The Story of White House Stables

We moved onto the farm in 1984 when it came up for rent after 20 years with the previous tenants. It hadn’t been farmed since our landlady was a little girl and her parents farmed here. They had Jersey cows, chickens, bees, and a horse called Susan that carried Pat to school and the Saanich Fair. We have slowly changed things as time and money allowed, building the barn for our racehorses, fencing paddocks and fields, planting an orchard, adding other animals like chickens and then as we raised our family, food production became more important. The landscape is always changing around here and multi purpose use for all the areas has been very important, adapting a stable from foaling a mare to raising day old chicks to housing a sow when she births in winter.

The house, has also gradually been changed for our comfort. When repairing a sash window in the bathroom, the trim that was removed bore the carpenters pencil marks re dimensions and his name and year, 1907, so we know that the house was being finished that year. It was built by a Scotsman and named Lomond Ferry at that time, he built the annexe first, probably around 1900 and then the main house was built whilst they lived in the annexe. We occasionally have visits from past occupants and it’s lovely to hear their stories and memories of the place, it is a happy house.