For the past week or so we’ve been wanting to hire someone to cut, turn and bale hay from ~3 hectares of our pasture (you need good weather conditions – a few days with no rain so that the hay can be cut, dried and collected without getting wet). Initially we put it off because we weren’t convinced if and how much hay we needed (we were using it mostly as mulch … and we prefer not to anymore … so looking for better, accessible mulch materials). Recently we were putting it off because we don’t have enough cash money on hand to pay for it (a visit to the city is planned).
We’ve been approached numerous times by two sheep-herd owners (and a neighbor with cows) to let them pasture their herds on our land. We’ve refused because (a) we wanted to let the pasture rest; (b) we were planning to cut hay from it; and (c) we had plans to begin improving and converting parts of it.
Today we went to the village to pick up a few things from the market and to have a coffee. We met with one of the herd-owners and he asked us again for permission to pasture his herd on our land. We thought about it and decided to let him. The pasture has been rested and if not cut will become overgrown. Our efforts at improving and converting parts of it are on the way but moving slowly … so we won’t be getting to much of it at first. So, at first we said to him that we will cut hay from a part of it and then let his herd in.
But then I stopped Andreea as she as speaking and asked her to try and make a different trade. We asked him if he can bring us baled straw which, for our uses, is much better then hay in which case we won’t cut hay and he can bring his herd in right away. The look on his face was priceless … he was shocked and confused … he couldn’t figure out if we were joking or serious. However, once he got past the initial shock he easily agreed. He has 0.8 hectares of straw he can bale and deliver to us and everyone is happy (in addition, starting in August, we will be getting sheep cheese products).
Hay here is considered precious as animal feed that is both grazed and cut and stored numerous times a year for the winter months … straw isn’t (animals don’t eat straw). Therefor there aren’t many local uses for straw and it isn’t considered valuable. Once again our values seem to point in a different direction 🙂
So everyone got a great deal. We don’t need to spend any money on cutting the hay and we don’t need to spend any money on getting straw as mulching materials. He gets more pasture for his herd. It feels soooooo good to come across such win-win exchanges where money is simply taken out of the equation.
This is also a great example of a hidden purpose behind delays. We come across this a lot … sometimes over much longer periods of time. Delays are there for a purpose … you have to have patience and to let things be because only time can reveal their purpose 🙂