The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Community => Coffee Lounge => Topic started by: waddy on June 23, 2013, 06:08:00 pm
-
We are moving at last! :excited: :excited: :excited: After much stress we finally completed on Friday. We loaded up a 7 1/2 ton truck on Friday night and set off on Saturday morning collecting the keys on the way. We were planning to make two trips this weekend but after 5 hours spent loading 5 hours driving and another 5 hours unloading (including a piano) the thought of setting off straight back again was too much and our backs couldn't have taken it (especially after the piano). We had a much better idea and walked to the local pub for a really nice meal and then camped at the house. Far better! We have another three weeks before we have to be out of the rental so we can spread the move a bit to allow recovery time. We are both tired and aching but so excited and a little scared at having taken on so much. Sometimes you have just got to jump in the deep end to follow a dream!
Helen
-
how exciting for you. enjoy every moment :excited:
-
Glad to hear your move is in progress. A well deserved pub stop by the sounds of it. And a celebration of your first night at your new address :excited:
-
The adventure begins! :excited:
Many congratulations - and keep on telling us all about it! :)
-
Ooh there's nothing better than that tired but excited feeling you are enjoying right now!! Savour it :-)))
-
Going to the pub was by far the right decision , after all you have to get to know your new neighbours eh?
-
Well done :thumbsup: . We need photos and more updates .
-
Brilliant, photos would be greatt then we can picture what you are doing :innocent:
-
Congratulations and may you have very many years or happiness in your new abode I too cant wait to see the photos!
-
It will all be worth it once you've settled in and at least you now know what your local is like. :roflanim:
-
Wonderful! A great start to getting to know the locals - and very sensible to turn the moving into an adventure father than a chore :thumbsup:
-
We already checked the pub out on two previous visits so we knew the food was great. It is a true local full of farming and village folk and all have been very friendly. Such a bonus to have a shortish walk away. I will take some photos when I can find where I have packed my charger for the camera. The neighbouring farmer has his dairy herd on the land at the moment - an arrangement I am quite happy with as we can start slowly without having to suddenly manage all that pasture (hard with no tools or animals to graze it). We have lots to do first around the house although I would like to get chickens as soon as possible. We are loving this. Twice this weekend a deer leaped from the woods and across the drive. We have seen lots of pheasants and a pair of buzzards (our neighbors say they have seen as many as twenty buzzards at once circling the valley. A fabulous sight but a bit of a worry for when we get chickens).
Helen
-
Congrats, sounds idyllic.
Re buzzards - we have a lot around here (Moray) and they've never bothered our poultry who free range in a small paddock near to the farmhouse.
Providing the buzzards have plenty of wild food, I think your chooks will be safe.
Enjoy your new home.
Sue
-
Re buzzards - we have a lot around here (Moray) and they've never bothered our poultry who free range in a small paddock near to the farmhouse.
Thanks for that Factotum. A bit more reassured now. We would like them to free range. Not seen foxes there yet but I'm sure they will be lurking!
Helen
Helen
-
Excellent - a day by day account of the move in :) and I agree making it an adventure and including the camping out, the visits to the local etc are way more positive a way of starting a new life than slogging up and down the road non stop. You've had enough stress for this move, the rest is about enjoyment and exploration.
Agree with previous poster, we have buzzards here and I love seeing them. Never had a problem with the hens, either when penned or now free ranging, if anything it keeps the hens from roaming too far up the fields and laying in patches I'll never find!
Only buzzard visit we've had was an injured one that crash landed IN the run when there were hens in it - neither bothered about the other under the circs. I had put up bale netting as a camouflage/discouragement to land across the pen at one time but it's all been removed now they're out all day.
-
Congratulations :) it sounds fab!
Re: buzzards - another one who has plenty of buzzards and never had a problem either.
Helen
-
Buzzards don't take hens. They may have a swipe at a chick, if one were unguarded... ;) But they will take rats, so are very much a chicken-keeper's friend. :)
Goshawk, however - now one of them would have a pop at your hens, especially any white ones (they stand out more.)
