StillwatersIowa

I'm blogging from a motel business center late on a Saturday evening in Yuma, Arizona. Jan and I had decided we might just skip this annual event until Jan remembered we got bumped from our flight last February on our way home and had airline vouchers that were to expire March 1. We always enjoy visiting Aunt Ruth Rus, my mom's sister-in-law. We help her with a few odd jobs and then find a place to go out for lunch. This spot is called the Five and Diner. Our cabin player piano used to be Aunt Ruth's.  Last Wednesday evening we went to Mesa to attend the Presidential Debate. Security was everywhere. As you can see there were even snipers on the building roofs. After the debate Rick asked if we would like to walk down the street with him to a film crew that was going to film him talking to Gretta on Fox News. We were surrounded by security. What a difference from back last summer in small town Iowa. I had coffee with these guys one morning at a convience store. Although tw...

Moving dirt all winter is a gift however it usually involves extra work such as cleaning tracks so the rollers aren't froze the next morning. Our crew with the help of Wes is checking out a possible tile outlet for our next project on a river bottom. In order to properly hook up existing tile on the bottom the outlet needs to be nine feet deep at the river. It's always fun to check out the new baby calves and their mamas. BJ usually starts calving in mid February. Quincy has had a very good soybean bid so I took a few loads the 160 miles down through Missouri and just across the Mississippi River into Illinois. A gentleman told me their record number of trucks unloaded in one day is 1200 during harvest time a few years back when they had 4 dumps open. The bluff on the left with the trees has under ground caves that are used to store a variety of stuff including bulk fertilizer. Last Sunday was baptism for Allison and Natalie. All ten children from both Mark and Stacy's an...

Do you remember way back when in grade school when your classmates used to hand out valentine cards? Some kids would bring enough for the whole class. Others would just give them to their close friends. There really wasn't anything romantic about it but it made both the kids giving and receiving them feel special. Well the following pictures and stories are just a few of the people that touched my life this week. Some are general and our paths cross all the time. Others are random and we only see occasionally. We spent much of the week cleaning up a farm along Hwy 92. Thanks Kristin, for bringing us lunch on Friday. It was a fun week and we enjoyed working together. A warm fire always feels good on a cold day during a break in the action. Earlier in the month we spent a morning at the Iowa Power and Machinery Show. We usually invite the help and any grand kids that want to just take some time off, look at the latest machinery, and visit with friends. I...

It's interesting how life's path crosses the same intersection at different stages of our time down here on earth. For the last couple of months I have been on a jury pool that has to call in every week to see if there are any trials. Two weeks ago we were called in and I was selected to serve as a juror for a day long trial. This past week we were again called in as a jury pool. The prosecuting and defense attorneys were to pick a jury for a week long trial.   The defendant was a sitting county supervisor and the trial centered on whether or not his wife should be on a family health insurance plan. He was being accused of three crimes. When selecting a jury the attorneys ask the folks in the jury pool specific questions to try an get an unbiased group of 12 individuals. I was asked about raising children, if they had boundaries, and if they ever crossed those boundaries. I was also asked if we had twins and if we treated them both equally. When asked about...