This morning had a tad bit of excitement. We heard a strange rumbling noise and a huge shadow in the sky, flying low and close to the house. From the window you could see it was a very low flying hot air balloon. I've seen hot air balloons take off up the road, but I've rarely seen them flying overhead. One of the few times they were visible, the balloon flew right over us. They were low enough that they ran the burner, with a definite loud whoosh and rumble. The poor chickens who were out, freaked and ran to the trees to hide.
This balloon was loosing altitude quickly and was very obviously coming in for a landing. I'm guessing it was unexpected as the field they were landing in, is still full of standing corn.
Then there was more noise and this second balloon was floating by. It was a bit higher than the first balloon, at least in the distance. It's difficult to tell how high they actually are from down on the ground though. As it was approaching our house, it seemed to be dropping in altitude. The burner made an awful racket, however, you could still hear their conversation! That was unexpected.
The balloon ran it's burner just before it came to the big maple tree in our yard. It was pretty spectacular to watch. I really was hoping they knew what they were doing, and that they were higher up than it appeared from my vantage point.
This is what the hot air balloon looked like as it passed by the maple tree on the other side of the yard. As it floated by, I hoped that it wouldn't have to land on the farm next door, as they have horses. That would be a bigger panic issue than a few chickens and likely cause more damage than crushing a bit of field corn.
I didn't walk up the road to see what happened next. I did watch to see if they gained altitude. It didn't seem like it. The first balloon was packed with people. The second one seemed to have only a couple of people on board. I hope they had smooth landings and didn't cause too much damage though, to themselves or the fields.
For several years we lived on the edge of a regional park that hosted a balloon race. We didn’t know this when we bought the house so you can imagine our experience the first year we were there. That sound they make when they fire the burner is unmistakable. We lived there for nine years and it never got old.
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