Vickers Ranch | Live Work Dream | RVing Lifestyle Design Blog

This Texan walks into a bar …

September 22, 2011July 29, 2008 by Jim

I overheard this Texan tell an Aggie joke about a couple guys framing up a building.

One reaches into his bag, looks at the nail he pulled out and throws it over his shoulder. He pulls out the next nail, looks at it and pounds it into the wall. He continues to do this until the other guy asks, “Why you throwin’ out half the nails?”

First guy replies; “They’re pointing in the wrong direction!”

“Dummy,” he says, “Save ’em for the other side of the house!”

It got me thinking to the workamping I’ve been doing this summer.

Breakfast Ride Offers Best Biscuits, and View

September 22, 2011July 22, 2008 by Jim

I might have said it before, but this time I believe I have truly found the best biscuits and gravy on the planet. I can stop looking now.

Perhaps it was the real cowboy coffee, cooked over an open fire, or the crisp rocky mountain air. Maybe it was the horse ride up the mountain, the breathtaking views, or all of the above.

But I can honestly say Carla and Paulette make the best chuck wagon team when it comes to a ranch style breakfast that would please any old cowpoke. Or workamper in this case.

Just Call Me Lisa Simpson: Saving the World a Can at a Time

September 22, 2011July 19, 2008 by Rene

For as long as I can remember, recycling has been a way of life for me. Growing up on the left coast, I can’t remember a time when I threw cans or bottles in the trash. So imagine my surprise when we left our little Northern California cocoon, and got a reality check by seeing how the rest of the country approaches the recycling issue — or rather, avoids it altogether.

During our early days on the road, I kept getting annoyed at the number of RV parks that lacked recycling facilities. About the only places that did offer any kind of recycling were national parks, which only take aluminum cans. It killed me to toss recyclables, but in our little 5th wheel, I felt we didn’t have a choice.

For a while I considered being as green as my RVing friend Sara, and carrying around our recyclables and compost matter until we found a collection point. But honestly, I’m not that gutsy, and unwilling to put up with storing this stuff in our shower where she does. Also, with our big ol’ dog Jerry along, I don’t want our RV smelling any funkier than I think it does. I had to pick my battles, and into the trash went our recyclables.

How Remote Is Too Remote, for Workamping, or Just Living?

September 22, 2011July 17, 2008 by Rene

Find us a boondocking spot in beautiful country in the middle of nowhere, and we’re all over it. When we started looking for a summer workamping gig, we wanted a job in remote, mountain location. There were a couple of forest service jobs we could’ve taken, but we ended up here at Vickers because 1) it paid more, and 2) it offered us the chance to see if we’re resort owner material.

But the one thing we didn’t really consider, were the foodie sacrifices we’d have to make to live and work in a really remote mountain town with a year-round population of 500 people.

Our Radical Sabbatical: The Real Work Begins

September 4, 2023June 24, 2008 by Rene

The idea of taking a long break first occurred to us in 2006, when some mindless channel surfing led us to the TV show, Radical Sabbatical. Each 30 minute segment would tell the story of someone who had suddenly woken up to realize they hated their career, life was passing them by, and they needed a change, fast.

While reality shows are generally crap, watching how these people worked to make their dreams happen provided much of the inspiration we needed to get moving on our own dreams (well, that, and Jerry’s illness).

Neither Jim nor I had ever taken an extended break. In my 20s, my friends went backpacking around Europe after college, but I had student loans to pay, so I took the first dumb job that I could get. By the mid 90s, I was handing over my paycheck to student loans and credit card debt. And as for Jim, well, he’s always been too responsible to slack off.

Now that we had paid some dues in life, we became giddy at the thought of reverting to slackerdom. But the more we thought about it, we knew we couldn’t just split without some kind of goal in mind.