Work Exchange

We are still looking for work, please read the ad below. We are no longer in need of a room though, we have purchased a used conversion van so we are now in need of a place to park it in exchange for work.

If you are interested in a work exchange, either temporary or long term or have any questions please email carter_jones(at)hotmail.com, thanks.
 

Looking For Room in Exchange For Work

We are a couple in our mid 50's currently in St Lucie County Florida. Our time is nearly up at our present location and we are looking for a new opportunity in the general area. 

We are clean, quiet and honest. We have no pets and no kids traveling with us. I am a smoker. But I do properly dispose of them and do not litter. I am also willing to smoke outdoors as long as I have some protection from the weather and mosquitoes. We are not alcoholics or drug addicts. We do have a drink on occasion.

MJ is a web designer/ marketer, I have raised and home schooled 3 kids and I’m an “out-of-the-box” thinker, we are not into sports, we are non-religious and non-political. I have worked as a stable hand and had my own small farm. I’m not much of a horse rider but I am an excellent stall mucker! I have also worked as a cashier, waitress, painter and bartender.

We can cook, clean, organize, build/maintain websites, advise on internet/computer related subjects, make slideshows, clean stalls and barns, gardening, yard work, general maintenance, etc just to name a few things. (If you are in need of work not listed, please. . .just ask)

We are interested in trading work for room and board, either short or long term. A small stipend would be appreciated by not necessary.

A private room and bath with internet would be ideal. This doesn't have to be inside your home, it could be any type of livable structure, maybe an RV or travel trailer you only use a couple of times a year, even a modified shed. The internet is very important to us for our income. Downloading is minimal, if at all, but a stable reliable connection is a must. We don’t need anything fancy. We have our own bed and linens.

No kids or pets would be preferred, but exceptions can be made under the right circumstances. Communal living during the day is fine, communal sleeping is not acceptable.

Farm work with livestock is acceptable. I have raised my own chickens, geese, goats, ducks, turkeys, guineas, quail and horses. I have grown tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, etc. without chemicals or pesticides.

We clean "green" using mainly vinegar and baking soda. We will use bleach only when necessary on stubborn rust and mildew. We are not green fanatics, but we do like the idea of the least chemicals the better…and usually cheaper!

We aren't carpenters or auto mechanics, but we are quick to learn and can hit a nail more often than our thumbs, and enjoy learning and doing new things.

We both would enjoy a self sustaining, organic, out of the rat race type of environment but cannot afford this ourselves. We would also like to travel to other areas in this country with the ideal being winter in the south and summers in the north. However we are open to longer term arrangements if everything “clicks” for all evolved.

We would be happy to help if you are just starting a new homestead or are already established. If you have an RV park or private campground, a commune or intentional living community, even if you’re in the suburbs and working your way out of the rat race we may be able to help.

Maybe you have a small hotel, B&B or thrift store or any other type of shop or restaurant; we could help out in the busy season and/or be there so that you can have some time off in the slow season.

We can house-sit and care for your pets while you vacation. We can house-sit while you summer in the north.

If you are a non-profit organization and need help please consider us if you have some sort of livable structure that we could use, doesn’t have to be anything fancy, all we need is a place for our air mattress and a couple of desks and chairs. We would work for a room and internet only.

Maybe you’re a landlord with a few properties and need someone to help with clean-ups and painting. Maybe you would like somebody to stay in an empty property so that the place doesn’t get vandalized in your absence.

We would also be interested in an animal sanctuary or small zoo type of environment. 

Maybe you’re an aging couple who could use a hand or you have an aging parent that could use some help at home?

Our time is nearly up at our present location and we are looking for a new opportunity. If you are interested or just have a question please feel free to email us.

We will consider any job that we feel capable of doing. Thanks, CJ

Will Work For Free!

Well its finally happened, brother has asked us to leave, seems he misses his privacy. It would have been nice if he had mentioned that before we gave him the money we where saving to get the car fixed, but he didn't. He has offered to tow our car anywhere we'd like, within reason...how generous of him. And he's the one always whining about how dysfunctional our family is...WTF dude? I never wanted to be here in the first place, but we had little choice. We have been able to get several more websites up and running so I suppose that's a good thing. So...now we are here...Will work for free!

We are looking for temporary work in exchange for temporary housing.

We are a couple both in our mid 50’s. I am a smoker. We are not alcoholics or drug addicts, we are workaholics. We do not party. We have no pets. We are neat, clean, quiet and honest.

We are interested in trading work for some type of lodging, a spare room, an old trailer, or RV you’re not using, whatever you have. Electric and internet is all we require as the money we make comes from internet marketing, website design, slideshow creations and photo restoration and archiving.

If you could use a hand on the farm, or with your computer or website, we can help. If you need someone to house-sit, pet-sit or baby-sit while you vacation or work, or you need someone to stay at your seasonal or vacant property, contact us to see if we can work together.

Maybe you have hundreds of photos stored away in boxes that you would like to have archived to CD or made into a slideshow but don’t have the time or money to pay someone, we can do that. We will gladly trade work (most any work!) for board, we can contract for a few weeks or a few months, whatever you need.

We would also consider trading work for a decent van or small RV.

Email us if you think you would be interested in this type of arrangement. Have a job not listed here or you’re not in Vero Beach? Just ask.

