Old School Communication & the history of B-Four-One (B41)

We still use two-way radios on our farm, however it is usually during harvest. Today my dad’s phone is busted so we are relying on radios if he needs to get ahold of me.

We also have handles: My dad is 007 and I am B-41.

If you follow me on twitter or instagram you know that I use MarieB41 as my “handle” on social media.

Where did the B41 come from? My grandpa. I am the oldest grandkid & my next cousin wanted to be B-1, so my grandpa said I should be B-41 (B four-one)…get it? Now you know.

We know what they did before cell phones. Now I just wondered what they did before radios? A lot of hand signals while jumping up & down in the field?

Boom Boom Stick

It has come to my attention that I may be eligible for some Indian money* from a lawsuit that was settled recently against the US Government.

At first I had a moral dilemma, then I realized the money would pay for my new AR-15 and that was the Indians’ problem in the first place. They didn’t have any boom boom sticks to defend themselves with.

I also came to the realization that government has been mis-managing money for a REALLY long time.

Moral of the story…go buy yourself a boom boom stick.

*I should say Native American Money to be politically correct, but eh… 

My Great-Grandmother

-A woman 70 years older than me.

-A woman who took me to Fort Rock with her, where  I told her I needed “pie-cee” (privacy) while I was going to the bathroom.

-A woman whose candy jar was always full. Particularly with those delicious Neapolitan candy things.

-A woman who loved English Bulldogs as much, if not more, than me.

-A woman who played scrabble with me.

-A woman who told me the stove was hot but I still touched it anyway.

-A woman who loved lamb barbecues

-A woman who loved rodeo.

-A woman who loved her family.

-A woman who was passionate about agriculture and made sure people knew where their food came from till her last days.

-A woman never short of an opinion & letting you know that opinion.

-A woman I loved and admired.

To me, this was my great-grandmother. I have my special memories with her, like every  grandkid & great grandkid.  She was a very special lady to us all.  She lived a great life & shared her many stories with us.  I cherish the times I spent with her and talked to her.  She will be missed.

I am blessed to have known her.

Charity Blanche Bowers 1915-2013

Ending Oregon’s Death Tax

Imagine this, you work your whole entire life to leave your children a better life than you began with. You hope on leaving a legacy for multiple generations to come, for them to build upon and bring economic viability to the surrounding community. However, when you die in order for your estate to be inherited by your heirs they must first pay a tax.  A death tax.

As ridiculous as the above scenario sounds it is incredibly realistic. Every time the last member of a given generation passes away the heirs are forced to pay a TAX on the entire estate. In a sense this is a double tax because in the case of real property, like farmland, property taxes have been paid year after year on the land. If you have been making a living off the land then you’ve been subject to pay income taxes on it as well. This misguided tax affects property owners, small business owners, family farmers and anyone who has had a job or one day will hold a job.

For example, I am 5th generation farmer who is just beginning. The 2nd generation of farmer is still alive, my great-grandma, she still owns quite a bit of the land we farm today. When she passes away the land will be passed down to the next generation and when my grandparents die it’ll be passed down again. Each time the land, that is my family’s livelihood and legacy, is passed down the inheritor is forced to pay a tax.

There’s a saying that farmers are land rich and cash poor. The money we have “lying around” to pay this erroneous fee is tied up in other land, equipment and next year’s crop. To generate cash immediately we must either sell land or equipment or get out of the business of farming all together. Potentially one less family farmer to continue on for the next generation because the government taxed them out.

The way it is right now in Oregon any estate over a million dollars is subject to this estate tax. With value of farmland a million dollars is easily reached in land alone. However, when you start adding in the equipment and buildings used on the farm the amount you owe to the state & federal government starts increasing exponentially. Yes, I said state & federal, the state of Oregon has its own death tax separate from the federal death tax.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Right now, in Oregon, there are petitions circulating to put this issue on the November 2012 ballot and end Oregon’s Death Tax. Twenty-nine states have already repealed it and only 3 states west of the Mississippi still have this “double” tax Oregon, Washington & Hawaii.

