Juliet

Honest, trustworthy, and resourceful. I care for other peoples homes, gardens and pets as if they are my own.

If you want your home cared for...

I am skilled in home care and maintenance (I joke with people that I grew up with a hammer in my hand accompanying my father on building sites). I have renovated two homes and spruced up a third one. I even managed the refit of a fifty-foot ketch and did some of the work myself – the teak trims and all the finishing work, installed new porthole windows, a new toilet, rust treatment and repainting, anti-fouled the hull, etc., etc. Running a home I am fastidiously neat, clean, and organized.

If you have pets in need of love and attention...

I am experienced with cats, dogs, cattle (and calving cows), sheep, and horses. I can also care for chooks, and I especially love geese. I have a very calming effect on timid animals and they quickly learn to trust me. In my younger years I lived on a sheep farm in Victoria, trained my own horse to dressage standard and for stock work. I have had two German shepherd dogs, and retrained both. Last year I looked after a small dog (as seen in my profile photos) and we had a happy time together during a six-week sit. I have a special affinity with cats, and in fact all animals and birds. Not everyone has had the thrill of a blackbird trusting them enough to take a worm from their hand or have a fantail land on their finger out in the bush – which brings me to gardening.

Garden and grounds care...

Over the past several years I have cared for extensive gardens and lawns (see profile photos) in exchange for rent (or a reduced rent) after retiring early from teaching to write. These were not house sit situations, but with friends or people I knew.

A bit about me...

I was a teacher dealing with some of the more difficult students. At other times I taught art. I traveled extensively in the Unites States for four years and turned my hand to various jobs including cook at a health ranch, managing an art gallery, managing a book store, running the art department at a summer camp for two summers, helping out at a bed and breakfast, driver, and nanny. I have sailed from New Zealand to Tonga and Fiji and back. I also sailed to various islands in the Caribbean. All this while I have been researching and writing a book for years about the ripple effect of child abuse. I also write about American political history for a Substack blog.

I can supply references on request.