What's Under My Hat: Meaning of hard work, responsibility lost on D.C. crew

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Published on Wednesday, 07 December 2011 13:55

By Monte Tucker

Howdy friends and neighbors.  

Well, our beloved United States Department of non-labor has decided that we farmers and ranchers are way too stupid to raise our kids while making them do farm work.  

Yep, the D.C. crew has issued a rule that prohibits kids under 16 years old from being around livestock and operating any equipment over 5 horsepower.  So, the Department of Labor, I guess, wants family farms to be like corporate farms and hire a bunch of out-a-work union “laborers” instead of making our own kids feed horses and cattle on a four-wheeler.  

Whew!  Because I sure can remember when I was under 16 years old, and I was forced into the Tucker farm sweat shops near Sunny Point, OK.  My parents and grandparents actually expected me to feed, water and exercise pigs, sheep and cattle on a daily basis!  Whether it was the heat of July or the dead of winter, I had to drive a 95 hp tractor with no cab, which meant no heat or a/c in order to feed my animals.  That tractor had a direct link clutch (not electronic nor hydraulic), and I had to haul round bales one at a time (not with a 12 bale self dumping trailer.)  

Where was the DOL then?  Oh, and then my Granddad actually made me get greasy and wet while we sweated our butts off in August working on windmills while those man killing cows (our cows have never killed any man) waited for a drink!  Then there were the hot and humid times in June when I was forced into dusty, stinky grain bins with a scoop shovel and a broom!

Oh, but that lead to the thrill of driving our 250 hp combine when I was 13 all by myself! I got to see firsthand the results of all our hard work pour out of that machine.  And the spring gatherings! Oh yeah, we gathered the new crop of calves for shots and branding.  Then gathered the yearlings and put them on semis bound for market, and on Friday Granddad, Dad and I would watch them sell at auction. Even as a young boy it felt so good to know I had a part in it!

But if the DOL would have been around then, I could have just sat at the house and watched ABC, NBC, CBS or PBS and been totally brain-washed instead of learning skills that provide food and clothes for my family today.  

You bet, instead of actually learning the proper way to be humane and compassionate for my animals, I could have just watched “Nature” and rooted for the gazelle to escape the lion, which it always did.  Then the lion would just go to the preserve and eat soy burgers out of its bowl.  

If the DOL and the liberals would have just been there for me, then maybe instead of learning that hard work put money in my pockets, I would have just taken my iPhone and occupied a public park somewhere and demanded that my “gubbment” take care of me!

I guarantee that I would be 100 times more willing to put my 7 year old and 7 month old boys in a pen full of put together out of three different sale barns, yearling bull calves for 12 hours straight than put them in a Penn State coaches office, Michael Jackson’s back yard, on the sidewalk in front of our Nation’s Capital or in the middle of an “Occupy Wall St.” protest for 5 seconds!!!!! 

NO! NO! NO Washington, D.C. beltway numb skulls!  My two boys WILL work on my family farm.  They WILL learn the meaning of hard work and responsibility!  YES, I understand that accidents can happen, but it will be my responsibility not the Department of Labor’s! I WILL NOT do my boys the disservice of not growing up with the farm life. They will take care of many animals.  

I live at Sunny Point, Oklahoma; the DOL can come arrest me at any time because I hereby declare that I will not live by their un-constitutional rules! In the words of my forefathers, “Don’t tread on me!”

I’m Monte Tucker and that is what’s under my hat! If you like this then look for “What’s Under My Hat” on Facebook and share all you like!