Come and talk to me about living rurally...

[LittleGinBigGin]

Well dh, dc x 2 and I have moved to the country, I think I may have drunk too much gin when I agreed to this

We now live in the middle of no where...literally 10 other houses and 4 of these are second homes so only ever occupied at weekends.

Our nearest neighbors are over 300m away (probably more I’m rubbish with distance)

I’m having a massive head wobble and have no idea how planned we have to be for the winter etc

Obviously heating oil is the first thing on my list and finding a supplier of wood for the fire!

I have also ordered a chest freezer!

I have just found out that during the winter the electricity goes off quite a bit, so lots of candles needed.

The house is definitely cooler tonight (weather app says it’s going as low as 6 ) so have put extra blankets on the kids bed and mine.

What else do I have to do?? I’m totally in over my head

Make friends with your neighbours, have milk in the freezer, don't moan about the local farm animals, tractors, smells or noise. Forget about your car being clean, be happy with an Internet speed >1mbps, breathe the air, enjoy the skies, you've made a great choice.

We get stuck when we have heavy snow, so consider a suitable car if you don’t have one already.

I would if we could afford it but I do have the option of working from home.

How rural are you? How many miles to the nearest shop, village /town and supermarket?

Surprisingly we have a gigiclear box in the house (recently put in) so have 300mb I think. Dh would never have moved if it didn’t

I’ve met the immediate people to the right, they work/own the farm nearby.

Met another couple on Sunday briefly and are having drinks on Friday evening.

I am going to venture into the town and do a massive shop. Good point about milk I shall get some to freeze.

Electric blankets, a small generator (candles are OK for a while but not really practical), make sure you always have lots of milk and bread in the freezer and make friends with the local farmers.

Take a torch everywhere this time of year. Keep one in your bag and one in the car.

Bread and milk in the freezer.

Boilerjuice is good for oil prices.

Make friends with the neighbours.

Forget takeaways

Enjoy! It’s fabulous.

Once people get to know you, you will find random gifts like a brace of pheasants, or random veg on your doorstep!

winter tyres on a car with 4WD preferably

Keep bottles of water too in case the mains freeze (happened to us a couple of years and we are only semi-rural); keep your freezers well stocked - veg, bread, milk, butter etc, plenty of gin & wine in stock!!! And tinned stuff.
If you have a log burner, maybe a camping kettle for hot water bottles, battery lights, spare batteries, candles & torches. Plenty of blankets & cushions in case a power cut lasts a while, you can all sleep together in the room with the fire.

Def make friends with your neighbours though, you can be each other's life lines at times.

Ive always lived rurally.

Phone you can plug in (not cordless) for power cuts
Radio and batteries
Tough kettle and pan for the top of the wood burning stove
One of those phone chargers that you can charge (a block - what are they called?!)
Candles in jam jars so you don’t set anything on fire
Extra blankets
Shovel
Bucket of grit for when you’ve dug your car out

Obviously you won’t have a freezer during a long power cut (our longest was 5 days) so powdered and UHT milk
Tins of food that you can warm in a pan

Water if your water fails after a few hours (ours is sent up to our village with an electric pump which fails after a few hours without power)

The numbers of water, power out line etc WRITTEN DOWN, not saved on a phone that will go flat!
Good directions for emergency services for when they ask all the road numbers and you can’t think.

High vis vests (we all bought some in this village after an appalling fatal car accident where we were trying to stop cars adding to the crash - in the dark. It took police 45 mins to get here).

Country bumpkin born n bred here! I was literally born in a big farmhouse in a tiny village. No central heating, no double glazing. I remember ice on the inside of the windows and going to bed with all my clothes on! Mum was very well organised and had her oil lamps in case of power cuts which were frequent back then. We were self-sufficient and had a chest freezer full of berries and pork chops! We had apples stored in the granary. Life is v.different now and I miss nearly everything about my childhood but i'm very grateful i had the upbringing i had.
The pps have given the best advice..i don't need to tell you anything apart from to wish you well in your new home..enjoy it x

Torches I shall order some! Might look into a head torch!