Here’s what this measure will do if passed:

• It will phaseout the Oregon estate tax by reducing the existing tax by 25% in 2013, 50% in 2014, and 75% in 2015. As of January 1, 2016, the tax is zero.
• It phases out the capital gains tax on property sales within a family on the same schedule as the phase out of the death tax.

The revenue generated by the death tax is less than 1.5% of the general fund or roughly $90 million dollars a year. However, the good news is the “lost” revenue will be made up in five years! Professors Eric Fruits and Randall Pozdena issued a report in February of this year in which they predict that elimination of the death tax will lead to the creation of between 31,000 and 44,500 new jobs in Oregon over the next 5 years. This is because of increased in-migration of family owned business and reduced out-migration of such businesses. The tax revenues generated by these new jobs will gradually offset the loss of estate tax revenues.

Jobs & tax revenue? Sounds like a win-win to me.

I urge anyone registered to vote in the state of Oregon to go endoregondeathtax.com and print off an individual petition to sign and mail in. This is issue vital to the economic sustainability of our family owned & run businesses!

In full disclosure, I am one of the chief petitioner’s on the campaign because at 26 years old I am looking at my future as a farmer. I wonder if they’re will be anything left for me and my future generations if my family is continued to be subject to this death penalty.

The Bowers Family! Great-grandma Charity down to my 6 year old cousin Charity! 90 years apart!

Wordless Wednesday: Truck Driving Bulldog

Duke, the mostly English Bulldog, loves to drive truck!

After a hard days work!

A Legacy of AgVocacy

I wrote this post a little less than a year ago.  Today, Feb. 19th, 2013, my great grandma passed away.  What a great life she had. 

Forty-three years ago, in 1969, a group of unstoppable women formed Oregon Women for Agriculture (OWA), one of them being my Great-Grandma Charity. As she describes it, she received a phone call from Mary Holzapfel saying women were coming to her house to discuss what they could do to fight & educate the people who wished to end field burning. A practice that is vital to producing quality grass seed. The women realized they had to do it because the men were to busy in the fields that time of year to do much.

As they organized no one was stepping up to be president so my great-grandma did. My great-grandma Charity is one of the best women I know. She is 96 years old and still remembers, in detail, going over the Santiam Pass in a wagon in the early 1920′s at seven years old so her dad could farm the land we still farm. One of the original rocking rural women!

On Saturday, my grandparents drove my Great Grandma nearly two hours to come see me installed as president of Oregon Women for Agriculture. I was so excited to see her there, so were her friends and so was she! Women of all ages still actively participate in OWA.

During my installation my mom surprised me and caught me off guard. She presented me with my Great-grandma Charity’s past president pin. I shed some tears, not an easy thing for me to do.

Past & Present

Great-grandma Charity & me!

I believe I have the same passion that group of women shared back in 1969 when founding Oregon Women for Agriculture: we need communicate our story of today’s agriculture so that we can protect our livelihood!

Eat what you want & don’t insult my family

Today we are supposed to “Occupy the Food Supply” and show the “evil” corporations that they don’t belong in the food system.

Here are my quick thoughts on the matter:

1)I hope you occupy the food supply every day because otherwise you would starve to death or become severely malnourished.

2)Please don’t bash corporate ag because you in turn are insulting my family.  I don’t call your great-grandparents, grandparents, dad or mom names so don’t do it to me.  My family’s farm is a corporation, I don’t think we have any less of a right to be here than a sole proprietorship farm or a Limited Liability Company farm.

3)Beauty of our America’s food system is diversity and choice.  I won’t tell you what to eat or buy because that’s your choice.  I just ask you show me the same courtesy.

Hope you are occupying the food supply today and eating whatever you want to!

All the world’s problems can be solved with one farmer grandpa and one plumber grandpa

My favorite holiday, Thanksgiving is tomorrow.  It is my favorite holiday because it doesn’t involve much materialism, if any.  Every year I have a lot to be thankful for but this year I feel extra thankful particularly towards my family.

