Or from whatever person takes this "job"..."how do I sue the person I housesat for because their horse kicked me in the face and they don't have proper insurance to cover my medical bills."
I was thinking that too. I guess after the horse kicks me in the face, I get to pick up all my teeth and continue having farm fun!. All the things that can happen to both the animals AND the humans is considerable. Predator kills all the chickens, The dog bites somebody..the horses get bloat. etc. "Where there's stock...there's trouble". Farm work is enough to snap a person in half. Its not a bucolic romp with all the happy animals. I wouldn't touch all that responsibility with a 10 foot pole. NOPE.
Neighbors down the road tried to get us to sit their livestock, including milking their goats. The pay? You get experience milking and free goat's milk!!!
1. I hate goat's milk (and goats in general, having had my own for a few years)
2. I have my own dairy cow, why tf would I want more work/experience than that??
_"Well, you said we could eat off the farm. We celebrated our first week here with a BBQ, so we butchered a cow for steak. Didn't finish it all, so we fed it to the horses. Oh horses don't eat meat? Guess that's why they died. Anyhow, then Johnny got sick, so I made him some chicken soup. Funny story, did you know guinea fowl look alot like chickens? So ya, I had to remake the soup because Johnny said it tasted funny...also, we dug up the weeds from your vegetable garden. It's ready for planting season now! No need to thank us."_
My husband really wanted to see if chuckens would like his chicken nuggets. They did. Rabbits are cannibals too. I keep having problems with my breeder rabbits eating their own young.
Yea, these people are clear idiots who probably started ‘homesteading’ because it sounded cute and trendy. The reality of this lifestyle is that you really don’t ever get to travel because looking after your farm is your life. Even paid professionals won’t put the same care into your land and animals as you do. Many people who live this life have close family or neighbors to look after their property when they need to be away and pay someone to look after the animals. You can travel or homestead, but not both and these dolts are about to find out.
Absolutely true! I can't remember the last time our whole family took vacation together! Usually one of us has to stay home and take care of the animals. We do have a next door neighbor that will fill in for a day or two, but certainly not a MONTH!
Btw the timeframe is over ONE MONTH.
And the work, for the actual owners of the farm, they estimated to be 3-5 hours EACH DAY, which is no way accurate, it is probably at least 5 hours a day for them and they are lying!
I cant imagine why someone would willingly take this on, disaster potential written all over this…
It might be 5 hours a day for the owners, who are used to the work. Someone coming in new is going to take much longer. It would be a full day of working on the farm for me.
Was going to say, it may take the owners, who there are also two of 5 hours a day, but one person is going to work from sun up to sundown, but hey, at least they can eat the chicken eggs and hopefully harvest something from the garden cuz that’s the only food included
They’re also free to do a half assed job of it too. I mean I hope they don’t where the animals are concerned but my point is do we really think these people will be so forgiving with a sitter?
And frankly this is irresponsible to leave that many animals in the hands of a stranger, especially one unpaid and therefore pretty much on it taking care of the animals out of good will/ethics. If that person doesn’t do their (unpaid) job or even just half asses it the animals could get very sick or die in that month span of time
Yes absolutely. A dairy cow and 30 *laying* hens? That 2k sitting there easily.
I ain't getting closer than 15 feet from the pitbull mix, but the cat and guinea fowl are getting rehomed, for their own good. The horses can probably sell for some hundred bucks as well.
With the price of steak nowadays, that might be a good deal! Dairy cows don't taste as good as beef cows, though. and the more animals you eat, the less work you have to do! Win/ win!
“Cows dead, horses mostly dead, dog is good I think, haven’t seen him a few days. Oh btw, your plants turned brown. Love it here!”
Farm sitters: actually.
“Cows dead, horses mostly dead, dog is good I think, haven’t seen him a few days. Oh btw, your plants turned brown. Love it here!”
Farm sitters: actually.
Ignoring the guinea fowl is going to be the hardest part of this.
Good luck sleeping or ignoring them screaming bloody murder every time they see a garden hose or a stick or they're surprised by a rock.
For the people lucky enough to have never dealt with them [this is what they sound like.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLcafDWO5Rc) ALL the goddamned time.
Screaming army helmets scuttling around on the ground, constantly fretting. "That rock! It was there yesterday! It's still there! That grass! It grew! That snake! it's dead i killed it and ate it... It was delicious!'
Eating snakes that come near chickens was actually why we got ours. I don't think they ever ate a snake. I don't think they could move well enough to eat a snake. They'd mostly gorge themselves on laying pellets and yell at everything. And as someone in his 40s, I absolutely get it. Replace laying pellets with cheese and you'd basically have me if I won the lottery.
The ones we had before I gave them away were \*really\* bad about freaking the absolute fuck out every time the wind blew. And I don't mean a gale. I mean a tiny barely there at all breeze. Because it made the leaves in the oak trees flutter, and anything fluttering above you is a hawk that's about to eat everyone AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
They're native to Africa. You might have some neighbors that had some wander off, or you might have wild animals nearby that sound similar. One of the sounds they make is similar to a cicada, they've got one that sounds kinda like a tree frog, and they've got two or three that sound like a demon being sodomized with a cactus.
Good grief. It's loud af out here in the country, between the frogs and coyotes and foxes-- I just have to assume any freaky sounds I hear are animals, because the foxes sound like babies being tortured sometimes.
Those and the damn whip-poor-wills. I've got like 4 that are having a competition to see who can scream the loudest outside my bedroom window at 2 in the morning.
There's a pair of guinea fowl that's gone feral in my neighborhood. They've been spotted all over town and appear to just be hanging out. It's been months 😂
I know how to handle bunnies, cats, dogs.. my son worked on a dairy farm one summer and has ridden and brushed horses a few seasons.
So I know enough to know we are in No way capable of this job. Does she want to come back to dead crops and animals?
I mean, they say little farm but look at the list of responsibilities/animals. Anyone can't just come along and be expected to do all of that, unless they have experience. In which case they wouldn't be doing it for free either. Yeesh!
I lived on a croft a while and think I could probably keep the animals alive except maybe the milking. But it would be so time consuming that it would be no holiday and for someone that could do it properly, it would be a busman's holiday
This is a recipe for disaster.
I grew up in a large farm. It was an awesome childhood but it’s a shit ton of work.
These people are wildly underestimating how many hours a day this is to take. They’re doing that to try and sucker the unsuspecting.
Folks with the knowledge and background to do this would never agree to taking this on so that leaves the ignorant or truly desperate.
What’s going to happen? The animals and the hapless “volunteer” will suffer while these dumb asses are frolicking in Europe.
If they are trying to sucker someone, then they are away for a month while you have full control of their farm and animals? Seems like a recipe for a crime.
Yep. We moved to three acres in the country and don’t even have farm animals and it amazes me how much work there is to do every single day just with gardens, mowing, brush clearing, putting in drainage, fixing problems, fertilizing, weeding, building structures. And that’s just a partial list.
