StillwatersIowa

What if you woke up today with only the things you thanked God for yesterday? We are just finishing the season of gift giving. We remind our children and grandchildren to say "Thank you" for their gifts. I'm an early riser and I start my day praying. I ask forgiveness for my shortcomings. I ask for direction for the day. And I ask for protection and say thank you for every family member individually. It's a long list. I hope it gets longer. We had our family Christmas Friday evening. Jan had an amazing meal including appetizers, main course, and desert. BJ helped Jan slice the meat. With Hazel's arrival we now have six granddaughters. These little gals got cowgirl outfits as gifts. Jan's annual gift of pajama's for all the grandkids has become outdated. Sleepwear for teenage boys is not that cool. One of my favorite gifts was a knife that Gideon built for me out of a piece of re-rod in his forge. Earlier in the week we had a hopper tha...

Twas the week before Christmas and sitting in the house, I was wondering about a birthday gift that would please my spouse.  I went to the shop to see what I could find. My timing was late, I knew I was behind. I found a grease gun that hadn't been opened yet. It didn't take me long to decide that wasn't a good bet.  I hurried and scurried, running around in a dash. I finally called Kristin and offered her cash.   To find me a present that would be just right, that I could give to my wife that would be her delight. Yesterday is history. As young children we celebrate birthdays remembering what we did or didn't get for presents.  Tomorrow is a mystery. As young adults we celebrate birthdays looking forward, wondering, and hoping for all our dreams and goals to come true. Today is a gift. Yes. Today is Jan's birthday. Just seven days before Christmas. As older mature folks we celebrate birthdays being grateful for the opportunities we'...

It's starting to look a lot like winter in our neck of the woods. We have had our second snow event. We have dipped down to single digit temps a couple of nights. My work priorities are shifting to numbers, excel spreadsheets, custom work billing, and the seed business. Oskaloosa has done a really neat job of lighting the businesses all around the square for the Christmas season. Seeing it some evening is worth the trip to town. This year we knew we would not be able to physically get all our crop delivered to Eddyville during harvest so we added the month of December to our forward selling. Our crew has done an excellent job of keeping the trucks busy delivering corn.  Mike and Kurt took Saturday afternoon off. They are still building terraces. The ground has around four inches of frost in it. Mike's dozer doesn't have a cab. He turns his fan blades around to blow engine heat back to the operator seat which works well if it is not windy. On windy days he is a ...

Last Sunday morning's red sky proved to be true to it's prediction of a "red sky in the morning, sailors take warning" as it rained all afternoon. Since we had a fair amount of December corn sold the trucks have been busy this week and will be busy all month.   Alex worked on NH3 yesterday and I think we are pretty well wrapped up except for a few odds and ends. Often my field work time is interrupted with appointments, meetings, and just keeping everything going however yesterday I jumped in the tractor and chisel first thing in the morning and was able to stick with finishing up chiseling until late last evening.   Karl and Malaki worked on odd jobs all day yesterday getting ready for winter.   Earlier we had a hitch pin bounce out and our Excellorator ended up in the ditch. After chainsawing a tree that fell over Kurt was able to back it out. Earlier in the week we got to watch grandsons play some junior high basketball.  Interest...