Just in time for christmas!!

We are in!!

So we were left waiting to move in my last blog. Well I am pleased to say we are in but we did have a lot of luck or was it fine planning?

We had previously purchased a livestock trailer. Why? We don’t have any livestock yet but hubby had been watching them on eBay and managed to nab one a few months earlier. It really did come into its own during our move as we shipped the contents of the shed, the green house and the garage over to the new homestead. We began the weekend before as time had been taken off from work for the move even though we didn't have a final date. Load after load was transported over as the old house was gradually bailed out over the Saturday and Sunday. On Monday we heard from the solicitors that we were about to exchange contracts and could we complete the follow Monday 15^th December. Yes we could. We hired a van for the Thursday and Friday and set about emptying the house of non-essentials. We also tried to get most of our parcel Christmas shopping done before we moved as it was envisaged that we might be in too much of a muddle when we move to get things sorted closer to Christmas.

The van was hired from a local garage and came with a temperamental tail lift. It only worked with the engine running (a tired old diesel) and preferred up to down, but it did hold a phenomenal amount of stuff and it was only that first morning of the van hire when we experienced any rain. There is nothing more empowering than cruising around in a BIG truck although squeezing past over large vehicles did tend to promote more grey hairs with each encounter. We also had four cats, one dog and seven chickens to move and we did that on the last truck day as we planned to be sleeping in our new house by the end of it having moved the beds. Once the truck had been returned we looked to move the animals in the cars. The dog was easy. She loves the car. The cats each had their own carrier and only one showed any real resistance to the idea of being bundled up to a cat carrier. The chickens were moved when they were sleepy but it was still light enough for us to see what we were doing. Having purchased a 10-bird crate, our seven virtually filled it up. We have got two chicken houses and had already moved one so they were transported and duly deposited in their temporary home. Sorted!!

It was now Saturday with just two days left before the new owners would like to move in. The new house looked like a warehouse full of boxes and bags. The old house still had stuff left in it and needed its final clean. We opted to divide our labours and one of us stayed to move boxes to their correct location whilst the other went back and fetched more stuff, and more stuff, and more stuff. If I was to give anyone advice about a house move, have a dammed good clear out before you move. I thought we did but the understairs cupboard proved to be like a core sample of my life for the last 20 years with junk going back through time to the roller skates which our daughter had when she was a toddler. The livestock trailer was still in full operation and this time being used for rubbish ... lots and lots of rubbish. Locally the recycling centre is only open from Friday to Monday so we were moving car loads of stuff and a trailer full of rubbish each time. By Sunday we were back to two cars and a livestock trailer. By dark on the Sunday the old house was empty and having its final scrub. Keys had been dropped to the estate agent and we only needed to slam the door behind us when we left. Done.

I was sad to leave our house. It had been a good friend for 15 years. The kids had gone in as toddlers and come out as adults. We had spent a lot of money, time and effort in improving it but now it was time to move on. We had also learnt a lot over the years and made some good friends in the village. We had been part of the community and played our part. Our new house holds the promise of more space to grow food and animals. It was the ending of the first chapter of our grand dream.

To follow me in our new adventure see my other blog ... http://anewsmallholding.blogspot.co.uk/