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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

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

OP posts:

Thread gallery

Greenglassteacup · 11/09/2019 20:31

Frith2013 how beautiful 💖

carly2803 · 11/09/2019 20:39

im incredibly envious!!

absolutely nothing helpful to add. I would love to live that rural!!

elastamum · 11/09/2019 20:43

We have a lot of parties at home as there are no neighbours to upset. Right now there are 15 university students here, all happily sitting round a fire in our garden. Going to be a long night!

Greenglassteacup · 11/09/2019 21:13

Lovely

elastamum · 11/09/2019 21:21

It is lovely, but I have to get up before six to walk the dog and check the horses before I drive 2 hours to work tomorrow morning. I used to be a total townie, but after 11 years in the sticks I can't imagine moving back.

Patroclus · 11/09/2019 21:35

Have you moved to the 1880s?

elastamum · 11/09/2019 21:57

I think we might have slipped back a few years. We have no mobile phone signal. We have only last week got broadband that will stream Netflix. The house was built in 1760 and is a bit damp and very drafty. Our water is pumped from a well . We are up a track on the edge of a huge wood with a river running round the garden. A lot of my friends think it is a bit creepy, but I think it's lovely and peaceful. When the weather is bad I can tell how much rain has fallen by the sound the river makes as it flows over the rocks.

Salome61 · 12/09/2019 00:12

I've just read a horrible prediction about the weather in Jan/Feb 2020.

I was stuck in for five days with the 'beast from the east' and hadn't put my metal shovel in the hallway - had to rescue it from the garden. I'd bought a red plastic snow shovel from Homebase, it wasn't strong enough. Do keep snow clearing stuff handy.

Last thought of the day is cat litter if you have a cat, I always have it in as my cat is elderly, but she didn't go out for five days when we were snowed in and I ran out. Had to use compost.

karenbokaren · 12/09/2019 00:26

Going as low as 6? We go to minus 35

Get plug in nightlights that double as torches when the power goes out. They'll always have charge and light up when they sense motion.

We lose power many times a year. For up to two weeks. We live so remotely we can't get petrol or food if the power goes off as theirs is out too.

We have a torch next to each bed. We have a chest freezer full of bread, butter and meat.

We have a cupboard full of uht milk and canned goods. We freeze and can a lot of fruit and veg we grow.

We have a load of cat, dog and chicken food that we never touch, it's just for emergency.

We have a bunch of battery packs that can charge our cars, phones etc.

We keep a chainsaw in the house and in each car. My car has a smaller battery powered chainsaw. I got stuck in between two blow downs once with no phone reception and had to wait for 4 hours for someone to find me, foil and wool blankets were very helpful. I don't go anywhere in the winter now without a chain saw.

We have SO MANY candles!!

I have a really comprehensive first aid kit. I have 4 types of anti biotic and have learned how to do simple stitches. If the weather is bad we can't even get a life flight where we live.

We have big plywood and blue board sections that we can board bits of the house off with if it gets so cold the wood stoves can't cope. We had 8 feet of snow and no power for 9 days (and couldn't get out) when ds was just a few weeks old, that's turned me in to a huge prepper.

I'll think of more later, it's on my mind as we approach winter.

karenbokaren · 12/09/2019 00:27

Oh and we always keep snow shovels and ice cleats in the car. And flares.

karenbokaren · 12/09/2019 00:29

Fucking hell I just read that back and now I feel depressed.

MuseumOfYou · 12/09/2019 00:40

View from my office window (need to find the strimmer) and view from the breakfast bbq of a local mini music festival we volunteered at in June (on a neighbours farm).

Come and talk to me about living rurally...

karenbokaren · 12/09/2019 00:55

This is our house and we have 20 minutes of the shitty road pictured before we even get to it.

