Crop Dusters

I'm not sure what their technical title is, but I'm referring to the guys who are in little planes and who dive down from the sky to what appears to be 6" above the crops and they spray them for bugs. I've always heard them called "Crop Dusters", but I'm sure that's not the official name.

Can you imagine being one of these guys? You have to have a screw loose in your brain to do this job....at least in my opinion you do. They dive down so low because they have to. They have to be sure to only spray the field they are paid to do and not anything else. Then, they have to dive straight back up (wait...is it called a dive if you're going up?) and get over any homes, barns, utility poles or wires that might be right at the end of that field. It's amazing and terrifying to me to watch them.

Not many farmers use them anymore, mostly because it's so expensive. I do miss seeing them, and 2 days ago I was so excited when I saw one spraying the field south of us. It immediately took me back to when the kids were younger, so I pulled up a chair and watched him.

I went back in my mind to a time when the girls were maybe 4 years old. Jay had told me he was having them do the field behind our house, so to be ready for the noise. I knew the girls would love it, so I had a blanket out there ready for the show to begin.

Sure enough we heard the soft rumble of the plane approaching. The rumble got louder and louder until I was convinced the plane was going to run right into the house! And ROARRRRRR... down over the top of the house it went and down to just above the crops. At the end of the field, it circled around and came right back towards us. The girls were entranced. I on the other hand was a little nervous and said a prayer that this guy was not a first-timer.

After a few minutes, the field was done and the plane disappeared out of sight as the pilot headed off to his next location. I packed up the blanket and brought the girls back inside and both of them could hardly wait for Jay to get home to tell him what they saw.

When he arrived home, both girls greeted him at the door, jabbering a mile a minute giving him all the details of the day and then they got to the big news of the day - the crop duster...

Chelsea: "Daddy, guess what? We saw'd a plane today."

Ashley: "Yea Daddy. It was a crap duster."