We have had the llamas and ponies for about a month now and it has been eventful and challenging at times.

The ponies haver been a joy for the most part. They are so nosy and into everything which make them fun but can lead to problems.

We finished up in a hurry last Saturday evening as we got caught in a thunder storm with the pourring rain and all.

Somehow we didn't check the gate properly.

We woke around 4am to the sound of screeching brakes. We didn't think too much of it until moments later we heard more screeching brakes. Looking out of the window I saw our ponies trotting off down the dark country road, the speed limit of which is 70kms. I was out of the house equiped with headcollars and lead ropes within seconds.

As I ran down the road calling them I heard yet more brakes and saw the ponies lit up in headlights.

They both came to me immediately and were restored to their field none the worse for their excapade.

I have never been more afraid. I magined the carnage that could have been caused by them and also to them.

The next eventful happening hads been with one of the llamas. Today I noticed a gash on Fabian knee.

This is not as easy to deal with as you might think as Fabian is unhandled and uncatchable!

At last we managed to manouver  him into the holding pen that we made and get a headcollar on. He was really good and stood very still while I washed his wound.

We then decided that while we had him in the small pen we should try and rid him of some of his matted coat.

Armed with hand shears I hacked great lumps off him and he was beautifully behaved.

He lookes pretty choppy but he looked downright hideous before.

I just hope we can catch him tomorrow to treat his wound and tidy up his tattered locks a bit.

It was actually really nice to handle him at last.

We have to start to do this on a daily basis with both of them is we are ever to train them to be handled.

In the last few weeks we have also aquired 24 laying hen chicks and a puppy of uncertain parentage.

His mum is an Austrailian sheep dog and judging by his looks, his dad is the German Shepherd from up the road.

He is a lovely dog and learns quick, but that goes for the bad things as well as the good.

We seem to be surrounded by young untrained animals who all need our time and attention.

The weather has been warm and sunny here for the most part and we are enjoying spending our time outside. 

The ponies and llamas arrived today at around 1:30pm which is good cos the fence only got finished around 12 noon!

Talk about going to the wire.

We have devoted as much time as we could to the project but the fencing had to have a least four rails as the ponies are small but the llamas big, so it was quite a job.

We have had so much fun just watching them get accustomed to their new surroundings.

All the animals are untrained, although the ponies have had a little handling.

The llamas have had none so It will be quite a challenge.

I wish I could figure out how to upload photos on here so I could show them off.

It dawned on me tonight that our carefree existence is now over.

We are responsible for these creatures now and cannot swan off should the mood take us.

Its quite a sobering thought.

Tomorow we open the Ice cream kiosk.

This is our first forray into business scince we arrived.

The Kiosk was finished a few days ago. The freezer and cooler fridge arrived yesterday and the ice cream this morning.

Now all we need is customers.

We are feeling very nervous about it.

The ponies and llamas arrive next Friday, which is good because the fence for the paddock is only half done.

We had a spectacular thunder storm last night.

At 4:15am we were sat in the lounge drinking tea and watching the sky light up like daytime and listening to the thunder bouncing off our cathedral ceiling.

My younger son took some good photographs but I don't know how to add photos to this blog.

I tried once but it didn't work.

Oh to be computer literate.

Last Thursday (june 14)  we went down to Halifax (again) to pick up our second son as he was arriving from England.

We had decided that we would have a couple of llamas and ponies for our farm and as an attraction for people to stop and buy ice cream from our Kiosk.

I had found on the web a really nice looking farm in Pictou NS that had both registered Shetland ponies (parents actually imported from the Shetland Isles) and llamas.

We arranged to look at them on Thursday as we were going down to NS anyway.

The upshot is that we have bought two fillies 2 & 3 years old and two young llamas.

A gelded male and a female.

They are going to be delivered during the first week in July.

I am so exited.

We have almost finished the ice cream kiosk and plan to open over the long weekend.

Along with the work on the kiosk we have been fencing too.

The paddock we want to use in the daytime so that the animals are up by the kiosk is right by the road and had rotten old fencing.

It is going to take a lot of work because we need it high enough for llamas (5ft) and secure enough for Shhetlands not to escape underneath.

that means four rails to each section.

At least now our boys are here and we have some extra help.

