Successful Swap

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Sincere, hard farm labour has really paid off for me.

Art Perry
St. Catharines,
Ont. Canada

Since our little mountain cabin is very primitive and off the beaten track, we have many requests every year for hunting privileges ... which we mostly turn down for reasons of safety and seclusion.

However, two years ago a few people offered to build a new porch on our cabin for the right to hunt. We accepted. .. and they not only constructed a beautiftul addition but did it with wood that was salvaged from an old barn and planed at a relative's sawmill. In the spring they came to fish for trout in our stream, and in return helped with any repairs or chores they saw. We became friends—to say the least—and this relationship has sure helped us out..

An inexpensive ad in the paper of your nearest big town—offering hunting or fishing rights, mushroom gathering, a garden plot, etc.—could possibly bring all the extra help you need any time of the year. Just stand firm on your ground rules (we asked our hunters to obey all state and county game laws and keep us advised of the area they'd be hunting in each day) and remember that—with firearms—small groups mean greater safety.

Neil & Mary Watson
Alexandria, Va.

Bartering is about the best way our family has found to dampen inflation ... and, since we need all the help we can get to "make it" these days, swapping has become a common means of exchange for us.

Because my husband is not a gardener, I usually have to scrounge up everything for my organic plot in our station wagon. How ever, a friend of ours offers the use of his pickup truck in exchange for half a load of horse manure if I locate the source. (We dean the stalls together.) When I rented a rototiller last summer, this same man provided the muscle to plow my garden and then took the cultivator to till his own.

When our next-door neighbor borrrows our chain saw for cutting wood for his smokehouse he repays us with a generous supply of mouthwatering smoked fish.

Once a friend and I filled the back of her Blazer with some cutted cucumbers and peppers I'd found free for the hauling. Later we split our lucky find and—of coursemade pickles galore. Our sons even went door to door selling wagonloads of the extra produce for 5¢ a pickle ... good money for them and a great deal for the neighbors.

Recently we took our four children on a camping trip. We would have had to rent a camper, but instead paid some friends of ours for a new license plate and used their trailer. The swap helped us both out.

Four children in a family means a lot of housework, so my friend Joan (who also has four youngsters) and I decided to share our duties. Each week we complete a big job at each house—such as washing windows, cleaning out cabinets, scrubbing mildewed porch beams, wiping down walls, etc.—which we wouldn't try to tackle alone. While our children play together, our work time is cut in half.

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