It is 1:13 a.m. on May 1st, and it sounds as if I am sitting in the middle of an air strip with several airplanes equipped with massive propellers preparing to take-off. Who can sleep? It's a battle out there, but not one many are familiar with. In fruit orchards, farmers wage war with temperatures threatening to dip below freezing in springtime.

My house is perched on the edge of my neighbor's cherry orchard and my family's peach orchard. The temperature reads 35 degrees farenheit right now, and it will be a long night for us as we use various tactics to try to stave-off the freezing temperatures that result in bud, flower and fruit loss. Imagine long steel poles with giant propellers at the top, perched in the middle of fruit orchards all over Orchard Mesa. The machines are designed to function in a "radiation freeze" where a mass of cold air becomes trapped under a warmer air mass above. The propellers ideally mix the air, so that the temperatures do not drop so severely on a windless, clear night such as this.

Hopefully the tender trees do not succumb to  damage tonight...the street outside my front door eerily hums with vehicles, farmers scurrying around turning on machines and assessing the temperatures over the varied landscape. I think about the trees down the road at The Cameron Place, a slightly-lower elevation than my home, and hope Manuel Mota and Thomas Cameron are spared a sleepless night. Whose trees will make it through this ill-fated May morning in Palisade?

Amazingly enough, one week ago shorts and a t-shirt seemed adequate attire yet the last few days in April have added several layers to my body once again. Fieldwork at The Cameron Place dwindled this week amidst wind, rain, sleet and the interns' faces looked glum without much to do but wait-out the weather. We pulled our tomatoes and herbs into the barn and my flower seedlings have to wait a few more days before we plant them in the ground.

Next week I am certain we will all be basking in spring sun and anticipating early spring greens flourishing in the cool weather but for now, I will listen to the roaring of the wind machines and wait for daybreak to reveal the status of the fruit trees.