So, how did you move the farm?

[OTTBs]

I found a thread from 2015 about moving farms, but hope more folks can comment. I’m thinking about moving 800 +/- miles to Aiken or thereabouts. I have my 8 acre farmette to sell, 2-3 horses to move, not sure how much farm equipment would come along.

I’ve never been crazy about my job, one reason being how hard it is to get time off. I’m thinking about leaving the job before getting another one so I can decompress. Of course I need to figure out where I can find a job before I can decide where to live… I’m wondering if for other COTHers it has been a matter of one spouse getting transferred, this seems like it would be so much easier if I weren’t single. Or maybe moving in retirement is how it went for others? At least I have some inheritance I can use, if I were unemployed for a year it wouldn’t be the end of the world. I wonder if one can get a mortgage using savings as “income”?

Any words of advice?

[moonlitoaksranch]

I’ve moved a farm twice and moved a couple of horses several times around the country (while in the military). Maybe I can help.

Contact your vet to find what health certificates, vaccines, testing may be required prior to moving animals (don’t forget house pets). Prepare to stop upon entering each state when hauling livestock to present paperwork. Get several months worth of meds prior to moving. Find a new vet and have records sent.

Find homes for outdoor plants. Never transport potted outdoor plants or seedlings across state lines. It could introduce insects and harmful microorganisms to your new farm via the soil (beware of buying plants from box stores as well, sometimes things get past inspection). Indoor plants are fine as long as they don’t spend any time outdoors during the year.

Clean all your tubs, feeders, buckets and tack thoroughly. Clean enough hoses to take with you. Insect eggs are easy to transport. Sell what you aren’t taking with you. Buy fresh equipment at the new farm if you don’t have much room to bring big stuff.

Plan on flying out for closing and then setting up the new place. If the fencing isn’t ready, buy corral panels and water troughs so you have a place to unload your horses when you bring them. If you’re in town, make sure utilities will be on. You need electricity to operate most wells.

Figure out how many trips will be necessary to move all your animals. If it’s more than one, it’s easier to board cats/dogs than horses, in most areas. If you have more than one trip, it might be easier for horses to be on the final trip. It’s harder to find someone trustworthy to feed them while you go back for another load. If commercial hauling, make sure someone can be there to load them if you can’t be. You should be at the receiving end for the horses. If you have to do both, load, fly to the new place, unload.

If you’re using a moving van, hire local folks to help load and then local folks at the other end to help unload the truck. I think the moving van is just the drivers nowadays. You might be able to move your own furniture, but it might also be raining and you’ll need help to move fast.

[NancyM]

Well our situation was different from yours in several ways, but I’ll tell you what we did. About 200 miles.
My old horse trailer was “condemned” at the time… it was “time-Xed” It was a home built 2 + 1, but the ribs were rusted out. So I used it to transport panels, and various bits of tools and crap from the barn etc, for one trip only. A one way trip. Later I had the box cut off it, as the frame underneath was good and heavy duty, and we still use it as a hay trailer- flat deck. It’s a 1964 Atco trailer, heavy built. Just old.
So I had way too many horses to transport, and needed a trailer. Found an old Featherlite 6 horse, and bought that. Had to have some work done on it, but that was OK. I did not want to use an equine transport service for various reasons. Multiple trips with that. Continued to use that trailer for years afterwards, just sold it recently to downsize. Got back what I paid for it, less the cost of improvements made.
Got a moving company for furniture from the house- they stored the furniture for several months, and that was very helpful, as we had no place to put it here at the new place… we had an RV for the first 6 months, and no buildings here. We sold the RV the following year for the same $$$$ we had bought it for.
Good luck, have a happy move!

[clanter]

if “Simkie” does not post, send her message as she has moved farms three times that I know of… she is “the professional”

[2DogsFarm]

Good advice here from those that have BTDT.

