Our Long Way Home – Part 5

This post is Part 5 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1 – 4, here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/ 

Our Long Way Home – Part 5

Once we made it to the mainland and off the ferry, we were really on our way. A lot of the long drive is a blur to me, other then remembering it was VERY difficult to stay awake. The drive that only took my husband 17 hours to make when he drove from the prairies to the Island, took us over 40 hours. I honestly could not understand what was wrong, and why the drive was going so poorly.

We drove as many hours as we could, then we’d stop to let dogs out for a walk, take cats out to use the liter box, let everyone stretch their legs, and use the bathroom. Sometimes getting a bite to eat, and then be on our way again to do it all over until the next stop!

I felt totally ‘off my game’. I’m normally a fairly confident person, but towing a very long and heavy trailer, through the Rocky Mountains, at night, for hours and hours, and just simply feeling completely ‘off’, was getting to me. I couldn’t quite figure out what was up. Graydon wasn’t doing a whole lot better the longer we drove. He had spent a whirlwind 10 days driving the 2000 km to the Island, packing, working to get everything done that needed doing on the property, and being busy the entire time he was there, only to turn around and have to head right back again. We were both completely beat. Neither of us had slept more then 4-6 hours straight in weeks. We were both close to our breaking point.

However, we continued on. The three girls did great and were real troopers. NONE of the animals complained either, not even a bit! Every time we stopped to take them for walks, they’d do their business, eat, drink, and hop back into their ‘crates’ or designated person’s lap, and go right back to sleep again. I was very impressed.

We stopped whenever we needed to for short naps. We stopped twice alongside the road because we simply couldn’t drive another minute, and twice at walmart parking lots. Over the 40 hours of driving, we slept a total of about 6-8 hours. Just enough to keep us going each time. The girls slept off and on along the way, as they needed it. They considered it all more of an adventure then anything else. They enjoyed the Tim Horton’s coffee shop stops, and a treat here and there along the way. They understood we couldn’t stop for too long in any one place since we had to get to the new homestead as quick as possible to get all our animals out of the suv, and so we could get things set up for the horses before they arrived!

Finally… we were about 45 minutes from our new home and suddenly one of the tires on Graydon’s trailer blew. The tire was completely shred by the fender, and the fender flew off, and landed almost directly in front of me as I followed behind him. We barely missed being hit by the flying fender & shred rubber! Amazingly, Graydon was able to pull over safely.

We had JUST driven through a small town that Graydon knew had a tire shop. He unhooked the trailer in the nearest driveway, was greeted by the owner of that home and told to help himself to any tools from their garage if he needed them. He made the quick trip back to where we had just come from, and came back within about 25 minutes with a new tire. In the meantime the girls and I let the dogs out for another walk. Graydon put the new tire onto the trailer, and we were on our way once again!

Fourty five minutes later, we were finally pulling into our new home. The home we expected we’d spend the next two years, possibly the next fourty two years. We had no desire to move again. If this homestead could work for us, we’d stay, forever if we could. We felt like we had finally arrived. Finally arrived home.

Little did we know, we were still a long way from home.

Our Long Way Home – Part 3

This post is Part 3 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1 & 2, here:http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/ 

Our Long Way Home – Part 3

In the mean time, we had to rip up carpets and take down the closet doors, bedroom doors, and heaters off the walls by that same night because the carpet installer would arrive early Saturday morning. The carpets HAD to be put in before we left on Sunday, to give Graydon time to put the closet and inside doors, plus the baseboard heaters, back into place before we left the Island on Sunday. Plus, we had help from our church coming on Saturday afternoon at 2 to help finish the deep cleaning of the home and cabin. It had been such a busy week of packing, and taking care of all the reno details etc. that the deep cleaning still had not been done.

The carpet installer showed up late on Saturday, and I let him know we were on a time crunch because the carpet had to be installed that day. Home Depot had assured us that this wasn’t going to be a problem. However, the installer wasn’t aware of the time crunch but assured me he’d do his best and got started on things right away.

