Bill Wodraska

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I was driving home yesterday when I spotted a guy unloading big, unsplit rounds of white pine from a pickup. Well, I had firewood on my mind anyway because I'd just buck sawed some small stuff for a friend in exchange for a haircut. And I knew she'd need better stove wood than the pitiful crooked sticks I'd cut. "Maybe," I thought, "I can trade this fellow some labor for a little wood."

So I pulled my van over to the curb and walked back to the pickup for some palaver. When I got there the man with the wood was standing on top of the load, tossing chunks of pine over the fence and into his yard. A yard that already contained, maybe, 20 cords of freshly cut firewood!

"Say, that's mighty impressive work," I said and my new found friend sat down, glad for the chance to rest and rap a spell. Well we talked about the coming winter it looked to be a long and a cold one, but then we say that every fall out here in western Nevada and we commiserated a bit over the Sierra Pacific Power Company's sure to come increases for the price of gas and we exchanged some thoughts about the cord and a half of wood my new acquaintance had already cut, carried, and trucked that day.

Before long I was allowing that the other fellow had invested considerable labor, emotional energy, and determination in his winter's fuel supply and I outlined a modest proposition: I'd help unload what was left on the truck in exchange for a single two foot section of tree trunk that I'd later present to my lady friend for a chopping block.

The man with the wood agreed and I was soon helping him manhandle big rounds some of them weighed 100 pounds or more from the pickup and into his yard. It was good to work together that way and we quickly established a special bond with each other.

Once we'd finished, we loaded my "pay" a single, straight cut block of pine into my van and I started on home. And as I drove along, I realized just how much I've been operating lately on a barter and swap basis.