StillwatersIowa

What happens behind the scenes is the reason for what happens in the limelight. This morning we are going to share some of the rest of the story of a busy week of harvest. Below Alex, Kasey, and BJ are making plans for moving after finishing Karl and Kristin's corn near the little community of Coal Creek south of Gibson. Last weekend we received between 2 and 3 inches of rain. However the sun started shining again and we were combining by noon on Monday. One of the many things the field crew does is to observe weed control. A nasty weed is a Burcucumber. We first got acquainted with this guy already in the 1970s. My landlord at the time, Daryl, told me this one 40 would have to be continuous corn because atrazine was the only herbicide at the time that was effective. Today with two pass applications and newer herbicides we are slowly getting it under control.   On Friday evening we were looking forward to filling semis for morning and listening to Cody play footba...

I love it when little folks are totally engaged. When they come up with plans as they play together with cousins and friends. When they can easily talk to adults. Often young ones will talk non stop in a combine or a truck cab. It's often easy to only half listen, to just agree with them, or to tune them out as we as grown ups have other things on our minds. However we need to do more than just enjoy their company. We need to be attentive enough to have a conversation that lets them know their loved and appreciated. Below Jackson often starts the day with his dad (Kurt) at 5am on the days he's not in kindergarten. I also enjoy giving little folks jobs. Yesterday Matt and I worked in the shop putting a splashboard on one of our graincarts while Devin and Karl unloaded semis in the dryer and Alex and BJ tiled. Jacob and Malaki were around most of the day. I gave them the job of filling the fridge in our shop office with bottles of water. I told them they could carry one bot...

 Life is not about destinations and accomplishments. It's about the journey. Often our journeys take us places we don't expect. Sometimes tough places. And like Lane below on Grandma's lap, sometimes we're just plain tired. The key is deciding to keep going. Sometimes a day at a time. Sometimes a job at a time. Sometimes a step at a time. I'll bet you remember where you were on 9/11/2001 when you started hearing news reports about our country being attacked. Below President Bush was in Sarasota, Florida in a classroom reading to gradeschoolers when his staffer told him the news. I was on our yard spraying bins and getting ready for harvest. Jan was bringing kids to school. Mike was on the scale at FS. Becky was a freshman at Dordt. She called home just to talk. More kids called. I went in the house to be with and talk to Jan. As a country we got together and filled churches to ask God for guidance and help. I'm not sure we as a country have acknow...

Before yesterday mornings phone call I had decided we were going to visit about living life to it's fullest. About taking advantage of opportunities. About not just sitting on those opportunities we're given or putting them in a safe place for later. We are still going to talk about living life to it's fullest. However we are reminded this morning we just don't know how long our life or the lives of those we love is. Our lives have a starting point and an ending point. The dash in between those two points is the time we spend here on earth.   I want to congratulate John and Delores. They celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with family and friends in our cabin Friday evening. They are friends of ours and are about 5 years ahead of us on their dash.  Marvin and Jean have spent much of the latter part of their dash helping and serving others. Marvin has been recuperating from some health issues. Yet he put 100% effort int...