Houston Simplicity Network

Houston Simplicity Network folks validate and support one another’s efforts to simplify.  We learn how to make more time for family, friends, and what matters most. We connect people from the Houston region who want more fun, less stuff.   Simplifying is good for us, and also good for the planet. 

Bayou City Barter Fair

May 3, 2008

WHEN? 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Saturday, May 3

WHERE? Emile Community Farm

700 North Emile, Houston 77020

Directions to Emile Community Farm – 700 North Emile, Houston TX 77020

· From I-10, take exit 771A for Waco Street (this is 2 exits east of Hwy 59 near downtown)

· Turn right (south) on Waco

· Travel .2 mile and turn left (east) on Buck Street

· Travel .1 mile and turn right (south) on Emile Street

· As you drive down Emile, you will see the gardens on your right (at Emile and Gunter)

WHY? To practice simplicity and provide an alternative to media-driven consumerism.

WHAT? The Barter Fair provides an opportunity to trade objects and services without using common currency.

This gives us a chance to think in a new way about the way we place value on objects and services within

our community.

HOW can you get involved?

Simply come by and join in the fun!

Bring a table, shelf, rug or blanket to display your goods or a sign that describes the service(s) which

you would like to barter.

Bring some food to share, if you wish.

In addition to each individuals’/family’s table where their items are displayed, we will have a designated area for "free" items that you are willing to give to whomever wants them. Visitors may then use such items to barter and trade with if they wish. (Three way trades are possible, too.) See below for more information on how to barter.

No money will be exchanged for services or goods. *

This will be a combination event -- barter fair and community farm workday. You are welcome to participate in one or both events. 
For more information on the Last Organic Outpost and Emile Community farm, contact Synthia Hall at 713-222-0998.

Here is a message from urban farmer Joe Nelson Icet…
 
The Emile Community Farm will have a work event every Saturday
from 1 to 5pm. We will be clearing land to make room for more garden beds. 
In early April we planted nearly 400 plants. We are loading the gardens with 
lots of variety's of peppers, tomatoes,
squashes, and more. 
 
We will be at the farmers market at Alabama and Travis Saturday from
8am till noon. We also did the Tuesday market at Rice and are looking 
for help to work the Saturday markets at others locations. 
 
We would appreciate donations of picnic tables, chairs, and gardening tools. 
Monetary donations will go for soil, seed, plants and much more.
 
Thanks for supporting the huge effort to bring a local food system to
Houston's inner city. Please come by and check out the farming, work
with us and we pay in greens --  pick and take the food to those in need. 
 
Thanks for Supporting Local Farming in the Inner City.

CHILDREN ARE WELCOME!

Children are often the best models of how this can work. They have the ability to add value to an item by describing potential uses. Some creative kids have baked cookies or homemade doggie treats to use as their barter currency. The sky is the limit on possibilities.

For more information about the event, or to offer your services as a volunteer, contact:

Lidney Molnari

lidneymolnari@yahoo.com

832-466-1342

*Monetary donations may be made to Emile Community Farms for the use of their space.

Bayou City Barter Fair

November 28, 2008

WHEN? 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Friday, November 28, 2008 – The day after Thanksgiving – International “BUY NOTHING DAY”

WHERE? Live Oak Friends Meetinghouse

1318 West 26th Street, Houston 77018

Directions to the Meeting House -- 1318 West 26th Street, Houston, TX 77008

· Take Ella exit off North 610 Loop

· Go one block south on Ella

· Turn left on 26^th Street

· Live Oak Friends Meeting House will be the right side a couple blocks down 26^th Street

·

For more information about the event, or to offer your services as a volunteer, contact:

Lidney Molnari

lidneymolnari@yahoo.com

832-466-1342

*Monetary donations may be made to Live Oak Friends Meeting House for the use of their space.

How to Barter

Comments from Barter Fair participants from Washington State:

At the fair, people will have tables where they display their goods: apples from their fruit tree, some sports (baseballs, etc.), a chess game, oil paintings, comic books, and other things. They can bring photos or descriptions of things that are too big to display: a desk, or a bunk-bed.

