veganwwoofer

I’m freaking out. I’m working with FOUR farmers right now to try to find ONE place along the east coast and they’re all taking their time writing back. I might have just nailed one down, though, which brings me a whole hell of a lot of relief. I already have a farm in New Mexico, so my trip is started either way. But I’d like to not just drive from Vermont to New Mexico, y’know?

I felt like my trip was finally starting to get real. I could start planning for New Mexico and work my way around the country. I had one-fifth of the farms for my trip planned.

I emailed all the farms in New Mexico and none came back promising. Which was stressing me out today.

Then the farm in Virginia backed out tonight.

After that, I’m working on settling for a few days in SC to visit old friends and maybe get my sewing machine back from my ex. Maybe I’ll go for a hike, take my dog to our old dog park, get a motel room to get a good shower and maybe a shave. We will see! 

So I’ll be thinking about that for a few days and texting my friends down there to work out a plan (a.k.a. - how many days should I stay?) and then start emailing farms in New Mexico! I’m planning to stay in NM for only two or so weeks, so if I can’t find a farm out there, it won’t be the end of the world. I’ll just skip it and go straight from SC to the Grand Canyon and then maybe pick up an extra farm in Cali!

My trip will span from mid-April through October and possibly into early November. Approximately 30 weeks. Four of those weeks will be spent travelling from place-to-place as I will not be driving for more than five hours each day. I will be travelling with my dog, Kipp. While he is very comfortable in a car, he isn’t particularly happy with it and it does stress him out over time. So my intent is to stop and walk/hike every afternoon to re-energize and sooth him. We will be stopping at camp sites and will be staying in my two-person Kelty tent.

The main portion of the trip is, of course, wwoofing. I’m currently mapping out my trip and finding farms across America to contact and hopefully work with. As I’m vegan, the farms I’m looking for specifically have few or no farmed animals, are mostly centered around sustainable agriculture, and are accepting of my lifestyle. As I’m travelling with a dog and very little money, the farms have to accept my dog and feed me fully. I am okay with staying in my tent if they have a setup for it, and am willing to work on a farm with animals if my work does not include work WITH the animals.

So far, I’m looking to work on 6 farms. Four weeks at five farms, and six weeks on one (hopefully in Oregon). These numbers are very likely to change.

Planning the wwoofing is the easy part. The driving... a little harder. 

I have a dog, and thus I will not be able to stop at a grocery store for food. I refuse to leave my dog alone in a hot car for even five minutes. So all food has to come from a farmers market... or a dumpster.

My plan is to try to dumpster-dive as much food as I can. I’m certain that this will be tougher than it sounds, but I’m also positive that it will be very possible. And necessary. However, I’m bringing a fairly large stock of rice and beans for meal bases or... my whole meal.

Dog food will be purchased along the way as we CAN go into pet stores together. 

We will stop at major landmarks (and may drive a bit out of our way to visit them), such as Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon. 

Currently I’m working 40+ hours/week and saving at least 80% of each paycheck so that, by April, I have more than I need for the trip. I’m ensuring that I have a fairly large emergency fund and enough to afford any surprises in costs - such as spiking gas prices or outrageous (but inescapable) camping fees.