We are both sixty five and have been together for forty three years. We spent most of our adult life in Alaska where we built two homes from the ground up and raised two children. One is an officer in the US Navy the other a miner/geologist that is currently doing mining research in Cornwall, UK.
We currently live in Melbourne Beach, FL in a home a half a block from the beach. We have transformed our home from the typical green manicured lawn to a fruit garden in the front and vegetable herbs and flower garden in the rear which is our refuge and due to the green thumb of my wife. We are both very active spend lots of time in the water at the beach or on the river in our kayaks. We have many skills with my wife being the master gardener and I being the master handyman which comes from living for twenty eight years in an extreme climate. Although Florida is not considered an extreme climate,living near the beach requires a fair amount of maintenance. We also had cats and dogs for thirty four years with our last dog dying in November 5 years ago.
Our preferences of housesitting have more to do with the time of year as opposed to the housesit job. We are very flexible but do need time to get our own house sat or shuttered while we are gone so cannot get up and leave in a day or two.
We have house sat 5 times once in Coconut Grove, FL for a couple with three dogs two of which had disabilities and once for 20 days on a very remote island in Panama in a house with solar electricity, rain water catchment and no other amenities, 2 months in Vieques, PR caring for 4 dogs, a month in Caye Caulker, Belize caring for 3 dogs and an ArBnB and currently a 3 month sit in Pulau We, Sumatra caring for a cat. Our twenty eight years in Alaska prepared us for many different conditions. We are also health conscious and eat and cook accordingly with the belief that good food will help us avoid doctors and hospitals and as such we eat mostly a very fresh diet and I do almost all of the cooking.
One other note, we host couchsurfers on a regular basis and I have linked our profile so you can read comments from guests we have hosted from around the world.