Bartering-We depend on trading

[farmmaid]

We do provide lots for our self but can not do it all. We buy a lamb from a 4-H girl every year, she will be 9 years old this year. I go to the county fair, watch her show the lamb and he goes from the show ring into my truck. We also buy 1/2 a Tamworth pig from a family who raises them on pasture with an old orchard. I like the idea of promoting the old breeds. I have ordered a turkey from a homesteader for Thanksgiving and get beef from our neighbor in exchange for my spring doelings. The last barter is the one we are most thrilled with. I have a dear friend who has a boat and fishes weekends for salmon. She puts fresh salmon in our freezer (@25#'s) per fish and we put broilers in her freezer.

Does anyone else have barters that are on-going every year?...Joan

[busybee870]

i like that idea better than buying and selling, brings community together, makes friendships

[GrannyG]

Ours is small time but it helps, I bake sourdough bread and DH trades fresh eggs and bread at times for the short pieces of oak that can't be sold to burn in our stove during the winter.

[Tater'sPa]

We barter a lot with our soaps. For fresh beef, pork & chicken as well as laying hens, sheep, cheese......even a pick up truck. I enjoy trading!

[backtotheland]

I have my horse at my friend's house in exchange for me feeding the animals at night (horses, sheep, chickens, rabbits and pigs). Me doing the nighttime feeding was my idea not hers. She was just going to let me keep the horse there for nothing which I didn't think was fair. I also ended up with an adorable Finn whether for this. I would love to find more people to barter with but the only thing I have to offer right now is angora fiber, home baked goods and my time.

[Shinsan]

Do you have L.E.T.S., (Local Energy Trading Scemes), in the U.S.?
This is basically a bartering system where you can trade produce that you have grown, goods you have made, and/or services that you can provide, with other members of the scheme in your local area. A number of these schemes operate in Australia, and those that are properly managed are of great benefit to the participants and the local economy.
I say "those that are properly managed", because some of these schemes have not performed well or have failed, simply because of mismanagement.
'Properly managed' also means ensuring that the participants have something viable to contribute to the system, such as home-grown produce or home-made goods, and services such as electrical, plumbing, building, accounting, hair dressing, etc., and tends to preclude things like tarrot card reading, clairvoyant consultations, transcendental meditation and tathran throat singing performances, etc.
It's well worth investigating the viability of such system if you have a well knit group in your community, perhaps drawn initially from members of your local church.

Shin

[Kris in MI]

backtotheland, I do a very similar thing (keep horses at someone else's house in exchange for feeding mine plus theirs).

Best barter we have done so far, friend had an older car that had been her mother's ("old lady car", 90's model with low low miles). Dh got transferred on his job (one of those 'transfer or lose your job' deals) this spring and now drives twice as far to work for same paycheck amount as he used to. Friend needed some tree trimming done (tried to hire a tree service last fall and they never came when they said they would). Dh owns a chain saw and has trimmed and felled 100's of trees in his life. Dh trimmed friend's trees over several evenings, friend gave us "old lady car" in return. She didn't have to pay the $2k the tree service was going to charge, we didn't have to find cash to buy dh a more fuel efficient vehicle. Now dh gets twice the gas mileage as he did in his dying pickup (207k miles), so we are now not any worse off money-wise getting him to work and back than we were before the transfer.

[vancom]

We live in what I refer to as suburban country. We have 6 acres, mostly wooded, and cows to the left, cows to the right and then a spread of fancy houses. The population seems to be mostly divided into 2 groups: lived her forever and those that moved here recently and built huge houses on min. 5 acre tracts. We moved here a year ago and bought a rambling cottage in a hollow with additions and decks that has been here since the 1970 and it seems we fall in neither category...

I am always looking for farm stands (closest is 8 miles) so that I can buy what may be growing locally, but I think that people use what they grow? We have eggs but seems most others do--maybe we need to knock on a few doors. We have two pigs and will want to sell/barter one.

Anyway, I'm just not sure how to get such a bartering system going. Maybe we've not lived here long enough, or maybe it's out there but I've not seen it. Any ideas??

Vanessa
near Nashville