Such a pleasure to not have to be doing anything! No dogs to feed, poop to pick up! No demanding inside, outside, inside! I love the animals, they’re the reason to house sit, but it is so nice to have no demands on me, other than those I put on myself!

I also took a rather large leap last week after I made the decision to become a paid house sitter, rather than strictly exchange for a roof over my head. Betsy helped me write a good letter to the home owners I already had contracted with, telling them my new setup and fees. After the first no thank you, we’ll find someone else and a very irate note from the second one, I was afraid I had shot myself in the foot! But the next one was “sure, we completely understand, how would you like us to pay you?” Then I felt better and reinforced what I had decided.

So although I now have a few blank spaces on my calendar, I feel good about my decision. And I registered on Rover which is primarily a dog walking outfit but also has paid house/pet sits. I’m pretty much starting from scratch with this method and have to set up a whole new site etc., to promote my services. But I feel good about it. And being here at Georgia’s has given me the chance to wind down and really consider my next steps.

Which takes me to my very loose plan for this year.

I saw a REALLY cheap fare to South Africa and thought how much I would love to be home. Not just loving the country but the cost of living there makes it a really viable place for me to live.

But then the airfare doubled overnight, but it didn’t stop me thinking about going home. The time constraints and commitments I have if I went at the end of the month gave me only a couple of months there. And there’s Betsy’s wedding in May. What I have come up with, very loosely: House sit here in California through the wedding, then head north to Washington in June to spend time with Mardelle and Jim and Janet and Pat and then head to Montana to see Cody and the little boys. Then head to South Africa towards the end of the year with no set return date.

And with the online business I can take anywhere, I can be mobile but on my schedule. I do need to fill some blanks on my calendar but I don’t feel as if it’s SO urgent any more and feel like a weight is off my shoulders.

It’s fun and comforting to have another person in the house, and not just animals! Georgia has two cute kitties, Max, a big ginger boy and Mooney, a cute black and white boy. So it’s the best of both worlds. And I feel like I can catch up on things that I have let slide. The last couple of house sits have been quite intense, with animals that need a lot of attention so there was limited time to really settle down to start and complete a project. Now I am catching up on all kinds of odds and ends and starting into the projects I need to get done.

Tomorrow, I will go to the Rover base to demonstrate that I know how to put all the different harnesses on dogs. When I was walking the dogs at the house in La Jolla, it got me out of the house, I felt good and I got good exercise, so I hope to get some dog walking gigs while here in San Diego.