January, 5, 2013

     A day of peace.  Years ago I knew a psychology professor that taught at our local college.  He had gone through some personal problems and made the decision to take a sabatical.  During his sabatical he grew a garden, worked in the yard and did a number of other projects at home.  When he came back  he said there was nothing like working in the ground, planting seeds and watching them grow.  He said there was something about the whole process that was very healing. 

     My  community has traditionally been a farming community since it was settled.  It was one of the last communities in California to be settled and was done so by a grant from the federal government that wanted the area worked and knew making canals for the water and clearing the land would be very difficult.  At any rate the area has been traditionally dominated by farming and the families that owned them.  There is one thing about this that always stood out.  Those farmers always made their children work the farm as well.  They dug ditches, worked the field, drove tractors and did anything else that needed doing.  And every single one of those boys grew up to be men.  Real men.  The kind that knew how to work, how to get up early and work late and start all over and continue doing it until harvest.  They were taught work ethics, responsibility, discipline, and pride for work well done.  They were the ones that couldn't go to the football games, or church camps or friday night at the movies because the ditch broke, or the field needed work, whatever it was they knew their priorities. 

     I work for a hay broker that runs trucks and hay squeezes as well.  Previously I owned my business where I worked approximately 12 hours a day and before that I worked for a custom harvester, actually one of the largest custom cotton harvesters in the states.  There's no such thing as 4 day holidays, long vacations, or staying home because you had a long weekend.  You just work.  When you are the one processing the money, when the banks are open you are working, and you work until the work is done.  No  breaktime because, what does the government say? 10 mins within a four hour period and an hour lunch if your gonna work 8 hours.  Really? Just work until it's done, the money needs to be processed, the farmers need to be paid.

     I'll never forget the first week I went to work for the harvester.  I needed the job, he was in Texas harvesting and I had no idea, but the Internal Revenue Service was looking for him.  In walked the tax man with a gun on his side asking where the receivables were.  I looked at him and said I have no idea I just started here I don't know where anything is.  He sat there for a minute and got up and left.  The receivables, checks and cash were in my desk draw just sitting there.  My boss called after he left, asked if I was okay, I said "yea, but I need to make the deposit and go to the bank".  That was that.

      There is nothing like having your office out in the middle of alfalfa fields, the view is beautiful, the people work hard and those that don't leave.  During harvest those men who can't handle the work end up being sent back home.  It's hard working 15 hours a day 7 days a week til harvest is done and it isn't work everyone can do.  I loved it.