StillwatersIowa

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift from God. That's why we call it the present. Ever wonder what a day, what a week, or what a year is going to bring? Early in the week we in Iowa wondered if we would ever see spring like weather. We are still cooler than normal.  This is the picture that titled my post this week. This was a Mountain Dew break. Pablo, Karl, Mark, BJ, and Kurt look like they are wondering about something. :) This little guy is wondering whether he should hide or jump. Yesterday Mark delivered his trackhoe to a farm near Lovilla to help Brad and Kurt. While Mark was unloading, Stacy and their kids and I were chasing mice all over a large machine shed. Brad and Julie are friends of ours. Their daughter Avery loves to help her Dad with the chores. Kurt is telling Mike he is wondering what happened to the bottom half of his oil dipstick. :) Karl is getting ready to deliver a load of seed corn. Friends Mike and Andy are ...

As I was walking into the shop one morning this past week Mike said, "hey dad, did you know we are out of coffee?" Well, there are a lot of things we can do without however coffee isn't one of them. I told Mike I'd go back to the house and see what I could come up with. I found these little gold bags that said things like Chocolate Truffle, Caramel Delight, and Northwest Blend. Although all those names sound like really good desserts none of them got our vote for our early morning cup of coffee. By coffee-time our bookkeeper, Linda had our coffee supply replenished. It's a pity coffee doesn't count when you're supposed to have lots of fluids. It's a pick-me-up for lots of folks. Even with coffee there are weeks when things don't always go as planned and we sometimes just feel worn out. Sometimes it could be a relationship eating away at us. Or it could be a work load piling up. We may have a loved one we are concerned about. Or we might ha...

There comes a time around mid March for those of us that live in the midwest when we just can't wait for sunshine and a warm south breeze. We look forward to retiring the muck boots, the carhartts, the stocking hats, and the chore gloves. And it's not just the grownups. Watching TV at grandma's house and playing with the indoor toys is only fun for just so long.   What's really cool is being outside without coats, riding bikes, sharing 4-wheeler rides, and listening to the grownups hollering, "be careful, don't go too fast, and quit spinning on grandma's yard".   There's also cousins to play ball with in-between the tractors. On this court you learn to catch the ball because if you miss you chase it all the way to the pond. With warmer weather comes dryer gravel roads. Dryer gravel roads allow your washed vehicles to stay clean longer than your first trip out the driveway.   Speaking of driveways, every spring we spruce up the ...

There's no place like home. Being half way around the world for a couple of weeks reminds a person of that. Home was in good hands while I was gone. Jan's had a busy week preparing the cabin for guests. Thursday evening the Iowa Barnstormers football team visited. The county cattlemen grilled steaks for them. After supper John, the general manager, and Mike, the head coach, presented us with an autographed picture of the team playing in Wells Fargo Arena, their home field. The team is currently preparing for the 2013 season with 35 players. They will be cut to 24 players soon. 8 players are on the field during a game in arena football. Did you remember to turn your clocks forward? Supposedly we do it to save energy. Interestingly in Africa I never knew what time it was and neither did most of the country. The educated folks in Africa say there are two kinds of time, military time and Africa time. Military time is punctual  and Africa time is whenever...

Good morning. By the time it's Sunday morning in America I will have been to church and boarded a plane to Johannesburg in route to home. Below I visited my sister Beth's 2nd grade class at African Bible College. The academy is considered one of the better schools in Malawi. Many of the village farmers sell their crop immediately after harvest to traders for a low price because of their poverty. We visited a village that had formed a marketing coop where they pooled their crop and with some help had sold later for a much higher price. This is their brand new warehouse. It must be helping. They were well dressed and were wearing shoes. Remember my friend Hennie? Dan, my brother-in-law, Russ, and I spent an afternoon with him. What a neat experience and what a good friend. He showed us the tobacco curing process.He hires 600 Malawians on three different farms. Malawians choose to leave trees in the field for shade while they are working. Hennies fields have been ...