Been worktrading for 4 years. Message me if you have questions.

[Abirdperson]

This section is pretty empty so, I figured I would offer my help. I have been traveling by worktrading for about four years now. I have been able to make enough money while worktrading to be able to stay with a roommate for amounts of time when I feel like I want to be in one place.
I am putting together a worktrading tips list to post here eventually.
Anyone message me questions you may have about living this way.
Have a good day!

 

[brando]

Sounds interesting. What sort of work have you been doing?

 

[Abirdperson]

Mostly farming. I’ve learned how to drive a tractor with a trailer backwards down a hill. I have birthed baby goats, normal and breech. That was crazy. Lots of berry picking and blackberry fighting. Blackberries form *huge* mounds that need to be cut back each year. They have giant thorns so its not a job people like to do.
Blackberries taking over a barn.
Before:

After:

That was a day of work.
I have bar tended a wedding at a farm. Milked goats and bottled the milk. Worked at a hiker hostel staining the outside deck. Trimmed a lot of weed. Worked farmers markets.
In exchange for our work we get food and a place to stay. Sometimes we get to stay in fancy houses and people let us use their cars. Its been pretty fun. I have learned a lot!

 

[brando]

That sounds pretty cool. Farming has been the most rewarding sort of work I've done, even if it is often labor intensive. Do you use any particular resources to find gigs?

 

[Abirdperson]

I have been using workaway lately. Wwoof in the past. I have also gotten farming internships by finding a farm and looking to see if they have a website. Sometimes they have internship programs which are essentially worktrade. Sometimes they offer a small amount of money too. Our best job we got just meeting someone on the street, we mentioned we do farming worktrades and they invited us to come stay and work with them.

 

[Abirdperson]

I have also heard of helpx and coolworks for worktrade/travel jobs. Never used them though.

 

[Fimdridil]

Why did you quit Wwoof (just curious)

 

[Abirdperson]

Why did you quit Wwoof (just curious)

I actually just recently started using it again because we got a dog and wwoof has “hosts that allow pets” filter. I know workaway is working on adding a pet filter. We also started using wwoof again recently due to covid. Less hosts overall, so we are using both websites to have more options.
We were using workaway because they have different jobs besides just farming. Also, with workaway you can go to other countries. With wwoof each country has their own website/host directory that you would have to pay to access. We haven’t actually gone out of the country yet though. So wwoof USA works pretty well.

 

[ZoGeist]

Thank you for starting this thread!

I was wondering were there any particular farms that really stood out to you? Really good people, good experience? any farm hosts i should definitely stay away from? I'm currently looking to find some farm spots in the south and west states. Tbh I'm not sure if there will be anything available during the time im traveling (nov- march)? but still interested in finding places where i can work in exchange for safe place to park and hook up my van for a bit.