About 45 minutes into working, he called us over to show us there was a problem with the carpet. A big run right through the largest piece that was to be laid. He got on the phone with Home Depot and they told him there was more of the same carpet at another store the next city over. He would have to go pick it up.

Sooo… he went and picked that up and brought it back a few hours later. By this time the help to clean had arrived and we did our best to work around things and just get everything done that we could get done, regardless of the carpet being half done and the mess of the upstairs due to all this.

While washing walls in the midst of all the cleaning with our twins, Shaylah and Julia helping, I had the misfortune of standing straight up, right underneath a LOW built in loft bed. A very solid wood bed that my husband had built. My husband builds things well, and solid. Very well, and very solid. Ouch.

The solid wood bed did not ‘give’ as I stood straight up under it, and I gave myself a good solid “whack”. It was heard in the next room over and the girls asked if I was ok! As I stood there, doubled over, holding my head, pondering what an a$$ I can be at times, I realized there wasn’t any time to ponder any longer and I got back to work washing the walls.

A few minutes later the phone rang. It was the dog groomers letting me know I had to come pick up our two shelties. They were all done and HAD to be picked up right now because the shop was closing for the weekend.

From there, things just went from busy, to crazy.

The cleaning kept going as I went and picked up the dogs, and when I got back we finished cleaning the house & cabin with help from our church friends.

Joshua and his friend Steven, loaded up Joshua’s suburban and we said our goodbye’s and see you later on the prairies, and they were on their way down the road ahead of us. We planned it this way, just in case the suburban ran into any troubles along the way. It’s an old vehicle, and this was Joshua’s first long distance trip. We figured at least if they ran into any problems they would be 24 hours ahead of us, and worst case scenario, we could pick the ‘boys’ up along our way through but hoped of course it wouldn’t come to that!

In the meantime, the carpet installer returned with the new roll of carpet and got back to work, only to call us over to inspect the new piece just a few minutes later, yet again, to point out FOUR black marks on the carpet AND yet another run.

By this time it was late Saturday afternoon. We spent some time haggling on the phone with Home Depot about how to fix this problem, and FAST, because we would be leaving the very next day and this carpet HAD to be put in! After being assured by Home Depot that they would find us more carpet to be put in, and after striking up a deal with the carpet installer to also install the closet doors once he was done AND paying him to do so, we left it in their hands and hoped and prayed that it would all be taken care of even if we were not there to oversee it getting done.

Later that evening, we headed to my parents to have dessert together to celebrate my mom’s birthday before we left the next day. My sister was also there. We had a nice time visiting, and said our goodbye’s, I love you’s, and hugs. It was hard. We had known the time we’d have to say goodbye had been coming for quite some time, and had made the best of our time together the last few years since we had planned to move away, but it’s still always difficult no matter how ‘prepared’ you think you may be.

We went back home after saying our goodbyes to do some more cleaning. Time was starting to tick away VERY quickly, and the very next day we would be leaving.

Our Long Way Home – Part 2

This post is Part 2 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1, here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/ 

Our Long Way Home – Part 2

The horse mover was to show up Friday around dinner, after the house movers should be gone. In my hopes of preventing any issues with our five horses loading, I had booked a trailer to come at least a week beforehand so we could ‘practice’ with the horses. The guy who delivered our hay each month was very experienced with loading horses and was going to give us lessons with his trailer, and our horses. One of our horses had never been in a trailer before, since she was born on our hobby farm after we had rescued her mother. Two had only been on a trailer a couple of times, when we rescued them. My mare didn’t like trailers a whole lot, so this left us with only one ‘easy’ loader.

Some how the training session for loading the horses never happened. My calls to book the definite time were never returned, until called the day the horses were to be picked up.

By then, it was little too late.

