Preferred Outcomes

Late summer is a season of relationships. With family and vacations. With friends and visits. With crop input suppliers and landlords, planning for next year. I'd like to share four examples of folks no longer with us that had a preferred outcome and made decisions with our family's best interest in mind.

My father said no when he was asked if I could be on the football team as a freshman by North Mahaska's coach. He said there was farming to do. And I needed to get a part time job. We went to see Walter, an older crop and sheep farmer in our neighborhood. I was 14 years old when I started helping Walter. Little did I know that my father's decision for me would be my start in my current occupation.  

Walter and I became good friends. I worked for him for three years. When I was 17 years old I found Walter in his home. He had died of a heart attack. His family rented me their 200 acres from 1974-76, until the farm sold. Walter's family wanted a preferred outcome. They wanted to give a senior in high school his start in farming.

In 1977 I received a phone call early one morning. I grabbed my glasses off the bedstand and made a dash downstairs to the party line phone hanging on the kitchen wall. It was Daryl. He said he and Rosie would like to rent their farmland to Jan and I. Daryl was 51 years old at the time. That rented land doubled our acres and because of Daryl and Rosie's kindness we survived the 1980s. Daryl had a preferred outcome that was bigger than himself. Our family would not be farming today had Daryl and Rosie not reached out to us.

I received a call from Fremont Elevator in 1997. Jerome told me about a Mr. Darner who had died. And in his will had instructed his local bank to start up a young farmer by renting them his land reasonably and living on his farm for a period of 5 years. After which another young farm couple would get an opportunity for a five year start. That farm south of Fremont was our son Mark and his wife Stacy's first home. Today Mark and Stacy and their 5 children farm between Oskaloosa and Leighton. Yesterday we helped them pour cement for a new building. Mr. Darner's preferred outcome 24 years ago is still giving today. 

Our family has many living and current landlords that we have great relationships with, that have had preferred outcomes other than for their own good. To all of you we say thank you. Thanks for the picture Stacy.

I'm often told you enjoy staying in touch with the week to week activities that happen on a farm. A few weeks ago we shared a story about planting soybeans after a rye crop in late July. These beans are growing and blooming.

Early this spring we inter-seeded alfalfa into part of the rye acres around our house. We delivered the rye straw to Keith and Julie's this past week. BJ and Cassia baled this new alfalfa. After Andrew and Tennesse's wedding reception at Marv and Carol's cabin last Saturday we picked up the big square bales just before dark.

It's been a week of changing oil, greasing, making sure the air conditioning works, and cleaning semis. Harvest will be here before we know it.

The combines are just about ready to go. Replacement parts are becoming very expensive and in some cases hard to get. Our next chore is to make sure the grain carts are ready to roll.

Three weeks ago everything was green in southern Iowa and the presumed outcome looked like we would be having a very large and late harvest. The last few weeks of warm, dry, and breezy weather has really changed things. Yards are turning brown. The soybeans have aborted their smallest pods and are starting to turn yellow. Corn fields are starting to show dead areas in the light soil types. We follow the maturity of an ear of corn by following the milk line on the kernels. It takes about a month of normal heat units to get an ear from full dent to black layer. Black layer is when the grain is physiologically mature at about 32% moisture. The milk line process has speeded up and is about two weeks from maturity on early season corn planted the first of April.

Oskaloosa Christian School started off their school season with a board/staff social at our cabin. I was the designated driver for giving kids Ranger rides.

The Pella Christian High School volleyball team kicked off their fall season with a get-together here as well. Kudos to Tammi, Kim, Kristin, and the rest of the coaches who are role models in theses girls lives every day of their season.

Last Sunday evening I was asked to speak at Omega Church here in Oskaloosa about The Family Leader where I serve on the board, the condition of our country, and how we as Christians and churches should be engaged. Thanks Omega family. I enjoyed the visit. 

My goal is to be positive in our visits. However I also feel I need to be as truthful as possible about what we are seeing in our nation.  Ignoring troubled times offers no solution so as briefly as possible I'm going to share my thoughts. Our southern border is still a crisis with 50,000 folks a month still walking in while you and I are being limited in our travel options. I feel this crisis is a preferred outcome by our government leaders. 

Covid is being used to scare folks. To encourage unemployment. To try and shut down our country. To try and shut down schools. To create a dependency on government. To mandate what we can and can't do. I believe this is a preferred outcome by those in leadership right now.

With all the mistakes and lack of planning the United States made when pulling out of Afghanistan recently, all I can come up with is that it was a preferred outcome. Our president indicated the Taliban folks were a kinder and gentler bunch now. We still have thousands of Americans in this country. And the Taliban still calls the United States and Israel big and little Satan. 

 

Jan wisely advised me not to use the picture for this next story. It was a picture I received on social media from a politician I really respect and trust. He received the picture from a missionary group in Afghanistan. The story behind the picture was of the Taliban going door to door, hunting girls and guns, and killing all Christians.

 

I hope I'm dead wrong about the current status of our country and please forgive me if I am.

 Governor Kim has been a huge bright spot in our dark world right now and I thank her for her stand on allowing Iowans to make their own choices. The pressure she is getting from the left is tremendous. Please keep her in your prayers. Our president called her out this week in regards to her keeping our state open. She stayed strong on Fox News. I appreciate and am thankful for the preferred outcome we have in Iowa right now. Thanks for the picture Kristin.

We don't talk about miracles much these days. Most acknowledge they happened in Bible stories. Dale is a walking miracle. He was diagnosed with stage 4 throat cancer. With chemo treatments not going well he and Kathy made a decision to stop those and just live a day at a time of what life he had left. That was two years ago. Friday evening he opened the PCHS football scrimmage with Newton. Pictured in the pressbox with Dale announcing is Bryan, Carroll, and Dan.

Dale was on 99.9 radio with Bev this past week talking about hanging on to hope rather than fear. The opposite of fear is not strength. It's trust. Our preferred outcomes will come through hanging on to and trusting in our Heavenly Father's promise that He will take care of us.

How are we to live? A day at a time. Use this late summer season for relationships. Love where you are. Love what you do. Love who you're with. Love when you get to give. And remember; when we shovel out, God shovels back. And God has a bigger shovel. Blessings.