I emailed my personnel chief the other day to find out how many vacation days I had left for 2013 and was shocked to discover there were weeks and weeks I could take off. Now, I could take the full boat at once, and just hang in my hammock with a good stock of Scotch, or I could take a few days off here and there and fix fences and plant flowers. But I opted for a week off in May, yet to be determined by my work schedule for Western Farmer-Stockman. As you read this, I may already be…

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I get a kick out of ag's never ending effort to continue to finance its own industry. While there are numerous examples I could pull up of this, the latest on my desk announces the Washington wine industry Annual Cup Race golf tournament. The money goes to advancing research, education and leadership in the business. The 13th  such annual event will be held at Meadow Springs Country Club in Richland on July 15. If you want to tee up, go to www.washingtonwindfoundation.org or…

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With less than $25,000 left in Oregon's Wolf Depredation  & Prevention Program bank, livestock owners who sustain confirmed kills by the pack can  look forward to little compensation. Meanwhile, the Oregon wolf pack is alive, well and hungry as it continues to  move throughout livestock lands at will, despite the efforts of a few  range riders paid by the fund to keep an eye on  the predators. Those who think the return of the wolf is a nice thing…

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We all get pressed by the regular flow of life and often become prisoners of our own clouded perspective. For example, I missed almost a week of work of late due to a combination of every disease known to man, then when I returned to my desk, I was stressed out thinking how difficult it was going to be to catch up with that never-relenting deadline. As I fretted and wrung my hands before my shrine, my computer, I happened to glance over at my digital photo frame and see an old shot…

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As we age, we see more of the icons of our younger years fade away, usually with melancholy, often with shock. They're tearing down all the McDonald's arches and replacing the fast food joints with boxy, less nostalgic architecture. As a child laborer at one of the first of these iconic landmarks back in the '50s, I could never imagine a world without the Golden Arches. But they've gone the way of Montgomery Wards, big fin Chevys, Greyhound busses for the most part…

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Daffodils and tulips are creating a rainbow glow of spring and I sense that summer is yearning to bud out. I'm ready. Never a short days and dark season fan, I long for the 9:30 p.m. sunsets of the Pacific Northwest when you can go on long one-day drives to the ocean or mountains and return still in the light. There's a farmer in my soul that likes the season of the sun. Actually, I haven't met many winter folks who like to be cloistered in their warm homes while the wind…

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Just back from bucolic Marrowstone Island, a little Washington gem of farmland and the Nordland Store. It is hidden away near Puget Sound, nestled up to Mystery Bay and not far from Port Townsend where dear are encouraged to roam the streets and dogs are welcome in all of its charming retail businesses. What brought me to Marrowstone was Lisa Painter, a heap of feisty energy at 87 and who has given her beloved 25-acre ranch to Washington State University for use as a research…

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We are now engaged in a magnificent transition from dependence upon government budget funds for our farm research to an era of industry funding. Western Farmer-Stockman has  tracked this change in our magazine, website and here in blogs, recognizing those who have made  the decision to post long-term research funding actions that guarantee a science-based cutting edge advantage for our industry. Without research, we will fall behind our competitors and fade as the…

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Always it irks me to see the listing of violators of pesticide law, an offense that not only hurts ag's image, but creates doubt in our consuming public already misinformed on most pesticide issues. Selling product in unsafe containers, selling to an unlicensed buyer, using unlicensed applicators, make applications in a careless manner, causing drift to a nearby field, and even selling unregistered products were all caught by the Oregon Department of Agriculture  in 2012. And I…

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It never seems to come with an understanding of why, but as the days lengthen into March, my mind always kicks in with warm season memories. I know it is rushing the season, but I'm wintered out with short, dark days filled with rain, cold temperatures and bad tempers by cabin-mates cloistered too long not to be crabby cakes (living with a  five-year-old grandson has put long unused words into my vocabulary of late). Nobody in my home ever listens to me, so when I decided to…

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