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.
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?
At every county fair we went to this summer, René would just have to sit on the tractors. And ever since we saw the antique tractor pull in Corey, PA she has wanted to ride a Farmall.
Well, she finally got her chance on the Quant’s 1958 Farmall 230. As one customer of the farm store said, “Looks like she’s having too much fun to ever get any real work done!” One thing is certain, Craig Morgan’s International Harvester is René’s new favorite song. Read the rest of this entry »
If you’re planning an extended road trip, it’s inevitable that a major holiday or other important family occasion will collide with your itinerary. At some point, you’ll have to decide whether or not to interrupt your dream with a trip back to reality.
When planning our own journey, I knew that Christmastime would present a huge dilemma. My Mexican family is big on Christmas . . . really big. Each year, dozens of relatives gather at my Mom or sister’s place each year for the big party on Christmas Eve. We gorge ourselves on Mom’s homemade tamales, empty the liquor cabinet, and wait for Santa to finish pounding shots so he can make his midnight appearance for the kids.
Last year Jim and I missed my family’s party, because Jerry had just had his leg amputated. This year, we had to decide; should we find a way to get back to L.A. to be with my family? Or ignore the holidays and keep traveling along?
Last Saturday while waiting for the Space Shuttle to take off, a friendly camper introduced herself to me. Her name was Kim Cunningham, and she is a fulltiming mother and wife with three children who are traveling across America right now, in search of their next endeavor.
Kim (41), her husband Regis (47), daughter Jessica (15), son Regis III (9), and Seb (6), sold their principal home in Cody, Wyoming last May. Regis is a real estate investor who for the last 25 years has taken marginal homes, fixed them up, and turned them into money making opportunities. Kim was a Creative Memories consultant for 13 years, while working together with Regis to manage their properties. This year, they had planned to leave Cody, buy another fixer-upper in Pennsylvania and settle down for a while, but when in Pennsylvania, circumstances didn’t turn out as they’d hoped, so they decided to stay on the road and keep looking.
How does a family with three kids, four dogs and one cat do it?
Since June, we’ve been searching for the ideal place to live and start a business. We are talking to locals in towns across America, interviewing and taking notes, trying to get a feel for places that might come close to what we consider “perfect.”
But is all this work just a waste of energy? Are we searching for a utopia that doesn’t exist?
Tell us: What factors make up your ideal community?
As we tack on the miles, we keep seeking these answers.
We’ve been on the road six months now, and time has flown faster than it ever did when we lived the conventional lifestyle.
We want to slow time down and extend this sabbatical. One way to do that is to spend less than we budgeted. We’ve managed to do that again, as this November Expense Report PDF shows.
Next week, we start another Workamping gig, at White Rabbit Acres Farm in Vero Beach, Florida. For 20 or so hours of work each week, we get a free place to stay in one expensive state — for the entire winter season if it works out. Talk about saving money!
In return, we get to find out if we are Farmer Jane and Farmer John material. We’ve always talked about starting up a small hobby farm to help pay for whatever land we settle on. By interning at White Rabbit, we’ll learn the ins and outs of vegetable farming, raising chickens, making biodiesel, and doing what it takes to keep a small organic farm in top shape. Stay tuned.
As the RV industry knows, baby boomers are becoming the largest group of fulltime RVers out there. Sure enough, in most places, Jim and I have been the youngest adults at the campground (Jim’s 41, I’m 38), That is, until we met Chris and Liz (ages 35 and 30). Finally, we randomly met two people from our generation who have also said Adios to careers and the conventional life.
As we sat around the campfire in Myrtle Beach, the four of us wondered how many fulltime travelers are in our age bracket. So I turned to RV.Net Forums to do an informal survey of RVers. Check out these great stories people are telling.
One of the best parts about this trip has been getting to know people, and hearing their unique stories. Sometimes, we meet people who have overcome so much adversity in life, it makes us ashamed to have ever felt an ounce of self-pity over our own trivial challenges.
Last weekend, we met such a person. Well, a family really. While staying at the McDowell Nature Reserve outside of Charlotte, we met Annette Protani and five of her six kids who were camped out next to us. Annette and her kids started calling their RV home when they left Houston back in August, in search of a new town in which to lay down some roots. Read the rest of this entry »
is René’s new favorite song.
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