AgriCultured: Live a life you love
by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
Imagine being 25 years old, graduating college and doing exactly what you want to do. Not jumping into the grind of life, but planning a life adventure. That’s exactly what Victoria Backle and Cammy Enete plan to do.
“Don’t dream it, be it,” they say.
“We’re graduating college in December and life is just completely up in the air and we wanted to do something meaningful and travel,” said Backle.
“More than just the ‘9-5’. We wanted to live a different way and we want to volunteer and spend our time showing other people you don’t have to live paycheck to paycheck,” adds Enete. “That you can go live a life that you love and you don’t have to be rich to do it.”
Their life plan for the next couple of years is to travel in an RV with their three rescue dogs and explore the country, all the while doing volunteer work at organic farms along the way. The end goal of the project is to make a documentary, titled AgriCultured, which will focus on the lives of organic farmers, their struggles and how the law affects their freedoms.
The couple will actively blog and podcast about their alternative lifestyle and the things learned along the way. They want to show a true account of the lives of everyday farmers in America while also reflecting the value of social altruism through volunteer work.
“The support has been overwhelming,” said Backle. “We had a Kickstarter to get us started and within three days we reached half our goal. That goal was for equipment and supplies.
“The goal here is to educate people about organic farming, traveling on a budget, traveling with animals, living in an RV and living a unique lifestyle.”
Farmers and volunteers work on an organic farm in Taos, New Mexico. Photo provided.
“And even though we are gay we can still travel by ourselves,” adds Enete. “We are not going to be afraid of the world. There are good people out there.”
Their first stop is in Taos, NM. From there to Colorado, and they’ll work their way up to Alaska and back.
The couple have purchased a small RV (for $1,500) and renovated it. “It’s in great shape, but it’s thirty years old,” exclaimed the couple.
They’ve done a practice camp, traveling about two hours away with their dogs Royce, Maya and Champ. Everything went well and the dogs did great on their first adventure.
The trip was a mutual idea for this couple. Backle explains, “We were lying in bed and we were like, ‘Why don’t we get an RV?’ Then we thought, ‘What are we going to do with it?’” That’s when they decided to plan this great adventure.
“We both have similar goals about what we want to do and so this is our life for the next couple of years.”
The two plan to finance the trip as they go with online jobs they have. They’ll be working 40 hours a week, volunteering 20 hours a week and while on the road, also driving many hours at a stretch.
“We are also looking for sponsors for our trip,” Backle included. “We have reached out to the WWOOF organization (World Wide Organization of Organic Farming), HRC (Human Rights Campaign) and we’ve sent a lot of emails out just pitching our idea trying to get sponsors.
“Also what’s great about WWOOF’ing is in exchange for your volunteer work, you have food and accommodations.” Some farms will have more accommodations than others, however the RV has sleeping and all the living accommodations needed on the road.
“You can actually WWOOF all over the world and if this is successful, we’d love to do this in South America,” the two said enthusiastically.
They are calling their blog Lezzies on the Lamb – LOL. AgriCultured will be the name of the documentary.
Both Backle and Enete are vegetarian and were raised in homes where eating healthy was encouraged.
“Right now we are getting everything in order; getting the RV ready, getting the podcast set up, getting the word out about what we are doing and getting our jobs set up,” Backle adds.
As far as having car trouble on the road, Enete says, “We’ll just have to WWOOF, work, save up and keep on keepin’ on.”
Of course, they do have AAA in case of emergencies, the RV manual and Backle says she is somewhat mechanically inclined.
“We’ll figure it out one step at a time,” Backle adds in conclusion. “It’s part of the adventure.”
The couple is scheduled to leave town March 13, 2017. Their blogs will be on The Gayly website (www.gayly.com) and they’ll have a monthly column in each issue so readers can keep up with their adventure. If you would like to contribute to AgriCultured, visit bit.ly/gayly18.
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Copyright 2016 The Gayly - 12/15/2016 @ 6:22 a.m.