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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 2017)
VIEWPOINTS Saturday, July 1, 2017 East Oregonian Page 5A The busy season for everyone A recent chance dinner meeting with a friend from high school made me ponder the subject of work. We had both worked on a truck farm, growing and harvesting fruits and vegetables starting at age 14. The months of June and July are perhaps our most productive in terms of work accomplished in our farming operation. We literally work seven days a week and generally 10 to 12 hours (sometimes more) a day. We are usually finishing our first cutting of hay at the beginning of June and deliver the bales somewhere for much of the month. We are frequently fertilizing our summer fallow land in preparation for September wheat planting and rod-weeding, the same to set our moisture line and to kill weeds germinated by the spring rains — which have come in happy abundance this year. We are also tuning up our combine in preparation for mid-to-late July wheat harvest and, by the second week of July, are trying to put up a second cutting of alfalfa hay in the mornings and evenings before or after “work.” For the past decade or so, I have also been pursuing a career as a builder and usually have a project or two in various states of completion or, to the chagrin of a few owners, incompletion. My son, Willie, 20, therefore must bear the brunt of the farm workload. This responsibility has forced him to eschew such things as video games, summer baseball beyond Little League, and any semblance of time spent in the house during daylight hours. He has driven combine since age 11, done most of our seeding since age 13 and has been custom haying since age 15. One direct result of this lifestyle choice has been the opportunity he has had to acquire — as George Carlin would say — “stuff.” He currently owns four pickups, three trucks, five tractors, two sets of grain drills, two hay rakes, a swather, a combine and a shop full of tools. He has one more payment due on a hay baler ordered brand new but still cannot legally own a six-pack of beer. He leases 1,600 acres of beautiful, bountiful Helix farmland. His sister Annie, 16, has become one of his greatest supporters. When not occupied by her summer activities of lawn mowing and tending the family garden plot, she helps him load the hay wagons and drives a second tractor raking hay when the disappearance of dew by 7 a.m. requires two outfits to be going by 5:45 a.m. She is also readily available to give big brother a ride home or a lift to another field after dropping off a trap-wagon, tractor or an implement in preparation for the next operation. A recent development furthering her ability to help has been turning 16 and acquiring a driver’s license. While this little card is by no means as important to one’s I would never claim that my kids are without fault. After all, half of their DNA is mine. ability to operate a vehicle or tractor as is common sense, a degree of caution and the ability to work a clutch, it is nonetheless recommended and endorsed by mothers everywhere. Annie has made a few purchases to celebrate the fruits of her labors (a second guitar, another lawnmower, a trailer to haul great-grandpa’s inherited riding mower, etc.) but has been somewhat frugal in establishing a nest egg to someday augment her financial situation in pursuit of a college degree at an as-yet-undetermined institution of higher learning, preferably hundreds (or perhaps thousands) of miles away from the hayfield both literally and metaphorically. I would never claim that my kids are without fault. After all, half of their DNA is mine. I would also not be so ignorant as to fail to recognize that there are kids everywhere who work hard and there have always been examples to prove this (think of J.R. Simplot). I am, however, proud of my own two kids and glad that they have heeded their old man’s admonishment to work hard and be honest. Free college for everyone might be a grand pursuit, but I believe choosing a college you can afford and working at the same time as you are attending school is much more practical advice. My college faculty advisor once told me that “equality of opportunity does not guarantee equality of circumstance” — nor, I would add, should it. Too often I find myself in the role of a curmudgeonly old grouch. I’m actually a fairly pleasant optimist most of the time who genuinely enjoys visiting with people from all walks of life and varying points of view. What I do not enjoy, however, is the M att W ood FROM THE TRACTOR mantra preached by some that we should all be entitled to the same comforts and conveniences no matter how hard we work — or don’t work. Thomas Jefferson was at his wisest when he observed that the harder he worked the luckier he became. ■ Matt Wood is his son’s hired man and his daughter’s biggest fan. He lives on a farm near Helix, where he collects antiques and friends. Some hunters just aren’t R Lessons learned from minimum wage hike By The San Diego Union-Tribune A University of Washington study of the fallout from Seattle’s sharp increase in the minimum wage may have grim implications for the big increases now being phased in in California and in San Diego. From 2014 to this year, Seattle raised its minimum wage from $9.47 to $15 an hour, a 58 percent increase. The study found that last year — when the minimum wage reached $13 an hour — job losses mounted and the number of hours went down in affected industries, costing the average low-wage worker about $125 a month. This contradicted previous studies which generally showed little or no effect from modest minimum- wage hikes. The study excluded multisite employers (or about 38 percent of all city workers) and has not been peer- reviewed, but because researchers had access to an unusually large database — and because Seattle’s wage hike was so big — some economists are ready to conclude it bears out fears the nationwide push for higher minimum wages would have unintended and unpleasant consequences. In 2014, with minimum wage at $8, California leaders approved measures that will steadily increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2022. In 2016, San Diego voters approved a measure that at least initially phased in even bigger minimum wage hikes — to $11.50 this year — and indexed the wage to inflation beginning in 2019. Perhaps the Golden State’s results will be different than Seattle’s. Or perhaps the warnings that higher minimum wages will lead to more automation and fewer jobs will come true. Whatever happens, the best response to income inequality isn’t a steadily climbing minimum