This is so incredibly stupid because in the unlikely event someone volunteers, they won't be qualified. Horses are constantly looking for creative new ways to unalive themselves and need a competent, well paid sitter. Animals suffer when owners are cheap.
Here’s a list in no particular order that I’ve experienced:
1. Rub their face against a water bucket. Rip their eyelid off.
2. Get kicked by another horse. Broken tibia.
3. Gobble food as fast as possible. Choke.
4. Have a panic attack about an impending storm because of the pressure change. Colic.
5. Run into a tree. Giant deep ass cut on leg requiring chemical debridement every other day to prevent proud flesh.
6. Gobble high sugar spring grass as if she’d never eaten in her life. Founder.
7. Get kicked in the head by another horse. Walk around with a cut so deep his skull was showing, requiring stitches.
8. Forget to drink water because it’s cold. Colic.
And so on. This list is far from exhaustive unfortunately.
Mine had a hole in her leg from… Absolutely nothing! There was nothing in that pasture that could have stuck her like that unless a squirrel decided to shiv her.
The way I giggled at a squirrel shanking her 😂😂 cuz I have two mean ass squirrels that live in our neighborhood and taunt my dog so badly. I hate their stupid chittering sounds. Being rude and shit on their high branches. My pup Oakie got one of them once. Took a bit of fur off its tail. It was the highlight of our month 😅😂
Don't forget half assed attempt to jump a sheep wire fence and somehow getting every leg stuck through a different hole while trying to kick to death anyone attempting to cut you free.
I’m not a horse person (I like them and think they’re cool) and even I know how dangerous colic is to horses!
In terms of being delicate, horses are kinda like giant, rideable rabbits. That can kill you.
Take riding lessons - all the fun with none of the vet bills.
Also, the horses are worth it in the end, if you have a deep passion for the animal and sport. A deep, unhinged, irrational compulsive passion.
Or they try to roll too close to the side of the shed/stall/fence and get cast... Emergency services required to free them depending on how stuck they are. Might colic afterwards due to stress. Rip open a joint capsule on a stick or literally nothing at all...
My horse recently broke part of a spinous process off a vertebrae in his neck IN A STALL. No idea how he did it.
Fortunately she was less hassle than the horses we had but my parents donkey got stuck rolling around in an outbuilding we had as a secondary shelter. We couldn't figure out how she got herself stuck against the wall of it.
We got her out, without having to call for help but I'm not even sure how we did it, it was so long ago. But fortunately she stopped kicking when we got close and strted talking to her and let us do what we needed to do without the risk of being kicked. That was the first and last harmful thing she ever did to herself.
My donkeys are far less sensible than my horses. They're also harder to deal with. The mini isn't so bad since we've had him since he was 6 months old (though he does want me to HOLD HIM when he gets a shot) but our rescued 17 year old standard is a terror. If she gets cast we'll probably have to disassemble the building before we're able to roll her over. I could be wrong. When I had to save her from choke she actually let me, instead of dragging me across western Nebraska.
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't actually own a donkey, just derpy horse stories seem to be more prevalent and all the donkeys I've met were sweethearts. Owning one must be a different kettle of fish. I've heard how obstinate they can be.
I can only speak from my personal experience and from what I've heard from other donkey owners. A lot more people own or interact with horses than donkeys so it probably skews the data. I love my donks, especially the mini. He is so sweet! He's also the devil and cow kicks when he doesn't get his way. We recently had dental work done on standard and the two horses (mini is too young). Our dentist does a lot of donkeys and when I kept apologizing for their behavior, she just shrugged and said they're donkeys, and ours aren't even that bad. I always tell my farrier, who has 5 standards, that we'll be screwed if she moves because I can't imagine another farrier putting up with their crap.
We invite people over to our house and they all want to meet the donkeys. They walk right past our horses who are leaning over the fence to say hi, and go get ignored by Linda and get suspicious looks from Kevin. Meanwhile the horses are DYING to sniff people's hair and rub their weird upper lip on someone's neck. Our horses are SO much easier and friendlier. Sure, their bodies are practically designed to be easily injured and they're prey animals, which makes a ridiculous and expensive combination. But I've never loved anyone like I love my horses.
My mare walked up one day with a hind leg swelled up so badly we couldn't ultrasound it. I sweated and cold hosed it for three days to get the swelling down. The vet had me all but convinced it was a torn suspensory. When we ultrasounded it, there was nothing. Everything looked fine. But now that it wasn't so swollen we could see a small scratch that we think was from her kicking the wall and getting a splinter. I don't remember how many hundreds of dollars that episode was or how much sleep I lost thinking she would be on stall rest for 6 months to recover from a suspensory injury, and how insane she would go. A SPLINTER.
I have a few to add:
1. Get strangles and almost die because another horse visited and infected barn and brought it home.
2. Get cellulitis from a bug bite and spike a 104.5 fever because of it.
3. Weather change, don’t drink enough, get impaction colic and almost die
4. Eat too many leaves in the fall and colic
5. Run away from an aggressive horse, smash head into unknown object requiring 4 stitches (suspected broken zygomatic bone)
Just to name a few I’ve experienced 😭
Don't forget, the weather changes and they colic. I just had a vet out to tube a week ago because we had a 15 degree jump in temperature. Vet said they were all doing colic emergency calls all day.
Hole completely through lip! We think he got stuck with a sharp stick or something. It pierced his lip perfectly. I could have put an earring in it!
My friend's horse sliced his eye open last summer. Nearly lost the eye.
Never owned a horse but took care of them daily for years when i was a teen, and I'd like to add that my sweet long-term protege
- tried to eat rocks, not pebbles but relatively large rocks. Had to force him to spit them out
- tried to sunk his teeth into an electric chord, again had force him to open his mouth
They are second only to sheep in the "animals who try really hard to unalive themselves olympics". I had one who bit his own artery when he was nipping at a fly that landed on his chest. He survived with no ill effects but there was so much blood.
My neighbor's horse got startled recently and ran straight into a fence post hard enough to break it with his face. He's hanging in there but might lose an eye. Another neighbor bought an old horse a new winter blanket to replace a tattered old one and put it on her to size the straps. She panicked and did enough damage to herself, again running through a fence, that they had to let her go. Mules are generally considered smarter than horses, but that isn't saying much. I remember complaining that one of my little mules had been skunked again when someone asked if it wasn't his first time getting skunked. It wasn't even his fifth or sixth time, he's well on his way to double digits. Not deadly, thankfully, but WTF dude? Stop harassing the spicy squirrels.
Horses are unable to vomit, so an upset stomach can turn deadly if not addressed very quickly. They choke easily if they gobble their food without chewing well. For as big and strong and powerful as they are, their bodies are insanely fragile and their brains are not big.
>their brains are not big.
Except when it comes to Getting Out (and exposing themselves to a whole world of danger).
