Transition from Farm to RV

For a year or two before the actual transition from living on the farm to living in an RV we thought endlessly about the transition.  What would have to be done, how would we do it, could we do it, how long would it take, who could help us??? the questions seemed limitless and the answers elusive.  We knew there was so much to do, and there was.  By 2011 or so we were so committed to the dream, that it was really no longer a dream but now was a plan.  Late in 2011 we decided that we would kick the plan into action by preparing the farm for sale.

 There is always a lot of maintenance and repairs to do around a large property, so we stepped up our efforts in fixing things, painting things just trying to improve the overall appearance of the property.  We had a few storms come through which added to our chores cutting felled trees with the chainsaw, repairing sections of fence knocked down by the high winds and occasional errant deer.  We figured that we would be ready to contact a realtor and put the farm on the market by the end of March 2012.  It turned out that we were optimistic on that schedule and finally listed the farm in early July 2012.  We figured that it may take a year or two or even three to sell the farm.  We didn't want that holding us back from a potential retirement from NASA in 2013-2014.


As fate would have it we were under contract to sell the farm much sooner than we had anticipated and much sooner than we were emotionally ready.  We had a contract in late September 2012 with a closing date of early November.  This sent our world into even more chaos if that was possible.  It made the "dream" all the more REAL.  We also knew we needed a new truck to pull the big RV, so we shopped and submitted and order that had a delivery date of December 2012.  There sure was a lot happening by this time and we were hanging on for dear life.

Along with the real estate property we had a big job in figuring out what to do with all of the personal property that we had collected over the 18 years at Cloverland Ranch... not to mention our animals that are our family.  Happily everything worked out in a way that we thought was excellent.  Sadly Destiny our Morgan gelding of 29 years succumbed to sudden and sever founder in the Spring.  He was a great horse and friend, and we are so grateful that he spent his time with us.  Silver our Paint gelding found a wonderful home in Parksley, VA with a family that had two young girls that love the big guy and got him back to work.  We had stopped working with Silver near the end of our stay on Cloverland, it just became too much for us to manage.  Lastly my dog Max, a 7 year old rescue we had for 5 years, hit the jackpot when the purchasers of the farm agreed to have Max stay with them.  They had two other dogs, so now Max has a pack and is doing better than he was when we had him by himself.  Max would not have done well moving into the trailer with us, so we believe everything worked out for the best.  Saying goodbye to our animals was by far the most difficult part of the transition.

Along with Max, much of our personal property stayed at the farm; for example the tractor and all the implements, the tillers, the generator, lawn mowers and landscaping tools, some furniture, and more.  This reduced the lot of items that we took to auction in Parsonsburg, MD.  We enjoyed the last Thanksgiving on the farm in 2012 where we celebrated with family and friends.  By early December we were out of the farm, but our new RV was not built yet, and in came the KittyCat to the rescue.  We moved in with KittyCat and helped to prepare her house for sale in the Spring of 2013.  By this time DW & I knew the drill of preparing a property for sale, after all we had being doing just that for the last 12 months!  What is 3 more months of it on a property less than an acre?  A mere walk in the park!