We had also been having issues with the horse mover herself. I had booked her months ahead, tentatively, because once my husband had headed for permanent work to the prairies, we knew we were all going to be following along at some point, hopefully soon. Immediately when I had a definite moving date, I made a solid booking for the move with the horse mover. Since we were moving five horses, it was a full trailer and there would be no need for her to find other horses to fill the trailer to make the trip worth while. I thought we were good to go!

However, about a week before we were to leave, I received a phone call from the horse mover saying she had another job to do, moving 15 horses from the US. Was there any way we could move our horses earlier, so she’d have time to get to the US before it was too late.

Hmmm… no. Seeing as we were heading to a rental property, that had the land for the horses, but not the fences, we’d need that bit of time we had already booked ahead to get the horse fencing up before the horses arrived. It had all been planned, for weeks! We even had the post pounder booked, and the fencing and posts dropped off at the rental property awaiting our arrival. It seemed one thing after another that we had tried to be diligent about, kept unraveling, out of our hands.

She promised to figure some thing out, but pretty much told us we had no choice, she would be moving those 15 horses, and our horses would be sent somewhere in between and we’d just have to trust they would be fine. I wasn’t too happy about this, since I had NO idea where our horses were being sent, but seeing as we had no other way to get our horses half way across the country, we didn’t really have any choice in the matter.

Friday at about dinner time, 30 minutes before she was to show up, right as I was heading to the barn to give the horses their herbal ‘meds’ used to calm them down before loading, she called to say she wouldn’t be there for several hours yet. I know things happen, but this meant she may not arrive until after dark. We hoped, and prayed, that she would some how get there before the sun went down. Our property didn’t have a whole lot of light after dark. Country roads don’t have street lights. Loading inexperienced horses in the dark was not something I was looking forward to, not to mention I felt it was dangerous. I shared my concerns, but again, my hands were tied and there was nothing I could say or do to move things along any quicker. We just had to wait.

Finally she arrived, thankfully before it was dark.

We put Bandit, Joshua’s horse in first. We knew he was an easy loader, and hoped his calm manner would make it easier for the next four horses. Raiah, my mare, loaded up fairly well with a little prodding, into the stall next to Bandit. Then came Nikki, Julia’s pony. She loaded up into the trailer alright, but then wouldn’t’ back up into her stall. Finally, after about 20 minutes of prodding and trying everything from bribery with food, to pushing, she was in.

Next came Mina, Alesia’s mare. The mama of our baby. She would NOT back up for NOTHING into her stall. Finally, we completely opened up the back of the trailer and walked her through another way and after about another 20 minutes she was finally in. Then, came the baby, Lacey. The only one who had never been loaded in her life. She had spent her 4 years of living on our small hobby farm without any knowledge there was more to this world then her little corner of it.

Lacey would NOT, for ANYTHING, put a hoof up onto that metal ramp to get into the trailer. We had saved the largest open ‘box’ stall for her, to make it easy. All she had to do was get into that big box stall, through the great big door in the middle of the trailer, and she’d be in, and they’d all be good to go.

She wasn’t having NONE of it! To her, that clinky, clangy, metal ramp that she had to set her hooves onto to get into that trailer was some sort of a death trap. Even though her mama was up inside the trailer already, and you could just SEE she wanted to be in there with her, she could NOT figure out how to get into that trailer without setting food onto that death trap of a ramp, to get to her mama!

She was SO upset! We tried everything! Bribing with feed, showing her hay, putting a second rope around her rump and pulling, tapping her rump with a whip (gently of course), nothing would convince her to set even one hoof onto that ramp. We were limited as to what we, her owners, could do to help because the horse mover would not allow us to get into, or too near, the trailer. For liability reasons I’m sure, but it made us feel awfully helpless through the whole process.

Finally, Lacey, in wisdom that only Lacey could ever come up with, gave a little buck, and a kick, and LEPT right up over that ramp, and into the trailer! It was like nothing else I had ever seen before.

She made it! She was finally with her mama, and she did it on her own terms without ever touching the ‘death trap’ ramp that she was so afraid of! They were all loaded up and ready to go just as the sky became completely dark. They had been loaded just in time.

