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Original poster

Come and talk to me about living rurally...

213 replies

LittleGinBigGin · 09/09/2019 21:00

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 Grin

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 Shock) 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

OP posts:
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TreacherousPissFlap · 11/09/2019 09:00

The teenage taxi service is a real thing in the country. Fortunately we only have one DC but he is suddenly at that age where he wants to be at parties or gigs and there is absolutely no way for him to get home unless we pick him up.

We have a school bus which is free until sixth form, then we will have to pay an exorbitant amount and he will need to be at school all day, whether he has lessons or not. Similarly for GCSE's next summer, we need a contingency plan in case the bus doesn't turn up again

I think really rural living just takes a little more planning and organisation than urban life. And as a PP has pointed out, you really need to make sure you "get on" with your neighbours too. Village life is funny and not everyone is suited to it. We have found the pub and the church excellent ways to meet people and make friends.

kjhkj · 11/09/2019 09:34

When your kids gets to about 14 expect them to spend all their time in a field or a hay barn taking acid and experimenting with group sex.
The countryside is laarvely for kids...until it isn't! grin

Not my experience at all, either living rurally as a teen or for my DC now.

We did have disproportionate numbers of teens involved in car accidents though since you had to be able to drive to escape to civilisation and dark windy country roads and hyper teenagers driving too fast do not mix.

EstherLittle · 11/09/2019 09:41

I love this thread. Sadly I am stuck living in London for the foreseeable future but my long term plan is to move to rural Scotland.

TheSandman · 11/09/2019 10:18

Don't talk to me about being a taxi for the kids. I for a while I was doing a 180 mile round trip every Saturday to take DD 1 to a sports training session.

TrainspottingWelsh · 11/09/2019 10:24

As early as legally possible, teach dc to drive. Ideally on private land well before they are 17 & apply for tests as soon as available after 17th birthday. You’ll still need to provide a taxi service when they want to go out drinking but it really does make things easier.

TheSandman · 11/09/2019 10:36

cherrypavlova
I'd forgotten about pheasants. I love the way they think they can out run you and then slow down when you do. It's like pushing a one end of a magnet to the opposit pole of another.
I have never had a pheasant do that jumping up into your windscreen thing. I buzzard did once. Whack! Scared the crap out of me. I stoped. It was still alive but distressed so I bundled it in a car blanket drove home and shouted the wife to phone the RSPB. Went back to the car. Opened the boot and the fucker flew out missing my face by milimeters and lazily flapped off in the direction from where I had picked it up.

Dowser · 11/09/2019 11:02

Wow where are you?
I thought my friend was pretty rural...5 miles out of Shaftesbury...but no way do they appear to be cut off

OMGshefoundmeout · 11/09/2019 11:13

We have a second home in a very remote rural area. We built it 20 odd years ago and the plan was to eventually retire there (DHs family come from there and we have many friends and relations within a 5 mile radius). We spend about 6-8 weeks a year there and whilst I love it as a holiday place I now know there is no way I could live there permanently. The isolation is beautiful in the summer, stunning views, long days, lots of wildlife but I end up going semi feral, never dressing properly, skipping showers, hiding when the doorbell rings. And the winters are so dark and bleak. We now fully understand why so many of DPs family moved away.

Trewser · 11/09/2019 11:26

Second homes kill villages.

Its all very well telling the OP to make friends but if four homes are holiday homes that is depressing. Thank goodness our small village has escaped the curse of the second home owners!

Mamagunner · 11/09/2019 12:03

I live in a group of three (a farm house and two cottages) in the middle of nowhere. A camp stove and mess tin if you have electric cooker incase the power goes out (we have electric but no mains water or gas) bottled water, our well froze over last winter and were without water for 5 days. We have a sledge that I pull to the nearest town in snow if it last more than a couple of days and we our stock gets low but always have a store cupboard meal plan to hand the sort of things you can cook as if you were camping. Keep an old fashioned corded phone you can plug into the phone line for power cuts and a battery pack fully charged for emergencies next to the phone write down your coordinates incase you need the emergency services (I used to be a call taker for the ambulance service, having the coordinated for a place is so helpful when it's a rural location and can really speed up response time) make sure you have enough medication in to cover a week for all family members things such as inhalers, allergy meds etc. I buy wood through out the year so that I have a good supply come winter my wood shed is literally bursting right now. If you can invest in a small generator.

