College Student Returns For Harvest

WAITSBURG - While amber waves of grain may be a nice song lyric, they are often not the nicest object to stare at for an entire 13-hour workday. Veteran harvest employee Zach Beas- ley is more than familiar with endless fields of wheat.

This summer, Beasley will be working his fifth harvest season for Waitsburg wheat farmer Rusty Lyons. Beasley, a senior mechani- cal engineering student at Washington State University, said while the wheat can get monotonous, he enjoys the crew members he works with and the money he makes working for Lyons helps put him through college.

He started the job in high school when teacher Jim Leid suggested the opportunity to him.

"(Leid) pulled me aside one day and said, 'Hey, give (Lyons) a call. He needs a new driver,'" Beasley said.

Leid said Beasley's father had driven wheat trucks for him during harvest and he knew Beasley was a hard worker, so it seemed natural to suggest he take the job.

"I know (Beasley) is a hard worker and (Lyons) likes to give the kids an op- portunity to go to college," Leid said. "He was perfect for the job and needed to make money, so it worked out well for everyone."

At first, Beasley started driving trucks. He said the distance from the tractor to the grain elevator was very short, but the tractors couldn't get close enough to dump the wheat. In this case, trucks had to be used.

"You would take about three loads an hour and the rest of the time you just wait for the tractor to come back," Beasley said. "The money is good and I like working with the guys, so it's worth it."

Lyons said he is happy to have Beasley on his staff and was especially happy in the early years because Beasley had a knack for using some of the equipment.

"(Beasley) was one of the only guys who could shift those rental trucks and he seemed to like them," Lyons said. "He does a great job."

This year, Beasley will move up in ranks, driving the bankout wagon.

Lyons stressed how im- portant it is that students like Beasley have jobs, especially agriculture-based jobs, because not only do they need the money for school, but the experience they receive makes them more employ- able. And the experience brings a high level of disci- pline.

"We start (at 7) in the morning, grease everything up and get to work," Beasley said. "Then we take an hour for lunch, dust the equipment off around 7:30 p.m. and head in. Then we come back in the morninghellip; that's every day unless there's rain."

Lyons said Beasley is always on time and ready to work, making him a valuable employee especially in a job that requires many laborious hours.

"I'm going to miss him when he goes," Lyons said. "Every kid we get through the harvest program is great."

When Beasley isn't work- ing harvest, he plays bass in a band with his brother Austin Beasley and their friend John Hockersmith. The band, formerly known as the Blue Mountain Troublemakers, has been together for 10 years. They have toured to- gether and been through a lot of changes.

"We've been to Japan, we lost members, we gained members, we broke up for a while," Beasley said.

For now, the group plans to continue to play gigs in Pullman where the three group members attend school.