THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND SMELLS OF FARMING

During the drive to the farm as the sun comes up over the mountains to the east, flocks of birds make their way across open fields to the trees along a creek, cattle line up in a field for their morning ration of hay, a jack rabbit runs across a plowed field and a pipe line of sprinklers moves across a field of green grass.
In the early morning hours there is the smell of freshly cut straw residue left in the fields after harvest as the morning dew dissipates, the smell of diesel fuel as it is pumped into the fuel tank of the farm equipment and the smell of the newly tilled soil.  

Once the morning maintenance work of equipment is completed we climb in to the cab of whatever piece of equipment that we have been assigned to operate and our world is filled with the  roar of the engine, the am/fm radio and sometimes the forbidding sounds of clanging and banging from some sort of a breakdown.   By the heat of the afternoon there is dust at the mercy of the wind created from the straw coming out the back of a combine or from the working of ground in preparation of another crop.   The dust may go up or trail behind or blow in the direction the piece of equipment is going making visibility difficult or impossible at times.  

At the end of the day silence becomes a blessing on the drive home.   The next day it  all starts again and in many ways never leaves those of us that have done farm work.