The Call For Caretaking Want To Drop Out And Enjoy A Quiet Life On The Beach? Caretaking May Be The Ticket

Mark and Ruthie Thompson-Klein live a million-dollar San Juan Islands life. Rent free.

They grow 10 kinds of greens in their garden on Lopez Island, and six kinds of tomatoes. They usually bike the six miles to town. When the weather is good, they sit on the beach and dream of anything except their next vacation.

“We can’t imagine where we would vacate to,” says Mark Thompson-Klein. “When we go off the island what place better could we go?”

Fine - for people who’ve won the Lotto. But the Thompson-Kleins didn’t. They answered an advertisement for property caretakers and now husband 65 acres of land, 29 sheep and a yardful of chickens for absentee landowners.

Remote vacation homes, aging farmers and ranchers, and a jump in rural burglaries and vandalism are boosting the call for professional caretakers, say the editors and publishers of The Caretaker Gazette.

From their home office in Pullman, publishers Gary and Thea Dunn get a request a day from landowners seeking help. The January/February newsletter lists job openings in seven countries and 30 states.

Travelers may consider extended stays in Australia, Africa and Brazil. A number of advertisements offer a chance to join “intentional communities,” groups of people who want to collaborate in organic or biodynamic farming.

One farmer in West Virginia was looking not just for a caretaker but for an heir, and promised to deed a certain number of acres at the end of each year, Gary Dunn said. Other landowners have offered to sell part of their property to the caretaker if the arrangement works out.

“That’s not typical, but it does show you all kinds of possibilities are out there,” Dunn said.

For each job listing, the Dunns hear from about two to three times as many people looking for caretaking positions. After January storms in the Northeast, they expect jobs in Belize, Costa Rica and the Caribbean to be more desirable. California still appears the golden state to Midwesterners.

Hundreds of RVers are looking for a place to stop for a while. Retirees, for a potential new home. With two years before property gains taxes are levied on home sales, they can try that California dream before buying there, Gary Dunn said. Back-to-the landers can find an affordable escape.

Jamie Redman and Scott Parent wanted to try living in the Alaska bush before settling there. Three years later the college-educated couple are year-round employees at Chelatna Lake Lodge, “a little bit of paradise.”

In the Alaska range 60 miles from the nearest road, they have watched wolverine cross the frozen lake, photographed grizzlies and discovered stunning views of Denali a short snowmobile ride away.

On the flip side, they see almost no other people between September and spring. They celebrated Christmas alone and have read every Western that Louis L’Amour has ever written because that’s what was on the shelf.

“They’re not necessarily something I would have gone to a bookstore and gotten,” says Redman. With a laugh she says even cookbooks have become serious reading.

Maintaining six main buildings in an area blanketed with an annual snowfall of 21 feet has made Redman and Parent fit and self-reliant. They trap, hunt and know a chain saw is a bushrat’s most important tool.

At 33 and 37, they also know the leap to caretaking was possible because the opportunity arose before children or significant debts did.

“You couldn’t do this unless you had everything paid off,” Redman says. But while their income has dropped significantly, the percentage of money they save has risen because their interests and access to stores have changed.

“Still, if the money is important and you’re a very social person, you probably wouldn’t be attracted to this way of life,” Redman says.

Compensation varies widely: A caretaker at an Alaska lodge recently drew $3,100 for seven months of work. A couple at a southwest Florida hunting lodge earn $2,000 a month plus medical benefits and an annual bonus.

On the high end, a recent opening offered $50,000 to a couple to care for property in South Dakota and provide some child care.

John Cougar Mellencamp and corporate executives have advertised in the Gazette (anonymously of course).

But, “you’re not going to become rich doing this,” Gary Dunn flatly tells potential caretakers. “It’s more of a lifestyle thing than a money thing.”

Nearly half the advertised positions offer no salary, just a roof overhead in exchange for labor. Housing can range from a furnished home to an unused building on the back 40. Some property owners visit once a year. Others live there.

“Every one of these situations is unique,” Dunn says. “There are no averages, no medians.

“If the property owner is wealthy, you may be paid more and have better housing that’s probably furnished. If the owner is a poor farmer, there may be no salary, and you have to bring your own furniture.”

Positions on small farms throughout the United States are advertised. Church camps, RV parks, corporate retreats and even city homeowners are also looking for caretakers.

Work demands can range from simple household or campground maintenance to installing irrigation equipment to maintaining farm machinery.

Some urban professionals have found caretaking frustrating in that their experience doesn’t carry the weight it once did.

Others find it too difficult to maintain friendships and feel secure when their work and living arrangements are subject to the whims of a property owner.

But there are other rewards.

The Thompson-Kleins had sold their own Vashon Island, Wash., home and were looking for a unique experience when they were hired on Lopez Island over 55 other couples nationwide.

More than a year ago the couple left careers building museum exhibits to work 35-hour weeks maintaining three houses, a large organic garden and animals.

“The physical labor was hard at first, getting up sore every morning. But the aggravation was offset by the beauty of working outdoors,” said Ruthie Thompson-Klein, a 39-year-old graphic designer.

She and her 41-year-old husband, a manufacturing engineer, found the work dovetails nicely with their outdoorsy and artistic interests. They have also found friends on the island (population 1,500), grown closer in their seven-year marriage and even managed to do some projects for local museums.

They admit they don’t dwell on security.

They’ve kept their health insurance and wish they drove a truck instead of a Honda. But they’re not looking to change anything soon.

“This is much more rewarding than anything I’ve ever done,” Ruthie says.

Gary Dunn says such stories keep circulation up at The Caretaker Gazette.

The lifestyle comes down to chopping wood, says Mark Thompson-Klein: You chop wood and you have heat. You work in the garden and have food.

“The way we spend each hour of the day is the way we live,” he says. “It takes all the middle processes out.”

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