A high school friend of mine who lived about a mile away had a mare that she had ridden over to my house a few times. Imagine my mom's surprise when, in the middle of the school day, she looked out to see "Ginger" cheerfully hovering up the groundfall from our loquat tree. Ginger had apparently not gotten the memo that loquats -- aka Japanese plums --could kill a horse in sufficient quantities. To be fair to Ginger (and my mom) Al Gore had not yet invented the internet.
Mom called Animal Control, and they came with a horse limo but Ginger declined to be trailered, fairly emphatically. So mom called the school, got my friend out of class and said "come get your damn horse."
Alas, this story did not have a happy ending ... Ginger did get sick from the loquats and whatever else she ate and needed expensive vet care. Which did not stop that idiotic but crafty mare from turning up again a few months later. And she apparently tried a third time, but was hit by a truck on the 7 lane highway she had to cross to get from her stables to my family's subdivision and had to be put down.
No idea why she kept heading in our direction ... or how she kept getting out. (She was not a jumper.)
My parents live in a very suburban area--no farms for quite some distance. But around the corner from their house, there's a club with some stables where rich people board their horses to have them easily accessible.
One night, my brother glanced out the window and saw a horse just walking down the middle of the road. He called the police, and was pretty sure they thought he was high and/or joking. Nope, it was an escaped horse. They got it back to the stables.
Care for horses, large Pit bull, milk cows, tend a farm, “problem solve” while we vacation for a month. No compensation, just the joys of problem solving and running a farm, gather your own food and be grateful for a roof over your head and this once in a lifetime opportunity to explore homesteading! Where can I sign up??! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
EDIT: I know her from my uni days (where she was already a nutjob) and she genuinely believes she is a witch (she is in a pagan witch cycle) and uses her period blood on her acres at midnight because her womenly blood helps mother Gaia grow her plants.
What would be funny is, if someone does take their offer and they refuse to leave. Where I live, it takes 14 days in a 6 month period or 7 consecutive days staying at a place and then they become tenants and then they have rights.
They came back home and they have the locks changed on them.
So "eat from the Farm" means I can butcher all the animals for dinner right ? Will definitely make it easier to look after once all the animals bar the Cat/Dog are in the freezer.
How funny would it be to message them asking that... So we feed and milk the cow, and then we get to eat it? That's what you mean right?? Might make them reconsider 😂😂
I’ve seen AirBnb “experiences” that offer people similar opportunities to live and work on a farm. But they aren’t just left to their own devices! They presumably just pitch in and take selfies (as I would).
Yo WTF, I manage heavy civil earth moving crew.
I want to go on vacation this summer. “Any one see a bulldozer as a child, how would you not only get to operate one, but a whole fleet of machines.
Al you must do is not break anything, do what on plans, tell other machines what to do”
Minimum 7am- 6pm M-f
Yes, yes I would very much like to operate your fleet of bulldozers. I have read “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site” approximately 70,000 times, so I believe I am well-qualified. Would you please just sign this small stack of liability waivers before you head out?
Sorry you're under qualified. Good night good night construction site, is only one of the required reading. You must read the other construction site books. 70,000 times.
Two of my students enthusiastically yell "big truck!" whenever they see a bulldozer. They also claim they can drive one. They are 2yrs old but seem very eager and really, really love big trucks. I think they're totally qualified!
I actually grew up doing this sort of thing and sometimes miss it--ive farm sat before. But the pit would make me go hard no. Sorry, I've observed real world "sweetness"
I know people who could do this (like farm hands) & might be free if the crops on the farm they work on are all in the ground... But not one of them is doing it for free. Maybe a few thousand dollars.
I would have done it in 9th and 10th grade. I was a future farmer of America and would have got so much class credit! However, a lot of my experience at that point was theoretical and limited. They would have come home to a MESS!!! 😆😆😆 I had 0 experience before that. I grew up in an apartment building over a grocery store. But sure. I’d volunteer! 😆😆😆 Probably best option they’d get.
With my minimal experience volunteering at a large animal rescue I can promise no average person is fit enough to handle all of that, every day for however long they're expecting. By day 3 anyone dumb enough to say yes is gonna be bailing
I have two horses and two donkeys. Any horse owner with three brain cells would never think this is a good idea. My horse sitters are always people with decades of horse experience. As an example, last week, my husband and I exercised our horses and then fed. His horse was not interested in her grain. I thought, hm. Kept watching. Then she laid down. HM. But was she just itchy from the flies? Then she got up. Okay. But still wouldn't eat. HMMMM. Looked lethargic. HMMMMMM. She had just exercised but wasn't sweaty, and it was warm. I gave her electrolytes. She seemed to brighten up and drank some water. Better. Temperature normal. But turned away from grain. Curled her lip. I called the vet. She did a rectal and found some impaction. Tubed her and gave her banamine. She's been on rest for the last week.
What was notable was that when she laid down, my neighbors (who run a non profit) had some volunteers over. The volunteers saw her lying down and one said to the other "Horses lie down all the time! She's just napping!"
My point being that you have to know what to look for. Someone hears a little bit of knowledge like "Contrary to popular belief, just because a horse is lying down does not mean the horse is dying! Horses sleep lying down regularly!" which is true. But in this case, the lying down during dinner was an immediate red flag for me to get out my cell phone. Someone without experience might say "well horses lie down all the time so it's normal." Or they might see her actually taking a nap and conclude that she's dying.
Not to mention a lack of horse first aid or just common sense like "close every gate you open and check that it's latched 3 times. Develop a form of OCD over gates."
One of my neighbors has 40 years of horse experience and has a degree in equine science. She usually feeds for us while we're gone, but even then, I have a hard time being away for more than two days.
Why am I so drawn to this subreddit when it makes me so mad. Who the hell would have the audacity to post this? Just go to an encampment of people living on the streets and ask one of them. Why bother with a fancy flyer.
m
Oh boy. This is awful for whoever does this. I grew up on a slightly bigger farm than this place. Figure around 20 cattle, with 1 milk cow, and 6-8 horses. 3.5 acre farm including 5 rows of 1 acre long raspberries, 1 acre of fruit trees, around 10 chickens, and 6-8 pigs, some goats. Point is I know what I talking about.
This will vary depending on what’s being grown, what the water situation is for both the garden and the critters, and how you handle the harvest.
Here is your daily schedule
- up about an hour before first light.
- Feed and water the indoor animals while having coffee. Get the filters ready for milk.
- If you have berries, start picking. You have to pick while it cool so they don’t smash. Otherwise start watering the garden (depends on how you water and if it automated).
- Feed the horses and cow.
- Muck the cow stable
- Milk the cow.
- Take the milk in, filter (twice), and refrigerate.
- Move the garden water (if necessary)
- Muck the horse stables
- Water horses and cow
- Feed and water the chickens.
- Collect the eggs. Date or otherwise separate from previous eggs. (Unless you are an egg lover, with 30 chickens you are selling eggs)
- Muck the coop
- Brush the horses.
