Well you glorious lot, this journey has well and truly begun.
It turns out owning a field, a pretty large garden and a pool takes A LOT of work and maintenance. We knew it would be hard work, but not sure we were quite ready for what we’ve experienced over the last month or so. As Mr R likes to tell me…. we were seduced by it all on a very warm, very sunny summers afternoon. We saw the field, garden and pool in all its beautiful glory and now we’ve come down to reality with a massive bump.
RRRRRRReality.....
Flooding, trench work, blocked drains, drains that were covered with more grass than I’ve got in areas of my garden, blown electrics, the pool looking like a pond and people thinking it’s ok to just wander into your field. It’s not ok people, it’s private property!
So to say it’s been busy and quite stressful at times is an understatement. I’m used to working under pressure, thinking on my feet, staying chilled and calm whilst frantically peddling inside but this…. this is a whole new ball game. Before, in a tricky work situation I’ve been able to draw on my past experiences, remember lessons learnt and look at things logically but what do you do when you have no past experiences to draw on?
As my event and project management days taught me, do not panic, that’s after you’ve panicked slightly (I still have the image of Mr R sat with his head in his hands!). And then….. You just have to get on with it, you learn fast, you use YouTube, you get techy with one another, then laugh at each other and then you ask for help. We’ve realised so many people and companies are willing to help and offer advise if you’re honest and just say, as we did, we have no idea what we’re doing.
Once the panic had subsided, the water and flooding were under control, we hired a digger for some trench work in the field, and it was pretty damn exciting ….. who knew that would ever become a highlight for me! I’m pleased (relieved) to say we made the sensible decision to hire it with an experienced operator. This was after a few conversations along the lines of “No Mr R you don’t know how to operate a digger”…..”I do, I’m sure I can pick it up quite quickly”….”I think we should leave it to the experts”…..”You need to trust me, I really think I can do this”. And as it transpires, it’s a real skill being able to operate one of those things. Oh the relief when the trench was cleared and the water started to flow away, that was a happy moment.
There’s been a few special moments too. A pheasant who roams round the garden and field, I’ve named him Bob. He first started appearing at Christmas and I just thought of Bob Cratchit. Our delight at realising we can have our own bonfires….whenever we like! Although one of us has become slightly obsessed with them and feels the need to have one every weekend. The smell, watching the flames take hold, standing with your baileys hot chocolate, watching the sunset, it’s just fab. And my favourite so far, deer. One magical Sunday morning when the frost was so thick literally everything had turned white, a faint mist swirling, we looked across at the next field and there must have been about 20 of them …. that felt like a special moment.
So, the first few months of this country lifestyle have been bumpy and hard, way harder than we were expecting but I’ve learnt that my past experiences and skills do still and can play a part in this new adventure. It's rememebring to break down the issues logically, investigating solutions, putting a plan in place and then executing…. really not so different from project management after all. And yep, I still put on mascara and lippy when working in the field or garden…..nothing wrong with glam gardening, I just have to be realistic about the heels!
And of course, I haven’t been able to share any of this yet with family or friends, showing them round via FaceTime is just not the same. And like a lot of us (I’ve had many conversations with my close friends over WhatsApps about this) I get obsessed with how I look on it. Why is it you think you look ok beforehand, then you see yourself and it’s like WTF happened, I thought leaving my hair au naturale looked ok until I saw myself on it!
And as for the business ideas, well we’re off the starting blocks there, but more on that next time.
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