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

Get a wood burning stove if you don't have one, it's much more efficient than an open fire. Wood is expensive and gets eaten up quickly, if you're not self sufficient the cost really mounts up.

We have both changed to four wheel drive cars. We aren't as rural as you. About four miles to nearest big town, but the back roads are bastard in winter and not fun to drive in a two wheel drive. To the extent it put me off driving as I had a low slung powerful sports car and it was scarey in the dark and wet or icey roads.

Candles, in dishes, lots of them in easy access. And I take my phone with me everywhere round rhe house when it's dark out, because of its torch. The power once went out, when I was at the top of the house, it's three stories, in on my own and had to navigate my way down in the pitch black, feeling the walls. We also have no street lighting.

Agree with PPs on making friends with farmers. We are farmers and always have access to stuff that you might not (wood/meat/vehicles for snow) and will help clear your driveway of snow or tow your car if you get stuck! But if you start whinging about being stuck behind a combine/the noise of tractors etc then don't expect the help

We don’t really think that much now. It’s all just here but we have
A freezer full of food.
Torches a plenty kept in obvious places like by the back door and in bedside cabinet.
Candles.
Decent cast iron pan and kettle that can go on wood burner, if necessary.
Snow socks for car and a four by four car.
Lots of logs.
Gas full.
Lagging of pipes.
Check all potential entry points so we don’t fill up with rodents as it gets cooler.
Bags of salt for driveways if not gravelled.
Pack of cards.
I wouldn’t worry too much as we rarely get cut offfor more than a few days.
Make friends with neighbours.
Have parish magazine delivered even if you don’t do church- it tends to be the source of all local events, groups and services.
Visit elderly neighbours regularly and check they are OK.

Collect blackberries, mushrooms and nuts now and enjoy autumn.

Don’t whatever you do drink unpasteurised cows milk.

It’s not worth the risk of contracting TB.

No farm should be selling or giving away unpasteurised cows milk - disgraceful.

Yes to oil consortium.
Share produce with your neighbours.

Oh, and get some chickens!!

Oh also to add to everyone's list, phone power banks, each member of the family has one.(stops panics and arguing)

@LittleGinBigGin do you mind if I ask why you've chosen to move somewhere so rural? I'm genuinely curious

Are you renting or have you bought a house? Do you have land with it?

Moving 25 miles from the nearest town is a pretty big decision! Are your kids at local schools? It’s often a good way to meet people/find out about the area

Keep some cash in your car. I recently drove for 30 minutes down tiny country roads to town to buy a present for someone and got there to realise I’d left my purse at home on the kitchen table.

Watch your fuel - you might have enough to get you home, but do you have enough to get you back out to a petrol station?

Make sure you have motion sensor outside lights. It will be dark early soon and it’s really hard to get from the car to the house (with small children, shopping and a dog) and then get your key in the keyhole in pitch darkness.

Be ready for mud. Lots of mud.

We've found that it's worth asking about gritted routes in case of snow. We have two dairies in our village and are also a diversion route for a sizeable A road.

Bigger, less remote villages get cut off but we are on a priority gritting route so never get a snow day always manage to get to work.

A lot more people are a lot better prepared than I ever am. I dont live as rural though, but do have the occasional countryside issues (no gas, crap internet speeds, no nearby shop etc)

I've found home fuels direct to be cheaper than boilerjuice. Though I do look at both to make sure.

Take up running. Its brilliant in the country.

Yes , forgot the rodents. We have mouse traps set in the roof all the time ( and check regularly) but this is the time of year they come in.
We have a bottled gas hob- which has been a blessing with long power cuts ( 4 days on one occasion) and we try to replace one as soon as it runs out, so we have one in use and a full one ready. (It might be worth having a camping gas hob with spare cylinders.)

