Who Are You People?

We are a full-time traveling, animal loving, professional pet/house sitting, road-schooling family of four. We’ve been traveling the US for more than a year enjoying “hands-on” natural learning experiences, as we make new animal and people friendships along the way. We are currently sitting in the USA, but hope to soon expand our travels and adventures overseas.

Our Story…

Brian and I have been together for 15 years, and we have two sons Sam 12, and Max 11.  For 7 years while raising our babies, I worked weekends as a nurse and Brian worked Monday-Friday, leaving very little time for us together to grow as a family. We were living the life we’d always known, but realized, we wanted more.

We’ve all seen people experience death, illness, injury and loss, and suddenly they are robbed of a future with their loved ones they thought they still had all the time in the world for. We wanted more.

I’ve witnessed loved ones trying to downsize, bogged down by all their stuff. Great stuff. But still, stuff; stuff that they’ve spent years and years and $$$$ accumulating, collecting, and cherishing. We wanted more, but less.

We wanted time to make memories, together, as a family. We didn’t want to take these most important years together, for granted. We wanted more.

We wanted more, so in turn, we wanted less. Less stuff, so we didn’t need as much $$ to pay for it, so we could work less, make less and spend more time together. We downsized. Over 2 years. We sold our house, and sold our stuff. I stopped working weekends. We went down to one income.

As we purged and separated our lives from our stuff, we decided we wanted to make the most of the time we have together, and travel and see the world while the boys are still young. It was important to me that my children get a more realistic look at the world and how people live, a more global perspective than one they otherwise may have as two privileged white boys from the suburbs in America. We were homeschooling anyway, why not world school?

We want our boys to learn what hard work is, and that life is more than just about $. We want them to have an appreciation for our planet, a true understanding of our non-duality, and uncompromising respect for our Earth’s resources, plants, animals and people. We wanted more, for them.

Brian readied himself to take a major leap, leaving his comfy corporate job of more than a decade, branching out to start his own website/multi-media business samax media.

In the meantime, I readied our household for our new venture. We worked hard to cut our monthly expenses so that we could live on less, while Brian worked on growing his business. I learned about pet and house sitting and how we could eliminate our monthly housing expenses (our biggest expense) all while enjoying a great family travel adventure at minimal cost to us.

Then, in January 2015 we began.

We wanted more, so we started with less.

We ended up with three free 8ft storage pods filled with memorabilia, pictures, baby stuff and some furniture. We left our rental apartment in Maryland, drove 1861 miles west to Colorado in one weekend, and began our first house/pet sit with just our Subaru, a 6×6 cargo trailer with our remaining “stuff”, our family of 4, and our sweet kitty Kebesh (who now lives in Eugene, OR) to begin our first pet sit, 4 months on the side of a mountain in rural Western Colorado, with a Rottweiler, a Labrador Retriever and a Ball Python snake.

And here we are today. Sixty months later, 25 house/pet sits down. We wanted more and we got it. We got 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 365 days/year together. That is a lot of togetherness. There is something to be said about balance! We wanted more. We got it.

When we look at the stresses of our life now vs. the stressors of our lives then, we pick this life over that one hands down. Of course there are challenges, lots of transitions and we are learning to live with less. But there are also amazing days together, beautiful new locations to visit and wonderful lifetime memories being made. My children have climbed down into the Grand Canyon, ridden their bikes through giant Redwoods, seen more than 28,000 miles of this country and have helped care for more than 80 different pets in 25 different states. They are getting more. More of a perspective.

So, now you know a little more about who we are as We4DoExplore life. If you need a responsible, dependable family to make your home lived in, to provide a second family of loving care to your cherished little loved ones & respectful property care at the same time, we may be the sitters you are looking for. My boys would love to run your dogs or cuddle them and your cats and other critters!

We have experience caring for dogs, both large and small, cats, ferrets, birds, fish, rabbits, hedgehogs, chickens, goats, sheep, horses and snakes. Brian and I are both veterans, we both have clean driving records and no legal history & Terri is a seasoned pediatric nurse (and is comfortable with pets requiring medications or special care).

We hope that we have the chance to meet you one day and explore your little part of the world as We4DoExplore the world together. Thanks for stopping by to meet us!

The Duncans – Brian, Terri, Sam & Max