Yesterday we drove to Halifax to pick up our elder son from the airport.

It rained for most of the day and was cold too. Quite a deppressing day for James to land.

Today however was completely different and turned out sunny and warm.

And our container arrived. AT LAST.

It should have docked on May 22, but it seemed that it sailed on a later ship and didn't dock till the May 29.

So today I had to go to Moncton to customs and excise to do the paperwork.

It was all very straightforward. They asked if we had any alcohol in the container, and also if we had any garden or farm tools.

I said that we had no alcohol and that any garden tools had been washed with a disinfectant.

They said that they were happy with that and our container was free to complete its journey to our new home.

The two lads who unloaded were very efficient and polite and after a couple of hours all our stuff  was in the house and all the furniture was unpacked.

We have loads of boxes to start unloading over the coming days and weeks.

Our carpenter made a start on the Ice cream hut. We have the base down and the framework for the sides made and ready to put up tomorrow.

Poor James only got off the plane yesterday evening and spent the day working. 

Tomorrow we will have been in NB for 4 weeks. In some ways it seems much longer and in other ways it has flown by.

We have accomplished quite a lot I think.

We have moved into the house and made a good start in decorating. We have also made a start outside with weeding ,planting and mowing.

We have started to get our business under way.

We now have all our permissions in place for our ice cream hut.

After we spoke to the highways dept, the man came out the next day and gave us our certificate of setback on the spot. No charge!!

The council likewise issued the building permit on the spot after we took the setback cert in to them. $25

So we will start to build our hut this week.

We have a retired builder who is helping us.

Hopefully we will be up and running in a couple of weeks.

We also want to convert our basement into a self catering holiday apartment.

It is a big walk out basement so it should make a very attractive apt.

That will be for next year, to add to the ice cream hut.

Tomorrow we pick up our oldest son from Halifax airport.

It will be nice to have him back with us. Our other son will be coming out in a couple of weeks.

Then we will all be back together.

Yesterday was a lovely day. Hot and sunny but not too humid, so we took the oportunity to leave off the decorating and get outside to tend to some of the yard work (picking up canadianisms already).

We are trying to decide on what ride on mower to buy for our copious amounts of grass. Meanwhile we got to work with the Walmart petrol push mower that we already have.

After a couple of hours with that it confirmed to us that we really do need a ride on mower and fast!

Given our location - we are on the main road from Moncton down to the Hopewell rocks and Fundy National Park - we have decided that it might be a good place to have an ice cream stand.

So today we have started making plans.

We visited Home Hardware and told them what we need - 8' x 12' baby barn with a few alterations and they will get back to us by Wednesday with a price.

Then we went to see the town planning office  - with some trepidation.

They were most helpful. we pointed out our property on the zoning map and that confirmed our zoning - the first 75 feet is R2 (not sure what that means) and the rest is agricultural.

He looked it up in the book and said that under that zoning we could have a convenience store so he didn't see why we couldn't have and ice cream stand.

Then they said we have to phone the highways agency because they have the say of how far from the road you must site the business.

After we have done that we must go back to planning who will issue the required permit.

Simple.

It actually seemed like they were trying to find reasons why it would be ok rather than the English planning system which seems to issue permission only after they have run out of reasons to stop you.

Much better.

So tomorow we will get on to the highways people, and start tracking down a freezer and ice cream supplier.

It feels good to be doing something positive about work.

We also had carpet laid in the two main floor bedrooms, so we can move out of the lounge and start sleeping in a newly decorated room at last.

It is a small thing but progress towards normality.

Our container should dock in Halifax tomorow - a week later than scheduled - so we may get our furniture by the end of the week or early next week. I can't wait.

We still have a long way to go but we are getting there. 

Well we are finally here.

Arrived May 7 courtesy of Zoom Airlines.

We stayed for a while with friends before closing on the house.

The first few days were taken up with getting drivers licenses, sin numbers and filling in forms for medicare. All remarkably straightforward.

We bought lots of stuff in preparation for moving into the house. All the new small electicals etc that we would need.

Also bought a van. 2000 Dodge caravan.

House closing didn't really go as it should.

The man we bought it from wasn't out on the day of closing until 9pm.

We arrived to walk through the property with our realtor at 1pm and the house was still full of boxes etc.