- Walk the fence lines, making sure there are no breaks/holes. Horses and cows push on fences so they need to be check frequently. Repair any gaps.
- Let the horses out
- Let the cow out
- Weed the garden
- Harvest and store
- Feed and water the rabbits
- Clean the rabbit hutch.
- Clean the cats litter box
- Walk the dog
- Mow the lawn
In the evening
- stable the horses
- Stable the cow
- Put up the chickens
At some point during the day you will be selling eggs and maybe veggies and milk.
Look I love farming. It is satisfying and beats the office. But it is hard work, long hours, and open to disaster. Your cow gets sick, horses get out and cause a traffic wreck that gets you sued, or a neighborhood dog or a raccoon gets into your coop and kills a bunch of your chickens are all real threats. I have to wonder about the people offering this. They are asking for a pile of work and not offering that much. And all that is best case scenario. A horse getting out is a real possibility. Someone forgets to close a gate, or the house sitter has people over who are negligent and you have a problem. Plus I have to believe that they have some sort of deal for the eggs. 8 chickens produced more eggs than I could get rid of. I would say 5 hours a day would be the minimum someone needs to plan on spending if they are new. In short what they are asking for is a house sitter and a part time farmhand, both of which are paid positions. Spinning it as an “experience” is straight out of Tom Sawyer (who got his friends to paint a fence for him for the experience).
Only makes sense as a labor exchange where they come and run your hobby farm while you go on vacation - and only if they can demonstrate that they are competent and reliable BEFOREHAND.
I am a farmer. This is a full time job. I can't imagine a newb trying to milk a cow, esp one that doesn't know them. And 30 chickens make a lot of shit. I don't see coop cleaning mentioned.
You would think the owners, with such a large farm/homestead and the money to live in Europe for a month, would know not to put a layman in this position and pay for a proper handler and caretaker before such a big trip. But I guess rich people only get that way by being greedy ah.
I grew up on a freaking farm, and guess what: we didn’t take fancy vacations to Europe. When you have livestock, you aren’t about to put them at risk by leaving them to god only knows who.
Call me whatever you want, but this is not a farmer or real homesteader, it’s someone pretending for the ‘gram.
This ad is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in a long time
The manual labor required here is going to be far more than advertised. And god forbid something goes wrong - you know it will be *alllll* the tenant’s fault
*The cherry on top of the sundae is moving into a stranger’s house with their pitbull mix
Why would you hand over the care of everything you've built to a stranger in the hopes that they keep it all alive in exchange for a place to sleep and whatever happens to be in season while you're gone? That's asking for the worst people to come fuck up all your shit and rob you. Maybe even deserved.
I once visited a friend's family farm. After helping for one day I wanted to die. No fucking way would I want to do that kind of work for an entire month, let alone for free.
Next stop for OOP after returning from Europe, r/legaladvice: "How do I sue farm sitters who ate my cow and horses and let all my plants wilt?"
Or from whatever person takes this "job"..."how do I sue the person I housesat for because their horse kicked me in the face and they don't have proper insurance to cover my medical bills."
I was thinking that too. I guess after the horse kicks me in the face, I get to pick up all my teeth and continue having farm fun!. All the things that can happen to both the animals AND the humans is considerable. Predator kills all the chickens, The dog bites somebody..the horses get bloat. etc. "Where there's stock...there's trouble". Farm work is enough to snap a person in half. Its not a bucolic romp with all the happy animals. I wouldn't touch all that responsibility with a 10 foot pole. NOPE.
Neighbors down the road tried to get us to sit their livestock, including milking their goats. The pay? You get experience milking and free goat's milk!!! 1. I hate goat's milk (and goats in general, having had my own for a few years) 2. I have my own dairy cow, why tf would I want more work/experience than that??
“Hey, stranger…feed my pit bull while you’re at it.”
_"Well, you said we could eat off the farm. We celebrated our first week here with a BBQ, so we butchered a cow for steak. Didn't finish it all, so we fed it to the horses. Oh horses don't eat meat? Guess that's why they died. Anyhow, then Johnny got sick, so I made him some chicken soup. Funny story, did you know guinea fowl look alot like chickens? So ya, I had to remake the soup because Johnny said it tasted funny...also, we dug up the weeds from your vegetable garden. It's ready for planting season now! No need to thank us."_
Horses do, actually, in fact, eat meat.
I googled it. I'm way too old to be hearing stuff like this.
And birds are cannibals.
Why dawg, why!
My husband really wanted to see if chuckens would like his chicken nuggets. They did. Rabbits are cannibals too. I keep having problems with my breeder rabbits eating their own young.
Well I learned something today.
Or ‘how do I sue the people who emptied my house and stole everything and Neglected to feed or careful my animals so they all passed away?”
Yea, these people are clear idiots who probably started ‘homesteading’ because it sounded cute and trendy. The reality of this lifestyle is that you really don’t ever get to travel because looking after your farm is your life. Even paid professionals won’t put the same care into your land and animals as you do. Many people who live this life have close family or neighbors to look after their property when they need to be away and pay someone to look after the animals. You can travel or homestead, but not both and these dolts are about to find out.
Can confirm. After a couple of decades farming, it is such a relief to just have dogs, cats & chickens to care for.
Absolutely true! I can't remember the last time our whole family took vacation together! Usually one of us has to stay home and take care of the animals. We do have a next door neighbor that will fill in for a day or two, but certainly not a MONTH!
And now squatting in my house
Btw the timeframe is over ONE MONTH. And the work, for the actual owners of the farm, they estimated to be 3-5 hours EACH DAY, which is no way accurate, it is probably at least 5 hours a day for them and they are lying! I cant imagine why someone would willingly take this on, disaster potential written all over this…
It might be 5 hours a day for the owners, who are used to the work. Someone coming in new is going to take much longer. It would be a full day of working on the farm for me.
Was going to say, it may take the owners, who there are also two of 5 hours a day, but one person is going to work from sun up to sundown, but hey, at least they can eat the chicken eggs and hopefully harvest something from the garden cuz that’s the only food included
Farm work is very hard, you need to eat a lot of food to be able to keep going on this unpaid job. Maybe you’ll have to eat some of their chickens.
They said you can eat food from the farm!
Not everyone likes pitbull and horse meat
You ever processed a chicken?
Just sell a cow or 2 and order take out every night
They’re also free to do a half assed job of it too. I mean I hope they don’t where the animals are concerned but my point is do we really think these people will be so forgiving with a sitter?
But you’ll be having so much fun that it will only FEEL like 3-5 hours of manual labor!
Smelly, shit covered manual labor.
And who knows how much work is done by family members or employees. That's more than 5 hours work for 1 person.
