It's free?? You gotta be kidding! Either that, or you're gonna rob people, ha ha! You might want to advertise in Country Living Magazine as well.

Yes, it's free! Here's why.

We are considering moving to a farm, but we want all the members of our family to get a good taste of farm life before we commit to it long-term.

As far as honesty goes, we can offer many references including pastors of eight or nine churches (pick your denomination), business owners, etc. We are well known in our community.

In the past 16 years, we have lived in a total of two houses, so we are very stable. We want to make the shift to farm life before the children leave home.

We homeschool, so we are available any time of the year but would prefer not to farm sit in the cold season.

Any takers?

Ha, if you really want a taste of farm living, the cold season is the time to do it...that's the hardest time to farm, at least with animals, anyway. Getting up in the cold weather, stoking the wood stove, going to feed and water the animals, and unfreeze the waterers (unless you have a nice water heater for the stock tank of course) is the not so fun part of farming. But everything has its ups and downs.

Hope you have some good luck, you may want to advertise on craigslist.org as well, under farm and garden.

8 or 9 pastors of various denominations; What do they keep running you out on a rail or something?

I jest of course. Good luck.

If we had been run out on a rail, then we wouldn't expect a good reference. Hee Hee. :-)

We own a business and we live in a smaller town so we know a lot of people, and they know us.

Maybe we'd be taken more seriously if we charged for the service. ;-)

About the cold weather, it's always best to test the waters with your toe before you jump in head first. We realize it would be harder in the cold. My wife is from northern Nebraska, remember? We'd like the children to have a good first experience.

Thanks for the feedback!

You might want to look into having a bond or something put up, to insure against any damages--it'll be a bonus for you and help assure people that if anything happens, it'll be covered.

If you can't find any takers, I suggest trying to find a 'Dude Ranch' type vacation spot, there must be someone out there that does this...if not, there's a niche that needs filling!

Velvet ~:>

Something else you might want to consider is learning how to milk dairy animals to add to your resume. A lot of farms have dairy animals and milking is not something you can pick up in one day. It is easy enough to learn, but it takes practice and building up of muscles in your hands. I know I wouldn't hire a house sitter unless they already knew how to milk. Most dairy people find it hard to go on vacation because it is easy enough to toss feed to cattle, horses, etc., but milking is something else. Just my opinion.

Bonnie

That could work out well for maybe an elderly couple that are having a hard time keeping up with chores and property maintence. Or for a person facing surgery or an illness.
You might want to contact some churches to see if they know of anyone in that kind of situation. Your family could be a real lifesaver for them. Maybe some organizations like the cancer society. Maybe United Way.
It sounds like a great plan to give your family the experience. But you can understand that people will be distrustful...especially where their homes and livelyhood are involved. Which is why going through an organization might be your best bet.
This is interesting...keep us updated!

Wow! Thanks so much for all the great advice!

We thought about being bonded for everyone's sake. We will have to look into that. As far as the Dude Ranch goes, we're not looking for a vacation, but rather the true experience and blessing others.

Milking is definitely something that would be good to learn. My wife used to milk goats (a long time ago). We'd be most interested in helping out with hobby farms, not necessarily farms that are a business.

Thanks for the positive ideas on contacting churches and other organizations to see if we could help people in need. We would love to help out an elderly couple or people going through physical difficulties.

We totally understand about the trust issues on the farm-owner's part. We have concerns as well which would all hopefully be addressed in the interview process. There has to be trust in both directions.

Thanks for the great responses! This is the most active place we have found to discuss this!