Trewser · 12/09/2019 07:28

karen

You win.

fedupandlookingforchange · 12/09/2019 07:51

Not rtft but you’ll need a generator for the power cuts if they last more than 24 hours. A 2.2 Honda petrol will do to keep freezers running and the Internet. You won’t be able to plug it into the house electrics unless you have a triple pole switch installed so have plenty of extension leads and makes sure the boiler plugs in and is not hard wired in. I grew up in a house with no mains electricity
The council have gritting routes and they are different priority routes, the info will either be on the website or phone them up. It will give you a good idea of the time of day a gritter and plough will appear .

Original poster

LittleGinBigGin · 12/09/2019 08:02

I used to drive a gritter for the council which we now live in and no way would they grit here to be fair even the 3.5t gritter would struggle to get down these roads.

Off to look at generators and 4x4 this weekend - dh has found a hiliux he likes the look of!!

My pictures won’t upload I shall try again later.

Oil has been ordered 1000 litres being delivered next week, and they have joined us on the locals deliveries.

We have found a stack of wood in the shed, but I think we will need more. So will ask the neighbors which we are having drinks with this weekend about the best place to get them from.

OP posts:

FenellaMaxwell · 12/09/2019 08:04

This was ours....

yellowallpaper · 12/09/2019 08:33

You need a 4 wheel drive car or a tractor. Presumably you have WiFi? It's shocking in parts of rural Norfolk.

Make sure the house has the best insulated as possible as rural areas tend to be colder than cities. Check out the local area kids activities. You're likely to have to travel lots to get them to gymnastics, football etc.
Yes, lots of farming smells, particularly this time of year stinks of animal poo, and the roads are always clogged with tractors, so you are inevitably late as the road are too narrow to overtake.

Bellasblankexpression · 12/09/2019 09:56

As someone who has always lived in a town but has idle thoughts of moving to the middle of nowhere, this thread is eye opening.
Despite living in a city it’s given me some food for thought about being prepared regardless.

Some of the views are incredible, I hope people keep posting them.

Good luck in your new place OP!

Honeyroar · 12/09/2019 12:49

We're strangely rural. It looks like the middle of nowhere, we have well water, septic tanks, oil heating, no streetlights etc, but it's still less than 15 miles to Manchester, so very commutable- and the area is being built up and spoiled more and more because of it. I love it, I've grown up here, but I also feel like leaving!

shinynewapple · 12/09/2019 16:33

I don't live in country myself but just noticing first advice around getting a large freezer, then posts about power going off. Made me think that you need to have plenty of tins, pasta etc, uHT milk and gas cooking facilities.

MildThing · 12/09/2019 18:34

Across 3 generations of drivers in 3 different branches of extended family in rural Norfolk I can’t think of one who drives a 4x4.

Some live up unmade tracks or on muddy lanes didn’t towards marshes but they manage perfectly well in a selection of hatchbacks.

LadyCarolinePooterVonThigh · 12/09/2019 18:44

When we lived rurally, many years ago, we sailed through winter conditions in a Citroen 2cv! Nice skinny wheels are great in snow.

longearedbat · 12/09/2019 18:44

Most freezers take a long time to defrost. If you don't keep opening the lid they are fine for many hours of power outage. In the uk, except in exceptional circumstances, power is usually restored within 4 to 6 hours (and usually sooner), which is fine. Might be a bit different if you live in the real wilds, but if you did, you'd probably have a backup generator anyway.
My parents lived rurally (but not far from a market town), their biggest problem was an unreliable water supply. It was mains, but the pumps would fail along with the power and they would then have brown, undrinkable water (or none at all) coming from their taps when it was restored. They always kept a supply of bottled water.
Our sewage (also mains drainage) relies on pumps. When we have a prolonged power cut everything starts backing up. Some sewage and water supply systems haven't been updated for years I think.

TheSandman · 13/09/2019 01:31

Most freezers take a long time to defrost. If you don't keep opening the lid they are fine for many hours of power outage.

And chest freezers will stay cold longer than uprights.

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