Then we loaded up our tack, well… some of it, because although the horse mover had assured me several times beforehand that she could move ALL the horses AND their tack too, suddenly she had no room because of this extra trip she was making to the US. It was becoming more and more frustrating. What could we do with our tack now?! We had no extra room! By this time the house movers were already gone, our own two trailers were already completely full, and we had NO where else to fit saddles, hay and feed. She had even said she could move our hay since we’d need some for the trip, and as soon as the horses arrived, and now we had JUST bought extra hay specifically for THIS trip, that would now have to be left behind. It was very frustrating! On top of everything else we had to do, now we had to figure out how to move the rest of our tack etc. and we’d have to give our hay away. With all the extra expenses we were already incurring with the house, we did NOT have ANY extra to be spending/wasting!

Our Long Way Home – Part 1

The prologue to Our Long Way Home can be found here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/our-long-way-home-prologue/

Our Long Way Home – Part 1

It had been a long and hard fifteen months. During twelve of those months, our family had been split apart with Graydon (dh) living and working first in northern Alberta on the Oil Sands, and then on the Prairies in Saskatchewan, working as an engineer. The rest of us, myself and the five kids, back on the Island doing our best to fill in the void left by Graydon/Dad being away while still keeping up with kids jobs, caring for the homestead, my own full time business, and the younger three girls homeschooling and care.

Our family had grown very weary of this lifestyle. This was not the way we planned to live our lives. We had always done everything together, worked together, schooled together, lived together, worked hard to build our small homestead together. Our children were growing up right before my eyes, and away from their father’s eyes. To be split apart, with the head of the home thousands of miles away, just didn’t seem right and we felt it was time to put an end to it. We had seen Dad/dh just twice since the summer, each time only for a few whirlwind days. Time always flew much too quickly, and then he was gone again.

About the first week of March we made the decision to make the move, to just get it done and get our family back together under one roof. Well, most of our family. Our eldest daughter Alesia, who was now 20.5 years old, would be moving to Ontario in the spring to be a Nanny for relatives. The rest of the family however, would be moving to be with Graydon in the prairies, all under one roof. Our son Joshua had already secured an apprentice position with John Deere in the same town Graydon was living and working in. And now, Graydon’s income tax return could be enough to move our household belongings, and almost enough to cover our own gas, etc.. We decided we’d have to work hard to come up with funds for any extra costs we’d incur to make the move. We just couldn’t go on like this any longer. We needed to make the move now.

Finally!

We had a 2 week time frame. In just a few short weeks, Graydon would have just enough time off, to get back to the Island, help us pack up anything that still needed packing, and move our family and homestead to the prairies, before he had to be back to work again.

At the same time, we finally found a rental home that seemed to suite our family’s needs, and our homesteads needs too. We had horses and other animals to move across the country. It wasn’t as simple as finding a home in town, we needed an acreage. When we found one for rent, we jumped on it. It had been the first, and only acreage, we’d seen come up for rent since Graydon had moved out there in July. He viewed it, spoke with the landlord who suggested we may like to buy it after we lease it for two years, and we said we’d consider this option if all worked out.

It seemed things were falling into place and we’d be on our way home.

However, first we had to take our current home off the real-estate market and find someone to care for it and deal with renting it out. We had tried for years to sell it, and decided that instead of giving it away by dropping the price still lower and lower (we were already almost 100,000.00 under appraisal price) in this bad market, we’d rent it out instead. This wasn’t so easy however. Every rental agency we contacted said they only dealt with city properties and our 5 acre hobby farm was too far out of their way. This befuddled us. Our home was exactly 12 minutes from the city. How could this be ‘too’ far?

Finally, we found a rental agency willing to work with us, but now the hard work (not to mention all the extra cost we never realized!) had to take place. The property, the cabin, the shop, and the main home all had to look ‘perfect’. New carpet was ordered for the top floor of the main home and the stairway. Appliances had to be purchased for the cabin. We had used it for my business, but now it would become a rental and needed to be ready to rent. No excuses, things needed to get done, or it wouldn’t rent out, and we needed it to rent out. We were working on a very tight budget.

