Growing up on a farm???

Posted: Dec 25, 07 2:42pm

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The Skywatcher

Like most farmers, my father is a skywatcher. Since a farmer’s fortunes rise or fall with the weather, it is only natural for them to frequently raise their eyes to the sky searching for some sign that the weather might change in their favor.

When I was a young girl, I’d sometimes accompany Dad as he walked the dry summer fields to check the crops. He would stop every so often to scratch the soil in search of moisture. Then he would scan the clear blue sky looking for a sign of rain, even if it was just a lone cloud in the wide expanse. Other years, the summers were too wet. Either way, unfavorable weather conditions resulted in some serious skywatching.

Mom would watch the sky whenever she hung out the laundry. The sudden appearance of dark clouds would send us dashing to the clothesline to take down the mostly dry clothing before they received a drenching Once inside, Mom and I would shroud the furniture with damp clothing so it could finish drying. I can still remember the scent of sun-dried laundry in the house mixing with that of the summer rain coming from outdoors.

My brothers and I would become skywatchers, too. On lazy summer afternoons we would lie on our backs in the front yard and study the fluffy cloud formations. We looked for kangaroos, rabbits, dinosaurs, elephants, majestic mountains or anything else our imaginations could conjure up. It was not unusual for my brothers and me to disagree about what we saw in the clouds. Of course, no one ever won those arguments because as we were deciding who was right, the clouds floated over and changed contours right before our eyes.

In school as we got older, we learned about cloud formations. Fancy cloud names rolled off our tongues: nimbostratus, cirrostratus, cumulus and cirrus. However, textbooks could not replace lying in the yard and watching imaginary monsters billow across the sky.

I remember, too, how my brothers and I would watch for dark clouds that might be harbingers of thunderstorms. We’d observe from the picture window enjoying the spectacular lightening display, yet filled with respect for nature’s mercurial moods. Sometimes our skywatching was rewarded by a rainbow after the storm.

Weather forecasting has made great technological advances since I was a young girl. Yet, farmers like my father still cast their eyes heavenward. And after all these years, so do I. Once a skywatcher, always a skywatcher.

Anyone else grow up on a farm? What special memories do you have??