This one is highly requested! How do we travel so much but also have the homestead running all the time?
It’s not like we can pack the chickens, ducks, and bees a suitcase and toss them in the car with the dogs… I mean literally, we could. Realistically, we can’t… That would be ridiculous!
Instead we have developed 3 amazing relationships with people that allow us to follow our hearts.
One of our sitters is also our housemate. He is our go to for just about everything house related we need an extra set of hands on. He’s been apart of our “family” for somewhere around 5 years now and we can’t imagine life without him.
Another sitter we have is someone I consider a sister to me. She’s wonderful and I love her to pieces. She decided this year she wanted to take on the challenge of helping us out and has been one of the biggest blessings for some of our travels this year!
Our other sitter is someone that we’ve been blessed to know and create a friendship with through a family member. She is one that is more outside of our circle. So when we have things, like our wedding, she is our sitter while our “family” is celebrating with us. I highly recommend a relationship like this so that all your reliable folks aren’t busy the weekend you need them!!
Okay, so getting someone to feed, water, tuck in, watch, etc. is the easy part… How do we prep the house for them??
In the week leading up to our travel, we take certain measures to help things go as easy as possible. This starts with having a guest room/space with things they might want, like a TV and chrome cast. We do our best to stock the fridge and cupboards with any special requests and make sure they know they can help themselves to x, y, and z. We also clean house or do what we can do that they aren’t staying in a pig sty!
We always have instructions written out for the sitter! There are quite a bit of things to do everyday. If I didn’t have it down in a routine I would more than likely forget a number of items… We write down everything from directions to the emergency vet to everyone’s phone number (regardless if they have it in their phone) to every animal name to feeding instructions to any quirks someone might have. We’ve also included the neighbors names and contacts on occasion. We make sure they know what to do in an emergency and how to get ahold of us.
We note how much to feed and when; where the waters are; step by step processes for almost everything. These “notes” end up being a couple pages typed but are worth it in my book!
We also try to do the bigger chores as close to leaving as possible. This way we aren’t trying to convince the sitter to clean the duck pond… That’s not a job anyone wants! When we remember to (which is almost everytime) we fill the feed carrier for the birds and put it in the bucket, this way the sitter doesn’t have to scoop food into the carrier. It is just ready to go.
If you read my last post, you got a look into how obsessed I am with egg tracking. But now you’re probably wondering how I do that while gone for several days. Or if you weren’t wondering, maybe you are now. Each day that we are gone gets its own Tupperware bowl with a sticky note for the day in it! Each day the sitter puts the eggs from that day in the appropriately marked bowl and then puts it in the fridge. That way, when we get home they are separated and easy to count!
We know that bees are not everyone’s forte and not everyone wants to be a beekeeper. We do our hive checks before we leave and when we get back. The bees shouldn’t need anything in the time between. They are pretty self-sustainable in short periods! We do ask our sitter to fill a small bird bath with water for the bees to drink and to make sure the hive is upright every day. If the winds are stronger than ever, a tree falls, or a wild animal knocks the hive over we need the sitter to let us know ASAP. We will call a fellow beekeeper to come get the hive running until we get back. Thankfully *knock on wood* this has never happened, we have heard of others having it happen.
I always make sure the fish have 7 day feeders in the tank so that the sitter only has to turn the light on and off. The hamster is always fed well and has extra of everything because he is messy! The sitter only has to get him fresh water and cover the cage at night. Both animals are really easy to care for!
For our travels in the fall over harvest season, I don’t ask our sitter to pick or collect anything outside of the eggs. I’ll pick what I can before leaving and then whatever is good when I get back. If something became too ripe or went bad over the time I was gone, the birds get it!
Whenever we travel the short answer is: we make it as easy and seamless as possible for our amazing sitters. The long answer is… We’ll go back and read from the beginning!
Hopefully this answers the questions of how we run the homestead while on vacation and how we prepare for traveling!
Safe travels friends!
Xx
Hal
Hallie Dantzler 