We pulled our final load onto our 40 acres just as it began to snow. Fingers crossed; we had hoped that the wintery weather would hold until we had completely moved all of our things. We have made 10 trips pulling trailers each time. Our large, enclosed trailer carried a lot of our furniture, personal belongings, kitchen wares, all of my craft items and just general stuff. It would take us about 4 hrs. each way from the hobby farm we had just sold, up to our new property & log cabin in the UP. Now we are here - finally here. No more trips, and the winter weather held. It is November in the UP, so, no telling what the temps will be or how much snow there could have been, if any.... We really lucked out.
Our last trailer in was our animal hauler containing chickens, peacocks, sheep and llamas. It was late at night, when we arrived, so we didn't want to let them out of the hauler and into a strange field in the dark. They would rest in the trailer until morning. So would we, but in the truck. We were so tired and so relieved to finally have all of our things in one place. I believe I could have slept anywhere that night. I would wake up during the night and I could see that it was still snowing lightly but, there was no real accumulation. I would fall back to sleep knowing that we didn't have to unload and then turn right around...again...So, my mind and body could rest and be at peace, at last.
We pulled the animal trailer over to the fenced in fields and opened the door - the sheep just ran out in a 'who fits threw the door first' pile. The llamas would step to the door, surveying the area before they would gently step out - one by one. Llamas are such amazing animals, very deliberate. We drove the chicken cages over to the not yet improved coop and released them into the area that we had temporarily built. We had slapped up some plywood for cover and some tennis fencing for all four sides and also the top for protection. They ran out, flapping their wings, feeling free at last. I had set out their food and water and they were thirsty and hungry. I put out a container with some loose dirt so that they could dust themselves. Not one by one, but all at once, not sure how they all fit or if some of them were even touching the dirt. But they were all in there. Next were our big birds, the peacocks. We have to take them out one at a time because they are large, have long heavy wings and long sharp toenails. The way that you handle a peacock is to grab them around their body, fold their wings down and watch out for their feet. Then, you can just lower them to the ground and let them go. We were releasing them into a big, closed machine shed, where we would keep them until they could acclimate to their surroundings, know where their food was located and where they could roost at night, which was in the rafters. They will generally stay around where their food is, but in our several moves, we have had at least one, walk off and just keep going. It might just still be walking, who knows...
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We stepped into the log cabin from the 'death' deck as we called it - not safe, never sure if it's going to hold. We just wanted to take a quick look and reacquaint ourselves with the giant amount of the most useless piles of stuff in the world. Floor to ceiling on the main level, but also in the basement and small upstairs. This pile was mainly composed of furniture made out of 2 x 4's, numerous sofa beds, beer cans, spent shells, trophies for anything and everything and several refrigerators. all of the very hardest things in the world to move. Soon, we would have to begin to figure out how to get this all out of the indoor style wood door, that was used as the front door. It was barely hanging on and needed to go to the burn pile.
Anyway, not today. We were in need of some breakfast and a few cups of coffee. So, off we headed to the closest gas station that actually had a pretty nice restaurant in it. Lots to talk about.... but not today...our bodies and our minds needed some rest. It was a huge move - our ten trips pulling an enclosed trailer and the final trip with an animal hauler. We also purchased a container trailer that we had completely filled. It had to be driven up to the UP by a company. We also hired a company to trailer up all of our heavy equipment, skid loader, tractor, etc. Big move, and it was all finally here.
Breakfast first and then back to the property to check on our animals and then just walk in our woods...The woods that were the first real attraction to us.