We got to work, did what needed to be done and cringed while we hired others to do the very few things we couldn’t do ourselves in the short 10 days we had to work with. We hired a painter we knew personally, since we had so little time to work with. We removed the large built in bunk bed from the girls room, and ripped up the old carpet in preparation for the new carpet ourselves. We removed the closet doors, and anything and everything else that needed doing was done, or on it’s way to being done.

The entire house, cabin, shop, and barn were packed up in short order. The movers were scheduled to pick up our belongings 3 days before we moved, just a week after Graydon arrived. I booked them to arrive on Friday the 13^th of April, so that they could get to our rental home on the prairies shortly after we would get there, on the following Tuesday. I specifically arranged it this way because originally, we were going to have them pick up on the Sunday, the same day we would leave, but the movers said there was no way they could get there as fast as us. We had to give them some extra time, so we worked around it.

In the meantime, we arranged to sleep in an RV from friends for the last few nights. Our belongings would be gone, except for what we could fit into our vehicles, and the two trailers we would tow behind each of our vehicles along the way.

Our Long Way Home- Prologue

Our Long Way Home- Prologue

On the phone the other day, a family friend told my husband that we really should write out our story. The story of our trials this last while. The trials we’ve faced while working toward our goal. The goal of a ‘real’ homestead for our family. Finally.

We’ve shared bits & pieces here and there as we’ve gone along this journey, but haven’t really shared the full journey.

We discussed this while taking the kids out for a drive to sight see the prairies yesterday.

I agreed that yes, I’ve wanted to write about all we’ve been going through, but that I felt like our story wasn’t finished yet, and every time I sat down to write out my thoughts about all that’s been going on, I just wasn’t sure how to do it without it sounding like it was all negative, yet also not making it all seem like unrealistic fluff & stuff. I felt like either it’d all come out sounding whiny, or sounding phony.

I really dislike whiny, and I really dislike phony.

Life, is real, even when it’s difficult.

Negativity in life does not equal = life is negative.

I want to share the positive through it all, as difficult as the positive can be to see at times. I told Graydon (dh) that I wanted to be able to share the story after it’s all said and done, after we’ve reached the final chapter of this story.

As of right now, this moment, Monday May 28th 2012, we’re facing having no home in just 33 days. We’ve been evicted from our rental/lease (a blessing in a way, this place failed a health and safety inspection) and no matter how hard we try, we can’t seem to get the banks to approve us for a mortgage to buy something, rather then rent again, short of some sort of miracle occurring.

We’ve been unable to find another suitable home to rent. A couple of real fixer upper/vacant farms have come up, yet we can’t rent, or buy, a real fixer upper at this time. We have our reasons for that, but can’t fully share those reasons publicly. I’ll simply say it involves adding to our family (no, I’m not pregnant) and the house we live in must be up to certain standards. Any home a family lives in should be up to health and safety standards regardless though. I don’t think that’s asking for too much right now.

Graydon pointed out during our conversation though, that really, the story doesn’t live so much at the END of the story. It’s the struggles, our life right now at this moment, how we get TO that end, that tells the real story. The full story.

Graydon is right. I know that he is. Yet, how does one share so many struggles, while knowing that it is in those struggles that your family is being shaped, created, and are all for a good end, even when right now, they feel so very difficult?

How does one share all these negative trials, the difficulties, in a real, honest, way, while knowing all the while that there’s been so much blessing through it all, regardless of those struggles?

If I share the trials, readers are tempted to feel pity.

If I share the good, readers are tempted to envy.

The real story wants to be shared because it is not a story one should pity, it is not a story one should envy, it is our life, our journey. I’ll do my best to share it as it is, and continue to hope that as I share, it will continue to unfold and that the final outcome will be that we indeed finally come to the end of…

Our long way home.