StillwatersIowa

It's late Saturday evening and I'm adding one more picture even though I have plenty. I received two free tickets to the Corn Indy 250 race at Newton Speedway late in the week. Since Jan and I had a late afternoon wedding I tried to give them away but to no avail. So after attending the wedding Jan agreed to go with me on a late date to Newton. It was noisier than quilt shop hopping and more crowded than Sam's or Costco shopping but I had fun. Thanks Jan for coming along. This past week we were priveledged to have Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum visit our family and a few of our neighbors. The Senator and I met a couple of months back and have stayed in touch. He shared his conservative values and his vision for our country. He and his wife Karen and their seven children are planning a return visit next month to vacation and experiance rural Iowa farm life. Last Sunday Jan and I went to visit Jan's brother Paul and his wife Gayle. They live southwest of Des Moines ...

Over the course of my life there have been three God given gifts that I have received that I will treasure forever including eternity. The first gift is having a Godly father. The second gift is the priveledge and responsibility of being a father. The third gift is the blessing of watching my children become Godly fathers and mothers. In Ecclesiastes Solomon talks about this gift. He says you seldom reflect back on the days of your life because God keeps you occupied with the gladness of your heart. Our culture today says the purpose of a father is to survive. God says a father's purpose is to serve. Our culture says a father's principle is to be successful. God says a father's principle is to be significant, to make a difference. The world says the practice of fatherhood is a status thing. God says fatherhood is a sheperding thing, being an example. In 1 Peter 5:2-4 Peter tells fathers to be shepherds, not because they must, but because they are willing and eager to se...

Our June weather has been a tale of two seasons this past week. We started the week wrapping up bean planting and hurrying to get the corn sprayed and nitrogen applied before it got too tall. As you can see in the picture below we finished the week with lots of rain. We even had a rescue Friday afternoon. The fire department went to get our neighbor lady by boat. The flooded creek has since receded back into it's banks. June showers bring lots of yard mowing. Here Gideon is mowing their yard getting ready for company. We are all going over for dinner today for his sister Rachael's birthday party. I think she is going to be seven. June showers bring lots of May flowers or something like that. Jan has flowers all over the place including Iris's. Oops. Somebody missed the box. June showers didn't do that. But the wet ground in early June did cause some soybeans to damp off on the tighter soils. That means the soybeans all started growing and then got wet feet and died on t...

As I was walking out of church this past week our pastor jokingly ask me, "So now that the crop is all planted what do you do all summer?" I jokingly replied that we just wait for harvest and asked him if he knew what the 4x4 stickers on a farm pickup stood for, 4 weeks of planting, 4 weeks of harvesting, and 44 weeks of vacation. I'm sure pastors get their share of what do you do all week when you only work on Sunday jokes. Actually we are still planting a few beans yet. Spraying for others is a stressful job. You hurry to beat a growing crop. You have to stay off the row. You mustn't leave strips of weeds. Neither are you to spray things not supposed to be sprayed such as waterways, terraces, gardens, and flowers. You must run out of field at the same time that you run out of product. Karl is carrying the bulk of this load and is doing a phonominal(great) job. There is always hay to bale for ourselves and others including some waterways. A fair amount of nitrogen i...