StillwatersIowa

Once upon a time during the 1950's a son was born to a wonderful set of parents. And that son was thankful he was born into a large and loving family. He was raised during the 1960's and he was thankful his parents taught him to be thankful for the roses on the thorn bush rather than to complain about the thorns on the rose bush. He married the girl of his dreams in the 1970's and was so thankful for an awsome wife even though she drove green tractors and he drove red ones. The 1980's were a real struggle for this fellow and although it took awhile he thanked God for showing him who was helping him and where his gifts were coming from. There was a slow and steady recovery during the 1990's and this father and husband was so thankful for his growing family. The 2000's were not only a new mullinium it was a new transition time for this guy as he became a grandfather and went from a "making things happen" mentality to a "helping things happen" ...

Thanksgiving is the time we count our blessings. It's also the time when we look back and evaluate our year. My family has heard me say many times, "Don't count your Israelites". In Bible times King David asked Joab who was his main man to go out and count all his fighting men. Joab warned him not to do it but David was feeling pretty good about himself and insisted. As soon as Joab returned and reported there were well over a million able bodied men who could handle a sword King David felt bad and remembered his gifts were God given. He told God he had done a foolish thing and God let him pick his punishment. He could have three years of famine, three months of his enemies chasing him, or three days of a plague. David picked the plague and seventy thousand Israelities died. God has given Jan and I so many gifts this year that you don't count in bushels or acres. Watching this sunrise this past week makes me thankful for where I live and what I do for a living. ...

This past weekend Jan and I attended a wedding in central Missouri about an hour north of the Ozarks in great farming country. We were invited in order to help take care of Mark and Stacy's kids since Stacy had an active role in her sister's wedding. Her sister Angie married a neat farmer from that area. The reception was in his farm shop. Something that doesn't make sense to me is how short little kids socks are. While taking care of Anton during the ceremony I lost track of how many times I put his socks back on. Finally during the reception I ended up putting his socks in my pocket. I'm not sure how Jan knows about all these little places to stop at when we travel but she knew about a fabric store in this hick town that Hwy 63 has since bypassed. So during a gas fill up I noticed this car. It doesn't make much sense to me why anyone would need that size of tire on a car. When we got back in Iowa we decided to take back roads home and find an Amish sawmill...

Have you ever told yourself or someone else "well would you look at that" when you saw something unusual or interesting? This week's blog is an assortment of unique items that we came across this fall that you just don't see every day. Karl saw this hornet's nest as we were combining near Union Mills. One day Mike was coming back from looking at a dozing job and noticed a young bobcat high in a tree near our house. The young cat had been chased up the tree by two neighbor dogs. Mid Iowa Equipment invited us to a plowing get together they were having this past Saturday so I invited Gideon and John, two grandsons to go along to show them how tillage used to be done. We drove this 600hp Big Bud pulling an IHC 12 bottom plow. I hadn't molboard plowed for 35 years. Have you ever been given directions from an old timer? Well yesterday I was putting on anhydrous east of Tieoga and needed directions to my next field. This fellow said, "Take old 21, after...