Wind machines and smoke pots

[Hummer]

Back on the farm outside Palisade to do some work over a few days. It must have dropped below freezing because I was awakened around 1 a.m. this morning by the rumble, the roar and the metallic whir of wind machines starting up. Big fans on 40-80 ft. towers pull warmer air from the atmosphere above to mix with cold air on the ground to protect fruit tree buds from killing frost. Sometimes, depending on conditions, it takes only a 2-3 degree difference to save a crop for the year.

Hundreds of wind machines dot the orchard and vineyard areas. Many of the wind machines are run on propane, others on diesel, and the more sophisticated units monitor conditions and start up automatically. We enjoy an expansive vista from our house on a hill overlooking the Grand Valley. I can see about 40 wind machines from here. Stepping outside, it sounds like we're on a military helipad with dozens of Chinooks preparing to take off. It's at once thrilling, yet eerie, ominous and almost somber as the threat of losing a years crop looms over the valley, over so many lives here.

I see that a neighbor just down the hill is using a dozen smoke pots in his backyard peach plot. You don't see that much anymore. Smoke pots are simple 3-4 ft. tall burners that use kerosene or diesel to warm the air near the ground. Decades ago, smoke pots would light up the whole Grand Valley with an amber glow from Palisade to Fruita. Upon the light of morning a pall of black smoke layered over the valley. Commercial fruit growers stopped using smoke pots about 30 years ago as more and more invested in wind machines.

Our few old apricot trees have begun to blossom over the past few days. Those early blossoms and the fruit they would have produced are surely toast now but there's always hope that the remaining buds will survive to flower and bear fruit. The roar of the wind machines is a ritual harbinger of spring in the Grand Valley, and it stirs my soul.