End of the Road Homestead

[Sacajawea]

So, that's where I am - end of the road. LOL. About 10 acres... and in 48 hrs I'm already getting big ideas about what projects I want to do once I'm squared away. The move itself liked to do me in - started purging things last year this time and got serious in the last couple months, but it took an 18 wheeler & 26-28 ft box truck to get everything here, and then they rented a 3rd truck to help shuttle everything off the 18 wheeler, since it couldn't get up my road - much less navigate my driveway. OH, and a rollback was needed at both ends to lift the two off-road jeeps into the truck/get them back out since their ramps couldn't take the weight.

I'm super-duper-outrageously exhausted... but I have to see who's likely to win the election. Depending on the outcome, sets the priority for me to get back to the beach and bring back the 10% of stuff the movers couldn't haul. Right now, I have NO WHERE to put it, if I did bring it back.

But I did get here by election day; I can be pretty hard-headed about things like that -- even if I pay the price for it. Sunday, I'd had 5 hrs of sleep the night before and by 9 am we were loading jeeps and finishing up. I left the Outer Banks at 3:30 pm... made it to WV by 10:30 pm; did not sleep till 2:30 am... and only ate 4-5 Pringles with 3 cups of coffee on the road... and back up Monday at 5:30 am... movers here by 8am... and they didn't finish unloading until about 8:30 pm that night. So I slept like a rock for 10 hrs last night; woke up groggy and kind of made a little dent in making the space a tiny bit more functional.

May have to break into the long term storage for FD ground beef, if I can find the box with tomatos and chili beans. Adapting to being a ways out of town again, you know? And no, I didn't feel like getting in the car today -- beyond driving the mile and half to check my mailbox.

[kickstand]

Congrats Sac. May your new house truly become a safe and happy home .

[roach2654]

Good luck and have fun with your new digs!

[W.Lynn]

If you need a laugh, you could always snap a photo of the massive piles of boxes & stuff. I always feel like there will never be an end to all the boxes.

[JJ Homestead]

End of the Road Homestead... clever.

[Sacajawea]

That thought briefly flitted through my brain Wendy and then I sat up as long as I could for election results on chat last night. Thanks for the reminder!!

So given the results of the election, I don't have to rush right back down there to bring up the food for the security investments. I hope (still kinda holding my breath on that one). There's no place (right now) to put it anyway.

[southernmom]

So happy for you and congrats on the new Homestead!

[Sacajawea]

Thanks all, it's a very rainy day today. I got drenched during my trip to Walmart and forgot to buy myself soup... so I ran back through the rain to load up on that too... only to get home and find out the rest of the stuff I forgot to get. LOL. Oh boy... I've gotten real lazy with my lists.

Stayed up too late last night and I really need to clean my kitchen and get that stuff put away; put away my clothes; and hope tomorrow is nicer. But I'm going to have a nice hot cup of tea right now - LOL.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

Even after all you had to go through sounds like it was all worth it. Best of luck getting settled in and started on those projects. We're looking to our upcoming move in just a little under 6 months and I'm in a near state of exhaustion every day! I am amazed at all the unnecessary stuff we have accumulated over the years.

[Sacajawea]

Joyce, because I had a self-imposed deadline - before the election - I brought stuff along that I know I'm not keeping. You hit a point of "decision fatigue" where you just don't know and don't care that you don't know about what to do with X item. I kept a lot of hubs' good winter clothes for instance, and he had a sweatshirt or ball cap for every place he ever was, or bought something from. I didn't have time (or patience) to sort through the DVDs and CDs for dupes - because he'd see something, think: that's really good... and buy it... not remembering he already had a copy. SIGH. Same with tools. I just gave up and brought all the tools. Kids and I will divvy that up later after I've had a chance to see what I need/want.

I think I have new in box, gun vaults for handguns, for every single room... and maybe two for bigger spaces, LOL.

When it came to decisions about useful stuff, I just gave up. It wasn't worth the thought process to try to figure out what I needed to keep and what I could let go of, before the move. 29,000+ pounds worth - but that did include the Rubicon and the Beast ('78 CJ).