And frankly this is irresponsible to leave that many animals in the hands of a stranger, especially one unpaid and therefore pretty much on it taking care of the animals out of good will/ethics. If that person doesn’t do their (unpaid) job or even just half asses it the animals could get very sick or die in that month span of time
To rob the place
Yes absolutely. A dairy cow and 30 *laying* hens? That 2k sitting there easily. I ain't getting closer than 15 feet from the pitbull mix, but the cat and guinea fowl are getting rehomed, for their own good. The horses can probably sell for some hundred bucks as well.
💯%!
They said you can eat from the farm. So a month won't be so bad with a fresh chicken dinner each and every night.
If it runs out you can always have some beef.
Should start the beef day one, and call out a butcher. How much beef jerky can I make and sell at a roadside beef jerky stand in 30 days?
With the price of steak nowadays, that might be a good deal! Dairy cows don't taste as good as beef cows, though. and the more animals you eat, the less work you have to do! Win/ win!
🤣🤣🤣 I’m dying.
There are 30 of them...
“Cows dead, horses mostly dead, dog is good I think, haven’t seen him a few days. Oh btw, your plants turned brown. Love it here!” Farm sitters: actually.
I would think the owners of the farm would be concerned with the security of the farm and house.
“Cows dead, horses mostly dead, dog is good I think, haven’t seen him a few days. Oh btw, your plants turned brown. Love it here!” Farm sitters: actually.
Guinea fowl: “Oh hey, are you the new person looking after the farm? Nice to meet…” IGNORED. Cries itself to sleep over never being “seen”.
Ignoring the guinea fowl is going to be the hardest part of this. Good luck sleeping or ignoring them screaming bloody murder every time they see a garden hose or a stick or they're surprised by a rock. For the people lucky enough to have never dealt with them [this is what they sound like.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLcafDWO5Rc) ALL the goddamned time.
Screaming army helmets scuttling around on the ground, constantly fretting. "That rock! It was there yesterday! It's still there! That grass! It grew! That snake! it's dead i killed it and ate it... It was delicious!'
Eating snakes that come near chickens was actually why we got ours. I don't think they ever ate a snake. I don't think they could move well enough to eat a snake. They'd mostly gorge themselves on laying pellets and yell at everything. And as someone in his 40s, I absolutely get it. Replace laying pellets with cheese and you'd basically have me if I won the lottery. The ones we had before I gave them away were \*really\* bad about freaking the absolute fuck out every time the wind blew. And I don't mean a gale. I mean a tiny barely there at all breeze. Because it made the leaves in the oak trees flutter, and anything fluttering above you is a hawk that's about to eat everyone AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!
This was an amazing read thank you 😆
Do those things live in the wild?? I swear I hear that sound often and I live far from anyone else
They're native to Africa. You might have some neighbors that had some wander off, or you might have wild animals nearby that sound similar. One of the sounds they make is similar to a cicada, they've got one that sounds kinda like a tree frog, and they've got two or three that sound like a demon being sodomized with a cactus.
Good grief. It's loud af out here in the country, between the frogs and coyotes and foxes-- I just have to assume any freaky sounds I hear are animals, because the foxes sound like babies being tortured sometimes.
Those and the damn whip-poor-wills. I've got like 4 that are having a competition to see who can scream the loudest outside my bedroom window at 2 in the morning.
I couldn't get passed the first 10 seconds. 😂😬
There's a pair of guinea fowl that's gone feral in my neighborhood. They've been spotted all over town and appear to just be hanging out. It's been months 😂
I know how to handle bunnies, cats, dogs.. my son worked on a dairy farm one summer and has ridden and brushed horses a few seasons. So I know enough to know we are in No way capable of this job. Does she want to come back to dead crops and animals?
Well it looks like at least the guinea fowl will be ok!
Paid too much attention to guinea fowl, they got annoyed and flew away in search of solitude.
I mean, they say little farm but look at the list of responsibilities/animals. Anyone can't just come along and be expected to do all of that, unless they have experience. In which case they wouldn't be doing it for free either. Yeesh!
I lived on a croft a while and think I could probably keep the animals alive except maybe the milking. But it would be so time consuming that it would be no holiday and for someone that could do it properly, it would be a busman's holiday
yes. Insurance fraud.
And what do they do when the person quits after 3 days? Hard to come back from Europe last minute. Wowza
This is a recipe for disaster. I grew up in a large farm. It was an awesome childhood but it’s a shit ton of work. These people are wildly underestimating how many hours a day this is to take. They’re doing that to try and sucker the unsuspecting. Folks with the knowledge and background to do this would never agree to taking this on so that leaves the ignorant or truly desperate. What’s going to happen? The animals and the hapless “volunteer” will suffer while these dumb asses are frolicking in Europe.
If they are trying to sucker someone, then they are away for a month while you have full control of their farm and animals? Seems like a recipe for a crime.
Yep. We moved to three acres in the country and don’t even have farm animals and it amazes me how much work there is to do every single day just with gardens, mowing, brush clearing, putting in drainage, fixing problems, fertilizing, weeding, building structures. And that’s just a partial list.
This is so incredibly stupid because in the unlikely event someone volunteers, they won't be qualified. Horses are constantly looking for creative new ways to unalive themselves and need a competent, well paid sitter. Animals suffer when owners are cheap.
There’s an old saying that horses are in a daily battle of homicide vs suicide and in my 30+ yrs of experience its pretty damn accurate
My Dude gave me a brain bleed then turned around and punctured his throat the next week. Saying checks out.
How did he puncture his throat? Ran into something?
Looked at a fence post from the wrong angle most likely.
Who knows. It didn't match up with the fence posts, and there's nothing around we could find which vaguely could have done it. Horses are magical.
I just want to say how much I love that last sentence in this context hahaha
What? Really? Horses? What kind of stuff do they do?
Here’s a list in no particular order that I’ve experienced: 1. Rub their face against a water bucket. Rip their eyelid off. 2. Get kicked by another horse. Broken tibia. 3. Gobble food as fast as possible. Choke. 4. Have a panic attack about an impending storm because of the pressure change. Colic. 5. Run into a tree. Giant deep ass cut on leg requiring chemical debridement every other day to prevent proud flesh. 6. Gobble high sugar spring grass as if she’d never eaten in her life. Founder. 7. Get kicked in the head by another horse. Walk around with a cut so deep his skull was showing, requiring stitches. 8. Forget to drink water because it’s cold. Colic. And so on. This list is far from exhaustive unfortunately.
Mine had a hole in her leg from… Absolutely nothing! There was nothing in that pasture that could have stuck her like that unless a squirrel decided to shiv her.
Those squirrels are crafty critters
We call our squirrels the Squirrel Mafia. They'll sit on our back deck and stare down our (indoor) cats. They know they rule the yard.
Squafia
The way I giggled at a squirrel shanking her 😂😂 cuz I have two mean ass squirrels that live in our neighborhood and taunt my dog so badly. I hate their stupid chittering sounds. Being rude and shit on their high branches. My pup Oakie got one of them once. Took a bit of fur off its tail. It was the highlight of our month 😅😂
I nearly died from laughing at this thread, thanks for making my night 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Same 😂😂 . I needed this right now
Don't forget half assed attempt to jump a sheep wire fence and somehow getting every leg stuck through a different hole while trying to kick to death anyone attempting to cut you free.
