Creative Caretaking Ideas
Next month marks our four-year anniversary as Caretaking Couple. Last week we visited Evergreen, Colorado, where we met back in 2006 and moved away from in 2009. Evergreen is a beautiful place. I recently asked Paul if he was ever sorry for leaving it. His answer was no. It is always good to be back, but becoming Caretaking Couple was one of the best things we ever did.
Evergreen Lake House
Several of my blog posts here are in response to questions I receive from friends and strangers on a regular basis. A lot of you want to know how we find those people or organizations that are looking for us and what it is we do, exactly, once we find them.
I have addressed this before (click on this link about finding house and pet sits for a good place to start), but it has been a while and I just want to reiterate that there are many ways to go about finding caretaking and/or house and pet sitting gigs and there are opportunities out there for just about everyone.
For us, caretaking is a lifestyle versus a paycheck. We focus on long-term sits (6 months to a year) across the US and typically exchange our services for a lovely place to live. For others, it is a career. It is not unheard of to make six-figures in this field, but those positions usually require a longer-term commitment and more work-hours/expertise than we can provide at this point.
This may very well change once Paul retires. Ideas we have tossed around include substitute innkeeping, staging and caring for homes for sale, cultivating organic farms/gardens, vineyard management, yacht-sitting, becoming tour guides for historic properties (lighthouses/museums, etc.), working for the National Park Service…
Tending the Community Garden (Run by Estrella Del Norte Vineyard) During our New Mexico Sit
These are just off the top of my head, and every position I mentioned was inspired by a “help wanted” ad or a face-to-face conversation with someone in need of this type of service. I would love to know what your experiences have been with creative caretaking, or what kinds of gigs you would be interested in if and when you decide to become a caretaker.
Feel free to leave us a comment here. I respond to every comment and look forward to getting a conversation going!