In which we arrive on the Banks of the Donich

Oct 24th, 2013

In which we arrive on the Banks of the Donich

Well, we have arrived at last. Not a series of events I want to ever go through again, but I suppose it illustrates some of the complications you can get when you aren’t buying a little box in a row of other boxes.

As a refresher for anyone who hasn’t been reading this up to now…

My husband and I originally come from the country; he was brought up in the Trossachs and I am from rural Cumbria. However we have unwillingly lived in towns and cities for the last twenty years, largely because we had to live where the work was. Three years ago we started our own business (we are web application security testers – or if you prefer ‘hackers’) and recently we have been sufficiently confident that we are established in our field to leave the suburbs behind for good.

We’ve had this move in mind for years, and for a long time we thought we had decided on Shetland as a location, but in the end we decided that it was just a bit too far away from our families. We then looked at loads of other areas like Moray and Perthshire, but we ultimately decided on Argyll which is a place we always loved, but thought we wouldn’t be able to afford.

The house we bought is about half a mile outside the small village of Lochgoilhead. By road it is only just over an hour’s drive from Glasgow, and due to the way the geography of the area works it is a lot closer still if you happen to be a seagull, but in fact it is a world entirely apart. Seven miles down a single track road off the Rest and be Thankful, it feels like the other end of the earth, particularly as the road to the village is in fact a Forestry Commission owned track which is more pothole than road and won’t take heavy traffic.

The elderly couple who lived here before us had a business growing Fuschias, so we have a commercial grade Greenhouse and PolyTunnel, so the plan is that we will be self-sufficient in vegetables in the medium term, and if that works out, we will also look at having chickens and goats. We have 3.5 acres of garden, most of which is rough woodland and bracken, so we certainly have plenty of space.

But much more so than any of this, our plan was to enjoy the beauty and quiet of the area. We both love wildlife, walking, cycling and canoeing so this should be the opportunity to do much more of all of it – without having to drive 3 hours in each direction to get here.

We also love our Tech, and we want to see how far modern technology can enhance and complement a life lived as far as possible in harmony with the natural environment.

That last remark sounds very sententious – let’s see how we get on….

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