Pay-to-work idea good for local economy
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Most of us consider a vacation as a time to escape work. Many of us will try to get away with either traveling, if so inclined, or to do as much of nothing as possible, answering to any chores that may need to be done with a whiny, "But, I'm on vacation."
However, nestled in the tiny burg of Smiley, one area rancher came up with the notion that there are some people in the world who don't mind hard work for a vacation.
At the Lazy F Ranch, owner Clay Allen offers people from around the world the opportunity to work on a ranch for upward to $200 a night. And they do.
Allen has had people from around the world come to his ranch to pay to be his hired help. And this isn't any "dude ranch" either; it's a real, honest-to-goodness working ranch with all the amenities - branding, vaccinating and castrating.
If judged from a different perspective, this makes sense. In Texas, we are used to ranches, and even those Texans who have never even been on a horse are close enough to the industry to understand that it is hard work. That's why it's unlikely that you will find a vacationing Texan working on the range.
Perhaps if Scotland offered a vacation harvesting peat, you could find Texas bankers on the cold moors.
Perhaps Victoria could benefit from Allen's thinking. With the state of our roads, maybe we could entice foreign travelers with the exciting possibility of paving roads during August. We're sure the road crews would love to take a vacation in the hottest months of the summer and, the best part, the city and county could make some extra scratch in the deal.
All kidding aside, Allen deserves a great deal of credit for thinking forward, bringing in foreign tourists and a much-needed shot of adrenaline to the area economy.
This editorial reflects the views of the Victoria Advocate's editorial board.