The garage had even more stuff in it. 

We arranged through the lawyers that he would be out of the house, old freezer included by 7pm and out of the garage in a week. They held back $3000 to make sure.

Well we went back to the house at 7pm. no one was there except 2 cats and a dog.

He eventually turned up and took them away. We locked up and returned to our friends house.

Since then we have cleaned and cleaned and painted and painted and it is begining to feel better in here.

It had been left quite dirty.

We got the house last Wednesday and moved in on Saturday after a lot of cleaning.

But it is begining to take shape and the land will be nice . We must have close to 30 acres.

We have spent the last two days painting out the two main floor bedrooms, as we have new carpets coming for them on Monday.

We are also painting the kitchen cupboards (inside & out) as they are old and a bit dull and we can't afford to put a new one in until we start earning some dollars. 

Just when we thought we were winning, ants started appearing in the kitchen, so we have put down stuff and hope they will be gone in a week (that what it said on the bottle).

we had been told by our shippers that the container should dock in Halifax around May 22, but the agent this end has informed us that that is a mistake and it doesn't dock until the 29.

So thats an extra week we hadn't planned on.

But all in all we are settling down now.

I would have loved to buy a brand new lovely Canadian house, but this place has all the infrastructure that we need (barn, big double garage and land) in the location that we want, so compomises had to be made.

It will all be nice when it is done and I will look back on this last week and laugh (possibly histerically).

The worst thing was that our dog who should have been flying over on June 4 with our son got really ill after we left (either liver cance or infection) and had to be put down on Monday.

Not being around for the couple of weeks that he was sick and being with him at the end was really hard.

Our son had to do it and that wasn't fair on him either.

So although it has not been the easiest of beginings in some ways, we like it here.

People are genuinely very friendly here in Moncton and the athmosphere very relaxed.

If it wasn't for the upset with the dog I would feel quite at home already, but then I would feel bad about him even if we were back in the UK.

Anyway I will update soon.

I am sat in my bed/sitting room with all around me packed up waiting for the packers.

It has been an exhausting week of cleaning, washing, sorting outs whats going and what we are keeping with us, and now we have done it.

The packers will be here any minute.

I am feeling anxious, as I have done for the last three days.

Not everything is going as our boys are staying for a few more weeks, so I have been busy making signs to put on cupboards PLEASE DO NOT PACK.

So I hope they take what they are supposed to and leave what they should.

Anyway I will be happy when its all packed and gone and all I have to worry about then is catching the plane on Monday, oh and changing our last lot of currency over.

That hasn't been too good lately.

$2.20 yesterday. I hope it does a little better by the end of the week.

Our ONE way flights are now booked!

We leave on May 7 to fly to Halifax,NS. we will pick up a car for the first week or so while we swap licences and buy car get insurance etc.

I think I have booked dog on a flight??

We couldn't take him as excess baggage as I had origionaly wanted, as Air Transat don't fly into Halifax and Air Canada were so expensive for one way flights that it was no cheaper than using a pet transport company.

No other airlines will deal with owners, they insist you use a pet company.

So my son is flying out to join us on June 4 and the dog is provisionaly booked for the same flight.

Apparantly they have to confirm it nearer to the time.

It was not in the least straightforward.

We had several quotes ranging from £685 to £560 for the same service.

We decided to go with the cheapest since there was nothing extra done by the other companies for the money.

I called them to book the flight and having given the flight number and details they said they would ring me back.

He rang back later to say that the flight number I had given wasn't goint to halifax, it was going to Toronto.

I pointed out that I was looking at the flight online and it definately was goint to Halifax, although having flown that route before I said it may well be going on to Toronto. He then said that they wouldn't have time to take a dog off at Halifax.

He seemed not in the least bothered and said I could check it out for myself if I wanted!

So I spent an hour on the phone to differnt phone numbers at Zoom trying to get info.

Not easy as when I got to the right dept they didn't really want to deal with me as I am an owner not a pet company.

Anyway at last I got a girl who confirmed  that the flight did exist and that dogs could travel on it and even if it goes on to Toronto they will take the dog off in Halifax.

Result!

Phoned Pet company who said OK we will book him on it.

Job done. Mostly by my own efforts and not those of the pet company.

Anyway hopefully it is all now in place.

