Back in early summer I stumbled upon this pile of wood while strolling in a pasture with Pan (to mee
Back in early summer I stumbled upon this pile of wood while strolling in a pasture with Pan (to meet baby cows), and it looked quite dry and good quality and it’s never too early to worry about your winter’s supply of firewood, so I went in search of the farm and asked the owner about it. He said it was at least 3 years-old and after a lot of mandatory small talk and hints, he agreed to deliver it at my house “at some point” when he was done haying. I think last year I would have been stressed by the total vagueness re: date of delivery and cost (if I’d asked how much he wanted for his wood I would have received at best a noncommittal shrug), but I’m starting to figure things out, so I made no mention of money, and just waited, and two months later he delivered my wood as promised, then took a look at the forest behind my house and said I had some nice ash trees. I ended up offering him an ash tree in exchange for his already-cured wood and he said yes, that’s fine. I warned him that I might only have it cut in a few months and that was fine too.Transactions are a lot less stressful now that I have a better grasp of how things work around here—time and money are often irrelevant in a way that feels disconcerting to someone raised in cities where you get things with money and without delay. Last summer when my donkey was injured and I needed an enclosure for him, the mason came to build a corral and when I asked him how much it would cost, he said “don’t worry, we’ll figure it out.” A perplexing answer for me because what is there to figure out? You give me a price and I pay. I tried to remind him of the corral later on but he never seemed to want to be paid for his work. Months later, I was chatting with the postwoman (his wife) who said their daughter struggled with English at school, and I offered some tutoring, and she said oh that would be great, then later added “see! we figured it out for your corral.” And if she hadn’t said that I don’t think I would have linked the two, and realised we had made a trade. It made me notice other little trades I made last year without really being aware of it, because they are so tacit and drawn-out in time—as I started paying attention I realised how many transactions happen inthis way between people at the village, including professionals (at the hairdresser, the car repair shop, etc). This whole informal system of trade is so habitual and unthinking it ends up being almost invisible. And in fact using money seems to be perceived as rather embarrassing at times (the postwoman noticed my firewood and congratulated me on not having bought it like last year, when I did things the city way and went to the sawmill in town)—as it might suggest you failed at fostering enough trust and goodwill with your neighbours to exchange goods & services without relying on money as an immediate incentive and guarantee. -- source link
#crawling along