My First Bit of Bartering

This fall I did my first bit of bartering.  It was a "slow-pitch soft ball" kind of thing, but it was a start.  A brother-in-law had one of those long term temporary ShelterLogic portable shelter frames.  The years of sun and weather had taken a toll on the cover and it had been discarded.  He was looking for a more long term solution and was ready to have the old frame off the property.  I had, some time ago, REALLY miscalculated the amount of re-bar I was going to need for a project and a had bunch of laying around seriously in the way.  (I bought something like 3X what I really needed - oops....).  The trade was easy:

"Hey, I got this old shelter frame I want to get rid of.  Interested?" 
"Sure!!"

And when he came to delivery it:

"Hey, I got a boatload a re-bar laying around.  You got any interest in that?"

The deal was made just that easily.

D is a really fascinating guy who does a lot of blacksmith style of metal work and tool making, so he's always on the look for metal.  I really needed a shelter to get my little tractor out the weather and a bunch of stuff out my little barn so I can use it as the workshop it was intended to be.
 

I thought sure I had a better picture of the assembled frame.  Here's all could find.

 The shelter is 10' wide x 20' deep x 12' tall.  I was able to order a ShelterLogic factory-fit replacement cover from our local Menard's for less than $300.  My son and I had assembled the frame a couple of months ago.  The frame feet bolt into some lumber, and the lumber is then fastened to the ground with 4' stakes (made from re-bar, in my case).

It took me about 2 1/2 hours working by myself to figure out what piece went where and get the whole thing on and laced in.  If had been able to have someone working with me it would likely have been done in just over an hour.

New cover on and ready to use!

  Almost as soon as it was finished my daughter and son-in-law, who live in Indy, were given a washer and dryer.  We loaded them up in my trusty ol' 1993 Dodge and stored them in the shelter until last weekend when the were able to move them to their home in Indy.  We did do our best to empty the water out of the washer pump so there would be no freeze damage, and we put a "trouble light" with an honest-to-goodness 100W incandescent bulb in the drum just to keep it warm.

Put to good use on the day I got it done!  You can see the lacing near the bottom. New ones have a pocket for the bar.

It's big enough to hold my truck with the washer and dryer, as well as a bunch of plastic kid's toys from out of the yard.  In the near future, the truck will come out, and there will be a 4' x 10' shelf built in along the back wall where the stuff out of my shop will go.  Then the tractor will go in.

Not bad for my first bit of bartering.  Everyone walked away happy, and we both got something we could really use.  Nothing was sent out for scrap or left to rot until it was useless.  As I said earlier, there wasn't much bartering skill involved, but it did whet my appetite for similar deals in the future.

Col. 1:9-12,

Mark