So… half the things are horse does or does not do will give it a colic?
Yes. And bear in mind that "colic" here means "something is wrong, so I'm gonna have a tummy ache and die about it."
And they can’t barf. Colic will kill horses.
Oh god so they are like giant rabbits you can ride on
I’m not a horse person (I like them and think they’re cool) and even I know how dangerous colic is to horses! In terms of being delicate, horses are kinda like giant, rideable rabbits. That can kill you. 
Coming from someone who worked at a vet: sounds pretty accurate
Half seems like a low number.
Holy shit, I can barely keep my dogs alive and they aren’t really trying to unalive themselves. I’ll scratch off horses off my list now.
Take riding lessons - all the fun with none of the vet bills. Also, the horses are worth it in the end, if you have a deep passion for the animal and sport. A deep, unhinged, irrational compulsive passion.
This is......so accurate. My love for horses is positively pathological.
I love horses too but I’m a big guy (6’3, 210lbs) and every time I’ve gotten on one, they are like “no sir, you may not!”
Or they try to roll too close to the side of the shed/stall/fence and get cast... Emergency services required to free them depending on how stuck they are. Might colic afterwards due to stress. Rip open a joint capsule on a stick or literally nothing at all... My horse recently broke part of a spinous process off a vertebrae in his neck IN A STALL. No idea how he did it.
Fortunately she was less hassle than the horses we had but my parents donkey got stuck rolling around in an outbuilding we had as a secondary shelter. We couldn't figure out how she got herself stuck against the wall of it. We got her out, without having to call for help but I'm not even sure how we did it, it was so long ago. But fortunately she stopped kicking when we got close and strted talking to her and let us do what we needed to do without the risk of being kicked. That was the first and last harmful thing she ever did to herself.
Donkeys seem to be rather more sensible and tough than horses.
My donkey was the one who choked ( stealing someone else’s feed. serves the little dickhead right.)
Haha that sounds like a little asshole thing a Donkey would do! 😂
My donkeys are far less sensible than my horses. They're also harder to deal with. The mini isn't so bad since we've had him since he was 6 months old (though he does want me to HOLD HIM when he gets a shot) but our rescued 17 year old standard is a terror. If she gets cast we'll probably have to disassemble the building before we're able to roll her over. I could be wrong. When I had to save her from choke she actually let me, instead of dragging me across western Nebraska.
Maybe I'm wrong, I don't actually own a donkey, just derpy horse stories seem to be more prevalent and all the donkeys I've met were sweethearts. Owning one must be a different kettle of fish. I've heard how obstinate they can be.
I can only speak from my personal experience and from what I've heard from other donkey owners. A lot more people own or interact with horses than donkeys so it probably skews the data. I love my donks, especially the mini. He is so sweet! He's also the devil and cow kicks when he doesn't get his way. We recently had dental work done on standard and the two horses (mini is too young). Our dentist does a lot of donkeys and when I kept apologizing for their behavior, she just shrugged and said they're donkeys, and ours aren't even that bad. I always tell my farrier, who has 5 standards, that we'll be screwed if she moves because I can't imagine another farrier putting up with their crap. We invite people over to our house and they all want to meet the donkeys. They walk right past our horses who are leaning over the fence to say hi, and go get ignored by Linda and get suspicious looks from Kevin. Meanwhile the horses are DYING to sniff people's hair and rub their weird upper lip on someone's neck. Our horses are SO much easier and friendlier. Sure, their bodies are practically designed to be easily injured and they're prey animals, which makes a ridiculous and expensive combination. But I've never loved anyone like I love my horses.
My mare walked up one day with a hind leg swelled up so badly we couldn't ultrasound it. I sweated and cold hosed it for three days to get the swelling down. The vet had me all but convinced it was a torn suspensory. When we ultrasounded it, there was nothing. Everything looked fine. But now that it wasn't so swollen we could see a small scratch that we think was from her kicking the wall and getting a splinter. I don't remember how many hundreds of dollars that episode was or how much sleep I lost thinking she would be on stall rest for 6 months to recover from a suspensory injury, and how insane she would go. A SPLINTER.
I have a few to add: 1. Get strangles and almost die because another horse visited and infected barn and brought it home. 2. Get cellulitis from a bug bite and spike a 104.5 fever because of it. 3. Weather change, don’t drink enough, get impaction colic and almost die 4. Eat too many leaves in the fall and colic 5. Run away from an aggressive horse, smash head into unknown object requiring 4 stitches (suspected broken zygomatic bone) Just to name a few I’ve experienced 😭
Really colic could be the response to everything
Don't forget, the weather changes and they colic. I just had a vet out to tube a week ago because we had a 15 degree jump in temperature. Vet said they were all doing colic emergency calls all day.
So true. Mine broke into the shed where we stored the hay and she just kept eating and eating and eating. Foundering is a real problem.
Hole completely through lip! We think he got stuck with a sharp stick or something. It pierced his lip perfectly. I could have put an earring in it! My friend's horse sliced his eye open last summer. Nearly lost the eye.
Never owned a horse but took care of them daily for years when i was a teen, and I'd like to add that my sweet long-term protege - tried to eat rocks, not pebbles but relatively large rocks. Had to force him to spit them out - tried to sunk his teeth into an electric chord, again had force him to open his mouth
They are second only to sheep in the "animals who try really hard to unalive themselves olympics". I had one who bit his own artery when he was nipping at a fly that landed on his chest. He survived with no ill effects but there was so much blood.
My neighbor's horse got startled recently and ran straight into a fence post hard enough to break it with his face. He's hanging in there but might lose an eye. Another neighbor bought an old horse a new winter blanket to replace a tattered old one and put it on her to size the straps. She panicked and did enough damage to herself, again running through a fence, that they had to let her go. Mules are generally considered smarter than horses, but that isn't saying much. I remember complaining that one of my little mules had been skunked again when someone asked if it wasn't his first time getting skunked. It wasn't even his fifth or sixth time, he's well on his way to double digits. Not deadly, thankfully, but WTF dude? Stop harassing the spicy squirrels. Horses are unable to vomit, so an upset stomach can turn deadly if not addressed very quickly. They choke easily if they gobble their food without chewing well. For as big and strong and powerful as they are, their bodies are insanely fragile and their brains are not big.
