We are having some doubts about country life. :(- UPDATE

[furbabymum]

We bought our house and 40 acres almost 6 years ago. I enjoy having land. I enjoy having the ability to keep animals. I like that our neighbors are so far away we can barely see them and we can't hear them. I like that the view out my front window is endless wheat fields. I like that my kids can go outside with the dogs and I don't worry about anything at all.

What I don't like is the drive when weather is bad. It's long and the roads can be quite horrible. I don't like that the road we live on isn't county maintained. I don't like that our driveway is massively long and incredibly horrible. It's flooding here right now and we have mud and water so deep our cars can't make it. It's the worst it's ever been. Add to that the wind which is the worst it's ever been and is blowing the roof off of our outbuildings. Then there's the electrical in the barn which isn't working any longer. And last night dirt got into our well (well people said it's probably a faulty cement cap and needs replaced/repaired) and we had muddy water in the house that was unusable. It's running clear now but we are just discouraged. So discouraged. lt doesn't seem worth it anymore, living there. The work is so much more. The mud the dogs are bringing in is astronomical. I can't keep it clean. I'm sad. Depressed even. I just registered and purchased an apiary and now I hate that I did. I think I want to sell and move. It's too much work. Just too much of everything.

I guess we could use some encouragement.

Update: So we received oil and gas lease papers in the mail on friday. At least the finance part of this horror story will soon be taken care of!

 

[purplesquirrel]

Don't give up! I live in England and the weather is cold and very wet.
My chickens stand in the rain looking unimpressed and every time I open the back door they all pile in to try and get in the dry...they have their own shelters though but seem to prefer the comforts of human shelters...
Winter is rubbish, and the weather can be atrocious. It can seem a lot of work and it's really crap when things start to fall a part all at the same time. A part from braving the weather and trying to fix things as best as possible until a good day to have a proper go at it, the biggest thing I can recommend to you is this:


www.workaway.info



Sign up to this website and in exchange for somewhere to sleep and being able to eat with your family, people come from all over the world to work for free on farms. To feed and care for animals and to fix things, build and garden.

I signed up this year and for 4 months starting in May, I am going to Canada to do just that for people on their farms.

If you sign up now, you can get local people in your state that would be able to come pretty sharpish.

Lots of people love to work and meet/help new people without money being involved.

It cost me £22 to sign up and that's for 2 years, I don't know what it costs to be a host, maybe the same.
I spoke to a lady in Canada that said she put her little farm up on ad and within 2 weeks she had so many responses she was turning down a good 20-30 people a week!

Never give up, things can seem bad but you must keep trying, it'll be so rewarding in the end, think of the spring and the summer and how beautiful everything will be. In the future you will look back and think 'I'm glad I persevered'


Keep me updated. It's a really awesome website xxx

 

[sourland]

Spring is coming - this has been the impossible winter. Generally the price that we pay for living in the country is offset by the rewards.

 

[purplesquirrel]

I just looked, I think it's actually free for hosts to sign up x

 

[SD Bird Lady]

I know where you are coming from. I make 3 trips a day into town for kids and have been picking snowballs from horses for what seems like eternity, but spring will soon be here; the sun will shine. Then you can pull weeds in whatever clothes you choose to wear and your dogs, kids, and livestock can roam the place w/o a care. It sometimes seems to not be worth it but in the end the good far outweighs the bad. You and your children will have memories that no one can ever take away. All this inconvenient winter garbage will make for good stories sitting around a campfire on a cool summer night.

Good Luck!!!

 

[furbabymum]

Don't give up! I live in England and the weather is cold and very wet.
My chickens stand in the rain looking unimpressed and every time I open the back door they all pile in to try and get in the dry...they have their own shelters though but seem to prefer the comforts of human shelters...
Winter is rubbish, and the weather can be atrocious. It can seem a lot of work and it's really crap when things start to fall a part all at the same time. A part from braving the weather and trying to fix things as best as possible until a good day to have a proper go at it, the biggest thing I can recommend to you is this:


www.workaway.info



Sign up to this website and in exchange for somewhere to sleep and being able to eat with your family, people come from all over the world to work for free on farms. To feed and care for animals and to fix things, build and garden.

I signed up this year and for 4 months starting in May, I am going to Canada to do just that for people on their farms.

If you sign up now, you can get local people in your state that would be able to come pretty sharpish.

Lots of people love to work and meet/help new people without money being involved.

It cost me £22 to sign up and that's for 2 years, I don't know what it costs to be a host, maybe the same.
I spoke to a lady in Canada that said she put her little farm up on ad and within 2 weeks she had so many responses she was turning down a good 20-30 people a week!

Never give up, things can seem bad but you must keep trying, it'll be so rewarding in the end, think of the spring and the summer and how beautiful everything will be. In the future you will look back and think 'I'm glad I persevered'


Keep me updated. It's a really awesome website xxx

My worry about having strangers on the property is the fact that I have 2 very small children whom I'd not want to put in harms way. That and our great Pyrenees would probably have a stroke. Since he's a major mud bringer inner maybe that's a good thing.

 

[purplesquirrel]

lots of people have their family living at home including babies and toddlers. People who have done work for people on the website already will have a rating and you can see people's feedback from the past. It's up to you, maybe say they have to camp in the garden or in one of the outbuildings? You can have people coming for a week or so, and then if you like them they could stay longer, without the pressure of promising them longer. I've been communicating with families who I am now staying with, it is all based on trust, but like meeting anyone, there is a certain amount of trust involved.

 

[purplesquirrel]

just make sure they bring steak for your dog

 

[furbabymum]

I know where you are coming from. I make 3 trips a day into town for kids and have been picking snowballs from horses for what seems like eternity, but spring will soon be here; the sun will shine. Then you can pull weeds in whatever clothes you choose to wear and your dogs, kids, and livestock can roam the place w/o a care. It sometimes seems to not be worth it but in the end the good far outweighs the bad. You and your children will have memories that no one can ever take away. All this inconvenient winter garbage will make for good stories sitting around a campfire on a cool summer night.

Good Luck!!!

Memories are nice but it's more bad than good right now and with everything I'm just kinda done with life. Sounds bad but yeah, I am.

 

[purplesquirrel]

Life is awesome! My life is pretty miserable right now but I try and buy tasty things to eat that make me happy and stay active and creative.
Have you got some friends near by you can stay with or have over to help you? How many people do you live with?

It might feel like you've been dealt a bad hand but it's not forever, I promise! Nothing ever is