We will have a list of things which we want so we can set up deals more easily. If people have the paperback books which we want, they can look at our list and see whether we have anything which they want. Or we can offer them something which is not on the list. Maybe they will make a deal with you.

We have many things which we can trade. We can swap the old stuff which we don't want any more. Some of those things might be the T-shirts and pants which we have outgrown. Our toys and sports equipment can be bartered, if we don't want them. We might trade our bicycle, and our old computer monitor, and the ping-pong table which is in your dusty attic.

When we barter away our old things, we will get something wonderful. We might get a better bicycle, or some computer programs, or an oil-painting set. Maybe we will get a baseball or a music CD, or a pair of black ice skates. We might find someone to give us some lessons in skiing, or website design, or nearly anything else.

Ideas for SKILLS we can trade.

1. Be confident and creative. We do have many skills which are useful to other people. Even "un-skills" are barterable; there is demand for leaf-rakers, lawn-cutters, and other odd-jobbers.

2. Barter your primary skill -- the one which we use use at our job. For example, a carpenter can moonlight with some additional carpentry jobs.  

3. Barter what you like to do. If we are imaginative, we might find a way to barter the activity which we enjoy the most. For example, if we enjoy being with animals, we can groom dogs or walk dogs or wash dogs -- or care for other beasts. Do you like to talk? Then offer some telephone time to a social club (in exchange for your free membership).

4. Consider your off-beat skills. At one barter club, some people registered themselves in these unusual categories: teller of tall tales, pool hustler, clown, parrot trainer.

5. Use the skills which you have developed in your pastimes. For example, a bookworm can read to a blind person or to someone else who simply values the companionship and entertainment. If our reading has given us an expertise, maybe we can tutor in the subject which we have read about.

6. Even our mere presence is worth something. "Just being there" is worth something if we are a babysitter, house-sitter, plant-sitter, or pet-sitter. Imagine how much more we are worth when we are actually doing something. 

Ideas for THINGS we can trade.

If we have lists, we'll be quicker to make a deal. When people approach us for a trade, we can give them the list, and then let them compare their "haves" with our "wants" . Our lists can include these items:

1. Our used items. This category includes books, magazines, furniture, gardening equipment, etc. People have swapped more glamorous items, too; a weekend at a beach house for a piano.

2. Our unwanted items. For example, we can swap away never-used gifts.

3. Our outgrown items. We have outgrown some of our clothing. Our children have outgrown many items -- their clothing, toys, books, furniture, etc.

4. Our handmade items. We can trade the products of our hobbies: our baked goods, paintings, beadwork, frames, etc.

5. Our surplus items. We will have more things to trade if we use some strategies. For instance, we can plant extra vegetables in our garden so that we will have a surplus to barter. We can offer to clean out a friend's garage and trade away the "throw away" items.

6. Our "junk." Even an old trashy item might be valuable to a collector who needs that particular piece to complete a collection.

7. Try a "triple trade."  George has an electric drill to trade and needs tools for his new garden.   We might meet a woman with garden tools but no desire for George's drill. However, she does want our bookshelf -- so she gives the tools to George, we give the bookshelf to her, and he gives us the drill.

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Links

Houston links

Brigid's Place  - spiritual growth and empowerment of women

  Citizen's Environmental Coalition connects Houston's many environmental groups

  Decade of Non-violence Houston  - building a culture of non-violence

Houston Storytellers Guild

Houston Peace and Justice Center

  Indigo Sun - Your Source to Self-Discovery

  KPFT Radio Station 

  Ten Thousand Villages - fairly traded handicrafts from around the world

National links

A simple introduction to simplicity by Cecile Andrews and Carol Benson Holst

Seeds of Simplicity, Cecile's nonprofit network for simplicity students.  Join their network to get a great quarterly newsletter and to help them promote simplicity in the US. 

   The Simple Living Network - Tools for Sustainable Living  - Buy books online, chat room,  email newsletter, and discussion boards 

Alternatives for Simple Living equips people of faith to challenge consumerism and live justly. 

   Northwest Earth Institute has four study courses: Voluntary Simplicity, Deep Ecology, Sense of Place, and Choices for Sustainability. 

Study Circle Resource Center helps civic institutions and governments set up community issues circles to resolve conflict and build our skill at democracy. 

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