We have been house and farm sitting for almost 8 years. Farmsitters Australia is a good site run by a young lady in the new england area. We have had some paid work through them. Most of our jobs are from aussie house sitters although people who have contacted us via this site are usually not looking for paid sitters which is ok by us as we are happy to live for nothing and enjoy someone elses life for a short time. We had a call from Inverall last week from a farmer wanting sitters for 9 months but that is too long in one place for us. Good luck.
-- Edited by tezza on Friday 5th of October 2012 07:54:53 AM
Cowboy7307 said
01:25 PM Oct 5, 2012
Has any one had any thing to do with farm sitting
and or used the farm sitting web site
sufil said
02:47 PM Oct 5, 2012
Yes we have done a few. Ours have been done thru HELPX, and word of mouth, rather than thru farm sitting websites. Check animals, water points,feed household pets, maintain gardens etc.
B-T said
03:51 PM Oct 5, 2012
I think most owners would like to see people for at least six months. We have been on the current property for 18 months and just love it. Owners are looking for people who are honest and reliable who can use their initiative, capable of doing water runs to ensure stock have water. This may involve starting and stopping windmills or pumps. They often require gardens to be maintained and watered and odd jobs done - so being handy with tools is an advantage. You may be asked to help around the yards during shearing or mustering and having competance on motorbike and/or quad bikes is an advantage to help in bringing stock into the yards.
They really need 'eyes on the ground' just for security and to keep an eye on the stock to report any issues to the usually offsite owners. Usually a modest wage is involved commiserate with the work involved and some supply meat or other benefits. Accomodation is usually included.
For example we are looking after 26,000 acres with 7000 sheep plus cattle and only see the owners every couple of weeks or so. Its a lovely lifestyle - alas we will resume travelling early next year but will always return to see our friends here.
John
B-T said
03:52 PM Oct 5, 2012
There are usually quite a few ads in the country papers - Queensland Country Life, The Land or The Countryman in the west. Thats how we found this role.
Cheers John
kandagal said
04:41 PM Oct 5, 2012
We usually find our house sitting positions through housecarers.com.au. Our info is kept posted there with our references there & can be viewed anytime by house owners looking for sitters. This site is free for house owners but sitters have to pay an annual fee.
Cowboy7307 said
02:48 AM Oct 6, 2012
Many thanks for replys most helpful
Gerty Dancer said
10:09 AM Oct 6, 2012
The home owners are offering free accommodation to people who are basically strangers. If it was free to join for the sitters you'd get all kinds of odd people there, and selecting somebody you could trust gets even harder. I'm sure it can be tricky for the sitters to choose homes too. We've used this site when looking for house sitters, and have met some really nice people, also a few we certainly didnt feel comfortable to have in our home. Dont forget the home owner is still paying mortgage, electricity, gas, rates etc while the house sitters are there... and it would cost them an arm and a leg to rent our house furnished, so they are getting a good deal in return for watering a few pot-plants and mowing the lawn and turning on the lights at night for security.
Edit... sorry, this is a bit off-topic for farm-sitting where sitters have much more responsibility.
-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Saturday 6th of October 2012 10:10:17 AM
_wombat_ said
02:22 PM Oct 6, 2012
kandagal wrote:
We usually find our house sitting positions through housecarers.com.au. Our info is kept posted there with our references there & can be viewed anytime by house owners looking for sitters. This site is free for house owners but sitters have to pay an annual fee.
something not quite right there, why do the sitters have to pay? when the house owners are the ones that want people to house sit for them while they are away or busy, and look after the house, gardens and animals, I don't get this, can somebody explain to me why the sitter has to pay, IMHO they should be paid by the house owner, what do you other guys think?
_wombat_ said
05:20 PM Oct 6, 2012
Gerty Dancer wrote:
The home owners are offering free accommodation to people who are basically strangers. If it was free to join for the sitters you'd get all kinds of odd people there, and selecting somebody you could trust gets even harder. I'm sure it can be tricky for the sitters to choose homes too. We've used this site when looking for house sitters, and have met some really nice people, also a few we certainly didnt feel comfortable to have in our home. Dont forget the home owner is still paying mortgage, electricity, gas, rates etc while the house sitters are there... and it would cost them an arm and a leg to rent our house furnished, so they are getting a good deal in return for watering a few pot-plants and mowing the lawn and turning on the lights at night for security.
Edit... sorry, this is a bit off-topic for farm-sitting where sitters have much more responsibility.
-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Saturday 6th of October 2012 10:10:17 AM
GD, thats another view of the situation, what sticks out here is the house owner owns the house and the house sitter is there for mainly security of the house etc
As you say you sometimes do not know who you will get and some are bad house sitters, we do farm sits and we do not dig any holes
B-T said
06:30 PM Oct 6, 2012
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
_wombat_ said
06:35 PM Oct 6, 2012
B-T wrote:
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
They must all come under the same banner, I would have thought
Gerty Dancer said
07:43 PM Oct 6, 2012
_wombat_ wrote:
B-T wrote:
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
They must all come under the same banner, I would have thought
They all come under the same web-site www.housecarers.com.au which was mentioned by kandagal.
Youre right though, farm sitting is an entirely different thing. I already said sorry to go off-topic.
_wombat_ said
08:01 PM Oct 6, 2012
GD, sorry I was not having a shot at you, I hope you did not think that, just pointing out that I thought they were all the same.
JRH said
08:23 PM Oct 6, 2012
B-T wrote:
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
Nit pickers unite. When one does a house sit very often there are animals such as cats, dogs, birds and others to care for and feed so what is different from that to farm sitting apart from the number and size of the animals?
