Peace Disrupted

It is a beautiful morning here on the farm, cool and clear. As I was sitting down at the computer enjoying my cup of coffee a familiar sound reached my ears. The drone of a spray plane (crop duster) whined through the morning quiet, and it was close! The plane flew right over the house and proceeded to spray a field a quarter mile from us, at times circling directly above us at low altitude.

photo curtesy of the ISU Entomology Department website

Now the pilot was well within the law and the conditions were perfect, nearly still wind and before the 8:00am stop time for spraying within a mile of registered honey bee hives. But still, given our past experience with herbicide overdrift, I always get a little queasy at that sound. Blue wasn't very happy about it either and ran around "chasing" the plane when it got close, barking wildly to scare it off. She looked rather triumphant when it would fly away, only to start up again when it circled back.

The plane has now moved off to further fields, but I can still just make out the drone of its engines as it passes back and forth over a field to our southwest. I understand the "need" for this kind of chemical control and application in the large industry of mono-culture, but it doesn't mean I'm happy about it.