wage. It’s an education system that puts much more emphasis on high-value job skills. That should be a bigger focus before too many people are left behind. Quick takes Hermiston brush fire caused by fireworks A very good reason to keep the weeds down and lawns maintained. — Any Bakker There is so much fuel for wildfires. My neighbors are cited but still not in compliance with codes. — Bc Clarity Carlton-Martin No Fourth of July fireworks in Pendleton And that’s sad our city cares more about whiskey, beer or music more than family activity. Good job Eagles for not doing it this year. For real, thank you for the years past. Pendleton needs to get their priorities in right place — Jean Tyke Matson The only problem with Pendleton is the people that want to blame everything on someone else. The reason for no fireworks, is the people of Pendleton didn’t feel like donating to the Eagles fund for the show. Its not the Round-Up’s fault, it’s not the businesses’ fault, it’s not Wildhorse’s fault, and it’s not the governments fault, it’s the lazy, whiny people of Pendleton who are at fault. — Chris Schuening Rainbow Gathering hits high gear near Seneca My parents followed the rainbow people. They exploit every resource around them. What hypocrisy. My parents were disgusted and never returned. — Christopher Waine They came to Woodland, Washington, years ago and let me tell you the mess they left, the things they stole from the stores and all the ruckus they caused was unbelievable. Granted I’m sure not all of them were to blame but for the amount of damage that was caused, it was a good portion of them. — Megan Taylor This is so wrong ... people enjoying themselves. — Anthony Loveday West Nile virus found in Umatilla County Yeah it’s because from just above the mouth the water barely flows. Dam it up with an overflow culvert to keep it flowing instead of blasting chemical agents and the problem would almost eliminate itself. — Brandon Warren The mosquitoes are so bad this year. I’m trying everything I know to keep them at bay in my yard, but nothing is working. — Ele Creel Be aware if you notice an increase in dead birds around your house. — Kindra Shalynn Haimberger One of the great lessons of the Twitter age is that much can be summed up in just a few words. Here are some of this week’s takes. Tweet yours @Tim_Trainor or email editor@eastoregonian.com, and keep them to 140 characters. and walked into a ighteous makeshift office condemnation reeking of cigarette of hunting and smoke. A smiling hunters has become man sitting behind standard fare in a cluttered desk America, and as our greeted James 21st century citizens and explained that separate themselves ever further from Michael everything would be the natural world, Baughman ready in 10 minutes. their arguments and James and I Comment stereotypes become sat on a couch to increasingly bizarre. wait, making small As an example, I cite talk. Behind our host was Bill Maher’s HBO show, a window, and I watched a “Real Time.” I think Maher pickup truck roll across the deserves respect for speaking field and stop no more than harsh truth to power, often 100 yards from the house. A in the vulgar language that, young man climbed out and, these days, power so often one by one, lifted pheasants deserves. But on out of a large one recent night crate in the he dismissed truck-bed. He hunters as held each bird mere sadists by the legs who enjoy and swung slaughtering it around in chipmunks, and fast circles to that I take upside down offense. for several The habits seconds, then and mindsets of hunters vary dropped it into the stubble. greatly, and as evidence of I counted 20 dizzy and this I’ll present portraits disoriented pheasants, all of of two men who represent them deposited on less than the extremes. The first, an an acre of ground. educated man named Miller, At that point I remembered always hunts mountain an appalling account I’d read quail, the most challenging of former Vice President Dick North American game bird. Cheney bragging to friends The birds earn their name about shooting 75 pheasants by living in the steep, high- on a single afternoon. I’d elevation habitat of the West wondered how that could be Coast, usually in forests of possible. Now I thought I oak, pine and fir, often near understood. creeks where thick brush Our host told us we affords them heavy cover. could hunt. The fat rooster I’ve gone with Miller to pheasants, all without tails, the isolated area he favors, a having spent their lives vast, grassy valley far from crammed into cages, could any trace of civilization. It’s barely get off the ground. a two-hour uphill walk from James began shooting them, anywhere you can park to get while I purposely missed my there. A healthy creek courses shots. We were watched by through the valley, and quail the proprietor and the young are often found in willow man from the pickup, and thickets and stands of buck the black Lab that retrieved brush close to the water. Once the dead and struggling birds flushed by a dog, the birds fly brought the birds to them. up steep mountainsides into They stuffed the animals old-growth forest. Chasing into a burlap sack. By then them is exhausting work. I’d stopped shooting. I’d Miller calculates that he rather have been in a farmer’s covers at least 15 miles of chicken coop with a hatchet. rugged country for every quail In less than half an hour, he takes home. James killed all 20 pheasants “Anybody who eats meat provided. All I wanted to do should have to kill it once was to leave. in a while,” he says. “And But first, back inside the I believe in working for my house, we had to wait until the food.” birds had been run through a Miller also calculates that plucking machine. While that by breaking up coveys when was happening, James wrote he hunts, he has more than out a $500 check and handed doubled the valley’s mountain it to the man in charge, both quail population. There were of them smiling happily now. two large coveys when he “Sorry you didn’t care for discovered this place, and it much,” James said as we now, years later, there are five. walked to the car. “But that’s The second hunter, a my idea of fun.” lawyer named James, enjoys Fun? Not so much, and shooting pheasants. He whatever we did that day, invited me to accompany him please don’t call it hunting. once, to what he told me was ■ his favorite place. It turned Michael Baughman is a out to be a 10-acre stubble contributor to Writers on the field with a 1950s ranch-style Range, the opinion service of house near the middle of it. High Country News. He lives We parked in a paved lot and writes in Oregon. The habits and mindsets of hunters vary greatly.
