Random Thoughts on Crop Dusting
I'm not a farmer.
Just in case you had any question about that. I've never had anything to do with farming, and my first feeble attempt at growing tomatoes this last year didn't work very well. I grew up smack in the middle of Southern Californian suburbia-- tractors and plows and balers were just not part of my experience.
So when we were given the official disclosures when we bought our house, and I learned that our property had a crop dusting easement, it didn't concern me at all. My mom kind of did a double take at the news; she was probably wondering if we would all be coated in pesticides and wreck our health living here. However, since I am not a farm-informed person, I dismissed it immediately. Who does crop dusting anymore? Isn't that a outdated, old-fashioned way of protecting your crops? Surely there is some ultra-high-tech way pesticides are applied nowadays? That was my train of thought.
Um, no. Not exactly. Crop dusting is still something that happens several times a year in our neighborhood. My kids think it is wonderful entertainment, though I tend to get nervous when they go outside to watch. The dusting takes places just across the street, and that's a little too close to comfort for me. Yet I can't help but be impressed. This morning as I was driving home from the produce co-op I watched a crop duster in action for one of the nearby cotton fields. That job must take some skill!!!! The pilot skims right next to the ground in a flimsy-looking plane, pull up sharply at the end of the field and flips around to do it again, looking almost like he's doing airplane acrobatics. Certainly whoever chose that job must have an adrenaline addiction.
On a different crop dusting note, Terence tells me that his maternal grandfather was killed by a crop duster that came too close to the ground and literally chopped his head off. Doesn't that sound pleasant? Now, I haven't been able to confirm this little tidbit of family history hearsay. Still, all the more reason to watch the crop dusting from safely inside the house.
Just in case you had any question about that. I've never had anything to do with farming, and my first feeble attempt at growing tomatoes this last year didn't work very well. I grew up smack in the middle of Southern Californian suburbia-- tractors and plows and balers were just not part of my experience.
So when we were given the official disclosures when we bought our house, and I learned that our property had a crop dusting easement, it didn't concern me at all. My mom kind of did a double take at the news; she was probably wondering if we would all be coated in pesticides and wreck our health living here. However, since I am not a farm-informed person, I dismissed it immediately. Who does crop dusting anymore? Isn't that a outdated, old-fashioned way of protecting your crops? Surely there is some ultra-high-tech way pesticides are applied nowadays? That was my train of thought.
Um, no. Not exactly. Crop dusting is still something that happens several times a year in our neighborhood. My kids think it is wonderful entertainment, though I tend to get nervous when they go outside to watch. The dusting takes places just across the street, and that's a little too close to comfort for me. Yet I can't help but be impressed. This morning as I was driving home from the produce co-op I watched a crop duster in action for one of the nearby cotton fields. That job must take some skill!!!! The pilot skims right next to the ground in a flimsy-looking plane, pull up sharply at the end of the field and flips around to do it again, looking almost like he's doing airplane acrobatics. Certainly whoever chose that job must have an adrenaline addiction.
On a different crop dusting note, Terence tells me that his maternal grandfather was killed by a crop duster that came too close to the ground and literally chopped his head off. Doesn't that sound pleasant? Now, I haven't been able to confirm this little tidbit of family history hearsay. Still, all the more reason to watch the crop dusting from safely inside the house.
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