I took the dog for his rabbies shot yesterday and will fill out DEFRA form today so that they can send my vet an export license to fill in just before the dog is due to fly.

I am a little concerned as he is about 14/15 years old now and dosn't like enclosed spaces.

This is going to be a real ordeal for him. But vet said he is fit and healthy, so I hope it will be ok.

It is a one off and the rest of his days pottering about our 27 acres.

The shippers are coming in on May 2 so I am busy sorting stuff out and throwing as much "junk" as I can part with.

I now just need to sort out the 3 months health insurance and I am nearly there.

Landed at Halifax airport 12 March 2007.

Paperwork completed in less than an hour.

Tuesday 13 March we opened an account with Scotiabank. Very straightforward.

Spent the first week waisting time with a realtor who had no real concept of what we were looking for.

To be fair our requirements were fairly specific and there werent any properties that matched them.

But she wasn't the type of person who actually listened to what we said and would book second viewings when we had told her that we would let her know if we wanted to go back. Anyway after a week we found ourselves a different realtor who was great.

We still couldn't find the hobby farm that we wanted and so switched our attention to finding a duplex. We had decided that we would buy a duplex so that our grown up sons could live in town and we could rent out the other flat to help pay for it.

We saw quite a variety of weather while in NB. Some days were -9 while some got up to +9.

Also we had to drive our sons to Halifax airport a week before we came home as they had to get back for college and work.

The night we drove them it started to snow and the journey back took 5 hours instead or the usual 2 1/2.

It was also very frighteneing driving on the 2 lane highway when you can't see the lines on the road and driving snow is coming at you and those huges trucks are thundering by and whiting out everything.

Well we found a good duplex in Moncton that the boys really like and our offer was accepted.

We had just decided that we would move into the duplex and take our time until the right farm came along when by chance we passed a farm in a perfect location that had a for sale board outside.

Our realtor made some enquiries and found out that it had been listed two years ago and then taken off while the owners got divorced.

He said it was due to be resolved soon, but didn't know when. Anyway he managed to get us in for a viewing the day before we left to come back to the UK.

The location we already knew was good.

What about the house? Well it is 40 years old and brick built. Unfortunately I think all the cupboards in there are 40 years old too.

It needs a lot of decorating and also new kitchen bathroom etc.

However we had to up our budget to get it so it leaves us very little in the kitty do anything but decorate for now.

We have now secured the farm also and so come 15 May we will be the proud owners of 2 properties in NB.

So we will be returning on a one way flight sometime in early May in time to close on the houses and get on with our lives.

For now I am trying to find the best company to fly the dog with and sort out everthing this end before we go.

I should be really exited getting everything together to "land" on Monday and go house hunting in NB, but I have become a bit of a wreck this past week.

Went to London last Thursday to pick up passports complete with visas and I have hardly been able to walk since.

The Ball of my left foot which has been a bit achey of late sudenly became very painful on Friday morning.

I struggled through work (Marks & Spencer) on Friday and Saturday but had to phone in sick on Monday.

Went to the docter who didn't seem to know very much about feet.

According to him it could be my metararsal arch dropping.

Her suggested supports might help. but very little else. He couldn't tell me if the pain would ever get any better or if Ibuprofen would help.

Then on Monday evening I lost half a tooth!

Luckily managed to get an appointment for Wednesday and had very large filling.

I was so frozen that I could hardly swallow for hours after and I was numb almost to the top of my head.

Today I am feeling thouroughly sorry for myself.

I can only open my mouth half way as it is sore from the injections and my foot is no better.

I have just phone into work sick again and feel like an absolute traitor, after all I don't feel ill. But I just can't imagine having to be on my feet for 4 hours straight. Ther are no sitting down jobs.

I would like to hobble in tomorrow as it will be my last shift before my holiday.

Normally I would be half packed by now, but I havn't even got the suitcases out yet.

At least drving in Canada will be ok as the hire car will be an automatic. I can't use the clutch at the moment with my foot.

Anyway I am feeling very sorry for myself and feeling very old and decrepit.

Hopefully things will get better soon.

Went up to London on Thursday (March 1st) to collect visas.

I was about 20th in line so I didn't get inside till nearly 2:30pm.

