I had started to see the pine grosbeaks in some of our crab apple and ornamental apple trees. Once I picked up the the new birdseed, we’ve started to see them at the feeder. Especially this lovely couple.
She looks a bit perplexed.
She was also much harder to get pictures of! The male, on the other hand, was more co-operative.
Well, today is it. The one year anniversary for all 4 of us arriving at the farm.
We arrived shortly after midnight. We still remember the final stretch. Almost 1800 kilometers of driving (with a broken door), and less than 10 minutes from home. I saw a shadow flash across oncoming headlights and stomped on the brakes.
The cat carriers set up on boxes behind us went flying. The cat lying on one of them ended up in the front seat. Stuff fell on top of the bucket we were using to transport the fish.
But we managed to NOT hit the deer.
Everyone was okay, though the cats were pretty freaked out! How’s that for a welcome home!!
The main thing was, we made it. We were finally together again.
For my older daughter and I, all we really wanted to do was sleep. Which had to wait until we got the cats into the house and closed off into a room while we brought in the plants (some died from the cold, though our jade tree recovered), the fish (they died a few days later. :-( ), the computers and most of the other stuff we managed to jam into the back of the van. After that, we could finally sleep.
The next thing was to figure out what to do next!
The house was a complete disaster, even though it was much better then it had been, thanks to the efforts of my older brother and his wife. A couple of days later, we would find out that the movers would cost $2000 more than we expected, and the fiasco with them just kept on going.
I never want to move again.
Which I know will happen. Eventually, as we get older, my husband and I will likely need to move into someplace like where his father or my mother live. Small, barrier free, etc. We’ve hopefully got many years before we get to that point, though!
A lot has happened since we moved out here.
I think we made the right decision.
The Re-Farmer
Notice the bulge in this blue jay’s throat.
It had just finished stuffing it full of seeds.
Compare it to the blue jay that landed moments later.
In for a fill up!
The Re-Farmer
One year ago today, my older daughter and were on the road.
The original plan for the move was for my older daughter and I to stay at a hotel for a couple of nights, after the movers took our stuff, so that we could do at least some clean up in the townhouse before we left.
The original plan had also been to leave in the spring, and have a trailer hitch installed on the van, so we could haul some stuff ourselves.
A lot changed when we decided to leave in the fall, instead.
Then there was the fiasco with the movers, and we ended up having to leave before they were even done, because of bad weather coming in.I still can’t believe how utterly incompetent the movers were. The local company that packed our stuff was not the same company that delivered out stuff, almost a month later (something else that didn’t work out as planned!), but both were horrible at their jobs.
It wasn’t until we began unpacking that we realized what a terrible job they did of packing up what was left of our stuff. I’m still chuffed that we ended up being charged for a “full pack”, when we had done so much of the packing ourselves.
But at this time last year, we were just glad it was over, were under the belief that our stuff was already on the way to our new province (it wasn’t), and looking forward to being reunited as a family again.
And tired.
So. Tired.
The Re-Farmer
At least the bluejays will eat some of the tiny seeds, though they prefer the sunflower seeds.
The Re-Farmer
While walking about the yard this morning, there are areas that I can see where the deer have gone.
Along the edge of the spruce grove, there are now several areas like this.
This patch is new. It wasn’t there yesterday. At the end of the row of spruces, near the feeding station, there is a patch they’ve been pawing at for a while, now, and it’s getting quite big.
I think, in the process of clearing out that area and taking out the bottom branches of the spruces, I also gave them better access to something in the moss that they like. I can’t see what it might be, though.
While continuing around the yard and by the garage, I noticed deer tracks coming from the barn towards the yard, so I followed them.
Then I noticed something odd about one of the wire holders for the renter’s electric fence at the gate. It looked bent.
That’s new.
Heading over, I started to find wire.
Lots of it.
So I started gathering it up.
Here is most of it, along with the holder that is bent the most.
The other one turned out to be bent, too. The wire is still running through it. Considering how much wire got dragged into our side of the fence, I think it may well have broken loose right at the solar battery area. Which is almost at the other end of the fence.
