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.