Caretaker

["Lindak" <jazena@earthlink.net>]

Gosh I did this in the 70's with awful results.  My hubby and I had a small boarding stable (just 25 corrals,some tack sheds, a hay barn and a couple of out buildings) that we bought cause we had 11 horses ourselves.  We each had full time jobs besides the stable and it was hard going over before and after work to feed & clean.  It was located 15 miles from our house.  A man who  boarded one horse with us asked me if he could move his own mobile home on our property and in exchange he would be a caretaker and feed every morning and clean corrals each day.  He said he was recently divorced.  We were to do the evening feeding.  So we agreed to give it a trial basis.  To make a long story short, after a month of doing  work for us, he suddenly move his family in, ex-wife and three children.  Then we found out he was an alcoholic and his ex-wife and kids were actually doing the work.  Then they stopped being reliable and we tried to get them to move their mobile off the land.  Actually we did not own the land, just the business.  We leased part of the land from the electric co and part from TransAmerica company, so we had no "rights" to evict them. Since they weren't married and the ex-wife was on welfare we couldn't deprive them of their "home".  This man & his family turned nasty when we tried to get them evicted and would do things at night like drain the water out of the horses tubs, steal our hay & grain, leave the water hose running all night, let horses loose etc.  Since we didn't live there we could not catch them in the act or prove any of this; and it was a nightmare. The land our stable was on was being "condemned" by the city of Lomita, CA. to turn it into a park, and our lease was not being renewed, so rather that fight a losing battle we gave notice to the remaining tenants and walked away.   Anyhow good luck if you find a good reliable tenant boarder/worker. 

Lindak