How we got here.

Hello, my name is Judy, and I am a wife, mother of four, and have an off-grid homestead in the mountains. We moved to the mountains in 2018 from the busy life, surrounded by chaos, and useless “necessities” knowing that way of life was no longer for us and hadn’t been for a long time. At that time, we had just our three boys, the youngest being only 7 months old when we decided to just pack it up and go! (now we have four amazing children)

-Our little parker-

We had been looking for the right opportunity and one came across in August of 2018. There were a lot of emotions about deciding on this place, due to the fact that change scared the crap out of me. But it was one of the best decisions we made. We stayed weekends at our new place until we were ready to move. And those weekends verified our decision just by watching our kids there.

-Our number two enjoying our deck-

We made the big move in the beginning of November 2018 a little over 300 miles north (yes moving to the mountains in the start of winter dumb idea I know, lesson learned but wouldn’t change it) to start our new chapter in life and better our kids’ lives. There were a lot of moving parts the days to the move. My husband had worked the entire day before moving day because he was going to commute to work for a little while until he found work up north. I had spent all day with three kids loading everything we own into a moving truck.

-Our little big helper-

We were also moving with our two horses. So, I still had to go feed and load up a trailer with all the barn things. Thank God for my mother and my older sister who came to help, my sister lugged boxes with me, and my amazing mother helped watch the kiddos.

-My amazing mother, sister, horses, Liam, Roxy and I-

Next day was moving day and my husband and I were loading the last of our things into the truck that I couldn’t get in the day before. Around lunch time we made a trip to the barn to get the horses loaded up on their trailer and headed to my friend’s barn for the night before their long trip the next morning. The goal was to have them arrive the following morning, so it wasn’t complete chaos, but it was in fact complete chaos. That part will come later. My mother was coming to meet us for the trip, she was pulling the barn trailer. The two youngest rode with me in the box truck, our oldest and our two dogs (sadly our Tally is no longer with us) rode with my husband in our SUV and my mother was in tow behind us. We had left a lot later than anticipated so we didn’t complete our drive that night. It got very late; we all needed a break. My mother-in-law had a house in the state at the time, so we got a few hours of sleep there and headed back out on the road before the sun came up. That was probably the most hectic part of our entire trip!!!!

- Moving truck!! -

-Arriving- We finally made it to our new home!!!! It was about 30 degrees and there was about three or four inches of snow when we arrived, the moving truck didn’t want to make it all the way up the driveway (it’s fairly steep) but we got it close enough. We got the kids and dogs out and into the house and got the propane heater going. Thank goodness for my amazing mother again for hanging with the kids so that my husband and I could start setting up the temporary tents (shelter logics) and fences for the horses when they arrived in ohh….i don’t know like one hour after we arrived! Plans did not go as planned as I said before and now we were behind, and the horses were going to be here in an hour and we had nowhere to put them!! So, we hustled and got it thrown together and then took our half a mile walk down our drive to go get our ponies!!

-Horses temporary stalls-

The road is a class 6 road, so I didn’t want her driving her rig down it in the snow. I was so excited though that our horses were finally going to be home with us, and not have to make three plus trips a day to the barn. We got the horses settled in for the time being, and then just unloaded the entire truck into one room of the house cause it was going to take a bit and it was cold and wet! Finally, the truck was unloaded and now it was time to make sense of the mess and get things accessible for dinner and bed. Dinner was made and we got the kiddos tucked into bed. My husband and I went back outside and made sure the horses were all set for the night, checking the fence we threw up in a flash, and water and making sure they had enough hay for the night. As I said before it was such a surreal feeling to have them just outside our door!!  Now my husband and I were officially exhausted and ready for bed. We couldn’t wait to wake up to the next chapter in our lives..

-My husband and I-