chubbyalaskagriz
New member
I was really lucky when I worked 3800 miles to the north and had to be away from home for long stretches of time... I had a great family who lived near me back home that I bartered with. The Miltons are a Mormon family w/ 11 kids, PLUS an aunt and one set of elderly grandparents in their household (16 total!)! I made decorated birthday cakes for all their family-members throughout the year- large enuf of course to feed their whole gang- plus graduation cakes, Mother's Day cakes, Thanksgiving pies, Christmas cookies/gingerbread-house/fudge & candy and other desserts to feed their crowd when I was home. And if a birthday or celebration came around while I was away at work, then I made/decorated the cake/dessert ahead of time and gave them access to it in my deep-freezer in the garage. What did I get in return? When I was away from home for 28 days at a time, they not only kept an eye on my place, but they mowed my small yard and kept the shrubs trimmed in the summer- and they raked leaves and shoveled/plowwed my snow in fall/winter, and did lite maintanence projects, including car maintanence, for me either free or at a reduced/cheap rate. The little bartering-system we had worked out was wonderful all the way around, and benefitted all of us tremendously!
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