April 24

Someone plowed the field across the road this morning, the same field that had been dusty white from lime these past two days. I heard the “chug chug” of the tractor just after dawn and went out the front door to have a nosy look at what was taking place at the farm so early.

The wind must have been just right, for the exhaust from the diesel tractor drifted by – not noxiously but rather tinting the air in a way that stirred memories of my childhood hauling hay in northern Michigan. There is something distinct in the smell of a running tractor, and the smell of today is exactly the same as that of over 30 years ago, when we kids worked the bales onto the flatbed, pulled behind the Oliver tractor. These are happy memories, of June days in the sun and hard work, where we’d pile tier after tier maybe 9 high onto the flatbed as it bounced along the rolling field. Then off to the mow in the barn, we’d sit high up and stack while the elevator lifted bale after bale, dropping them in succession for us to position.

The tractor pulled the reaching plow behind, turning eight feet or more of soil and mixing the lime underneath. Back and forth he went, slowly creating the newly turned field, which is a dark brown color, moist and laden with small rocks. The fields look clean right now, free of crop and weeds, dust and plastic, and we remark each year that it looks like a field of chocolate waiting for harvest.