New Noise!
Two things happen in the skies over our house in July, August, and September every year. The first may sound to you like we are part of nearby strafing run – right out of a WWII movie. Thank goodness that is not it. It is crop dusting time!
We live in the middle of chemical agriculture country – predominantly corn and soybeans. Illinois is ranked numbers one and two in the world in soybean and corn production – right with Iowa. And the big fields surrounding our neighborhood and small lake are dusted each year. There are pros and cons to crop dusting – as there are to everything – and I am not here to discuss either. What I want to say is watching these pilots with their small planes is fascinating. These pilots fly low and swoop even lower. They miraculously avoid trees and overhead utility wires with their poles and towers. These pilots are truly daredevils and I imagine direct descendants – if not biologically, then certainly in spirit – from the barnstormers of the early part of the 20th century. I always imagine them swooping fast and low to the ground and shouting “Wheeeeeeeeeeeee …………” the whole way!
The second thing also involves small planes, but flying at higher altitudes. We have a parachuting club at our local airport and on Saturdays and Sundays on fine summer and early fall weekends, planes make run after run so they can jump. We are not that far from the end of the single runway of this small airport and so most of these planes fly right over our house before the parachutists jump. Between our neighbors with target ranges, crop dusters, and parachutists, this is an awfully interesting neighborhood in which to live – for us and the birds!