Hi, we are the Stradtner family!  After traveling the United States full-time in our RV for the last 5 years, our family is currently seeking volunteer farm, homestead and work camping opportunities.  We are a God loving, natural minded family that has been homeschooling our children for over a decade.  We firmly believe that volunteer work is a vital part of raising responsible, productive, kind humans.  Our oldest child volunteered over 1,000 hours before graduating homeschool high school in 2016 and it’s time for us to slow our travels to give our almost 18 year old daughter, Taryn, the opportunity to volunteer as well.  Her goal is to be a farmer and homesteader in the next few years.  Before we buy land of our own, our family would like to work and acquire the skills needed to homestead, grow our own food and care for animals.  We believe each member of our family has something valuable and useful to offer you.

Requirements:

Space for a 45 ft 2021 Heartland Cyclone toyhauler 5th wheel
50 amp full hookup with water and sewer preferred
Parking for a large dually truck
Hours, days and commitment for time worked are very flexible.
Location must be within 1 hour drive of a health food store due to allergies.

Availability:

January 21, 2023 through June, 2023
August, 2023 through December, 2023
Unavailable in July due to a national cubing competition in Pennsylvania.
Ideally we’d like to commit 2-4 weeks and reevaluate to see if we are a good fit for a longer stay.

Skills we offer:

Carpentry (general, furniture)
Painting
Pressure washing
Demolition
Animal care
Stall Cleaning
Pet care
Plant care
Fermenting food and beverages
Cooking (gluten / dairy free)
Making tinctures / infusions
Holistic care and natural healing
Crochet
Sewing
Professional photography / content creation / editing services
Website help

Skills we’d like to learn:

Animal care (horses, chickens, ducks, turkey, pigs, cows specifically but open to all)
Meat processing
Organic gardening (variety ideal)
Land and soil care
Irrigation
Seed saving
Natural pest control
Green building
Tree care
Herbalism / medicinal plants
Beekeeping
Wild foraging
Safe canning practices
Fence care / install
Plus all the other things we don’t even know we need to know yet!

A Good Fit:

Family friendly, drama free, peaceful space.  Willingness to teach all ages and see value in all contributions. Christian or tolerant of our beliefs.

Not A Good Fit:

We aren’t comfortable handling commercial pesticides or chemical fertilizers, being around smokers / vaping, cussing or drunkenness.  We are allergic to wheat and dairy.  We can handle dairy but not consume it (milking cows is fine).  We cannot handle wheat gluten foods or prepare it in a space that would have cross contamination.  Not open to cleaning human bathrooms at this time.  Animal poop and stall cleaning is fine though!

A little more about us….

Jason is a digital nomad by day who specializes in Software Development and GIS (mapping) technologies.  His real passion is carpentry, wood working and building furniture.  Jason worked through college renovating houses and has fully renovated two of his own homes and two RVs over the years.  He also has experience with website SEO and building / managing WordPress websites.

Lyndsay is an award winning professional photographer with 17 years experience.  She can help you with your commercial or personal photography needs, content creation, photo/video editing, website management, social media and even YouTube.  Lyndsay has a passion for holistic care and natural healing.  Her skills include fermentation, making tinctures and cooking gluten and dairy free meals from scratch.

Taryn, age 17, is eager to volunteer and very responsible!  Taryn’s ultimate goal is to build a homestead of her own and she’s ready to get her hands dirty and learn.  Her interests include farming, gardening, animal care (specifically horses, chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys) and learning the ways of homesteading in a hands on way before creating her own.  She is interested in tending to horses and has experience riding as a young girl.  Taryn is also an excellent cook, loves her plants, herbal tea, crochet, reading, drawing and has written several books. We know if we don’t find a place for her get her hands dirty soon we will have a rolling homestead as an RV!

Jude, age 14, is also eager to volunteer and pitch in wherever necessary.  He’s looking for daily chores, time outside and age appropriate projects he can contribute too.  Jude is a world class competitive speed cuber (Rubik’s) and he can teach you how to solve!  He also loves birding and has seen over 240 species during our travels.  He can teach you about the birds in your geographic area.  Jude can also help create content, edit video and build or add to your YouTube presence.

Jonah, age 10, is our helper.  He’s built like a first responder, little fear, active and a deep desire to help others.  We see it everywhere he goes, he is the first to step up and help.  Jonah is very friendly, has never met a stranger and he opens his eyes fully awake and ready to go each morning.  He’s always pitching in.  Jonah is also a competitive speed cuber.

Zachary, age 5, is also always ready to help!  Ideally, we’d like him to have daily chores he is responsible for with our supervision. He can collect eggs, feed chickens or whatever else you feel he can help with.  He would love to learn how to milk a cow.  Zachary loves being outside and has spent all but 8 months of his life on the road exploring and going on adventures.

We have 2 sweet dogs that love kids.  Maggie is a 11 year old chocolate Lab.  Pepper is a 6 year old Lab / Brittany Spaniel mix.  We have lived in RV parks and campgrounds for 5 years so both only go out on a leash at this time.