Danadee Miller-Boyle sits at the worn oak table in the kitchen of her Franklin Township farmhouse, reading about a new technological development that could one day help farmers better monitor the health of their livestock.

Miller-Boyle, the county executive director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Farm Service Agency, grew up on her parents' farm, has been active in 4-H since childhood, and, for almost 28 years, has worked for the USDA, helping farmers.But on Oct. 1, Miller-Boyle, along with some 800,000 other federal employees, was furloughed when the government shut down over a budget impasse.Now, she spends her days volunteering, puttering around her house, traveling to the Penn State's main campus, where she's a member of the Quarterback Club and the Penn State Agricultural Alumni Society, and trying hard to keep from fretting over when she and her three employees will be able to return to the work she loves."I'm trying to keep busy. That's all I can do," she says as the nation marks the 15th day of the shutdown.Typically, Miller-Boyle spends her days fielding phone calls from farmers in Carbon, Monroe, Northampton and Lehigh counties who need help with disaster assistance, short-term loans or conservation matters.For example, after a severe hail storm hit the area two years ago, Miller-Boyle coordinated aid to farmers whose crops had been flattened."Some of farmers lost all their crops. They lost everything. Things were just shattered. Through our agency, we were able to give assistance to those farmers. All our programs are geared to help the farmers. That's what I do," she says.Like many other furloughed federal workers, Miller-Boyle is growing angry.She avoids watching televised news reports of the shutdown, because they feed her fury."This whole thing is very stressful," she says. "What needs to happen is that Congress needs to get this job done, and get it done now. They're getting paid for what they're doing."She's also concerned about not receiving a paycheck, and is considering applying for unemployment compensation."I was hoping they would get this thing over with. I've got bills to pay. Everybody's got bills to pay," she says. "Why the heck do you think we're working?"What does she want TIMES NEWS readers to know?"Government jobs are important to America because we help people," she says. "I don't think American people are known to be people who don't want to help one another. And if we are, well, we're not going in the right direction."