Cowboy7307 said
08:29 PM Oct 6, 2012
As an old friend of mine used to say "fight you buggers we hate peace "
Duh said
09:08 PM Oct 6, 2012
Cowboy7307 wrote:
As an old friend of mine used to say "fight you buggers we hate peace "
Starting to look like it should be in the Forum Snipers thread in I Digress........
Farms or house sits, I found the info and opinions interesting for both, hope you found some answers there Cowboy!
In the Army we used to say "fight your baskets, fight!" which is similar to your friends saying! he he!
B-T said
03:48 PM Oct 8, 2012
JRH wrote:
B-T wrote:
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
Nit pickers unite. When one does a house sit very often there are animals such as cats, dogs, birds and others to care for and feed so what is different from that to farm sitting apart from the number and size of the animals?
Not really a case of nit picking. There is a very real difference bettween looking after large acreages with stock running into thousands compared to looking after someone surburban house and managing a couple of cats or dogs. It requires a completely different set of skills and abilities - eg one needs to know about looking after stock, run mills and water bores and service them. Fix fences, move stock and control predators to name but a few. Were I looking for someone to caretake a large rural property I would not go looking in the house sitting websites.
Just my opinion.
John
_wombat_ said
04:05 PM Oct 8, 2012
B-T wrote:
JRH wrote:
B-T wrote:
This post was about "farm sitting" - more commonly called Caretaking, not house sitting
Cheers
John
Nit pickers unite. When one does a house sit very often there are animals such as cats, dogs, birds and others to care for and feed so what is different from that to farm sitting apart from the number and size of the animals?
Not really a case of nit picking. There is a very real difference bettween looking after large acreages with stock running into thousands compared to looking after someone surburban house and managing a couple of cats or dogs. It requires a completely different set of skills and abilities - eg one needs to know about looking after stock, run mills and water bores and service them. Fix fences, move stock and control predators to name but a few. Were I looking for someone to caretake a large rural property I would not go looking in the house sitting websites.
Just my opinion.
John
B-T and you are entittled to your opinion, and I agree with your reply BUT you still have a farmHOUSE to look after I will assume.
Yes there is a big difference with the two but in the end one is still looking after somebody else's property.
We have been house and farm sitting for almost 8 years. Farmsitters Australia is a good site run by a young lady in the new england area. We have had some paid work through them. Most of our jobs are from aussie house sitters although people who have contacted us via this site are usually not looking for paid sitters which is ok by us as we are happy to live for nothing and enjoy someone elses life for a short time. We had a call from Inverall last week from a farmer wanting sitters for 9 months but that is too long in one place for us. Good luck.
-- Edited by tezza on Friday 5th of October 2012 07:54:53 AM
Has any one had any thing to do with farm sitting
and or used the farm sitting web site
Check animals, water points,feed household pets, maintain gardens etc.
They really need 'eyes on the ground' just for security and to keep an eye on the stock to report any issues to the usually offsite owners. Usually a modest wage is involved commiserate with the work involved and some supply meat or other benefits. Accomodation is usually included.
For example we are looking after 26,000 acres with 7000 sheep plus cattle and only see the owners every couple of weeks or so. Its a lovely lifestyle - alas we will resume travelling early next year but will always return to see our friends here.
John
Cheers John
The home owners are offering free accommodation to people who are basically strangers. If it was free to join for the sitters you'd get all kinds of odd people there, and selecting somebody you could trust gets even harder. I'm sure it can be tricky for the sitters to choose homes too.
We've used this site when looking for house sitters, and have met some really nice people, also a few we certainly didnt feel comfortable to have in our home.
Dont forget the home owner is still paying mortgage, electricity, gas, rates etc while the house sitters are there... and it would cost them an arm and a leg to rent our house furnished, so they are getting a good deal in return for watering a few pot-plants and mowing the lawn and turning on the lights at night for security.
Edit... sorry, this is a bit off-topic for farm-sitting where sitters have much more responsibility.
-- Edited by Gerty Dancer on Saturday 6th of October 2012 10:10:17 AM
something not quite right there, why do the sitters have to pay? when the house owners are the ones that want people to house sit for them while they are away or busy, and look after the house, gardens and animals, I don't get this, can somebody explain to me why the sitter has to pay, IMHO they should be paid by the house owner, what do you other guys think?
GD, thats another view of the situation, what sticks out here is the house owner owns the house and the house sitter is there for mainly security of the house etc
As you say you sometimes do not know who you will get and some are bad house sitters, we do farm sits and we do not dig any holes
Cheers
John
They must all come under the same banner, I would have thought
They all come under the same web-site www.housecarers.com.au which was mentioned by kandagal.
Youre right though, farm sitting is an entirely different thing. I already said sorry to go off-topic.
GD, sorry I was not having a shot at you, I hope you did not think that, just pointing out that I thought they were all the same.
Nit pickers unite. When one does a house sit very often there are animals such as cats, dogs, birds and others to care for and feed so what is different from that to farm sitting apart from the number and size of the animals?
Starting to look like it should be in the Forum Snipers thread in I Digress........
Farms or house sits, I found the info and opinions interesting for both, hope you found some answers there Cowboy!
In the Army we used to say "fight your baskets, fight!" which is similar to your friends saying! he he!
Not really a case of nit picking. There is a very real difference bettween looking after large acreages with stock running into thousands compared to looking after someone surburban house and managing a couple of cats or dogs. It requires a completely different set of skills and abilities - eg one needs to know about looking after stock, run mills and water bores and service them. Fix fences, move stock and control predators to name but a few. Were I looking for someone to caretake a large rural property I would not go looking in the house sitting websites.
Just my opinion.
John
B-T and you are entittled to your opinion, and I agree with your reply BUT you still have a farmHOUSE to look after I will assume.
Yes there is a big difference with the two but in the end one is still looking after somebody else's property.