In case there was any doubt as to what rapscallions did the damage…
There were plenty of tracks, showing exactly where they came through!
The fence wire would not be easily visible, and with the cows moved out for the winter, the electric fence probably doesn’t even have electricity running through it right now. The deer probably didn’t see it to jump over it, and would not have felt any shock to cause them to back away when they touched it.
We like the deer coming around enough to put up with any damage they do; there isn’t a lot. But this is a bit more than just digging up the yard. The wire should be fine and just need to be re-attached. I believe those wire holders are new, from the last time the cows broke through. I know the renter likes the deer, too, and this sort of thing is just what we have to live with when living around here. I just called to let him know about the damage. With no cows here, there’s no hurry to fix it.
The Re-Farmer
Today marks one year from when the movers came and we were officially out of the co-op we had been living in.
My daughter and I were exhausted, but thought we were near the end.
Oh, how wrong we were.
Things did not turn out at all like we expected.
What a disaster it was, on so many levels.
After all this time, I don’t even want to think about it. Of all my moves, this one is in a fight for the top spot for worse moves ever, in competition with a move during which we all got sick, and I literally collapsed from exhaustion and illness.
Yes, Mamacat. My sentiments, exactly.
The Re-Farmer
Just managed to catch a photo of a woodpecker that was hanging upside down, then off the side of the platform feeder.
The Re-Farmer
Well, here it is.
A year ago today was the last day of getting ready for the movers to arrive. My husband and younger daughter were already out here for several weeks. My older daughter and I spent those weeks continuing to purge and pack and get ready for the movers.
We were exhausted. In pain. Ready to drop.
Thinking about the past year, I sat down and crunched some numbers. When we were deciding whether or not to accept my mother’s request to move out there, with her offer to pay for the movers, I sat down with our budget at the time, and tried to compare it with what we might expect to be paying out here. I thought I was erring on the side of caution as much as I reasonably could. Basically, we had to decide if the increased costs out here would be made up for by not paying over $1400 in housing charges. Living on a fixed income while expenses kept increasing meant we were slowly falling behind. Being overly cautious with the numbers, we felt we would be ahead of the game by about $450 a month.
Now, a year later, I can look at our actual expenses and compare.
Keep in mind, I am just looking at our regular budgeted expenses, since there’s no way to account for things like the hot water tank dying, or the van suddenly needing hundreds of dollars of work done on it.
In the end, we are ahead of the game by just over $320 a month.
Some things are not quite reflective of actual costs. For example, we are paying $20 a month more for our vehicle insurance and registration, but before the move we were only paying for the insurance; the registration was paid for annually, and we could shop around for private carriers. Here, there’s no choice. Just the public insurance company, and both are paid for together.
Then… there’s the rest.
Our electricity bill has tripled. In my previous comparison, I had expected it to quadruple. Still; painful. At least now we’re on an equalized payment plan, so starting this month, the payments will be the same, and we won’t be getting any more almost $600 electricity bills!
Before the move, our TV and internet were bundled. Out here, the only way to get internet was by satellite. It took a while, but with the new satellite the company has available, we now have internet speeds and reliability, as well as a data package, comparable to what we had in the city.
At triple the cost.
We also have to have a land line now, since we’re in a cell phone signal dead zone, so that is a completely new expense. With a long distance plan added to it, it ended up higher than I had worked it out to be when we first tried to do a comparison.
Our cell phones, on the other hand, are now combined in a bundle with one company, and that’s one bill that is actually lower by over $100. Our grocery budget has gone up by $400 (note that this includes not just food, but personal care items, household needs, pet supplies and bird/deer feed).
Our gas budget has stayed the same, but only because we ration our trips as much as we can. Our prescription budget had to go up, but our content insurance went down.
Now, normally this would mean that we’re ahead of the game. But when we start taking into account the things we need to do here, and how much it will cost, we’ve not actually gained anything financially by moving out here.
It’s a good thing finances were not the only reason we agreed to move. :-/
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 