A Dry Farmer has to interact with nature. Nature brings rain and sun; frost and drought. Lightning is a very visible and tangible element of Nature. As a young child I was very fearful of thunder and lightning. But around the age of 14 that began to change. It started by trying to catch lightning with my mother's twin reflex camera. I snapped the picture when I saw the flash of lightning...and occasionally would catch it on film. It was not until later that I learned that my occasional success was due to multiple lightning strokes that occurred after the first one; the one that caused me to trip the shutter.So I've spent almost 40 years (to date) chasing lightning. I'm not sure why. It is thrilling to watch an approaching or receding storm. Even more exciting (but difficult to photograph) were those storms that were right overhead. I am fascinated by lightning. I can watch lightning in the distance and marvel at its brilliance, its variety, its unpredictability...and enjoy the trance.
I remember my grandfather going outside every evening and watching the sky, noticing the wind, and feeling the air. He would predict the coming weather and comment on the specific attributes that would make it so. I always wondered how he knew so much...but decided that it was because, as a Dry Farmer, he had to be good at guessing what the weather would be like...did they cut the hay, would it be dry another week; and when the hay was up, wondering if it would rain, and how much.
My grandfather's family depended on working cooperatively with Nature. Their dairy herd depended on the hay they grew. All their livestock used the grain. And then, any excess grain was their cash crop. With a short season in a high altitude western valley, timing was critical.
I don't have my grandfather, or my father's weather prediction skills. But I do enjoy watching the weather, watching the seasons turn, feeling the air. Just like the Dry Farmers before me.
