Thus begins the mad, insane adventure!
My husband and I have had a terrible last two years. More emotionally than anything else. We made a major decision to completely change our lifestyle, and have sold our home in South Texas and Moved far north to his home state of Nebraska. Most of our friends think we’re nuts, but we think we’re living the dream!
As Peter Pan said,” To live will be the grandest adventure”…
Holy moly, where to begin.![]( "whistle")
We left Texas about noonish on the 4th of March, way later than we had planned in the day, but it couldn’t be helped as we had moving truck trouble. We had to exchange one of the trucks twice before we got one that was running properly. It ws a bit of a nightmare as we had it about 2/3′s loaded the first time and had to empty and reload it. But, we finally hit the road. The animals were all packed in various vehicles, and the cats were not happy about their cages. I did pick up those big dog kennels for them, two to a kennel, but the four of them let it be known that this was not their idea of a good time.![]( "whistle")
By the time we hit the truly open road, about 50 miles north of Austin, we encountered the beginnings of a wind blowing issue that pretty much plagued us the entire trip. 40-50 mile an hour gusts coming at us sideways, it was great. Needless to say that seriously slowed us down. We were hoping to average at least 60-65, but with that wind we couldn’t go faster than about 50 most of the time. Mind you non of us are professional truck drivers, the boys were driving the moving trucks with dh and only dh has ever driven a truck that large. We had two of the biggest trucks Penske makes, both 26 footers and they were crazy squirrely in the wind.
We finally pulled into Kearney about 2:30 the next day, so a roughly 26 hour trip, that normally only takes us 16 hours. We were wore out, cranky, and I’m not ashamed to say, all feeling like we had made the biggest mistake of our lives, it wasn’t pretty.![]( "snob")
Another 31 miles and we were at the property. It was 3:30 by the time we got here, and while we had electricity, we had no heat, the furnace wouldn’t light, and no water to the house, even though the well was working and we could hear the water trying to get there. Bless his heart, dh headed back to Kearney and found us some space heaters, and managed to get ahold of a well guy to come over right away. The boys and I unloaded the mattresses off the trucks, and a few incidentals, and I attempted to figure out how I was going to fix something to eat with no kitchen and everything packed.
The well guy was ,luckily enough, the same one who had installed the well with his father years ago. So he knew the system and was able to figure out that it was fine~ the problem stemmed from the fact that the yahoo brother of the seller had attempted to either steal, or just plain sabotage the plumbing under the house. It’s all copper pipe and every piece was disconnected, amazing.
So we filled every 5 gallon bucket we had (7) so that we could at least flush the potty, until dh could get under there and fix it all. Luckily we are the type that is prepared, as we had brought 12 cases of bottled water with us. By then it was 19 degrees, we were freezing even with the heaters, so we piled all the mattresses in the living room and went to bed! We where all decided right then that this was the biggest mistake we had ever made, Jordan wanted a plane ticket home, and dh and I were seriously considering joining him.![]( "whistle")
Holy moly, where to begin.
We left Texas about noonish on the 4th of March, way later than we had planned in the day, but it couldn’t be helped as we had moving truck trouble. We had to exchange one of the trucks twice before we got one that was running properly. It ws a bit of a nightmare as we had it about 2/3′s loaded the first time and had to empty and reload it. But, we finally hit the road. The animals were all packed in various vehicles, and the cats were not happy about their cages. I did pick up those big dog kennels for them, two to a kennel, but the four of them let it be known that this was not their idea of a good time.
By the time we hit the truly open road, about 50 miles north of Austin, we encountered the beginnings of a wind blowing issue that pretty much plagued us the entire trip. 40-50 mile an hour gusts coming at us sideways, it was great. Needless to say that seriously slowed us down. We were hoping to average at least 60-65, but with that wind we couldn’t go faster than about 50 most of the time. Mind you non of us are professional truck drivers, the boys were driving the moving trucks with dh and only dh has ever driven a truck that large. We had two of the biggest trucks Penske makes, both 26 footers and they were crazy squirrely in the wind.
We finally pulled into Kearney about 2:30 the next day, so a roughly 26 hour trip, that normally only takes us 16 hours. We were wore out, cranky, and I’m not ashamed to say, all feeling like we had made the biggest mistake of our lives, it wasn’t pretty.
Another 31 miles and we were at the property. It was 3:30 by the time we got here, and while we had electricity, we had no heat, the furnace wouldn’t light, and no water to the house, even though the well was working and we could hear the water trying to get there. Bless his heart, dh headed back to Kearney and found us some space heaters, and managed to get ahold of a well guy to come over right away. The boys and I unloaded the mattresses off the trucks, and a few incidentals, and I attempted to figure out how I was going to fix something to eat with no kitchen and everything packed.
The well guy was ,luckily enough, the same one who had installed the well with his father years ago. So he knew the system and was able to figure out that it was fine~ the problem stemmed from the fact that the yahoo brother of the seller had attempted to either steal, or just plain sabotage the plumbing under the house. It’s all copper pipe and every piece was disconnected, amazing.
So we filled every 5 gallon bucket we had (7) so that we could at least flush the potty, until dh could get under there and fix it all. Luckily we are the type that is prepared, as we had brought 12 cases of bottled water with us. By then it was 19 degrees, we were freezing even with the heaters, so we piled all the mattresses in the living room and went to bed! We where all decided right then that this was the biggest mistake we had ever made, Jordan wanted a plane ticket home, and dh and I were seriously considering joining him.
