StillwatersIowa

I remember watching TV as a kid at my grandparents in the 1960s. NBC would always introduce the start of a show by showing a peacock unfold and say "brought to you in living color". Our lives today are full of living color. Our daughter Becky had her 20 week ultrasound. The little person is holding it's umbilical cord. Amazing. Becky stopped by to pick up Zach who was helping me. She asked me to come look what she had posted on facebook on our office computer. She wrote underneath this picture, "expecting our 4th". "Cool" I said. The only problem is you accidently posted it on our bookkeeper Linda's page instead of your own. Now that would have made headlines had she not hurriedly changed it. Karl spent most of the week entering layers of data and preparing colorful prescription maps for each of our fields for planting season. Another colorful event. BJ and Cassia had a heifer have a set of twins that didn't have enough milk for t...

Have you ever started a new year with a resolution promising yourself you were going to try harder? As we have traveled through January and now well into February we should know by now just how committed we are. So what happens on the farm in the middle of February when the temps are below zero, it snows every day, and spring is looking like it's months away yet? Well we plan for solutions for the new crop year. If you've done any cleaning up in the previous fall there are always brush piles to burn. Believe it or not there are a number of classes to attend. This coming week there are field drainage classes, prescription farming school, and this past week we had to attend our annual commercial pesticide applicators certification since we spray for hire. A new years resolution this year is to have 6 or 7 of us with our commercial applicators license. Loads of seed are still coming in. We also load the computer with layers of information for each of our fields fo...

Do you ever think back to how things used to be? It's interesting how things change as far as our families, our jobs, and our country.   This week's pictures remind me of 40 years ago. It was the 1970s. There was a lot of expansion in agriculture. Machinery, grain bins, and livestock facilities were selling strong. Frankie couldn't sell Harvestor silos fast enough.  Farm land prices rose from $350-$500/acre to $2400-$3000/acre during this decade. Interest rates were 7-10% and Farm Credit and banks were encouraging farmers to borrow.   In 1974 I was a senior in high school and this was my valentine. Looking at myself 40 years ago I'm not sure what Jan saw in me.:-) I was boring, goofy looking, and shy. Must have been Divine intervention. I started being a part time hired man for Walter in 1971 for $2/hour. When Walter died in November of 1973 I rented the 200 acres. I'm obliged to Walter's son, my Dad, and my Lord for giving me the chance to farm...

Burr. Well for those of you that aren't in Iowa it's definitely still winter here. It's not one of those mornings when you just run to the shop office in a tee shirt and flip flops unless you want to get snow between your toes. LP prices have quadrupled the last couple of months. So we made a plan as a family to make sure our contracts would last the winter for everyone including Karl and Kristin's who are trying to keep 2400 little pigs warm. Below we are moving a portable tank from the dryer to the shop.    The guys also replumbed a waste oil heater in the shop. Waste oil heaters are a great way to get rid of old oil but tend to be a little ornery about being reliable. It's interesting how high input prices and lower markets make us look for ways to be more efficient.   There are plenty of jobs on the lists yet that need done and on many milder winters we have worked every month. However this year with 0 de...