As some of you may be aware I recently changed jobs.  I left my ag lending job and returned to the family farm. Relocating is not the easiest. However, my family has gone above and beyond help me out with my move & transition into my new trailer residence.

I am grateful to my parents who have a successful 4th generation farm that has allowed me to come back to join the family business. I am also VERY thankful for my mom’s kitchen. Grocery shopping has been extremely easy thanks to her aka I have not done any. :)  My dad has been wonderful by having the electrician install an RV outlet to plug into at the sheep barn and providing & installing foam insulation panels around the bottom of my 5th to protect from cold weather.

I am grateful for my sister as a roommate for the past 2 1/2 years.  Sitting in my trailer alone makes me appreciative for the company and conversation. I miss her.

My grandparents have been fantastic.  I have decided that with one farmer grandpa and one plumber grandpa all of the world’s problems can be solved. Seriously, what other skill sets do you need?  The farmer grandpa hauled my 5th over the mountain for me, helped dewinterize it and then stabilize it.  Then my plumber grandpa hooked up a new pump and holding tank for the well. However we had some issues getting water so Sunday my farmer grandpa and I dug a trench to locate the well.  The plumber grandpa came over and gave his expert opinion. Then all three of us dug another ditch to my trailer to bury pipe.  On monday the plumber grandpa came over and connected the well and installed a yard hydrant next to my trailer. I now have a water source thanks to my grandpas!!

I have much to be thankful for and have much more than I deserve I am sure of it.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog and supports me in all my endeavours! I am truly blessed to be surrounded by wonderful people in my family and the industry I love, agriculture.

Call Me Crazy-Wordless Wednesday

I’ve recently changed jobs. I resigned from my 8 to 5 job with Northwest Farm Credit Services and returned to my family’s business, farming.

Here’s a few photos of the recent change:

That was my view driving home, now this is my view:

I traded a company car for this:

I was living here:

Now I live here:

Maybe I am crazy but I am doing what I am passionate about and that makes my trailer a mansion!

Being bulldogs.

I am not really an animal person, but there is one animal that always captures my heart. That is the English Bulldog.  Bulldogs are not low maintenance dogs and more often than not have an array of health problems. Our dogs have been no exception to the rule.  However they all come with a personality that most other breeds of dogs find hard to beat.

It’s a family dog going back to my great-grandparents.  They gave my parents their very first bulldog, Buckshot, as a wedding present.

Buckshot & Me.

Our next bulldog was Gussy, she was a pup from my great-grandma’s dog Mugs. She was the runt of the group and true to form had her special “gifts”. Unfortunately I did not have any pictures of her handy.

J-man came into our lives when I was in 8th grade. My dad surprised one evening with him. He had found him in the paper listed by a family who couldn’t take care of him anymore. One of my happiest memories is when my dad put down the tailgate and a white bulldog slobbering all over me.

He was a leg humper.

Bulldogs don't like rain, but they like camping.

He had bad allergies and was on steroids the last few years of his life which made him gain a lot of weight.

My sister got her 1st bulldog a few years ago. She’s not a full bulldog but she CERTAINLY has a unique personality.

June has a little boston terrier in her, oh and she can jump which sets her very much apart from the others.

In fall 2009 my parents, a few months after J-Man’s passing my parents got Madge. She definitely captured hearts immediately, but then again what baby bulldog doesn’t.

Baby Madge

Madge and June

Rare photo op. they weren't wrestling.

Priceless.

She always loved to "help" you get ready.

She was a cuddler and a good slobberer

You'll be missed Madge. 10-09-11

Madge was a good farm dog.  She loved being in the shop and “helping” the guys.  Loved to chase and eat mice.  She gave good high fives and shook hands when the situation deemed it appropriate.  Other tricks included sleeping, snoring and snuggling.  In two short years she touched a lot of lives and will be missed greatly.