Leaving the city behind ... and freaking out a tad

[PilatesGal]

Well, with a deep breath, we are jumping into country life. As I rapidly approach 50, and my husband already hitting that mark, we have sold our big house in the city and are moving to a lovely little 20-acre parcel an hour away in order to try to live a simpler (ha!) life and support our daughter's love of everything horse. We'll somewhat regretfully say goodbye to cable tv, quick trips to the grocery store, public transit, a spacious house and a semi-walking lifestyle in order to have a small house (less cleaning!), spacious land, horse neighbours, chickens, donkey, our horses with us, stars at night, peace & quiet, and a long (but gorgeous) commute to work (for hubby). I am giving up my business (I had a Pilates studio - hence my monikker) which happily will give me more time with the beasties and more time to train for my beloved triathlons. At least I think I'll have more time ...

Oldest daughter (almost 20) will stay in the city. Youngest daughter (almost 12) is determined to live in the barn and wants to move yesterday. Maybe we could have gotten an even smaller house??

We embarked on horse ownership just over a year ago. We now have two horses (boarded right now), two cats and a dog. I'm looking into getting a mini donk (to keep my horse company when my daughter has hers at competitions), chickens for me (eggs) and my husband wants bees. It's going to be an adventure, for sure. The ridiculously steep learning curve I've been on for the past few years is going to increase exponentially, I suspect. Scared witless? Yes. Excited? Absolutely.

So please forgive me if I ask some really dumb questions, and feel free to point out how stupid they are. I have a pretty realistic view of my own shortcomings And now that I've given up Facebook for Lent, I suddenly find I have more time to read the posts on this forum (hmmm ... don't think that was supposed to be the point).

[Golden Horse]

BWA hahaha on the Lent thing, I don't think you are meant to substitute!

Good for you for moving out to the country, it's a great life, if somewhat challenging at times.

[Cacowgirl]

There will be quite the learning curve. Do you have a barn? Arena? Paddocks? Chicken Coop?Perimeter fencing? Or do you have to build all that? Ask your questions-there is much knowledge here about all these things.

[DancingArabian]

Consider where your new house is and the setup. You might be able to make a little building and make a new Pilates studio in it!

I'm very jealous! Good luck!
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[demonwolfmoon]

THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!!! CONGRATS!
I'm nowhere near at that stage in my life, and I'm already looking forward to leaving half of it behind...and I'm city raised. Heck, I'm already ready to leave half the country part behind too and just immerse myself in running my own property, growing my own food, and having Amazon ship me anything else. ;)

THAT IS SO GREAT! I'm actually moving soon, going to be renting a property with some land so I can stop boarding my horses...though I'm still going to have to figure out school and employment. I'm hoping it has enough land that I can have a couple of chickens and grow some veggies. =)

PS...cable is easy to get over after the weirdness goes away. We got rid of it more than four years ago, and now if there's something we want to see, it's either on Netflix, or already on the internet somewhere.

[Skyseternalangel]

Wow what an amazing adventure! I am beyond jealous that you are giving your daughter this opportunity and are being so supportive :) My parents wouldn't do what you're doing.

Have fun and no worries about asking questions. Everyone here is very helpful!

[PilatesGal]

Well, here's what we have: an insulated quonset with 3 great stalls already with mats and a tack room, a round pen, two paddocks with shelters and three pastures (one of which has an auto waterer and the other two have a bit of wetlands at the back so I guess that is the water source for those pastures). The barn doesn't have water, so we're going to have to get someone to put the water line in for us. Not sure how we'll warm the barn - wondering about solar panels to a water heater?

The fencing is rock solid - I'll try to attach a pic 'cause I think it's good enough for mini donks, but not positive. No chicken coop or anything yet - we've been looking at plans and the hope is to build a moveable coop-shelter combination. I'm only going to start with 3 ... fewer to beg my hubby to pluck if I completely fail as a hen caretaker

We back on to crown land, so as long as I can figure out how to avoid the cougars, bears and wolves, we'll have a ball trail riding :-0

I'm trying to source out hay right now. We move at the beginning of April, but I think we'll leave the horses boarded until the end of April, just to give me time to get everything organized.

Have to check if my farrier will come out that far, but it's closer for the vet - yay!

What am I forgetting? There's got to be tonnes ...

[Speed Racer]

Welcome to the land of satellite TV and internet. If you're that far out, the only choices you'll have for internet will be dial-up or satellite. Dial-up ain't pretty!

You'll also want to have a landline phone, because you may not get a good signal with your fancy Smartphones.

I live out among the cattle and crops and love it. But yes, no more 'quick trips' to the grocery store. If I don't have it, it has to wait until my bi-monthly trip. You'll find you become very good at knowing what you have, what you need, and how long it will last.

As far as having more time once you have horses at home? Baahaahaahaaa!

[PilatesGal]

Yeah, well, ignorance is bliss

Good point about the landline. I never did graduate to a smart phone, but we will have to spring for satellite internet. I don't mind losing tv, but if I lose internet life will get awfully ugly, awfully fast!

We're also going to build an outdoor arena. I wanted an indoor, and then I started pricing them - whoa Nellie! Who has an extra quarter million lying around??!! But thankfully there are a few indoor arenas within a couple of minutes and we'll see if perhaps we can make friends with those neighbours Gets kinda cold here in the winter ...

[Chevaux]

Good luck with the venture. There's so much to say about living in the country that people right books about it all the time - speaking of which, you might want to check out your local library to see what they've got sitting on the shelves that may be helpful.