📍 Last Updated June 2026
Where we are, what we're working on, and what's occupying our thoughts right now. What's a now page?
Romford, England
We don't do short sits usually, but this short one week stay highlighted the other side of pet-sitting. We don't have animals because travelling when one is a pet-parent is hard. Our way of life not only gets us our fix of having animals around, it gives the pet-parents the freedom to decompress and travel, knowing their animals are well taken care of. Of course the animals will miss the people, and the people will miss the animals, but we make it easy on all parties. The animals are spoiled by us because they are new, and the owners can really enjoy the time off, without any of the stress from back home. Jobs, pets, neighbors, commuting...we free them from all of it, allowing a stress free experience (even if they get daily pictures of the bundles of fur).
Public transportation and trains (even with a justified strike going on) is amazing. We explored the stereotypical places already, along with the Museums. Awesome.
One of us keeps the lights on with software engineering and technology consulting work. Remote-first, async-friendly, self-hosted ideally, and occasionally loud about it. After Google made the decision to enshitify to a morally unacceptable degree, he also has been working on automated methods to assist normal users in de-googling themselves. Open Source software doesn't necessarily bring in the dough, but it makes the world a better place so far. He will continue to support it.
The Admiral is carving, etching glass, and rocking it — designs slowly taking shape, some of which may be left behind.
Researching the next chapter: whether it's another petsit, a longer rental, or something unexpected. The finca is always in the background; logistics are in the foreground.
There is a chance for a pet-sitting circumnavigation of the planet. How cool is that?
Local birds: a lot of collared doves, but there is a green parrot/parakeet we haven't gotten a picture of yet.
"Wild" life: Foxes!! We know they are here, we've seen the shadows at night. No good views of them yet. Wild is in quotes because they aren't quite that way. David Attenborough had a thing on it. He's also 100, and Lego had a fun tribute to him.
The finca — what grows in Ecuador's climate, what self-sufficiency looks like on a small scale, what kind of home and community we're actually building toward, and what we can do to prevent the destruction of it.
We depart Romford this week. After that: Southend-on-Sea. The beauty and terror of this life is that "next" is rarely locked in until it is.
Ecuador is always on the horizon. Always getting closer.