Must Love Couples

Three weeks of WWOOFing in Hoopa, California, and we are almost done with our first work exchange. We have planted cover crops, pulled out countless tomato plants, fixed irrigation lines, chopped heaps of firewood (Good work, Phil!), shelled beans, taken care of horses, operated tillers and weed-whackers, shoveled manure, picked an assortment of fruit, been introduced to freshly hatched baby turkeys, and truly investigated the meaning of subsistence farming on the ground level. After having the opportunity to live out here, working five hours a day, five days a week, we feel ready to take our new farming knowledge with us as we head out into the world once more - a world with work available and homes a plenty! The problem is that while the farmer loved that we were a couple, because we were a team he could assign to any project on the farm, in the house hunting world, people don't necessarily love couples.  

Searching through pages of Craigslist posts, I've read ad after ad outlining a wonderful living arrangement, only to discover at the bottom of the post the most deflating words: No Couples. Due to this barrier in house hunting success, I have been including a disclaimer in my e-mail replies: I know we are a couple and that makes people wary, but we have lived at 2 previous residences together and in a tent for the last few months, which, I think, truly demonstrates our harmony!

Have we found people out there who can think about couples without cringing? Yes, but it has been a challenge. It feels like we are lumped into the same category as cats and dogs. No cats, dogs, or couples - bah! So, I keep trolling Craigslist, while cursing 18 year olds and romantic comedies for plaguing society with relationship drama, bickering, baby talk, awkward PDA, breathy whispering, antisocial nights in, and just overall "couple behavior" that sabotages a living situation, leaving it dysfunctional and anti-fun.   

Phil and I are excited to be moving into Arcata, but we leave the farm at the end of the week, so we don't have a lot of time to find our next home. We do have friends to fall back on, but after a month with our teepee and a sense of stability, packing up and hitting that uncertain road again, without everything lined up, still feels a little unsettling. The way I see it though, is we have new skills, contacts, and references from our time farming and that already puts us in a better situation than we were in a month ago. We might not know where we are going, but we are creating new possibilities with every step. Perhaps in the house hunting world, people don't necessarily love couples, but maybe they will love us when they meet us. I return to Craigslist, feeling a little more hopeful that they will.