The crop duster parked nearby worked all night from 8PM to 5AM. He has an absurdly loud and annoying engine, and needs to re-load about every hour. He’s used to flying low, so twice an hour all night long he went over our heads at a stupid elevation.
It took me a while after parking here quite a few times to find out it was a crop duster. It never occurred to me that one would do this at night. Now, Yuma isn’t a very dark place, with many industrial-type farm operations going 24 hours this time of year. And he has an impressive rack of what are likely auto headlights mounted on each wing. So if the noise doesn’t wake you, the blinding lights will.
What idiot goes crop-dusting at night? Why? I don’t know but my guess is that’s the best time to avoid having stuff drift onto workers in nearby fields. Or, the competition for air space here during the day makes it easier to fly at night. I suspect the former, which means pickers/packers don’t have to stop work while a nearby field gets sprayed.
Your salad makings this time of year come from the Yuma fields. Lettuce, cauliflower, cabbage, spinach, etc are grown in fields contracted out to the grocery chains. Safeway needs a few thousand pounds on December 23rd, say, which says you need to plant seed on October 23 for a 60-day crop. Allow 3 days for field cleanup and prep for the seeds. Schedule the picker/packers for December 22. There is no leeway in the schedule to allow a down-day due to nearby spraying.
Don’t expect to get organic products out of this place this time of year. Seed stock is bred for adherence to contract schedules, soil needs to be enhanced with manufactured fertilizers for even weeds to grow, and chemicals must be used to prevent a plague of various lifeforms. The stuff looks great, and it’s fun watching the process of modern farming.