All Inclusive Vacations 4 all

I make my living as an artist and as a single person I learned that House Sitting other people's houses allows me the time and space to make my art. This lifestyle has landed me in very nice places with my rent, electricity, and depending on the situation, food, salaries, vehicles, and the use of swimming pools, as part of the deal.

In my twenties I traveled around the world and found great opportunities for the exchange of work on the road. In Australia, I lived for a few years in the outback, where I rented a house on a two hundred acre farm for low rent of $ 80 per month in exchange for keeping an eye on my landlord cows. In Bodhgaya, India, I spent a few weeks in a Thai Buddhist monastery, in exchange, I spent an hour every day, one of the monks to help with his studies (In English). In Israel I lived on a kibbutz for three months and has a variety of jobs in exchange for what I needed. I've learned that honest, loyal, hard working people were really appreciated and could get jobs anywhere in the world.

In my thirties, I finally settled and worked as a programmer until I sold two of my short travel stories, a magazine and a piece of art that I created, show juried for an important the City of Los Angeles had accepted, was sponsoring. I quit my job and began looking for ways that an artist in LA meant long term house sit and survive while occasionally scenic painting for movies.

In my forties my first creative work as a scenic painter Exchange for the New Hope Theater in Pennsylvania. I spent the summer painting is in the Pocono Mountains, while living in a beautiful hotel. I stayed for two months in an apartment in Venice Beach, CA in exchange for all black and white photography still worked for a video project, an artist friend straight. On vacation in Jamaica, I met a woman in a beautiful Villa lived on a hillside overlooking the Caribbean and by the end of the house they sit for a week, when she had to go away. While there I learned woodcarving from a local Artists.

One of my favorite exchanges was working for a real estate investor in Bel Air for three years I worked two days per week as his Office Assistant in return for a salary and a nice little apartment in a wing of his house. I had full use of the grounds and swimming pool. It was during his stay began in Bel Air that I carve large wooden sculptures for the park in Beverly Hills Treepeople. I finally left Bel Air in the summer not in work one exchange Artist in Residence at the Avondale Forest Park in County Wicklow, Ireland, where I carved a large sculpture of a famous tree that had died. After this experience many of my works were available to the exchange of art in context. I cut a large standing Quan Yin for the Zen Center of Los Angeles, a statue of the Bodhisattva Jizo for Zen Mountain Center near Idyllwild, CA, I made my first good money if I cut two large angels and an intricate mantel, including consoles, Stuntman for a house in Thousand Oaks, CA; in Taos Ski Valley, New Mexico, I cut with his Saint Bernard St. Bernard at the Hotel St. Bernard during their stay in one of its large suites for over two months out of season.

In my fifties I discovered the caretaker Gazette. After 9 / 11, I decided I did not wait until I buy enough money to my own country in the country. I found the perfect solution in the Gazette. I lived two years in a remote southern Ohio Bird sanctuary, takes care of all the birds and other animals, and a large organic garden. Then I spent a year and a half as artist in residence at a women's retreat center outside of Cincinnati.

I came to California last fall to a statue of Guanyin I the Zen Center in Sebastopol in Sonoma County had carved supply. I was house sitting for friends in Santa Cruz, when I saw the ad in the Gazette for meditation Yoga Center in Sacramento. I spent a month there and carved statue for she's the girlfriend Krishna, Radha and lost 10 pounds. I have been living the last six months on top of a mountain in Mendocino County. It began as a carving Job, but ended as a caretaker situation. I have a cabin with a huge deck around him in the middle of a forest Madrone. On my deck I'm carving a six foot large Buddha for a local Buddhist monastery. In exchange for the cabin, utilities and meals I work 25 hours per month, the care of the extensive flower gardens and animals. The owner travels a lot and feels to know, I'm here just things. I love it here but that does not prevent me from carefully reads every e-mail I received from the Gazette.

Gary C. Dunn, Publisher and Founder of caretaker.org

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