[PLUG-TALK] in case you nerds didn't notice ...

[Paul Johnson]

On Friday July 8 2005 1:03 am, Russell Senior wrote:
> >>>>> "Paul" == Paul Johnson <baloo at ursine.ca> writes:
>
> Paul> How about a summary for the newspaper impaired?
>
> Someone posted a link to the oregonlive version.  Unfortunately, it
> has none of the pretty photographs.

Well, for some reason they want to force a cookie containing my age 
and location on me.  They can suck it at that price.  Would have 
picked up the paper, but there wasn't a copy of the Oregonian left in 
Wood Village (the entire city is walking distance) by the time I 
heard about it and getting into the truck and driving to the next 
city isn't worth it unless it's gas day and I'm planning an evening 
at the truck stop (get most errands done in a single stop that way).

> Richard> Russell is the only member of the Oregon Wheat Growers
> League Richard> from west of the Cascades.
>
> Actually, a fair amount of wheat is grown on the west side.  The
> reason the east side is more strongly associated with wheat is
> because it is one of very few agricultural options there.  Unless
> you can irrigate, it's dry-land wheat farming or cattle grazing. 
> Mostly the latter.

I wish they ran fences along US-97.  One life experience I could have 
lived without is breaking a tire chain spooking a cow, which charged 
across the highway, and avoiding the cow with only one tire chain on 
a front-heavy, rear wheel drive truck causing me to spin a 270 at 
2:30 in the morning dozens of miles from anything (including a cattle 
fence, apparently).

> Richard>  Not only that, but he's competing with Bob's Red Mill and
> Richard> all the custom bakeries in town. Apparently quite
> Richard> successfully, too.
>
> As long as success is not measured in dollar signs, I'd agree.

Looking at the current state of American farming, I'd say not going 
broke and losing everything is a success.  Turning a profit is having 
success hand over fist.

> Richard> Just goes to show that farming's always available, even
> when Richard> the geek industry is not keeping everyone fully
> employed.
>
> One clarification on the article, I was half-time not so much due
> to geek industry parameters, but rather because of parenting
> parameters. Although some mixture of the two would be most
> accurate.
>
> There are a handful of minor errors in the article, but overall I
> am quite happy with how it turned out.

I really find it troubling how journalists embellish the truth, even 
if the overall significance of the article for the audience is 
epsilon.

> Paul> [...] Russell is a success in the face of overwhelming
> defeat, Paul> and more power to him for his success!
>
> To put this in perspective, I farm 1/300th of an acre, and by my
> rough calculations I have harvested a quantity of wheat with a
> value on the world market of approximately 75 cents.  Total.  Over
> half a dozen crop cycles.
>
> But not everything is adequately measurable in monetary terms.

Ahh, I see.  You grow wheat because you only want to mow the lawn once 
a year.  8:o)

-- 
Paul Johnson
Email and Instant Messenger (Jabber): baloo at ursine.ca
http://ursine.ca/~baloo/
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.pdxlinux.org/pipermail/plug-talk/attachments/20050708/4124e5ea/attachment.asc>