I can share what NOT to do - as observed when a former friend moved like her tail was on fire < in a way it was, 1 step ahead of a foreclosure.
*Chose where to move based on a long weekend trip
*Had a 6H Head-to-Head revamped (removed all partitions) to move her 4 horses, 1 hony, 2 ponies & a mini. Ended up like an fully enclosed stock trailer. Fine I guess for moving.
*Bought a place with a 2-stall barn, used the trailer - NOT hitched to any vehicle - as a “barn” when bad weather (hurricane, torrential rain) made leaving them out impossible. Still doing this some 3yrs later.
*Did not bring enough of the grass hay she had been feeding. Discovered the available native grass made a couple of hers colic.
*Did no research re: availability of vet or farrier

For myself, I lasted 2yrs after DH died. Horses were boarded in neighboring state, 1h+ drive away
Then bought my farmette - 5ac of land with an older - 70s - brick house - in the state horses lived.
Horses remained boarded nearby until my barn was built, then “turned out” in my indoor until fencing was completed.
I was fortunate to find a job here before I moved, so was able to give notice to the job I hated in the Big City & get settled before going to work for the new place.
Moved in March, brought horses home in August.
Now I look around & shudder at the amount of barn STUFF accumulated that would need to be moved to a new farm.

[fourfillies]

I’ve upsized the farm then sold the farm to ‘burbs and now back to a smaller farm. Two additional thoughts to the excellent above recs:
Get rid of accumulated stuff. Aggressively. Then go back and do it again. I’m not really a “collector of stuff” and each time we have moved I am still shocked “we kept/moved THAT”?
UShip is super useful if you can be a bit flexible about timing, particularly good for large/odd items if you aren’t already using a mover.

PS. I came very close to moving Aiken this spring. If real estate wasn’t completely insane I probably would have. Lots to like about it.

[JanM]

There are companies (ABF is one) that drop off one or more semi trailers, you load them (you can hire local movers for this, and for unloading on the other end, get a company where you hire by the hour). Then the company picks up the trailers, and drives them to your destination.

I advise people against pods, they used to charge the shipping weight for the pod, and the contents, and they could only ship a full one in the 16’ length. If you might have a trailer show up before you arrive, you’ll need someone to tell the trailer driver where to park, and tell you it’s arrived. I know people who shipped extra vehicles by commercial haulers, and that works very well.

Start looking for a job now, instead of moving first and then looking. A job you get might not be in the city you want to live in, and that would be awful. Make sure of zoning by checking with the city or county yourself. Make sure that utilities you need are available, especially if you’ll need high speed internet, and you have to check that yourself with the cable company. If you need good cell service, check it yourself on site. I prefer plastic storage containers for everything, just don’t overload a container (I’ve actually ripped the handles off of a few containers this way), and you’ll be moving them around before you unpack, or store temporarily, so don’t make them too heavy. Label both ends with a sharpie with the room it goes into. For example, my closet hanging stuff went in containers by #1 hang, winter, or #1 shelf. Makes it super easy to unpack, and I leave everything hanging on the hangers (I buy the fuzzy velvet look ones, not the shirt kind, but the one with the bottom bar for extra strength).

Before you even think of moving, go through everything, get rid of whatever you don’t want to move. I’m assuming you’ll sell before you move, so pack all pictures, knick knacks, anything personal. All counter tops should be empty, everything spic and span, and everything valuable (prescriptions, electronics, financial paperwork, vital records, and anything precious) locked away before showings. Before showings, turn on all of the lights, open all of the blinds, and leave while people are walking through.

I cannot emphasize enough that you need to be ruthless decluttering. Go through the closets, attic, and kitchen stuff, and get rid of things you don’t want, use, or like. Since you’ll probably be having everything loaded for you, then buy a bunch of the cheap moving blankets, and put those around the furniture, and tape over it, then on the other end, toss the blankets. I live in a community of new builds, but not huge ones, so many of my neighbors downsized. Unfortunately, they didn’t weed out furniture, clothes they don’t need anymore, and all kinds of stuff that they eventually get rid of, but meanwhile their garages are packed, and they have to weed out gradually. Think of the move as a way to get rid of stuff you don’t want or need, and a way to start over. Anything attached to the house that you really love, remove and replace before putting the house on the market.