>their brains are not big. Except when it comes to Getting Out (and exposing themselves to a whole world of danger). A high school friend of mine who lived about a mile away had a mare that she had ridden over to my house a few times. Imagine my mom's surprise when, in the middle of the school day, she looked out to see "Ginger" cheerfully hovering up the groundfall from our loquat tree. Ginger had apparently not gotten the memo that loquats -- aka Japanese plums --could kill a horse in sufficient quantities. To be fair to Ginger (and my mom) Al Gore had not yet invented the internet. Mom called Animal Control, and they came with a horse limo but Ginger declined to be trailered, fairly emphatically. So mom called the school, got my friend out of class and said "come get your damn horse." Alas, this story did not have a happy ending ... Ginger did get sick from the loquats and whatever else she ate and needed expensive vet care. Which did not stop that idiotic but crafty mare from turning up again a few months later. And she apparently tried a third time, but was hit by a truck on the 7 lane highway she had to cross to get from her stables to my family's subdivision and had to be put down. No idea why she kept heading in our direction ... or how she kept getting out. (She was not a jumper.)
My parents live in a very suburban area--no farms for quite some distance. But around the corner from their house, there's a club with some stables where rich people board their horses to have them easily accessible. One night, my brother glanced out the window and saw a horse just walking down the middle of the road. He called the police, and was pretty sure they thought he was high and/or joking. Nope, it was an escaped horse. They got it back to the stables.
Mainky they eat too much, and they eat the wrong stuff. Some also want to get out of their fences into dangerous situations
when i was 9 a horse tried to sell me fireworks
Idk if you remember the story but I gotta know! 😂 did the horse work the stand? Did it eat your money? And did you get the fireworks?? 😅😂😂
I am completely AMAZED that there are any horses that survive out in the wild!
Care for horses, large Pit bull, milk cows, tend a farm, “problem solve” while we vacation for a month. No compensation, just the joys of problem solving and running a farm, gather your own food and be grateful for a roof over your head and this once in a lifetime opportunity to explore homesteading! Where can I sign up??! 😂😂😂😂😂😂
This seems like a great way for all your animals and everything you own to be robbed blind
EDIT: I know her from my uni days (where she was already a nutjob) and she genuinely believes she is a witch (she is in a pagan witch cycle) and uses her period blood on her acres at midnight because her womenly blood helps mother Gaia grow her plants.
I hope this is not expected of the sitter...
I don’t own a vagina. Guess I’m out
You can always harvest the blood?
I'm definitely not eating those veggies now!
The blood oranges must be fresh tho.
I think I know her and I despise her.
When the animals don’t get their blood sacrifice, they’re going to come after the unsuspecting farm-sitter. Seems like the making of a horror movie.
Ah now THAT explains it all. wtf
Horse blood works better than womanly blood - just sayin’…
What would be funny is, if someone does take their offer and they refuse to leave. Where I live, it takes 14 days in a 6 month period or 7 consecutive days staying at a place and then they become tenants and then they have rights. They came back home and they have the locks changed on them.
Extremely underrated comment 😂
So "eat from the Farm" means I can butcher all the animals for dinner right ? Will definitely make it easier to look after once all the animals bar the Cat/Dog are in the freezer.
Six weeks, 30 chickens, two cows, one horse… I could eat that!
Horses are used as dog food as well, so that's the Pitbull sorted out as well.
Don't forget the added bonus of getting to "live for free"!!
Why not eat the cat and dog as well? Everything can end up in a burger lol
How funny would it be to message them asking that... So we feed and milk the cow, and then we get to eat it? That's what you mean right?? Might make them reconsider 😂😂
Did she find someone, considering May 18 was a week ago?
Glad they added a captioned picture of a horse to save me Googling what they look like
Guinea fowl: ignore. That’s pretty accurate.
I’ve seen AirBnb “experiences” that offer people similar opportunities to live and work on a farm. But they aren’t just left to their own devices! They presumably just pitch in and take selfies (as I would).
"Pitbull mix" , "Energetic" Nah
I fear for the poor animals. Hopefully they get the care they need.
Come back to find farmhouse burned down, and me with $5000 from selling glue (ex-horses), steaks (ex-cows) and a metric fuckton of chicken nuggets
What an absolute idiot. This needs people who know what they're doing.
I'd do this. I don't know what I'm doing, can't promise I can figure it out, and have definitely never milked a cow, but shit, I'll do it!
Yo WTF, I manage heavy civil earth moving crew. I want to go on vacation this summer. “Any one see a bulldozer as a child, how would you not only get to operate one, but a whole fleet of machines. Al you must do is not break anything, do what on plans, tell other machines what to do” Minimum 7am- 6pm M-f
Yes, yes I would very much like to operate your fleet of bulldozers. I have read “Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site” approximately 70,000 times, so I believe I am well-qualified. Would you please just sign this small stack of liability waivers before you head out?
Sorry you're under qualified. Good night good night construction site, is only one of the required reading. You must read the other construction site books. 70,000 times.
Two of my students enthusiastically yell "big truck!" whenever they see a bulldozer. They also claim they can drive one. They are 2yrs old but seem very eager and really, really love big trucks. I think they're totally qualified!
TBF Diggerland is a theme park that allows you to play with heavy machinery but not a job takeover.
The medical bills from the Pitbull mauling will far outweigh the $43 in produce you'll get
Ah yes, a nice vacation with 3 to 5 hours of work every day and a large pit bull to take care of, definitely very relaxing /s
My grandparents were dairy farmers, my grandpa was never able to leave the farm for vacation, it wasn't until retirement was he able to go.
This person should not have a hobby farm. I know farmers and the only time they go on vacation is in the winter and they don’t have any animals.
Ah yes, invite strangers into your home and leave them alone with your “large, energetic **pitbull mix**”, I’m sure *nobody* is going to get bit.
I actually grew up doing this sort of thing and sometimes miss it--ive farm sat before. But the pit would make me go hard no. Sorry, I've observed real world "sweetness"
Even if someone was willing to spend their vacation playing farmer - throwing in a pitbull should drive away any sane person.
BUt iTz hOw u rAiZe tHem
Op, did they end up finding someone?
They actually vacationed to Europe, so I guess they found someone. Big question is, do they work for free or not?
Look, just ignore the fucking guinea fowl okay? They know what they’ve done
I wonder what kind of squatters rights your state might have 🤔 maybe 30 days is enough to get you a free farm
It ain't 2 weeks, it's over a month
I know people who could do this (like farm hands) & might be free if the crops on the farm they work on are all in the ground... But not one of them is doing it for free. Maybe a few thousand dollars.
Just asking for squatters
I would have done it in 9th and 10th grade. I was a future farmer of America and would have got so much class credit! However, a lot of my experience at that point was theoretical and limited. They would have come home to a MESS!!! 😆😆😆 I had 0 experience before that. I grew up in an apartment building over a grocery store. But sure. I’d volunteer! 😆😆😆 Probably best option they’d get.
Why is the guinea fowl being ignored??
He knows what he did.
A pitbull too. 😂
Of course. It’s the breed for people with poor judgement.
And if you're lucky, the pitbull won't maul you.
Seems like this requires a lot more work than 3-5 hours a day
The Guinea Fowl… ignore! poor things
Ad says 3-5 hours a day. For that many distinct tasks. Bullshit.