I took my time and checked that all the birth dates and stuff were correct. Once you leave and the doors close at 3:pm there is no going back!!

Just a week till we go now.

I have booked hire car, travel insurance, flightlink coach to and from Gatwick.

Now I am trying to sort out everything for landing. I have made a goods to follow list on a spreadsheet, but as we are not actually moving at this time I have tried to include everyting we might take as you can include things on the goods to follow that you don't take but you can't take things you didn't include.

Also need to find out how we will prove proof of funds. Our capital has been moving in and out of our account on a weekly basis . It goes into a high interest account every Monday and is put back into our current account on a Friday plus the interest.

This has been good as it gives us the flexibility to get at our Money quickly if the exchange rates tempts us to change it into $cad. 

We will have to change some into $ on Monday as we will need some when we open our bank account on the 13th March.

Moneycorp will email us proof of what they are holding for us but I don't know if this will be acceptable to immigration when we land??

We may just have to leave the other money in our Current account until we return so that we can get a printout from an ATM at Gatwick the day we fly.

It's all very confusing. 

Thursday 8 February. PPR!!!!

(It's over a week ago now, but have been so busy now that I actually have something to do that I havn't updated my blog).

Since then I have booked flights for March 12 to go and buy a house. Can't wait.

I took our passports up to London in person yesterday.

Queued up athe embassy to hand them in and will go back in two weeks to pick them up.

I went up with my son and we made a day of it.

Had a look at the Tate modern  before gong to the embassy and then onto Camdem town afterwards for him to look at all the second hand clothes stalls.

All in all it was exhausting and We got back at 8:30pm shattered but releived at having given in the passports.

Now after all the waiting I can get on with actually setting up our new life.

I checked my e-cas as usual on Monday and after months of stating "In Process" it has changed!!!!!!!!!

It now says" DECISION MADE", but of course it doesn't say what that decision is.

Now I have to wait for any letter sent (if they have sent it yet) to get all the way to Vancouver to my lawyer before I get to know what the answer is.It takes about a week for the letter to arrive after posting.

I am now in a highly anxious state.

On the one hand relieved because this whole thing is drawing to a close (one way or the other) but on the other what if the decision is a rejection letter. After so much time, energy and expectation over the last 2 years it will be difficult to accept.

Part of me says I should stop worrying. The meds were fine, police checks fine so what can they possible object to, but on the other hand until they yes, they could still say NO!

Anyway one way or another I will know soon.

Our police checks arrived yesterday!! Less than a month from sending them.

I mailed them special delivery today - so they should have them by 1:pm tommorow.

Shouldn't be too long now.

I am amusing myself by looking at the store flyers and on line shops in Canada to see what we want to buy to set up house when we finally get over there.

Its quite strange. If I were to start from the begining again in Britain I would know exactly where to look for the best value on electricals, appliances etc, but it's fairly daunting trying to compare the different Canadian sites like for like.

I am trying to familiarise myself now so that it won't be such a big deal when we have to do it for real.

For now back to the waiting.

We had our medicals at Slough yesterday.

Slough is a bit of a jaunt from Bournemouth but the only one closer is Winchester and they only seem to do the immigration medicals on a Tuesday and then not all Tuesdays. The earliest they could fit us in was 19 November.

Phoned around and enquired at Oxford. They do the whole thing in house: medical exam, bloods and x-rays, but the receptionist was adamant that I would have to undergo a cervical smear test!!!

I told her that my own Doc was willing to supply a letter stating that I was up to date with them and that my last test was negative but she was adamant!

So I phoned Slough. Lovely receptionist. Explained everything very clearly. Was as horrified as me about the smear test and said I would most certainly not need one. So Slough It was.

Nice friendly place just one Doc and the receptionist.

The practice is in an ordinary house and the waiting room is a sitting room complete with family photos. There were a couple of newspapers and lots of magazines to pass the time.

We had our appointments at 11:am and They had booked us chest x-rays at the local Nuffield hospital for 2:30pm.

As the last of us was being seen the receptionist came through and said that as we all seemed to fit and well and the exams were not taking long she would phone and bring our appointments forward.

So all told complete meds, bloods and x-rays for four of us done and dusted by 1:30pm.

So that is the last thing done. Just got to wait for police checks to come back and mail them to CHC London and then it's back to the waiting.