StillwatersIowa

It doesn't matter whether your farming, teaching, selling, building, preaching, or accounting, we all need a little down time once in a while. On the farm there is some time in late February and early March when life is slower. The same is true for late July and early August. Jan and I had the last week of July marked off for some time together somewhere. We just weren't sure where. We decided to drive to Missouri. We stopped in Kansas City to check in on Justin and Denise. Justin grew up in our church. He had our son Mike for a Cadet Counselor and Mark and Stacy for Young Peoples. His father Marcus and I led 5th-8th Sunday School music for 10 years and served as elders together. Marcus passed away 8 years ago after a battle with cancer. Justin is taking chemo treatments. We were happy to learn that he was doing his best to be active in spite of his constant tiredness. Please pray for his continued progress. I'm not sure what it is but for some reason the gals ...

Wow. How things change in just a month. Spring came early since things were dry and crops went in very smoothly. Our May rains were just enough and in June our yards turned brown. Our conversations would talk about hoping for cool nights, heavy dews, and higher humidity to keep the crop from looking like pineapple plants. Although the crop was hanging in there the U.S. drought map showed southern Iowa was in an area short of rainfall. We prayed for rain, and at church we reminded our Pastors to pray for rain. We started wondering how corn pollination would go in normally dry July weather. July came. And it started to rain. At our house, we have received more rain in July than April, May, and June combined. We quickly ask God for help when we have needs. We need to privately and publicly say thank you when He answers. Remember when I visited with you about watering sweet corn from the pond? Well, we did sweet corn all week and it was a good crop. The hardest part this year ...

Sometimes you just need to be thankful for what doesn't happen. As Mike was backing his dozer off the lowboy near Blakesburg the uneven highway shoulder caused him to slide off the beavertail. Mike pushed himself down in the seat and rode it out. Several hours later he was back on his tracks with little damage. About mid week we had a strong wind come through and blow down some corn.  This is a neighborhood east of Oskaloosa. This family lost 30 trees.   Friday Brian, Ezra, Elliott, Gideon,John, and I cleaned up an uprooted tree on my parents property.   Saturday afternoon Josh, Gideon, John, and I cleaned up a couple of loads of tree branches on our local Christian School property.   Jan and I like to go on Ranger rides and look at crops. We seldom know where we will end up. On this particular ride we ended up at cousin Stan's. His grandsons had helped him clean up his tractors. Along with the storms and strong winds have come some welco...

After a couple of rain showers last week the country side is covered in corn tassels. In early mornings and late evenings you can smell the tassels and silks as the corn plant starts the process of making an ear.   The smell of corn tassels is a gift, announcing things are happening. And it is a promise that we are another step closer to harvest.   Every year we worry about whether or not we will have a crop. Will we be able to provide, to pay the bills, to share with those less fortunate?   And every year God shows He is faithful and looks forward to taking care of our needs. Yesterday BJ combined his rye.  I stopped in occasionally at Karl and Kristin's just to keep an eye on things. They and Kurt and Emily get back today from taking some time off in Colorado with the girls' parents.     Mike called me on the 4th of July and asked if I had some time to help. My friend Dana tells me, "If your going to make a mistake, make it at full sp...