live. work. dream.

Who says you can’t build real friendships online? Since hitting the road, Jim and I have been lucky enough to build friendships with some of our favorite Internet superstars, some of whom we’ve actually met in person. Finnegan was the first. Then came Heidi, Matt, Sara and Bella, Sami, The Big Dog, and now Rhodester and Coffeesister.

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As I previously mentioned, artists are flocking to New Orleans. My new artist friend, Skinny Chef (aka Mary Kate), likened the city to a blank slate, a place where great art is rising from the ashes of Katrina. We met Skinny Chef and her partner Flux Rostrum, down on the Bio Liberty compound in Slidell. They are moving to NOLA, to further her art, and expand Flux’s mobile broadcasting studio’s capabilities.

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Last week while camping at Lake Manatee State Park, just outside of Sarasota, Florida, we met Mike and Brandi, two thirty-something campground hosts at the park. Finally, we’d met another fulltiming couple close to our age! Meeting them was ironic; we had just left our farmer friends at White Rabbit Acres, only to run into this Ohio couple who had sold their farm last June, to hit the road indefinitely. Like Jim and I, Brandi and Mike are both living simply, and staying out of debt so that they can really enjoy life.

I couldn’t help but think that meeting these two was a sign that perhaps Jim and I should rethink this whole farming business idea we had. Here’s why:

We went into our workamping gig at White Rabbit knowing that farming is no picnic. The week we were leaving White Rabbit, things got interesting. The State of Florida’s Department of Agriculture threatened to shut down Brian and Valerie’s store for non-compliance. It was an incredibly sad week before we left, and in this interview, taken just two days after the shake down, Brian and Valerie aren’t too thrilled with farming.

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Ok, I admit it. During times of crisis, I completely freak out. The spaz button turns on, and I hyperventilate and run around, yelling out loud until I can get all the anger out, blame Jim, and then work on solving the problem. Jim, however, really pisses me off with his ability to remain calm during stressful events. To his credit, his method does work a little better. Don’t tell him I said that.

Take last week, for example, when I drove the truck straight into a muddy, grease filled ditch out by the side of Farmer Brian’s biodiesel garage.

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You never know what you might end up doing when workamping on a farm.

When the farmers went away for a couple days recently, I had my chance to milk the goat.

Fanny didn’t seem to mind. At least not too much …

So be prepared to learn new things when taking on an out of the ordinary workamping job!

Whenever we buy land somewhere, I want a small hobby farm. Nothing too big, but I do want a vegetable garden, some chickens, goats and maybe a couple of cows. But the animals won’t be for eating; as a vegetarian since 1989, I love animals too much to eat them.

But, since landing here at White Rabbit, it’s become clear to me that if I want farm animals, I’m not going to be able to hide from the cycle of life and death that comes with them, even if my animals aren’t there for meat.

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I haven’t always been a wanna-be farmer. Growing up as a suburban L.A. mall girl, I didn’t have a clue about where food came from, and the only farm animals I ever saw up close were the ones at the L.A. County fair. But in 1998, when Jim and I moved to rural Humboldt County, something inside me clicked, and I found myself falling in love with the simple ways of country living, like growing a vegetable garden and hanging out with the neighbor’s chickens.

Now that I’m actually living on a farm, I can’t tell you what a thrill it is to be able to witness farm living firsthand, like paying a visit to Outlaw, the four-hour old newborn filly next door.

She was named after Tim McGraw’s Indian Outlaw, hence the song in the video. Being the Petaluma boy and old school country fan that he is, Jim just had to add a bit of Outlaw Women by Hank Williams Jr. at the end.

Here’s another DIY travel trailer project for ya. This one seems to use a standard utility trailer for the chassis. It may not have all the frills as a new RV, but who needs ‘em when the the end of days comes? Function over form … hell, it looks like even I might be able to build this one!

I was sent this video on YouTube. Tune into The Gumpdy Channel to follow the progress of this do it yourself travel trailer project and see how it turns out.

It’s a swampy night here in Vero, and we’ve spent the last few hours swatting away bugs while enjoying the last of the holiday season. This monumental year is coming to a close, and even after thousands of miles and too many towns to count, we are both nowhere closer to deciding where we want to live, or what we want to be when we grow up.

We have our favorite regions, but really, the only decision we’ve been able to make, is to decide not to decide. In essence, that is a decision of sorts, right?

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