I guess I should be nice more often.

     This week was the opening of the dove hunt here in Utah. This is usually a time of headaches for me...chasing off tresspassers and keeping track of who can hint where. Inevidably the opening day there are lots of wandering hunters that get "lost" or don't know where the property lines are. While I'm usually quick to snap and boot people right off, the farm, this thursday I just happened to be in a (rare) good mood when I stumbled on my first group of hunters.After talking to them for a whille, they seemed nice enough, so I let them keep on hunting with the understanding that it was a one day deal.
     I went on about my day working in my yard trying to finish up a cement project. This was a process that was taking me much longer than I had expected. As the day was winding down I had my sidewalk & driveway all formed up. Clark and I were just putting the finishing touches on the gravel in my cement forms, when who should ull uo but the hunters that I had talked to earlier that morning. They got out and said how much fun theyd had hunting, they all shot there limits! They asked what we were doing, and I proceeded to show them the little project I had going on in my yard. Turns out one of them is a professional concrete contractor and he offered to come and help the next morning and help!  Having only met him earlier that day I didn't really know if he would actually show up or if he was just full of it.
                 Fast forward to 6a.m. the next morning and guess who showed up just before the cement truck? That's right my new hunting buddy Justin! He actually came and did way more work than I could have expected. He did almost all of the finish work and did a much better job than I could have done. I'm good at puring cement that the cows approve of but I don't have that much experience pouring beautiful, colored and stamped concrete like Justin did! It turned out BEAUTIFUL!!
     While I ended up with a BEAUTIFUL stamped and colored sidewalk, Justin earned him and his friends a hunting pass for this year and years to come. The power of bartering is making its way back into society.  With the prices of things rising higher and higher every day we all have to learn to get the most of out of what we've got. I'm becoming a bigger fan of bartering everyday.
     Anybody wanna go hunting? I'm in a good mood!