Crop harvesting crews usually consist of a few old timers, who own the equipment and establish a customer base, and a bunch of rambunctious, GungHo young guys who do most of the work in their effort to make some good money and make their initial mark on the agricultural world.
So, the nature of a harvest season is that a streak of bad weather shuts down the combines and shuts off the income for everyone until the weather clears and the combines and trucks can roll again.
Well, it wuz during one of those down times because of bad weather that found a typical young harvest crew facing a couple of days of no work to do and a lot of time to kill.
The crew had overnighted in a seedy motel in a county seat town in the middle of Fly-Over USA. It wuz a gloomy group that went to bed with the rain falling down.
When the cloudy, overcast morning arrived, the crew members slept in late and then made their way to the only cafe in the county seat in the town that served breakfast.
There, they ate a leisurely breakfast and then decided that playing cards, poker to be exact, would be the best way to kill the day and have a little excitement, too.
So, they asked the cafe owner if they could confiscate a couple of tables for the day to play poker. The cafe owner wisely rejected their suggestion,
Then, the group moved down the street to the only bar in town and sadly discovered that it wuz closed for the day for some unknown reason.
At that low point, one crew member suggested going into the courthouse and asking someone if there wuz anywhere in town where the crew would be welcome to play poker for the day.
The appointed spokesman for the crew decided the sheriff’s office would be a good place to ask. The amiable, genial sheriff heard the crew’s plight and said, “Well, boys, all the jail cells are unoccupied. It’s fine with me if you play poker in the cells.”
The spokesman pushed his luck and asked, “Would it be alright for us to bring in some beer, too?”
The sheriff replied, “That’s fine with me. Just behave yourselves or you’ll be easy to lock up!”
And, that’s how the young harvest crew spent the day — playing poker in the pokey.
That could only happen in small town rural America.
***
I read last week that out West on the border of California and Oregon, cattlemen and wildlife officials are testing the use of drones to deter introduced wolves from preying on cattle and calves and sheep.
The drones are equipped with infrared to locate the wolves and various types of loud noises blared out of powerful speakers to drive the hungry predators away. And, they’ve had some success to date.
What I found most interesting though wuz the kind of noises that the wolves hated most. Not surprisingly, the recorded human voice yelling something like “Get out of here. Vamoose!” wuz most effective. Also not surprisingly, the wolves hated blared amplified rap and hard metal music. In that respect, they are just like me.
The downsides of using drones to deter wolf predation are: First, it’s expensive to set up; Second, it’ time consuming for the skilled operators to monitor the drones; Third, it’s not known if the wolves will quickly figure out that the noisy drones will not harm them.
I figger the old-fashioned way to wolf control — shoot, shovel and shut up —
is always a time-proven fall-back strategy.
***
Another article I read recently bemoaned the “housing crisis” in the U.S. Too many folks can afford to build or buy a first home.
Perhaps the place to start is to not plan on building or buying a first home that costs a half-million bucks.
If zoning laws allowed them, metal buildings with 1,000 to 1,200 square feet and no basement can be built for a fraction of the cost of a stick-built home with a basement. Perhaps that’s the more affordable way to go to get more folks into first homes.
***
It seems there’s no end to human foolishness. In Great Britain the vegan folks are touting the healthfulness of a vegan diet for their beloved Corgis and other dog pets.
I’ll bet you a dollar to a donut that, if they feed their pets a strictly vegan diet, those pets will eagerly roll in and consume a decaying dead animal carcass if they had the chance.
***
I saw on TV that president Trump floated the idea of adding a bust of him on Mt.
Rushmore. Geologists quickly shot down that idea because there’s neither enuf room nor good enuf granite for another head on Mt. Rushmore.
I’ve got another idea. He should emulate the Crazy Horse monument and go solo. President Trump has the money, so he can buy a mountainside of suitable granite someplace he likes and hire a crew to start blasting away. Or, public donations could be a source of funds. There would be no government funds expended — which is most important.
***
Words of wisdom for the week: “It makes no sense for supermarkets to encourage the use of carry-out paper bags to cut down on plastic use when every food item in the paper bag is packaged or wrapped in plastic.” Have a good ‘un.
