Something I passed today

[riden2low]

In my travels around the country, I always like to check out the agriculture stuff around me, having grown up farmin' and ranchin' and milkin' cows. Sometimes miss the farmin' and ranchin'... I do not miss getting up at 4am every single day to milk cows. I have never seen agriculture done as effeciantly and above the scale that they do it in California. Long growing seasons, HUGE variety of crops, the vineyards are amazing to see, cool lookin' machinery to handle it all. They are the pro's in my opinion.

Yeah I do the same thing Trent. I too grew up on a farm in CA. Was raised up milking cows. Dad had a Dairy down in Kingsburg just South of Fresno. We were milking about 175 to 200 head of cows everyday. It was a 24/7 job. Up at 3:30 AM worked until about 7:00AM, then breakfast, then out to the field to bale hay or buck bales of hay. Back in the late 50's a ranch hand was allowed to have 2 days off a month. I tell you what, when I got into the Military, I was almost like Andy Griffin in "No Time for Sargents". I found out the rest of the world got every weekend off, and every holiday off too. And then for the first time being at Ft.Ord, went to San Fransisco. Wow they left the lights on in that town all night long. LOL LOL Hey this boy wasn't going back to the farm. LOL LOL I found a whole new life besides farming. When I got out of the service I moved up here to OR. and I go back to CA only to visit. But like you, the farming is still in our blood and when I do go down, I too, pay attention of what is going on down there in the farming community.

 

[Trent]

I love traveling thru the Modesto to Fresno area and look at that giant salad bowl. Back in my truck driving days in the mid 70's, I used to load all kinds of stuff around there to haul back to Salt Lake City. I was fascinated to watch lettuce or carrots and broccoli come in from the fields already washed and packed in boxes and on pallets. They would pull into one dock, unload them into a giant flash cooler for 30 minutes, then pull 'em out and load 'em on my trailer. 14 hours later they were in SLC and the next day on the shelf in the store. Does not get any fresher than that.

I too was happy to get away from the milk barn. I love cows, but I love the ones that you just feed till you eat them way more than the ones you have to babysit and coddle every day!!.

 

[riden2low]

I love traveling thru the Modesto to Fresno area and look at that giant salad bowl. Back in my truck driving days in the mid 70's, I used to load all kinds of stuff around there to haul back to Salt Lake City. I was fascinated to watch lettuce or carrots and broccoli come in from the fields already washed and packed in boxes and on pallets. They would pull into one dock, unload them into a giant flash cooler for 30 minutes, then pull 'em out and load 'em on my trailer. 14 hours later they were in SLC and the next day on the shelf in the store. Does not get any fresher than that.

I too was happy to get away from the milk barn. I love cows, but I love the ones that you just feed till you eat them way more than the ones you have to babysit and coddle every day!!.

You were a truck driver. I was on the other end. I was a truck loader. Worked for 32 years for a grocery chain in their freezer warehouse in Portland. Started out filling orders, then became a truck loader, then eventually became the dock foreman. But people would be surprised how much frozen fish is shipped to the Coast over here. There are some restaurants that do serve fresh caught fish, but most run to the Cash & Carry warehouse in Newport and pick up frozen fish that was caught in Alaska. If you are ever down this way and you want the real fish and chips, stop at J's Fish&Chips. $9.00 for a fish & chips with a drink. And you get your money's worth thats for sure

 

[Trent]

I worked for Albertsons for 10 years at the North Salt Lake Distribution Center. Drove for 2 yrs,, then went in the office and worked my way up. Managed a coupla West Coast trucking companies in Portland for many years till I had enough of that 25 hour a day, 8 day a week profession.