Mom & I met Ian Vantreight in 2024, on his property in Shirley. We stayed at his rv rental there; it was a mutual healing retreat, taken a year after we lost Dad to hospital acquired covid cardiac complications. It was a really nice & quiet bonding time for both of us.
Before we left, Ian showed us the antique tractor that was passed down from his Dad. The tractor was fully restored & it still runs very well. We also checked out a nice wood splitter he had by their garage.
This old farm tractor was made in 1948. John Vantreight, Ian's Dad, bought it for $1250 - same year that it was manufactured.
25 years ago, it took 6 months to restore the old tractor & the restoration repairs cost $26,000. It was done for their Dad before he passed away. A pioneering farm family loving legacy.
Ian & his wife, Jodi, run a holiday rentals business now. It's their retirement side business. They have rental properties in different beautiful locations. You can see them all at https://tgevr.com/
Ian is one of the descendants of the Vantreight farming pioneer family who had moved here from Ireland in the late 1880s. John & Florence Vantreight emigrated from Dublin to Saanich in 1884 & settled in Gordon Head. When John died in 1896, the eldest son Geoffrey took on the responsibility for the family & farm. Geoffrey Vantreight & his brothers Sydney & Edgar grew strawberries. In 1914 Geoffrey Vantreight married Maud Bartholomew. Geoffrey Vantreight obtained daffodil bulbs from W.T. Edwards in 1915, the beginning of the crop for which the Vantreight family would become known.
The former site of the Vantreight family farm is now home to Longview Farms.
https://longviewfarms.ca/
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