StillwatersIowa

With the workload of the fall farm season starting to wind down I have been trying to find ways to relax more. I have been reading some. Not magazines. Nothing thought provoking. With my brain totally in neutral I have been reading Westerns that Jan bought me at a flea market. They were written in the 1920s about taming the western part of our country in the mid 1800s. Even though they are fiction they portray a lot of accurate history. The railroad that goes through our place reminds me of the transcontinental railroad built across our country finished in 1870. Our railroad bridge in this picture was built just 30 years after the completion of that first railroad.  Speaking of our country I think there are still a majority of our people that love who we are and what we stand for despite what the media is trying to tell us. It's heartwarming to see the thumbs up and horn honks we get as we put NH3 on around our neck of the woods with a big USA flag attached to our tool ba...

Believe it or not it's Thanksgiving week already. As I think back there have been days when everything went right and it seemed we were sailing down a 4-lane getting things accomplished. Then there were the slower days when it seemed we were riding in a manure spreader. On both occasions we have had so much to be thankful for this year.  We have had a warm dry fall which is good for field work. Our tillage is just about wrapped up.  Over the years Thanksgiving week has often been the last week to get things done before the ground freezes. This is the time of the year when machinery gets cleaned up and gets a list made of what needs replaced or repaired before next season. We are still hauling our own and helping others with hog slurry. Karl had a tire go bad so we replaced it. It can be a challenge to get a tubeless tire this big to spread out to both sides of the rim and hold air. There is a very effective and unconventional way to seat the tire beads to the rim....

Life is a series of transitions. My western novelist Louis L'Amour used to say that the only thing that never changes is that every thing changes and he often wrote about the transition from the early wild west to civilization. Age, jobs, friends, seasons, technology, and lifestyle all have an effect on us. In our part of the world you can feel a change coming in our seasons. Heat feels good on an early cool morning and I often use those early mornings to sit in front of a knipco heater and talk to God. Our family has transitioned from harvesting our last crop to preparing for the next one. We have had a beautiful fall to apply crop nutrients and prepare the ground for next spring.  Cover crop has become a popular way to prevent erosion and improve soil health. It's when you plant rye or oats on a harvested field in the fall, leave it over winter, spray it in the spring, and no-til in your crop.  Hog manure is an excellent nutrient source for crops. We ha...

Have you ever had something outlive it's usefulness? When Andrew and Jen updated their farm yard they had a farm scale deck they no longer had a use for. Joe and Diana said they would love use it for a bridge at Lake View Camp.  Yesterday Osky 1 church had a work day at Lake View Camp. Around 50 folks brought their willingness, their abilities, and their equipment to help out with all kinds of jobs, including installing a bridge.  The bridge now makes accessible some timber and a pond on the camp property that was previously not used.  There was a lot of cleanup, firewood cutting, brush and limb mulching, landscaping, and carpentering accomplished.  There was also mowing done including some new trails on the now accessible part.  As we prayed together before lunch I was encouraged that in a country where a lot of things are broken there are still plenty of good folks that care about their neighbor and a cause, and are willing to share their ...