After 7 months of fulltiming, Jim and I have gotten into the groove of doing whatever we want, whenever we want. Sure, there are a few occasions when work-like commitments require us to stay inside and bang away on our keyboards for a few hours. But overall, our life is seriously lacking in any routines.
Sadly though, this trip isn’t about sitting on our butts indefinitely. Now that we have reached the midway point of our year-off, it’s time to test the waters in business choices that we’ve always been interested in, but never had the time to pursue. A “vocation vacation” if you will.
Some ideas about what kind of business we want to run include:
- running a gym
- starting a koi-pond / aquaculture nursery
- buying a doggy daycare and boarding facility
- building an eco-groovy resort or retreat center
- starting a small-scale specialty vegetable / herb farm
Our last choice, the farm, is one that I am more interested in than Jim. He does not want to be a farmer, but I love playing in the dirt. Our final compromise might be some sort of venture that combines the two, such as a resort with it’s own garden that feeds our visitors.
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Workcamping on the Farm: Good for Our Diet, and Our Bank Account
With that in mind, we have begun a work camping gig at White Rabbit Acres Farm, in Vero Beach, Florida. I found this opportunity while cruising the Organic Volunteers website, which links up farmers to volunteers who want to learn more about agriculture.
White Rabbit’s owners, Brian and Valerie Quant, were seeking on-site work campers. In return for helping out on the farm a few hours each day, they are providing free RV hookups, and all the organic veggies we want. We’ll be participating in projects ranging from taking care of the animals, to veggie farming, to making biodiesel, to selling goods at the Farmer’s Market.
I jumped at the opportunity, and here we are for a while, sitting out the lousy weather that’s going on up North, while learning more about something we think we might want to do when we grow up. Plus, we’ll be saving several hundred dollars each month our two biggest expenses (rent and fuel), which will stretch our budget and help us travel longer than we originally planned.
The thought of being stationery for a month or two is scary, but this is an opportunity that we can’t pass up. The timing was perfect, and Brian and Valerie are two cool individuals that teach us a lot. We liked them right off the bat, and the four of us share some common interests (Brian is a biodiesel / veggie oil geek, and Valerie completed an Ironman a few years ago!).
So stay tuned as we continue to discuss fulltime RVing, the work camping experience, RVing tips and travel stories from around the globe, biodiesel production, and much more!
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So many people think Workamping is camphosting or working in a campground. Actually there are so many possibilities. This one sounds like great fun! Jaimie Hall-Bruzenak (author of Support Your RV Lifestyle! An Insider’s Guide to Working on the Road
)
i can smell the henhouse from here !!
Hey. I could farm! I’m a Petaluma boy. Coming from the Chicken and Egg Capitol of the World, it’s in my blood. I’m just not about to … shall we say, bet the farm on some cash crop. the only one that might make us a decent living would probably put us in jail anyway.
I am all for getting dirty and working a piece of land to enjoy a superior quality of life, but you’ll have to get over the whole bug thing.
Ari dude, you know that you and Kim would be perfect partners on this idea. Anytime my friend, we are game!
I’m up for the eco-groovy resort / retreat center with specialty vegetable / herb farm and koi-pond / aquaculture nursery / doggy daycare. We can even have chickens for Rene 🙂
Hell Jim and I combined have decades of Saltwater exp. Can Koi live is saltwater? 😉
Sounds like you are in Fl for a while, my Dad has his boat at Marathon this year. You should stop by and say hello.
//A
Finally, Rene gets to Farm!! Congratulations! Have fun. Enjoy the fresh eggs. I love your farming outfit. Very cute. And maybe you’ll finally get that veggie-oil conversion for the truck you have been dreaming of! Maybe Santa will bring one if you are a good girl. Happy Holidays!
Items 2-5 are not mutually exclusive and might provide a heck of a destination for a lot of people. We’d come there!
How cool! I look forward to the next couple of months and hearing all about your experiences on the farm. This is definitely something that we would be interested in, as well.
Remind me to talk to you later about the whole “running a gym” thing. Having worked at/managed one for the past five years, I could offer some insight. Personally, I can’t wait to get away from here. But hey, it *could* be your cup of tea. 🙂
Sounds like FUN! I LOVE the photo of you and the eggs 🙂 We’ve had a change of plans on our end…it looks like we will be in Minnesota until mid-Feb and not down to Florida until March. We will probably miss you…? But maybe we can catch up to you somewhere in the south!