Meanwhile down on the farm

The classic scene, in old western movies, involved two people who had a disagreement stepping out into the middle of the street, pacing away from each other and then turning to shoot at one another. Depending on the movie, you could get the impression that in such a scenario, the good guy will survive and the bad guy will die. I doubt that the image depicted is accurate. If you think about it, it is simply too easy for the bad guy to cheat in such a contest.

At any rate, it was the story that got told about the west in which I grew up. In my home town it was harder to know who were the good guys and who were the bad guys. At least it was a matter of perspective. Big Timber, Montana, used to call itself the wool shipping capitol of America. At the end of Main Street there was a large stone building that served as a wool warehouse for the huge bags of shorn wool ready for shipping on the train. But sheep and wool weren’t the only agricultural products of our county. There were plenty of cattle ranches as well. I don’t know all of the history, but in the early days there had been fierce competition for permits to graze animals in the national forest, with the contracts for the high country at the top of the valley going to sheep ranchers. Flocks of sheep were trailed into the high country each spring and came back down in the early fall. The ranches were dependent upon the ability to graze federal land in order to support the herds they raised.

It was well known that the Grand Bar was the place for cattle ranchers and cattle buyers to mingle and that the sheep ranchers preferred the Court Bar as their hangout. There were, of course, other bars on Main Street. Presumably it was possible for sheep and cattle ranchers to mingle in the Timber Bar. My parents didn’t drink, so I didn’t know much about bar culture. The story that circulated among the kids in school was that it could be fatal for a sheep rancher to go into the Grand or a cattle rancher to go into the Court. There was, when we were kids, a fight of some kind that erupted into Main street and ended in the shooting of one of the combatants. I don’t know if the type of animals raised was a factor in the incident.

Farming was mostly alfalfa and other hay crops, but there was some winter wheat grown north of town and as you continued to travel north more and more wheat farms appeared on the horizon. My uncle and cousins, who lived about 200 miles north of our home, had a mixed operation of wheat and cattle, with my uncle tending towards the wheat production and my cousin tending towards cattle.

Growing up where I did, I did not realize the wide diversity of farming and ranching operations that exist in other areas. When some innovators, including the Martinsdale Hutterite Colony, put in caged layer operations and began supplying eggs for the stores in the cities, it was something new, but certainly not something that became common. The sweet clover and alfalfa required bees for pollination and there was one family whose living came from bee and honey production. But that was about it. I think of my growing up as being among sheep and cattle ranchers. My father’s business, Big Timber Farm Supply, sold essential machinery and supplies for sheep and cattle production. Haying equipment was our biggest source of income.

Here in our adopted county, Skagit, in western Washington, there are a lot of different agricultural products. There are three large poultry farms, with the Skagit River Ranch shipping chickens by the semi-load. A semi filled with chickens driving down College Avenue, near our home catches my attention every time. And it is a common sight in my coming and going.

More surprising to me are the flower farms. In addition to the two major producers of daffodil and tulip bulbs, there are a lot of smaller farms growing blossoms for the cut flower market. Skagit County is home to 27 fresh flower farms. While most of the cut flowers sold in the United States are imported, primarily from Columbia, Skagit county offers plenty of opportunities to purchase locally grown blossoms. In addition to the flower shops in local grocery stores, there are flower stands at the farmers markets and small scale roadside stands on the flower farms themselves. $5 will get you a lot of flowers to arrange into a bouquet.

I’ve never paid much attention to flowers before. We grew a few in our yard and tended towards the ones that were the most hardy. In South Dakota, the deer ate the tulips before we got to see the blossoms, so we grew Iris, which the deer would occasionally taste, but left alone for the most part. Here, however, it is much easier to produce flowers over an extended season. The deer aren’t a problem in town, but we have plenty of rabbits who nibble on things in our yard. The commercial flower farms have to learn to deal with snails and slugs. Local lore is that the best defense against them are strips of copper and ducks. I guess ducks like to eat the snails and slugs, but leave the flowers alone for the most part.

According to the local news the market for fresh flowers held strong during the pandemic. People were spending more time at home and were bringing more flowers into their homes to appreciate. It is too early to tell if the trend will continue as the pandemic eases and more people are returning to in-person employment, but remote working will continue for some time and many people expect it to become the new normal for certain types of jobs. The flower farmers are looking forward to another successful year.

In the meantime, I haven’t figured out who goes to which bars in town. I’m not much of a drinker, so I don’t even know the names of the places. I just wonder if chicken and duck farmers separate into different establishments like sheep and cattle ranchers. So far, I haven’t heard of any standoffs in the middle of the street.

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