A list that I came up wh a while ago:

Freestanding torch for each room
Spare batteries
Long life milk etc.
Plenty of toilet rolls!
Tinned food (freezer food is fine but not si useful if the electricity goes off)
A landline
The co-ordinates of your home (also look on here www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49319760)
Snow chains for the car
Really decent waterproofs (coats and boots)
A sledgehammer
A couple of decent saws
DIY tools and spare wood, nails, screws
Duct tape
Couple of sledges
A bloody good first aid kit
Maybe a short wave radio
Flares
High viz
Head torches
Waterproof gloves
Proper walking trousers (when jeans get wet and cold hypothermia creeps in)
Snow shovels
In the winter stock your car with fleece blankets, heat blankets, flares, hats, gloves, high energy foods, snow shovel, headtorch and decent big torches.
Food for pets
Generator
Gas cylinder heaters

Have spares of things that are likely to get wet.

Oh yes. The bloody field mice! Keep your supplies in jars and set traps.

PP mentioned What Three Words - emergency services recommend this.
Thermal wellies. Love mine from www.bogsfootwear.co.uk/shop/hero.html

UPS to plug your laptop/PC and gigaclear box into. Will keep you running for a couple of hours in the event of a power cut.
Surge protectors cos rural power supplies can suffer spikes and surges.
Write number of road and GPS co-ords and stick on fridge so anybody can find them if needed.
Stitch length of elastic from one side of duvet or blankets to other and stick it under mattress so kids can't kick blankets off on the night!

Enjoy!!

You will get a great view of the stars and Milky Way and depending on how far North you are, maybe even an Aurora or two?

You can always pump up the volume and dance round the kitchen to keep warm.

I'm 6 miles from the nearest village. During beast from the east we couldn't leave our farm for 6 days.

We lose power at least 4-5 times a year so have a bit of a drill in place now and candles in every room.

I wouldn't bother freezing milk, just get UHT instead. Its not as nice as the fresh stuff but it's fine in emergencies and doesn't take up freezer space. Maybe I'm doing it wrong but I've never had much success with frozen milk.

You do (or should!) start paying much better attention to the weather though when you live very rurally and it's actually very rare we have been caught out, if there is a whiff of snow I usually have at least 6 -8 pints in the fridge just in case.

We have a few of these Emergency Lights which are useful for dark corridors and bedrooms in power cuts.

Get plenty of things that can be battery operated if needs be like torches, radios and a few lights (even if it's just battery operated fairy lights). Obviously plenty of batteries as well.

A gas camping stove, plus a couple of large flasks to store boiling water in so you don't have to fire up the camping stove or wait an hour for the wood burner to heat a pan of water every time you want to have a cup of tea.

A few large bottles of water in case the pipes freeze.

An old style phone that doesn't need electricity.

And as others have said, be nice to the local farmers. No one else is coming to dig you out of a snow drift or clear the road so you can get to the village.

As well as everything mentioned-

Until you are used to being so far away, spare diesel/petrol. When dp first moved in he was forever forgetting he couldn’t drive to the petrol station next day on fumes to fill up.

A healthy first aid kit, you can’t just nip out as and when you need paracetamol or decongestants.

If you have pets, ample supplies for them plus knowing a vet that can get to you, or you to them in an emergency. Livestock and equine vets don’t generally also do small animal practice but will help in an emergency if they’re local. I’d ask the farm next door

Learn the local footpaths and rights of way. It won’t make you popular if you’re found straying off them exploring.

Your nearest collection point for parcels. Unless you’re lucky they either won’t find it or won’t even try.

Depending on the age of dc, ample last minute supplies for costumes/ craft projects/ homework. You aren’t nipping to Tesco the night before to whip up a paper mache Roman for school

Hat tip to Mrs Mozart BTW. That's one helluva list!! If you are in a flood zone, add life jackets, raft, paddles and you should be able to cope with pretty much anything UK weather can throw at you oh, and snow chains.

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

So if the emergency services needed to reach you in adverse weather conditions, how would that work? I'm incredulous that you'd move to such a cut off location with 2 DC.

We thought we were daring moving to a rural village having lived in the Home Counties for years, but maybe not....

Fabulous. I'm currently looking for a house like this.
Buy loads of tinned and pickled food if the electricity goes off a lot because the freezer will defrost.

Forget jump leads get rechargeable jump leads so you don't need another car to jump start yours.