-
sounds exciting...can't wait..well done and best wishes
-
How exciting, and what a sense of achievement you must have at the moment! :excited:
We moved to our smallholding just over a year ago and I can still remember the excitement of the removal lorry arriving and realising that the adventure had really begun. Mind you, during the year of almost constant rain that followed, we did wonder at times whether we had made a terrible mistake! Still, we got through it and now the sun has made an appearence things are a bit more how we had imagined them! :farmer: :sunshine:
-
Our second weekend lorry trip didn't exactly go to plan. We thought we had done well packing the lorry; heavy stuff tied to the front end, lighter stuff packed round. We also thought with a seven and a half ton truck there was plenty of capacity for the load we were hauling. WRONG! A cautionary tale - get your lorry weighed or your stuff weighed before setting off on a long journey. We found out the hard way we were overloaded. The police were very nice and obviously safety has to be their main concern. I was left sitting on quite literally a ton of our furniture for four hours while OH went back to our rented house and unloaded another ton before coming back to pick me up. We know now to put the heaviest items where the greatest strength is over the rear double wheeled axle. We also know getting a vehicle with a tail lift (essential in our case) straight away takes half a ton off the amount you can carry. We got to our new place safely although alas too late for our local pub and the nice meal we had planned. Instead it was a burger from the services. After all the loading, unloading (and extra loading/unloading) and a total of about 620 miles driven over the weekend (plus about another 70 when including taking the truck back) we are both absolutely knackered! We were both also up early for me to drop OH at the station to catch the 5.30 am train to london. At least I could then go back to bed! We have a week to recover before doing the final two lorry trips next week. We would still however prefer to move the stuff ourselves. We have found it stressful having removal people in the past. We have so much stuff to move over such a long way. We couldn't possibly do it in one go and a larger lorry wouldn't fit up the drive.
We had a hare in the garden this time and house martins flying busily in and out of a nest on the house. Can't wait until our final move! :wave: :wave: :wave:
-
I'm dreading our move... mortgages have been approved so just waiting for exchange now...
-
I'm glad the polic exercised discretion for you, your heart must have sunk until they did; interesting about the tail lift weight thing!
But im afraid we require more pics now otherwise we will sulk :- ))))
-
Once you're in you will be able to look back and have a good laugh, i don't think its ever easy moving...
i have just found out that we can only have a 10ft static as a 12 is to wide for the lane :innocent: agh well , its not the end of the world :roflanim:
we do need pics though. :thumbsup:
-
I'm glad the polic exercised discretion for you, your heart must have sunk until they did; interesting about the tail lift weight thing!
But im afraid we require more pics now otherwise we will sulk :- ))))
We still got a £60 fine but it could have been £180 (plus of course extra fuel for the extra trip) but as said they were very nice. I still can't find the charger for the camera and my phone camera is rubbish! After next weekend we will have moved nearly everything and I will have time to hunt for it although it may take a while there is so much stuff.
Helen
-
Once you're in you will be able to look back and have a good laugh, i don't think its ever easy moving...
i have just found out that we can only have a 10ft static as a 12 is to wide for the lane :innocent: agh well , its not the end of the world :roflanim:
we do need pics though. :thumbsup:
In spite of the sheer exhaustion (not to mention unexpected stops in laybys!) we are so happy! We have our smallholding!!! :excited: :excited: :excited:
We would love a log cabin style static where at present we have an old pole barn just inside some woodland next to a large lawn and pond. We anticipate lots of visitors and at present we only have three bedrooms. We thought in future we may also be able to do a holiday let in it. The struggle with the lorry and the drive have made us wonder how (if we ever got permission for one) we would be able to get it in place. We may have to make a wider gate in the bottom field and find a vehicle that could go off road and up the slope of the valley to pull it. I know we wouldn't get permission to build anything that wasn't classed as mobile.
Helen
-
If its any help our track is only about 10 foot wide with stone dyke walls but we got a 12 foot static in.
How....well if you get a proper transporter company to do it, the truck bed they lift it onto takes it above the height of the walls - so if walls are the issue they might be able to work round it, altho not if overhanging trees with big boughs across.
We were just going to get 10 ft but the extra 2 feet makes a lot of difference, because it means you can have dining one side, kitchen the other, and a big wide seating area with a good size coffee table, whereas the 10 foot ones (the ones we saw anyway) had its different living zones along the length , which made them seem a lot smaller.
We did the drainage first, even before the static arrived, so it could be plumbed into the new septic tank, which makes life a lot easier if you can do this.
-
ahh, a bit stressful, but you will get there. :thumbsup:
-
Congratulations!
Moving is always a nightmare. We moved to ours mid-May and are far from sorted, but it is all exciiting.
Looking forward to your updates