Going down to retreat cabin today to turn the heat on, and get that off my mental list so I can focus here. I haven't driven that way in 20 some years, so it'll be a bit of an adventure. I'll measure the height of the garage door there to see if the Beast will fit inside and then, when I have someone to follow me, will make the slow-mo drive down. The thing is a real handful over 55 mph and has manual brakes.

[Boston_Joe]

When we decided that Maine was not where we wanted to be we knew that a bunch of stuff had to go. That process started roughly a year before we even made a decision on where we were headed. At that time I did not know that my employer was going to start relocating people on their dime. We started packing one room at a time, making "bring" and "go" piles. The go stuff was sold on Craig's List of one of the several yard sales we held. That whole process was, to me, was very time consuming for the return in dollars. It did free up a lot of space, but looking back we made some sacrifices that I would not have made if I knew we would have had unlimited space in the moving truck and we didn't have to handle it ourselves.

I was fortunate that my employer picked up the tab for the move. It not only saved us money but took a huge mental and physical burden off of our shoulders. So here we are 2 years later, I've replaced some of the sacrificed items and have realized that a few items we brought we no longer have a use for. We've sold some of them and the prepper in me wants to hold on to others because "what if".

Get the important stuff out of the way and then pick away at the rest. I hate moving, it always seems like such a daunting task. Good luck getting you new place squared away. It will happen before you know it.

[Betty Buckshot]

Good luck Sac
I know what you mean about bringing it all. I had about a month to plan my move. Tossed a lot, just packed the rest & threw it in storage. Now I've moved it and am tossing/giving away as I unpack. A whole lot of stuff has made it's last move with me!

[Sacajawea]

Betty - with my "deadline" I simply didn't have time to sell much. I DONATED -LOL - some huge pieces of furniture to a local charity's thrift store. Their schedule for pickup got pushed back a whole month because of the hurricane and their truck breaking down. I was running out of room to stack boxes. That shop had already made 3-4 really big pickups from me. One reason I bought this place was that I thought I could get everything IN here. Well, it's in - and that's all that can be said about that. LOL.

The unpacking process can be more leisurely - and I will have a chance to sell some stuff now. Just a different market. LOL.

[Joyce Hoffman-Gayley]

As I sit in a room in the middle of a pile sorting my husband just came in and said "let's have someone come in give us a price on all of it and just buy new when we get there" I'm seriously considering doing just that. Of course I have alot of things I can't part with for a variety of reasons but for the everyday stuff I have to wonder if it's worth the time money & effort to have it moved.
Ours is about a 825 mile trip one way and we have to "uncache" three locations on the way. Some days it's just so overwhelming! I'm just thankful we have several months yet to get it all done. We're going to be on the grid but have backup capability for power (solar), water (artesian well) and heat (2 woodburning stoves). I have to decide which of all my household appliances, mostly kitchen I REALLY need.
We're still working out how to get some things done (or do without) should SHTF. I'm trying not to get caught unawares but am afraid we might be anyway. Communications are our next knot to sort out but that's in my hub's hands. We're almost completely uneducated there and are having trouble knowing where to start. Well, at the beginning I guess, just like everthing else we've had to do. Moving the chickens should be a whole new kind of fun; but at least we won't be doing it in the dead of winter!

[Sacajawea]

Comms are still an issue for me too, Joyce. But I have already done, about half of what you listed at this place - which made it a no-brainer for me to dig deep in the checkbook to make it mine. Might have been a little synchronicity involved with my hubby dying of cancer and the former owner's wife fighting it too. I did come to find out that they were a tad fearful of being so isolated because of terrorists - LOL. Which I see as a perfect advantage, rather than a liability. It's much easier to defend myself without being politically correct and tripping over legal BS. But "he" did retire from the gov, so I do understand the thought process; gov will protect them - they mustn't do it themselves. Local boys and I have the same philosophy about people coming over the mountain intent on causing mayhem and harm. And I need to think about exercising the freedoms I'm allowed here, on a daily basis.

Did have someone drive up to the house the other day, looking for someone I've never heard of - and while it was all innocent and civil and par for the course out here, it might NOT have been. Maybe he was a process server, too... LOL. Probably not a good idea to meet stranger with a shotgun or axe in my hand. LOL.