StillwatersIowa

Today is known by most as Halloween. It's known by others as Reformation Day. Reformed means changed for the better. We had from 4 to 6 inches of rain this past week slowing down harvest. A few of my stories this morning are looking back and remembering how times and things have changed. 1970 was a wet fall. Bob came to his neighbor Jon who had a farm shop near Williamsburg and told him he needed a way to help him get corn from the combine to the truck without getting stuck. By the fall of 1971 Jon had built the first grain cart. It ended up holding just over 400 bushel. It had a 9 inch horizontal and 12 inch vertical auger connected with a gearbox from an old IH 2MH corn picker. He asked his neighbor what color he wanted it. Bob said it didn't matter so he planted it blue. 50 years later Jon and his daughter Suzie at Kinze Manufacturing are still building grain carts. The unload augers are twice the size of the first ones. And the capacity is three times larger. Thank you to C...

"WZB-250, combine, do you got a copy?" "Ten-four." "What's your twenty?" "I'm in the back corner, across the waterway, waiting on a graincart." "Ten-four, I'm on my way." Today, that would be called a "group chat". The combines hear it. The graincarts hear it. The semis hear it. The girls at home hear it if they feel like listening. We use FM business radios to communicate. Communication is essential in most operations. Communication is mandatory in relationships. The communicating process has changed these days. Today folks talk about face time and it's on a screen. A voice mail is just a record of a missed conversation. Today our main forms of communications are text, email, and social media. Last Sunday morning after church Jan and I headed to northwest Iowa. We had supper with our Grandson Cody, and his friends Mark, Devonte, Jarod, Josie, Addi, and Liz. Thanks kids. We had a great time. Then on Monday I ...

A lot of things are broken these days including a third graincart in as many weeks. We were harvesting on the north edge of Ottumwa near the airport. Ezra, who had stayed home from school to help, had just picked up the second load of the morning off the combines and was headed for the semis. I was really bummed, hoping and planning for a big day. Then out of nowhere on a dry sunny morning this rainbow showed up. Reminding me that we're not promised a life without troubles. However we have the unbroken promise that we will be taken care of no matter the troubles. A parallel of our culture and country today. Thanks for the picture BJ. Three weeks ago we broke a spindle on the opposite side of this very cart north of Oskaloosa. Two weeks ago we had wheel bearings go out on another cart south of Pella. This cart had the lug nuts bolting the wheel to the hub fail. I'm guessing our carts are getting tired being close to twenty years old. BJ called brother Mark and he and Elijah cam...

It seems the darker some things seem to get in our country the brighter other things are. In amongst all the noise we hear today is a quiet majority of hardworking, patriotic, God fearing, genuine, "real", set of folks that still make life happen.  No, we don't have a grain cart with a steerable rear axle. For the second week in a row we lost a wheel. This breakdown was wheel bearings and fortunately the cart did not go down. Thanks to grandson John who quickly noticed the issue and got stopped. We've had another good week of harvest. We are also focusing on getting some cover crop seeded. On some fields the rye is planted with a drill. On others like the one below the rye is added to the dry fertilizer, spread with a dry spreader, and then worked in with a high speed disk. On Thursday afternoon Duane and Sue brought out some friends and co-worker from Pleasant Hill to experience harvest. Joseph and Antonia, it was an enjoyable time meeting and visiting with you.  Whe...