Moving Day and Onward

 

The last of the things to be packed into the trailer and seacan.

Timothy got carefully packed away in a box surrounded with sleeping bags.

Originally the trailer was scheduled to be picked up around noon but that got bumped to 3, and then eventually 4pm. 

A pro was it gave us more time to get things done, a con was that it was pushing our travel day later and later.

We towed the 4Runner, partially so we could drive together, and partially because we weren't sure if the 4Runner could make the drive... 

Pretty squishy in there with the slides all in! 

Goodiebags from Grandma and aunties

We realised that we left a window open. Thankfully William was the perfect size to squeeze through a gap between the slide, counter, and cupboard and could crawl through to close the window. 

The trailer is off! 

And us too! 

Ready to embark on the biggest adventure of our lives! 

4.5hrs behind our original plan, but it was happening! 

Chris and Ally had gifted us a McD's gift card and we used it to pickup some easy dinner on our way out of the valley. 

Due to a fatal accident on the highway we had to take a bit of a longer route. The kids were thrilled at this stop to get trucks to honk. 

Approaching the snowshed William had just asked us if there were bears in this area. And literally as the words were leaving his mouth we saw this one walking about. 

9:30 and the sun was beginning to set. 

3:20am is when we started to see daylight on Friday morning. 

4:45am 

Delilah had slept pretty well through the night but woke up with the sun

5:30am 

HOME! 

We checked into our hotel at 5:45am and the host explained to me that we would have to check out in 6hrs and I said, yes, we totally understand, just want to sleep for a few hours. 

The kids, who had slept pretty well mostly from 10pm to 5am were set up in one bed with a plethora of snacks, their blankies, and a show, and Will and I went to bed and slept for a beautiful 4hrs. 

Our most expensive hotel stay when you calculate the cost per hour. 

But Will and I were so appreciative of a soft bed and the kids still thought it was the best thing ever. 

Our trailer arrived around 3pm that afternoon

Meeting our new neighbours

Because of our overnight drive the kids didn't get to open their goodiebags which were originally intended for the drive. 

They made for some good entertainment on Saturday morning

A bit of an unorganised mess, but isn't that how unpacking goes? Has to get worse before it gets better! 

Our front yard 

Can you spot the children in the tall grass?

Saturday afternoon Will was already at work to get the field looking something like a yard

The boys' room

Moments after taking that photo James drew all on the wall, ceiling, window, and light. Trying to make it feel like home I guess? 

Marker came off the window and light alright, but I'll have to try harder to get it off the ceiling and wall... 

Our bathroom

Much shorter grass by end of day! 

Will spent the rest of the next week going back down to the valley to finish up at our old house and bring back more things. 

He left early on Monday morning to be home Wednesday morning. 

On Monday morning we ran out of fresh water in the trailer. Our tank sensors don't work so it's just one of those things were we knew we'd have to get a feel for how many days and what sort of water consumption it would take before having to refill. Thankfully Will and shown be before how to refill the tank so I was able to get that sorted out. 

Then on Tuesday afternoon one of our grey water tanks overfilled and came out into the shower. I bailed the water out and it was fine until Will came home to drain the tanks. Again, one of those things were we just need to get familiar with how many showers and loads of laundry we can do before needing to empty the tank. 

Will's dad came up with him to help out and give some company for the drives. The kids were pretty excited to have Opa around. 

A much better yard to play in without the 3-4 foot tall grass! 

Thursday Will and his dad headed back down South and I woke up to find a warm fridge and cool freezer. 

After doing a big grocery shop on Wednesday I was starting to feel like our food situation was back to normal, and now it was all for naught. 

This is only one garbage bag, but I easily threw away well over $200 worth of food which was very sad. 

The kids and I went to Canadian Tire and bought a cooler and ice, then some of the grocery basics to restart (milk, eggs, meat, cheese)

As soon as Will got home on Saturday evening he fixed the fridge. Very thankful to have a handy husband who can work out the kinks that come up. 

This first week, especially since I was own my own, was a bit chaotic, but everything was figure-out-able. 

Will cut away the back of this first step and built a little tunnel for Mozzy to get to his litter box. So far it's worked great! 

These panels are mostly all Greek to me, but do you see that yellow hose? That is our direct fresh water supply so now we don't have to refill the fresh water tank, we just get it straight from the pipes. It's been very nice not to have to worry about running out of water, especially while showering. 

Delilah loves helping to hang laundry

Will still working on the grass. 

The skies seem to be ever changing with many layers of clouds moving over eachother

On Wednesday our seacan and bobcat got delivered! 

They came so early in the morning that the kids were all still in their pjs but rushed out to have front row views

We've been using an external septic tank for our grey and black water (I call the mixture brown water). While finalising the set up we had a company come to pump out the tank. The kids were glued to the window the whole time, amazed that there are people out there who pump poop every day for work. 

Once the tank was empty we were able to put it on a trailer and now Will can bring the tote to the sani dump once a week or so to empty it. 

And that's sort of all for the move! 

It was a very busy few weeks and we're very happy to have settled into a new routine and feel very welcomed by our new community.