Expect the unexpected

If you have read my last blog post you will know that before Christmas we were told that our shoot was not continuing at the end of the season so we have had a crazy few months of craig applying for jobs and attending interviews, we even looked at taking the shoot on ourselves but financially we couldn’t make it possible with out many years of stress and worry, so it was back to finding another job.

Finally we had a job offer..

YES! we have light at the end of the tunnel but it’s in Wales and a million thoughts are going through my head, how do we move everything, we don’t have space for all the animal so they need to be sold, how will the girls cope being away from family, I need to find new schools, will they be okay leaving their friends, will I be okay leaving everything?

Feeling like we didn’t have a choice we accepted the job and began trying to pack up 7 years of our life to move across the country and this is where we had the wake up call of nothing is secure in this line of work, we thought we could another 5 years at least at Newbrough, we had got so settled that we were not prepared to move and we had been careless with money that we had very little savings.

Towards the end of march we were packed up ready to leave; with 2 kids, 12 dogs and a pony it was a military exercise which we could not have done without the help of our friends and family. I shed a lot of tears that day when I had a final walk around the house that had been our family home and had seen the ups and downs of life with a gamekeeper but it’s onto the next chapter for us as a family.

The girls have settled into their new school so quickly and came home with a party invitation on the first day, we are adjusting to a new routine with them riding a lot more now we have their pony on a yard with an arena and not being able to go out with daddy as much due to the type of shoot we are on which is definitely one of the reasons we weren’t sure about the job because it’s so important to us that the girls can go out and be involved in the shoot and Olivia will really miss her beating this year but I’m hoping to find a little local shoot I can take her out on this season.

If I can give one bit of advice to anyone in this line of work/lifestyle it is to expect the unexpected and be prepared for anything. There aren’t many jobs that give you the chance to live in different parts of the country, in the most beautiful areas so we are making the most of the opportunity and trying our best to learn a bit of Welsh at the same time!