CherryPavlova · 11/09/2019 12:13

Trewser A different area, obviously. The overwhelming majority hereabouts board at sixth form. We didn’t buy ours cars because of the risk of teenage drivers in serious accidents. They had to wait a few years until they were 21. We decided cars at seventeen were not something we’d consider an investment.
We did lots of citybreaks when my husband was working around the country and they had lots of school trips so I’m not sure they did miss out much. I think our youngest will live in London for a few years after graduating. She’s just done a twelve week internship, which she loved.

Trewser · 11/09/2019 12:28

The overwhelming majority hereabouts board at sixth form

I'd love to know where you live that the overwhelming majority of sixth formers board!

Frith2013 · 11/09/2019 12:32

NO boarding for sixth formers in the 4 counties nearest us.

It’s one bus a day for mine, £700 a year each to pay for it.

Trewser · 11/09/2019 12:39

There are two state boarding schools fairly near us, plus lots of private options. Even so they are in no way the majority of local sixth formers!

longearedbat · 11/09/2019 13:22

Learn how to pluck and draw a pheasant. If you are lucky enough to be given game, you don't want to be standing there wondering what to do with the corpse.
I find milk will only freeze for a certain amount of time, after which it separates when you defrost it.
Draught excluders can be wonderful things.
Always make sure you've got plenty of kindling (and firelighters if you use them). We mostly burn logs but also have some bags of coal in reserve for really cold weather, as coal will keep the fire in overnight (if you've got a multi-fuel stove).
Have a good collection of otc medicines. Nothing worse than everyone feeling to ill for a long drive, but being desperate for a lemsip!
I buy massive boxes of night light candles as we are so prone to power cuts. Honestly, the wind gets up, and likely as not, the lights go out - we sit there and wait for the inevitable, torches at the ready.

SistersOfMerci · 11/09/2019 13:43

We moved from a city to a rural village and all those saying about being a taxi service is why we moved to a small town with good transport links so now they're older they can transport themselves around.

We bought lots of the camping led lamps and left one in each room. No street lighting where we lived so if we needed to go to a neighbour in the dark we weren't scrabbling around for light.

MuseumOfYou · 11/09/2019 14:03

I'd forgotten about pheasants. I love the way they think they can out run you and then slow down when you do. It's like pushing a one end of a magnet to the opposit pole of another

They are so flipping thick! They way they speed up and then look back over their shoulder and appear to be surprised you've kept up with them.
I once came round a corner and there about 40 females in a group taking up the whole road. Took about a mile before they finally got the hint...

TheSpottedZebra · 11/09/2019 14:56

Oh Cherry you are incorrigible!

Trewser · 11/09/2019 15:18

Is cherry taking the piss? I am sure she never used to be like this!!

CherryPavlova · 11/09/2019 15:59

Trewser no Mickey taking. Most of the youngsters here (and there aren’t very many) board either from 13 or at sixth form. The school in the next village has no village children attending. They all drive in from a less affluent town over the county border. Even the vicar doesn’t send their child to the village primary now they’ve reached seven.
The village children usually drive off in the prep school mini bus.

BertrandRussell · 11/09/2019 16:07

Flora Poste as I live and breathe!

HepzibahGreen · 11/09/2019 16:12

I hereby crown Cherry the new La Queen.

C8H10N4O2 · 11/09/2019 16:24

Flora Poste as I live and breathe!

Yes!

Must be something about rural living which helps to develop a rich fantasy life Grin

picklemepopcorn · 11/09/2019 16:28

Key differences are no streetlights, so when it's dark it really is very dark. No pavements, so walking home in the dark is exciting.

Don't worry too much about roads and snow- your local farmers are likely to keep them clear for/with the tractors.

It's likely to be eerily still at night- lots of animal noises, but if a car goes past you'll wonder who it is and where they are going 'at this time of night'. And after a few months, you'll actually know. Grin

I'm so envious. I miss it so much.

picklemepopcorn · 11/09/2019 16:32

Actually I'm now bleddy raging that I don't live like this.