I’m about 25 miles from the nearest town all single track lanes. I doubt they have ever seen a gritter.

Will look into a 4wd car, was already on the list but will talk to dh for a sooner rather than later kinda way.

It’s actually pitch black, no street lights, no footpaths, nothing!!

Just been up to the bedrooms and it’s cold I’ve put the blankets back on the kids as they have kicked them off

Join your local fb group to see if anyone else is ordering heating oil. You can often save a bit by having a few order together.

Wow - some amazing tips thank you!

I hadn’t even thought about bottled water

For the emergency services can I suggest getting the ‘What Three Words’ app so you can tell them exactly where you are?

We haven’t had power cuts or frozen pipes but it was useful to be able to bake some bread and make soup when we were snowed in; or have milk & bread in the freezer. I tend to keep storecupboards full.

Know where the best hill is and have sledges ready for snow days 😁

Enjoy - I wasn’t sure about leaving city life but I LOVE living in the country and feeling so connected to the seasons and nature. The village has a great attitude to socialising so we get together at each other’s houses or in the pub, or go for walks a few at a time depending on who is around!

Something to do in the evenings when there’s no power! It soon gets hard work trying to read or play board games by candlelight.

You need a generator if you have regular power cuts. Also winter tyres for the snow - that way you can overtake all the newbies stuck in the snow in their town suv’s :)

If you have oil radiators I totally recommend changing the controls to something like Tado or Hive in order to regulate the temperature better.

And yes to having big bottles of water just in case in a cupboard.

Ask your neighbours if there's a local FB group for buying fuel cheaply - we all do this the most.Also we tend to arrange meetups via FB

Have you got good mattresses? We were coldest with a rubbish mattress that must have been full of cold air.
Hot water bottles and electric under blankets can't be kicked off.
Onesies to sleep in? And we've slept in hats camping.

These have come in really handy.
www.amazon.co.uk/Foldable-Waterproof-Hurricane-Emergency-Situations/dp/B07QZR2ZKZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?s=gateway&keywords=solar+camping+lantern&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1568060870&sr=8-4

DC have one on their windowsills and we keep one in the kitchen and lounge.

Plenty of milk and bread.
Make sure if anyone needs medication you always have a good stock - a few times our village has been cut off - supplies couldn't get in and pharmacy only minimal stock as normally they can get daily delivery.
Torches.
Blankets.
Tinned food.
Batch cooked meals in freezer and a small camping stove for when electricity goes off.
A sledge - handy for transporting shopping/ kids or enjoying the snow days - you do find you'll have a few more of these as teachers can't get it to the schools / the local authority decides its to risky.

Couple of squares of old carpet in the boot of your car. When people get stuck in mud/ice/snow, put the carpet under the driving wheels.

Stove top kettle / pans for the log burner - in case electric goes off.

Battery radio.

I am not as rural as you, but here's a few things.
Look at the oil club for oil. (www.oil-club.co.uk) They are usually the cheapest but some companies will match them. It is worth ringing a few companies. My advice is not to get into a regular payment contact with a single supplier, but to shop around.
The crime prevention officers are encouraging people to buy locks for the oil tanks in the village newsletter this month- when oil prices were really high there were oil thefts. The primary school in the next village got done-unfortunately rural areas are at risk.
Round here there are often signs up for logs for sale- ask the neighbours as well. Have you got a wood store- logs need to be dry.
Keep your phones charged if you get power cuts- assuming you have a half decent signal. Sign up to the electricity company notification scheme for power cuts. Good supply of batteries for torches.
We have a small gas heater for emergencies- the oil heating needs electricity to run!
Make friends with local farmers and neighbours- we have one that sells unpasterised milk from the farm, as others that sell eggs, honey, beef, and pork.
Find out if there is a local FB or similar group.our village shares one witha couple of others nearish to us. Often get comments about quail which have got out or similar!!
Make lists- it is a pain to go into town and find you have forgotten something!!
Might be worth getting some road salt in case your drive gets slippy. You can get it from agricultural merchants or even some DIY places.
Are you on mains drainage or do you need to find out about sewage tanks?