Supporting a mobile lifestyle

Since the title of this blog site is “Of work and travel in a mobile lifestyle” and my latest blogs have focused on the travel aspect, this time I will describe the work by which my husband and I are able to continue to be full-time RVers.

Throughout the summer much of our time is taken up in yardsitting. We have friends who travel quite extensively and like to know their acreages are secure, the mail picked up, garden tended and the lawn mowed while they are away. We park in the yard and enjoy the quietness and scenery while tending the yard in exchange for power and water for our RV. We try to make the labour a fair exchange for what we save in camp site fees.

Last summer we did a similar stint for a lovely couple we met through www.housecarers.com, the same web site through which we found our winter housesitting arrangement. Currently, our 2012 schedule is fairly booked until mid- August.

Our yardsitting and camping radius is within an hour’s drive from Red Deer. That enables me to commute to my regular job in Red Deer. There I work at the Red Deer Advocate. Four days of the week involve data entry of display advertising bookings and creating “dummies”, the first step in producing a newspaper. On the fifth day I head to the newsroom, where I post the stories from the newspaper to the Advocate web site and upload pictures taken by the photographers to the online photo store. The procedure is routine but the interaction with coworkers about the issues of the day is stimulating. I often describe my work as “I play on a computer and read the news. What’s not to like?”

My work day is similar to other employees, but home is not always in the same direction and I don’t have to pack up to “go camping”. When vacation time comes there is little preparation necessary to be ready to take to the road. The biggest decision is which direction to travel and for how long. Vacation is really just different scenery while staying at home.

As we travel to and fro, time passes quickly. It is hard to believe we are headed into the third summer of our dream!