On to week one of the mis-adventurous move!
By day two, things seemed to be going from bad to worse! The fact that we had turned on the well and all that water had simply dumped itself under the house meant dh couldn’t get under there to fix it until the flooding dried up. The dogs had no fenced in area, so a kennel had to be purchased and erected asap, all of the stuff we wanted to go on the trucks last for off loading first, was naturally loaded first, the temp was 24, and we were miserable!!!!
Then it happened, the first of our neighbors dropped by to introduce themselves. She brought us a huge bag of cookies and a wonderful pumpkin spice loaf! Her husband offered to help dh and the boys with the kennel, and that was done within 20 minutes! They invited us to supper, and all was feeling semi right in our world.
1/2 hour after they left, neighbor number two came by, chocolate cake!!! He offered to help dh put up our fencing, and gave us the number for the local heating guy. They also offered us two calves for our freezer for this year!! Things were looking up for sure!!
The next day neighbors number 3 and 4 stopped in at various times. Two loaves of HM sourdough bread, and a wonderful chicken cassarole!! Mre offers of whatever help we might need as well. Then came the heating guy!!! He had our furnace going in short order, while dh was under the house working on the plumbing. By bedtime we had heat, and running water!!! Still no hot water, as dh didn’t trust the old HWH, but we could flush!!!
Went to bed, in the livingroom, feeling quite a bit better about everything that fourth night.. this just might not have been the biggest mistake ever afterall…![]( "whistle")
By day two, things seemed to be going from bad to worse! The fact that we had turned on the well and all that water had simply dumped itself under the house meant dh couldn’t get under there to fix it until the flooding dried up. The dogs had no fenced in area, so a kennel had to be purchased and erected asap, all of the stuff we wanted to go on the trucks last for off loading first, was naturally loaded first, the temp was 24, and we were miserable!!!!
Then it happened, the first of our neighbors dropped by to introduce themselves. She brought us a huge bag of cookies and a wonderful pumpkin spice loaf! Her husband offered to help dh and the boys with the kennel, and that was done within 20 minutes! They invited us to supper, and all was feeling semi right in our world.
1/2 hour after they left, neighbor number two came by, chocolate cake!!! He offered to help dh put up our fencing, and gave us the number for the local heating guy. They also offered us two calves for our freezer for this year!! Things were looking up for sure!!
The next day neighbors number 3 and 4 stopped in at various times. Two loaves of HM sourdough bread, and a wonderful chicken cassarole!! Mre offers of whatever help we might need as well. Then came the heating guy!!! He had our furnace going in short order, while dh was under the house working on the plumbing. By bedtime we had heat, and running water!!! Still no hot water, as dh didn’t trust the old HWH, but we could flush!!!
Went to bed, in the livingroom, feeling quite a bit better about everything that fourth night.. this just might not have been the biggest mistake ever afterall…
And so it has gone all this time, various wonderful, helpful strangers, just stopping in to introduce themselves, bring us goodies, and welcome us with open hearts to the area.
We now have running water,(hot and cold!!) thanks to a new HWH. A fully functional furnace, which will need replacing before next winter, but is working fine for now, had the dishes installed for both tv and internet last week, have a semi organized house with actual furniture and the beds in the bedrooms now that they are warm. The animals have adjusted and are no longer freaking out at every sound.
I got to help deliver twin calves last week, and watch about 5 others come into this world![]( "lovesigh")
.
Yep, this is the best idea we ever had!!
We ordered our carport yesterday to be delivered in 3 weeks, and the foudation guys will be here friday to get that major repair done so we can start the addition.
OH!!!
We also found out the guy building our carport builds barns!!! His prices are amazing, and he has built pretty much all of the big barns in the area. So, we will be having him build ours next month!! So excited about that as it means we might be able to collect on the offer of the calves after all!![]( "lovesigh")
So, yea, there in a nutshell,belive it or not, y’all got the short version, is what I’ve been up to.
There’s more, but those are the high points. I didn’t even tell you about the offers to help restore the other house, and the offer of a milk goat, and the offer to till up the garden site, and the offers of chickens, and a coop!
Without a doubt, this is the absolutly best thing we have ever done, and we are all so happy to be here, even if we are currently all crammed into a 900sq.ft. house with a sliding foundation…![]( "lovesigh")
We now have running water,(hot and cold!!) thanks to a new HWH. A fully functional furnace, which will need replacing before next winter, but is working fine for now, had the dishes installed for both tv and internet last week, have a semi organized house with actual furniture and the beds in the bedrooms now that they are warm. The animals have adjusted and are no longer freaking out at every sound.
I got to help deliver twin calves last week, and watch about 5 others come into this world
.Yep, this is the best idea we ever had!!
We ordered our carport yesterday to be delivered in 3 weeks, and the foudation guys will be here friday to get that major repair done so we can start the addition.
OH!!!
We also found out the guy building our carport builds barns!!! His prices are amazing, and he has built pretty much all of the big barns in the area. So, we will be having him build ours next month!! So excited about that as it means we might be able to collect on the offer of the calves after all!
So, yea, there in a nutshell,belive it or not, y’all got the short version, is what I’ve been up to.
There’s more, but those are the high points. I didn’t even tell you about the offers to help restore the other house, and the offer of a milk goat, and the offer to till up the garden site, and the offers of chickens, and a coop!
Without a doubt, this is the absolutly best thing we have ever done, and we are all so happy to be here, even if we are currently all crammed into a 900sq.ft. house with a sliding foundation…
