Friday, we pointed ourselves westward, right into New Orleans (NOLA), where we’ve met up with an old friend from Humboldt, Mr. Gordon Soderberg. As one of the founding members of the Redwood Technology Consortium, Gordon is one of the reasons why we fled San Francisco in ’98 and moved up to the sticks. He was a geek like us, and we figured if he could make a living in the trees, so could we. In 2005, Gordon left Humboldt to join the Veterans For Peace wagon train that was supporting Cindy Sheehan, and found himself in NOLA two days after Katrina, to help with the rescue, cleanup, and now, grassroots rebuilding efforts (because the government hasn’t done crap. More later).
Work
Living the dream full-time RVing nomadic lifestyle working as location independent entrepreneurs.
The Conclusion: Making a Living as Organic Farmers
What we learned as Workampers while living on the oranic farm at White Rabbit Acres, Vero Beach, Florida.
On the road again …
… and paying for it.
I would have loved to stay and watch the Superbowl with Gene an his new 42″ Aquos HDTV
. But it sure feels good to be on the road again.
I am also seriously happy to be amongst some trees with some space at Lake Manatee State Park after that seriously cramped RV “Resort” in Fort Lauderdale.
It is eye-opening, however, to pay $94.00 to fill up the truck from a quarter tank after not spending anything on fuel for nearly two months while we helped make our own homebrew biodiesel.
A cure for the common freshwater cough
When our freshwater fill spout started coughing up water when we filled the tank, there was no need to call a doctor. I knew I could handle this one. But I did wonder why it started happening all of the sudden.
While filling up our freshwater tank a few times, we noticed water backing up and burping out of the fill hose. Upon closer inspection ? which any good RVer should always undertake in circumstances like this ? I noticed the freshwater tank expanding with air whenever this happened.
Itchy Feet, Take Me West
It’s five a.m. and I woke up because my feet are itchy. Not because I have athletes foot or anything. No, it’s just that I’m too excited to get on the road again. After almost two months of living on the farm, we are packed up, hitched up, and ready for more of the unknown. We don’t really want to leave, especially in the middle of the season, but we have to, in order to complete our circle of the U.S. by June.
Another Geek Mission Accomplished!
One of the great things about workamping somewhere that does not require a full-time commitment is that you actually get some time to do your own thing. For us, that is trying to make a living online.
One of my goals for Jerry’s dog blog during our stay here on the farm was to develop his new Tripawd Discussion Forums.
I can now officially check that off my list. Thanks to the Simple Forum WordPress plugin from Yellow Swordfish.
Attend a Workamper Expo and Support Your Fulltimer Lifestyle
By attending the Workamper Expo in Lakeland Florida we learned so much about the workamper lifestyle, finding a job, and making a living while on the road. Includes video interviews of workamper employers.
Good Sam Club offers more than just great savings!
Get Great RV Tips & Save on Camping when you Join the Good Sam Club and make money from your website with the good Sam Affiliate program.
A Vegetarian Sees Life and Death on the Farm
A vegetarian fulltime RVer gets used to life and death while work camping on an organic farm in Vero Beach, Florida.
Live Work Dream 2007 Expense Summary
Whew, what a relief. I just crunched our trip expenses from June to December, and found that we actually came in under budget by almost $12,000! How did we do it? By over budgeting, being ultra careful about things we chose to see and do, and Workamping. Now, this nice little savings is going to allow us to continue our journey even longer than we originally planned, by at least 6 months or so.
Now, let’s talk money. Pay attention; here are some important lessons we learned:
Calculate Satellite Settings with Dishpointer
Here is a nifty little widget that would have come in quite handy when our Datastorm F2 GPS unit went bad. Though using it would have required for us to be online already!
Regardless, the Dishpointer satellite alignment calculator is still pretty cool.
We’ve included the Dishpointer Lite widget here for your use. Just select your satellite from the drop down menu and enter your location ? city or zip code ? in the box. The map and details will automatically update with the required elevation, azimuth and LNB skew for your satellite dish. Drag the map or marker to pinpoint your location.
Pretty cool, eh? If you think so, wait until you check out the full version.
How to Replace the Datastorm F2 UCB
Translation: Here’s a little video we made showing how I replaced the Upper Control Board on our Datastorm F2 mobile satellite internet dish after receiving a GPS failure from our D3 controller.
If a picture is worth a 1,000 words this video must be worth at least 1,024. But here’s a few more about the experience anyway. Just to make a short story long …
I got Paged Comments to work!
I know what you’re saying … “oh great, another one of Jim’s geek posts.”
But I also know someone out there is looking for this fix.
I looked for weeks and finally figured out how to make the Paged Comments WordPress plugin play nice with our Guestbook Generator on Jerry’s Site.
A Farmer’s Life and the Saturday Market
When you go to a Farmer’s Market, have you ever thought about the amount of work it takes for a farmer to get there every week, so you can have the freshest farm fresh produce available? I never gave it much thought, until we started hawking White Rabbit’s wares at the Fort Pierce Farmer’s Market.
For three weeks, we’ve been getting up at 5:30 am every Saturday to sell a variety of organic produce, nuts and grains. The market is only four hours long, but it takes an entire day to set up, tear down, clean up and take stock back at the Farm. By the time we’re done, it’s usually around 3pm and we are exhausted.
The Farm Life at White Rabbit Acres
Learning about the organic farm business while on our workamping job in Vero Beach, Florida