It's Really Hard to Move When You are Well Prepared

I haven't posted in a very long time.  So much has been going on these past few months but tonight, I have found a few moments and post I shall! 
 
As I've been writing about our move for the past year, I can say that moving is not something that I ever want to do again.  Our farm has been sold, it actually sold in less than a month for almost the amount I wanted.  Our new house is not ready.  We've had a really hard time finding a builder.  It's either too difficult of a project for those who just put up square tract homes or it's not expensive enough for those who build custom homes.  We even had one builder tell us that he only builds multimillion dollar homes and ours isn't worth his time.  So what are we to do since our house is closing escrow at the beginning of May?  We have to go somewhere.  I was hoping to find a house to rent along the school bus route for Boy and Girl.  I want to keep them in their schools for the last 1 1/2 months of school.  I found one house and it was going to cost $3400 per month.  Not in my budget! 
 
Next week we are moving up into the mountains to be closer to my work but our stuff is going to Colorado.  Boy's school has said that if I bring him a day or two each week then he can home study the rest of the time.  Girl is going to change schools.  I'm sure the high school she goes to now will be happy to see her leave!  Things should be fine at the new school because she will be the new girl and instantly popular. 
 
With the house not ready, Future Spouse has ordered a 40' shipping container that had better get to the property before the moving van does!  San Diego sister lent me her 20' trailer, in which the tractor, gardening tools, t-posts, animal water troughs, and wood shelving has filled it to the brim.  But I haven't had the time off work to drive it the 17-20 hours each way out to the new property.  I'm hoping to maybe go over Memorial Day weekend, but that would pull the kids out of school so probably as soon as school gets out would be better.  She would like her trailer back soon as they use it a lot. The moving van is going to pick up most of our things next week.  The rest I will bring up to our new little house in the mountains by my work.  We aren't bringing much up there, just beds, the kitchen table, kitchen supplies, plus lots of food, cleaning supplies, everything that I'm not putting on the moving van, plus the dog and cats.  After the moving van goes I'll have two days to clear everything else off the property.  The weather is forecast to be good.
 
I'm sure I won't have to shop much once I'm there in our new temporary small house in the mountains by my work, which is good because the closest grocery store is 50 minutes away.  It's about the size of the store in our new Colorado town, which means it's good for picking up items here and there but not for full blown shopping.  To get to a chain grocery store is a drive of almost an hour and a half.
 
I brought most of my goats to the auction and got a good price for them.  I still have my buck and two does.  I may sell the buck and just keep the does.  I don't know.  I haven't figured out what I am doing with them yet.  A relative of one of my coworkers had said that I could house my goats at their house since they built a small shed.  This person just last week said that they wouldn't be able to house my goats because their shed is too small for their animals plus mine.  A friend of Future Spouse said that I could put my animals on his cattle ranch three hours away.  I'd need to spend time fencing that up, and I just don't have the time.  A coworker just bought some fencing from me and I promised a great deal on fencing panels in exchange for watching my goats.  I think we have a deal. 
 
I told the new owners of our farm that I was taking a lot of my 16' fence panels.  I would still keep most fencing here and if I hadn't pointed it out they may not have really noticed.  But you aren't supposed to take that stuff unless you disclose it first.  The coworker is going to get what he needs and then I'm going to store extra fence panels at his place.  Then I'll be able to bring those with me to Colorado when I bring the animals. 
 
I have so much stuff!  You pick a category of items and I have it.  In trying to figure out what to bring and what to sell or give away, I'm going strictly by replacement costs.   The moving van charges about fifty cents a pound.  Obviously my 40 pounds of salt (a lifetime's worth) isn't being put into the moving van.  On the other hand, my egg incubators weigh a couple pounds but cost $50 to replace.  They are packed.  Some things, like my 40 year old wooden boxed electric wheat grinder with a backup crank handle weighs a lot but it can't really be replaced with anything other than cheap plastic. It's packed.  So is the Sun Oven, and 200+ other boxes! 
 
Most of the food is not going onto the moving van.  Driving round trip in my truck will cost about $500.  I can put a lot of low value items into the truck and trailer (after this first trip carrying the tractor, garden, and animal supplies).  But added up, it's not low value!  Having a full house, garage, and barn, which held everything I need takes up a lot of space.  It's going to be interesting being up at the small house in the mountains by work.  I am already stressing because I won't have most of my preps with me.  But I will have more stuff than anyone else there (at least whose homes I've been in).  This week I've filled the garage shelves with food: canned meats, noodles, vegetables, and condiments of several gallons of vinegar, soy sauce, ketchup, and mustard.  I still have to bring up the buckets of flour, wheat, the "emergency food" buckets, and the cases of water.  Those will wait until I get the ok to put thing into the house rather than just filling the garage.  This small house is a short walk from a creek so water will not be in short supply.  Still, the cases of water bottles are coming with us.  I brought up 24 rolls of paper towels and 36 rolls of toilet paper.  Amazing that we still have 36 rolls of tp left!  I haven't bought any in several years.  Because of the big move, I've been trying to find that perfect balance between using up my preps and not feeling insecure because I've used my preps!

So how long are we going to be in the small town in the mountains by my work?  While FS and I are getting married in July, the grandkids and I are probably going to end up staying here in California until the fall.  They will probably start the next school year still here.  We are hoping the new house is ready by November so that's when we will make the final move.  Until then I will keep working and socking money away to help pay for our new home. 

After this big move next week I will be spending much more evening time on my computer reading what is going on in other people's lives and also learning more prepping skills.  I am really looking forward to that.  Boy is looking forward to getting to go fishing every day if he feels like it.  Girl is looking forward to not having farm chores to do.