Along the lines of farm sitting....

[JennNY]

I am having someone come and stay at the house when we are gone for vacation in April. We have 1 horse, 2 ponies, chickens, 2 pigs and a dog. What do you think a good pay would be for her, as she'll be here all week, living in the house?

Thanks,
JennNY

[Shinsan]

Don't know if it works in the US, Jenn, but in Oz, NZ and the UK, there are people who 'baby sit' houses and farms on a regular basis, just for the accommodation. Such people carry letters of introduction and references, (and will also ask for the same from each property that they care for), and can be relied on to look after the property and any animals. Some will have an arrangement with the property owners whereby they will do this each year, thus giving the owners a way to organise annual holidays. (It's often a holiday for both parties.) Some owners leave the frige stocked, some include an allowance for food, and some include a little extra as 'pocket money'.

[JennNY]

Shinsan,
That's really interesting! I am going to stock the house for her, she is a 22 yo female. She lives at home and I think she wants a little vacation from that! LOL I think I am going to ask her how much she wants, or thinks is fair.

JennNY

[HilltopDaisy]

I think the pay should depend on how "professional" you expect the housesitter to be. If this were a business person she might ask as much as $75 -$100 per day; an unemployed kid may be happy to get $20 per day. I know a young woman who did this, to earn extra money while going to college, and she got a minimum of $35 per day. She was highly recommended because she was so responsible. She took it very seriously.

Personally, if I hired a person who was just looking for a vacation, I'd have a back-up plan.

[JennNY]

I should say.."A vacation from her family farm"! LOL

Her family owns a dairy farm and she is very used to getting up early, 4AM, and doing chores. I have no doubt she'll be a great housesitter, animal keeper!

JennNY

[jordan]

Of course our locations are vastly different, but I have a pet sitter come out 3 times a day when I am away on business and she charges me $10 per trip. She is awesome and tends to stay awhile each time (to get away from her 6 kids, husband and farm!). She cares for 20-30 goats (milks 'em too), about 50 assorted birds, 5 dogs, cats, fish....
She is amazing and a Godsend! Finding a good petsitter is SOOO much harder than finding a good babysitter!!!
You might just want to tell this girl what you had in mind and ask what she wants for the job. You might find that the two are close!
Good luck!

[celadon]

I also am taking a vacation and needed a house and pet sitter. I put it on a few different sites to get there opinions on the pay. It came out to 75. a day. This person is taking car of 5 dogs, 12 horses, 5 cats and 2 goats.

[BetsyK in Mich]

I had my handyman/hired hand take care of our animals while on vacation to Florida a couple winters ago. He had to take care of 30 head of sheep (not much to do, they have unlimited access to hay and were not receiving grain) and two dogs. He came over from his home about a mile and a half away in the AM and let the dogs out, checked on the water for the sheep. Came back at night to feed the dogs put them back inside and check on the sheep. I figured it would cost me $20 each a day to board the dogs and no one would pay an attention to the sheep for 10 days so I paid him $50 per day. Seems like a lot of money but the dogs are special to us and I sure didn't want to come home from vacation to a bunch of dead sheep for some reason. Worked for me. Oh ya, he did fix the watering system so it worked better, no more carrying 5 gallon pails of water.