Have one easy to find storage box with vital papers, scissors, box cutter, a couple of rolls of toilet paper, paper towels, and spray cleaner, remotes and chargers for everything,

[clanter]

@JanM

Label both ends with a sharpie with the room it goes into.

we color coded the rooms and the boxes which made it pretty clear as to what goes where without detailed instruction.

as for shipping a car CarMax does transfer personal cars on their inter store transports, since they are nationwide it might be an option

[js]

We moved 1,300 miles, sold the farm equipment with the property, shipped the horses with a professional shipper, booked the whole van for just my horses so they could ship on the dates we needed, it was more expensive but worth it. All the cats went in carriers and traveled in the horse trailer, the dog with us in the cab of the truck. Hubby made a couple trips with a big UHaul prior to the move the haul our household goods and towed the cars out with each trip and flew back (thank goodness for frequent flier miles). I boxed everything myself and a couple of local movers we hired packed the UHaul(s) for us, on the move end we also hired movers to unload the UHaul(s) and get the boxes and furniture in the house.

[Tarlo_Farm]

Just helped a friend with one leg of a loooooong move from IA farm to CO ranch. Many, many, many trips with assorted trailers of equipment and a few critters. This was AFTER selling much of her livestock and big-farm equipment.
Lots of trips, a few plane rides. You can do it!

[ElementFarm]

We just moved farms this spring, but luckily the two were just one town over from one another.
Still it was orders of magnitude harder than moving a household (and I’ve moved a lot with my military career).

Find someplace to move the horses and have them moved commercially. Whether that’s with a friend at your current end and they follow you, or if you want to send them ahead doesn’t matter. Just don’t stress about trying to move them yourself or hope the farm is ready for them when they get off the trailer. Staying for a month at a trainers or even just backyard barn gives you the time to get the new farm set up to your liking and allows for slippage in move dates, which are inevitable.
We paid movers to do about 1/2 the household packing and transport. We did all the unpacking ourselves and we’re still working on it… Definitely hire out as much of the work as you can afford. It’s worth it!

Because we needed the farm to move our horses to before the buyers of our old farm could move in, but we needed the sellers of the new place to move out so we could have our horses move in… it was like a giant shell game. And in fact, the sellers had their two horses at our new place for a few days after closing. I was worried about liability, but luckily things turned out fine. But if the aiken farm is in use, you’ll need to figure out timing with the sellers. And also be clear on what condition the farm will be in when they leave, and what the sellers plan to take with them. Things like gates should stay, but water troughs, extra fencing materials, etc won’t convey unless specified.

Since the distance isn’t conducive to making a zillion car trips back and forth, I’d itemize the big items you really want to bring with you, and sell the rest. SO much of our move effort and space was devoted to moving many, many tons of hay, jumps, tractor implements, tools, etc. If I were moving cross country, I’d try to sell locally, and just plan to buy again later.

I quite like Aiken and the vibe there, but now consider Southern Pines, NC our forever home. Definitely do some research on what you want IRT weather, horsey scene and amenities, and employment options. For example, while SP is all horse farms and golf courses, Raleigh/Durham has some tech and research centers, so there are still good job opportunities for a variety of backgrounds.
Good luck on the decision. It’s scary but also wonderful. And I’m so happy we ended up where we did and put down roots.

[clanter]

@ElementFarm

We did all the unpacking ourselves and we’re still working on it…

We moved here in 1985, there are still boxes in the garage that have not been unpack

For example, while SP is all horse farms and golf courses,

I lived in Southern Pines back in the early 1970s, then it was still a sleepy town that was looked down upon by Pinehurst