums, the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. The architecture in the Natural History museum was our favorite part there. We wished we had made more time for the Science Museum, maybe next time!

As soon as I learned we were going to London, I planned to visit King's Cross to see Platform 9 3/4. We queued up for a half hour to get our photo heading into the station for Hogwarts Express!

We loved walking across the Putney Bridge and checking out the Thames River. Tidal rivers are such neat concepts to us! We loved seeing  how high or low the river was during different times from day to day.

There were plenty of fun sights and interesting buildings that we passed, here is a small selection of our photo collection.

Buckingham Palace!

The London Eye!

Parliament!

Big Ben!

Zambia House

We spent many lovely days in London! Thank you to our hosts for the great conversations, planning advice, and for sharing their home with us!