# going on vacation



## Tapsmom (Feb 15, 2013)

Hello everyone.  We are new to having multiple livestock and my horse just moved home.  Now we have 4 ND goats, 10 chickens, a horse and 2 dogs.  What do you do when you go away on vacation?  We haven't gone in a few years but we have small children so we will certainly take some.  I am planning ahead and looking for ideas on what everyone does.  I am currently just looking at other small farmers and basically setting up a network of us that will care for each other's critters when we go away.   My daughters are also in 4H so that ia another avenue I am looking at.  If you pay someone for the week to stop in 2 times a day. what would you pay them?  (If we choose that option we will probably have the dogs stay with some friends.)  We have our critters set up so it takes about a half hour 2 times a day to care for them.  I am looking for ides and planning ahead.  We generally only go away for a week and probably 1 or 2 evenings a year.


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## ThreeBoysChicks (Feb 15, 2013)

We have 2 horses, 12 goats, chickens, ducks, geese and cats that live outside.   Is should add that by vacation, we will have had does kid, so there will be more than 12 goats.   This year, I will have two does in milk, so will be asking them to milk once a day.

We have 4 large dogs and a cat that live in the house.  

Details are as follows:

Barn care in the morning about 1 hour.
Barn care in the evening about 1/2 hour.
Neighbor brings the hay (round bales) as needed and is on call if there are emergencies.
Our Large Animal vet knows when we are gone and is on call and will respond if needed.
Fresh linens on our King Size bed and the only rule is that you need to love on the dogs all the time and they do join you in the King Size bed.  


We pay someone to live at our house while we are gone.  They get free use of the pool and can eat anything in the kitchen.  We plan to pay the person $100 / day.


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## Southern by choice (Feb 15, 2013)

ThreeBoysChicks said:
			
		

> We have 2 horses, 12 goats, chickens, ducks, geese and cats that live outside.   Is should add that by vacation, we will have had does kid, so there will be more than 12 goats.   This year, I will have two does in milk, so will be asking them to milk once a day.
> 
> We have 4 large dogs and a cat that live in the house.
> 
> ...


Can I have that job???  Then I get a vacation too!


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## marlowmanor (Feb 15, 2013)

Southern by choice said:
			
		

> ThreeBoysChicks said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I was thinking the same thing Southern. I'd take that job in a heartbeat! Maybe I need to look into house sitting for people on vacation.


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## Godsgrl (Feb 15, 2013)

ThreeBoysChicks said:
			
		

> We have 2 horses, 12 goats, chickens, ducks, geese and cats that live outside.   Is should add that by vacation, we will have had does kid, so there will be more than 12 goats.   This year, I will have two does in milk, so will be asking them to milk once a day.
> 
> We have 4 large dogs and a cat that live in the house.
> 
> ...


Where do I sign up?


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## SheepGirl (Feb 15, 2013)

I'm 20 minutes from you  Let me know when you're on vacation!!   lol

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My neighbor back in 2005 had me and my dad babysit his sheep. There were about 30 ewes. He paid me & my dad $50 (course I got to keep all of it ) for a week.

In 2006, my neighbor left during lambing season. He left my dad & I to watch over 40 ewes lambing for a week  He gave me a ewe lamb out of that crop.

Since then, because my sheep were already at his farm I would go down every day, he would have me watch the farm whenever he would go away. That included watering the plants inside his house, feeding and watering their barn cats, feeding and watering all the sheep, etc. I of course wouldn't expect any payment because he was already kind enough to let me keep my sheep there for free (of course I had to help with all of the flock management tasks and help him with everyday stuff, too).

Now that my sheep are at my house (neighbor moved to a retirement community in Texas), when I went away (for state FFA convention, for trip to NYC, etc) I paid my brothers or my grandfather $10/day to feed my sheep. I already had all the feed and hay bagged up and labeled for which sheep or pen/what day/which feeding it was to be fed. So they didn't have to do any weighing of feed or spend 15-20 minutes each time getting feed ready.


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## marlowmanor (Feb 15, 2013)

When we went on vacation last summer (4th of July weekend, 4 day trip) I asked my dad to stop in and feed the animals. He was paid in eggs. He only had to come every other day. We had fed the goats before we left, filled the chicken feeder/waterer (which would last a few days). All he had to do was collect the eggs and feed the goats. Actually turned out to be a good thing he stopped in because he caught a leaking water pipe which was the result of a busted water heater ahead of time and shut off the water to the house. If he hadn't caught that we would have come home to a wet house.

If we are gone more than 2 days I want someone coming over to check on the animals, if we are gone just a couple days or less we just fill up feeders and waters and let them go. Goats have access to hay, browse, and water they can go without grain/feed for a day or 2 without issues.


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## Tapsmom (Feb 15, 2013)

Thanks everyone.  The one that would require the most work is my horse in that he can't be left for a few days lol.  But I looked at my clock this morning when I opened my eyes and it was 8 am.  Then I checked the time when I got back in the house and it was 8:30.  So it takes less than a half hour to take care of everybody..and I cleaned stalls also.  My horse and goats all go out together.  He is a gentle soul and the little NDs love him.  My kids actually do everything on the weekends and they are 7 and 11   So I guess I just wanted reasurance that I could never take a vacation again lol.  I like the idea of alerting the vets, too.  I will keep that in mind, too!


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## OneFineAcre (Feb 18, 2013)

My wife and I take seperate vacations.  

Just joking, although she and my daughter did go to NYC this summer without me because I did stay home with the goats.  

But, we are going skiing this weekend in WV, leaving Wed night coming back on Sunday.

My wife did a cheese making class for some ladies from church.  One took a particular interest and offered to take care of our animals, and she is this weekend.


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## bonbean01 (Feb 18, 2013)

Vacation????  huh?  Can hardly remember what that is :/  

We haven't taken a vacation together since we got the critters...I did fly to Switzerland when my daughter had her second baby...hubby was home taking care of critters.

DH was going to fly to NY when his Dad got very ill...but he got better before arrangements were made at our end...I would have stayed home with the critters.


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## goodhors (Feb 19, 2013)

We hire a Farm Sitter, often an older 4-H kid whom I know personally.
They probably need to drive to get here, so unfortunately they age out,
and we have to find new ones.  There was a lovely service locally that 
did this kind of work.  She was EXCELLENT, used her a couple years 
before she moved away.  Wrote her a GREAT recommendation.

We pay by the hour, what we figure it will take them to get chores done.
Horse stalls need cleaning daily, tanks topped off.  Barn cats fed and 
watered.  Horses put in stalls and put outside daily.  We figure about
$15 an hour, to get a person that will follow directions, is comfortable
with our big horses.  Has enough "horse sense" to spot a problem, deal
with it or call the Vet.  They call or we call them on the phone to check
with each other on how things are going.  We have between 5 to 7 
horses at a time, never less.  So automatically they need to come twice 
a day.

Dogs go with us on vacation since we are big on camping, or are boarded 
at a kennel if this is a "special" weekend like family wedding, etc. where 
they are in the way.  Kennel is private, very nice people running it.

Does get expensive sometimes, but the ease of mind from having a 
competent, RELIABLE person doing chores is beyond measure.  We 
figure the money for Farm Sitter, is part of the vacation expense we 
need to budget for.  

It really IS NICE to get away from the place.  Usually the place looks 
nicer than when we left, swept and cleaned!  We also give a good tip,
over and above the charges for their work.  We are ALL smiling as
they get paid.


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