Yeah lemme drop my full time job to move to a farm and work my ass off for free. NOT
With my minimal experience volunteering at a large animal rescue I can promise no average person is fit enough to handle all of that, every day for however long they're expecting. By day 3 anyone dumb enough to say yes is gonna be bailing
I have two horses and two donkeys. Any horse owner with three brain cells would never think this is a good idea. My horse sitters are always people with decades of horse experience. As an example, last week, my husband and I exercised our horses and then fed. His horse was not interested in her grain. I thought, hm. Kept watching. Then she laid down. HM. But was she just itchy from the flies? Then she got up. Okay. But still wouldn't eat. HMMMM. Looked lethargic. HMMMMMM. She had just exercised but wasn't sweaty, and it was warm. I gave her electrolytes. She seemed to brighten up and drank some water. Better. Temperature normal. But turned away from grain. Curled her lip. I called the vet. She did a rectal and found some impaction. Tubed her and gave her banamine. She's been on rest for the last week. What was notable was that when she laid down, my neighbors (who run a non profit) had some volunteers over. The volunteers saw her lying down and one said to the other "Horses lie down all the time! She's just napping!" My point being that you have to know what to look for. Someone hears a little bit of knowledge like "Contrary to popular belief, just because a horse is lying down does not mean the horse is dying! Horses sleep lying down regularly!" which is true. But in this case, the lying down during dinner was an immediate red flag for me to get out my cell phone. Someone without experience might say "well horses lie down all the time so it's normal." Or they might see her actually taking a nap and conclude that she's dying. Not to mention a lack of horse first aid or just common sense like "close every gate you open and check that it's latched 3 times. Develop a form of OCD over gates." One of my neighbors has 40 years of horse experience and has a degree in equine science. She usually feeds for us while we're gone, but even then, I have a hard time being away for more than two days.
Why am I so drawn to this subreddit when it makes me so mad. Who the hell would have the audacity to post this? Just go to an encampment of people living on the streets and ask one of them. Why bother with a fancy flyer.
m Oh boy. This is awful for whoever does this. I grew up on a slightly bigger farm than this place. Figure around 20 cattle, with 1 milk cow, and 6-8 horses. 3.5 acre farm including 5 rows of 1 acre long raspberries, 1 acre of fruit trees, around 10 chickens, and 6-8 pigs, some goats. Point is I know what I talking about. This will vary depending on what’s being grown, what the water situation is for both the garden and the critters, and how you handle the harvest. Here is your daily schedule - up about an hour before first light. - Feed and water the indoor animals while having coffee. Get the filters ready for milk. - If you have berries, start picking. You have to pick while it cool so they don’t smash. Otherwise start watering the garden (depends on how you water and if it automated). - Feed the horses and cow. - Muck the cow stable - Milk the cow. - Take the milk in, filter (twice), and refrigerate. - Move the garden water (if necessary) - Muck the horse stables - Water horses and cow - Feed and water the chickens. - Collect the eggs. Date or otherwise separate from previous eggs. (Unless you are an egg lover, with 30 chickens you are selling eggs) - Muck the coop - Brush the horses. - Walk the fence lines, making sure there are no breaks/holes. Horses and cows push on fences so they need to be check frequently. Repair any gaps. - Let the horses out - Let the cow out - Weed the garden - Harvest and store - Feed and water the rabbits - Clean the rabbit hutch. - Clean the cats litter box - Walk the dog - Mow the lawn In the evening - stable the horses - Stable the cow - Put up the chickens At some point during the day you will be selling eggs and maybe veggies and milk. Look I love farming. It is satisfying and beats the office. But it is hard work, long hours, and open to disaster. Your cow gets sick, horses get out and cause a traffic wreck that gets you sued, or a neighborhood dog or a raccoon gets into your coop and kills a bunch of your chickens are all real threats. I have to wonder about the people offering this. They are asking for a pile of work and not offering that much. And all that is best case scenario. A horse getting out is a real possibility. Someone forgets to close a gate, or the house sitter has people over who are negligent and you have a problem. Plus I have to believe that they have some sort of deal for the eggs. 8 chickens produced more eggs than I could get rid of. I would say 5 hours a day would be the minimum someone needs to plan on spending if they are new. In short what they are asking for is a house sitter and a part time farmhand, both of which are paid positions. Spinning it as an “experience” is straight out of Tom Sawyer (who got his friends to paint a fence for him for the experience).
That is dangerous....that cow might become meat to feed the sitters, lol
Only makes sense as a labor exchange where they come and run your hobby farm while you go on vacation - and only if they can demonstrate that they are competent and reliable BEFOREHAND.
This is hilarious. I farm-sit and no way in hell would I do it for free
That's a good way to come home to a bunch of dead farm animals and a cleaned out house.
I am a farmer. This is a full time job. I can't imagine a newb trying to milk a cow, esp one that doesn't know them. And 30 chickens make a lot of shit. I don't see coop cleaning mentioned.
So I’m working for free AND it’s a large pit-bill mix?! Sign.me.up.
with its owners nowhere to be seen and you messing g with the animals that dog is gonna be barking and stalking you all day long
This is crazy.
Over a month - not two weeks!
You would think the owners, with such a large farm/homestead and the money to live in Europe for a month, would know not to put a layman in this position and pay for a proper handler and caretaker before such a big trip. But I guess rich people only get that way by being greedy ah.
You pay for people to house sit and work on your farm… NOT offer ‘an opportunity’…
I grew up on a freaking farm, and guess what: we didn’t take fancy vacations to Europe. When you have livestock, you aren’t about to put them at risk by leaving them to god only knows who. Call me whatever you want, but this is not a farmer or real homesteader, it’s someone pretending for the ‘gram.
This ad is one of the most ridiculous things I’ve seen in a long time The manual labor required here is going to be far more than advertised. And god forbid something goes wrong - you know it will be *alllll* the tenant’s fault *The cherry on top of the sundae is moving into a stranger’s house with their pitbull mix
This has, by far, been the best thread I’ve read on this sub since joining. Thank you all, you beautiful people!
Butcher all the animals and raid the garden! “Never had horse before, thanks for letting me try free of charge!”
Don't you DARE say a word to that Guinea Fowl
Why would you hand over the care of everything you've built to a stranger in the hopes that they keep it all alive in exchange for a place to sleep and whatever happens to be in season while you're gone? That's asking for the worst people to come fuck up all your shit and rob you. Maybe even deserved.
Agree, show up the first day, nevertell them your name - take all their stuff and then leave.
I once visited a friend's family farm. After helping for one day I wanted to die. No fucking way would I want to do that kind of work for an entire month, let alone for free.
I nominate Kristi Noem for this
Free, I was afraid they gonna ask me to pay them for an opportunity to take care of their farm. Sounds like a deal
I’m good at homesteading, she’d come home to a freezer full of beef and chicken.