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Mark Johnson, 23, spends his Monday morning driving a combine in the lentil fields near Liberty High School outside of Spangle, Wash., Monday. Johnson has been harvesting wheat and lentils for the past three weeks and still has 600 acres to finish. (Dan Pelle, SR) Question: Have you ever worked manual labor on a farm, ranch, orchard, dairy, etc.?
D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.
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moscow_minidoka on September 01 at 9:45 a.m.
Grew up on a farm, went back to work with dad every summer in college. Always miss this time of year, driving grain truck, driving tractor, etc. There's something very satisfying about manual labor, especially farm labor, when you can realize the products of your own efforts.
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scootermom on September 01 at 9:58 a.m.
I didn't grow up on a farm, but I used to live in a more rural area.
I miss being closer to the passing of the seasons, and the smell of freshly cut alfalfa. Lambs and calves in the spring.
Now, it seems that I just drive through asphalt tunnels and have little connection with the natural world.
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Pia Hallenberg Christensen on September 01 at 10:18 a.m.
I grew up on a small, small farm, and since I was the oldest I was first in line for the chores: plowing and tilling, raking and baling, stacking hay, hauling grain, tending whatever animals we had. As soon as I was old enough (10? 11? something like that) I picked up jobs at the neighbor farms.
Weeding sugar beets - by hand - is the most hellish task I can remember.
Of course I did “girl jobs” too, like helping the neighbor farm wives put out lunch for 10 hungry farmhands or making dinner for our own family at the end of the day.
Love watching the combines when I drive out over the Palouse. Makes me homesick.
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moscow_minidoka on September 01 at 10:22 a.m.
Oh Pia, weeding beets *is* the worst, and I shudder at the mere memory. I didn't mind most of my farm chores, but that's one task that made me seriously consider running away from home.
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