My father was a farmer and his father before him. Not a lifestyle to be taken lightly by any means. Dad never did have a cab on any of his machinery and endured one hundred degree heat, gale winds, rain, snow, hail, terrible choking dust and whatever else nature’s weather could throw at him wearing his Stetson hat, bib overalls and whatever else was required to cope with the weather that day.
These days the farming lads talk of “cab incarceration”. Months of time spent in cabs of various farm machines from dawn to dusk preparing, seeding, spraying, harvesting and only brief periods of actually being with the family. Most farm families work extremely hard to schedule a week at the lake between seeding and spraying to enjoy family times and make wonderful memories.
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They watched the skies noting the wind direction and smelled the air for any indication of rain while the livestock milled restlessly. Others consulted weather reports, long range forecasts, expert tech predictions but the rain did not come. For more than three weeks the wind howled and moaned from the East both day and night shuffling clouds around while stealing what little moisture and life was left in the land amid billowing clouds of dust from dirt roads reduced to little but cracked powder trails.
On the twenty-third day the east wind died off, changed direction began to gust and freshen and the rain came without fanfare or thunderstorm or tornado. It rained an afternoon and through the night, paused for a day to catch its breath and rained again for two days. Calm rain all but straight down not driven sideways in a gale. The clouds blue and heavy lumbered by but there was no discernable wind as the rain hissed down, a “soaker rain” it is called.
There is calmness over the land as the rain washes away the dust, dirt and despair providing a rich fresh smell of prairie grasses and cultivated dark soils. It washes away the frustration, bitterness and jealousy of those who had suffered little or no crop for going on three years living on their wits and a meager sustaining budget. Even the livestock are given to graze quietly and thoughtfully.
Within a few days the prairie is transformed to brilliant green, the crop coming up, machinery washed clean, and of equal importance a spiritual freshness and optimism is imbued in those who are tilling the land. The rain while a physical necessity is also a critical psychological necessity of prairie life.
Best
Martin E. Silenus