Thanks, Sam

Looking For Work

Okay, if you’ve already read my other blog “sick of usa” you know that I am without transportation and stuck at my brothers…before that we were homeless. I guess technically we still are homeless; this isn’t “our” home, just a “rest stop” for us.

You would also know that we are middle aged, too young to get Social Security and too old to work in fast food, besides, it’s hard to get work with no transportation to get there…correct? Not to mention places like that only want part time help so that they don’t have to pay for health insurance. And even with both of us working and getting 40 or 50 hours between us, its minimum wage, after taxes that’s around $16,000.00 a year or less. How many of you reading this live on that much?

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve lived on half that and raised 2 kids, but that was long ago, when you could rent a house for 250-300 bucks a month and the electric and phone and cable companies didn’t rob you in the name of ‘taxes’, things are different today. Today 250-300 a month is a car payment!

I wouldn’t be happy working in a place like that anyway. I kind of like being homeless, it gives me freedom. Believe me there are a lot of things I don’t like about being homeless, but being able to move from city to city, not being stuck with neighbors and their barking dogs or loud parties or kids is extremely satisfying. As I write this there is a dog yapping next door, the same dog that woke me up at 6:00 this morning with its constant yapping.

We are night people, we are often up until 2 or 3:00 working on the computer, I cannot sleep with dogs barking or babies crying. That’s just the way I’m wired. MJ doesn’t seem to mind, he’s still snoring now. It’s a little after 8, I should be just waking up!

I love dogs, but I think I could shoot this one! And don’t come down on me for that remark…I know it’s not the dogs fault, it’s their idiot owners and I would never hurt an animal, it’s just a sarcastic comment…let it go.

By now you must be wondering if I am ever going to get to the point of this post. I guess I do go on sometimes, sorry.

Well the point is we are looking for work, hence the title.

It finally came to me that what we are doing for ourselves online we could do for others and make some money…which we need.

What do we do online? We build websites, we write and post and blog. We monetize and Twitter and SEO and try to make enough money to live on. So far…it’s not working so well. Why? Not sure exactly but I would assume it’s because we only have a hand full of sites each and from what I understand we need hundreds, that is the goal, but it will take awhile to get there. Being stuck here at brothers has allowed us to get a lot more work done and we have seen an increase in profits, but it’s not nearly enough to support us, so, until that happens we need some fast cash to live on now.

We both enjoy working on the computer; we do it 12-14 hours a day, 6 0r 7 days a week. Research takes up most of that time. Making a website is the easy part…when you know how. So that is what we offer, web site design and assistance. If you have a company, a hobby, or you want to try your hand at making money online in one form or another we can help. MJ knows WordPress and Joomla, Paint Shop Pro and Artisteer, Microsoft Office Word and Excel.

If you’d like a website built from scratch…he can do it. If you’d like your old site updated…he can do it. If you’re having a problem with WordPress widgets or plug-ins…he may be able to help. I haven’t seen him not be able to fix a problem yet.

MJ does a little work for a PR company in California; it’s a small company so he doesn’t get a lot of work from them. He has also designed a few sites for other people he has gotten to know from word of mouth. He’s not a magician, but he is good.

Also….If you need help in creating a Facebook, Twitter, or Blogger account contact us, we can help. Would you like a special background? Or do you need a special favicon or avatar? Maybe you’d like to have a Facebook store? MJ is the man for the job!

Can’t figure out how to put your ads on your site? Maybe you want a banner specific to your site or something you sell? Maybe you’d like a slideshow? MJ is the man for the job!

Sometimes I say we, but MJ does most of this web site stuff, however I’m getting better at it all the time. I have been able to edit html in a couple of my own sites and I didn't even know what html was a year ago! If he can help a technically challenged person like me he can help you too!

We will gladly send you a portfolio of some of the sites we have created if you'd like to see his work.

And what do I do? Mostly I learn from my mistakes! I have a few sites that I call ‘my own’ because I have done them myself, nothing fancy, but I have made my own special backgrounds and headers, I’m learning, but we are more interested in getting up quantity rather than quality sites for ourselves. MJ is good at automating things; I’m more of a manual gal. IMHO good content should be first, decoration second.

I also do a lot of work with photos…well my photos. I put all my photos on CD’s. I had to do this when I realized I would be homeless. I gave the originals to the kids. I had hundreds of photos! I didn’t want to take a chance on them getting ruined in storage, and I wanted to have them handy.

I have been working on them, touching them up, and removing scratches and other imperfections, cropping and resizing, and adding frames to dress them up.

Some of those things are basic stuff really, at least when you know how and the other stuff is time consuming and takes practice. I enjoy doing this more than building websites, I suppose because it’s more creative, however I didn’t think of it as a way to make money until now.

Saving your photos to CD’s is a great idea for anybody really. Think about it, what if some disaster happens, a fire, a hurricane, a flood. Where are your photos? You can replace clothes and furniture, even jewelry, but not photos. Those memories would be lost forever.

Photo CD’s can be stored in a fireproof safe you may have at home. They can be stored at the bank in your safety deposit box. They can be copied and given to other family members for safe keeping.

They would also make great gifts! We can add music to the CD’s and make a slide show of a special occasion or just a collage of photos.

If this is something you would be interested in contact us, check on the about page. Also, check out the other tabs above, I will add some of the photos I’ve done and a short “movie” preview.