[sethrin]

You can always get a job working in an Alaskan cannery. Most coastal towns will have one. It is not crap work -- it's fish guts work. They will probably pay minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour at the moment, but generally you can work as much OT as you like. Many canneries will pay your way from Seattle, and give you room and board as well -- for certain values of "room" and "board".

If you're lucky and social, you can find your way onto a fishing boat; deckhands will usually get a percentage of the catch ($$$), and the work is easier.

I've been through Yakima a time or two before. A gritty wind blew continually -- it seemed like the kind of place where not even the dust wanted to settle. My sympathies to the poster.