Outside The Credit Economy

We took a trip out to the Grand River valley to get some manure from a farm and to test out my farm truck. The truck hauled the stuff with no problems, so that was good.

The owner has horses, cows and other animals. Their farm is actually pretty close to "self sufficient" in the sense that they're producing the hay and straw on site and feeding the animals with it. Farms with livestock that aren't actively cycling their manure back into the fields have to give it away to try to get rid of it.

I found the ad for the manure on craigslist. My typical craigslist experience has been really good. The people selling or giving stuff away through that site are usually pretty interesting--way outside the norm--and will be happy to talk about what they know

I was particularly interested in how she raised cows every year. She got calves "for free", really in a trade for one of the raised cows at the end of the season. It was a little glimpse of a very old system of barter and credit.