StillwatersIowa

Results. Making hay while the sun shines is a phrase I've heard since I was a kid. It means taking advantage of opportunities. That gets results. BJ was able to get our 2nd cutting alfalfa baled this past week. Alfalfa yields are about half of last year because of the dry weather. Risk . You can't get hay up if you don't first get it down. In Iowa there is usually a risk in mowing hay. It might get rained on. There is also a risk in waiting. Farming is managing risk. Farming is also taking advantage of opportunities in timing. In input cost. In marketing. Replace. One can't continually harvest row crop, alfalfa, or even grass without replacing nutrients. After 2nd cutting we fertilized a 9-43-120-12 on our grass hay and doubled that on our alfalfa. Crops  become increasingly unproductive, weak, and vulnerable if we only take and harvest, and don't replace and give back. Recover. The next 28 days in an alfalfa plant's life is to recover, to rejuvenate, and to ...

Friends. At 6:30 this morning my computer made a funny noise and I lost everything I had written for the last 3 hours. Bear with me and I will try and start over. I will probably update but in an abbreviated form. Let's try this again. Ezra (15), Elijah (14), and Jackson (8) are helping Grandma and myself mow yard. Risefest last weekend in Sheldon, Iowa. Michel, Zach, Adi, Jan, and myself joined Cody for breakfast at a local bakery in Sioux Center. Rachel's high school graduation party last Sunday evening in her families new shop. Rachel is working at Bank Iowa this summer. We were blessed with 7 tenths of much needed rain last evening. PTL Children will never grow more than the environment they are in. That includes people, places, and ideas. A father's job is to give them room to grow (responsibility). Dads need to be strong. Strength is more than muscle. There is occasionally strength in surrender. There is often strength in idling horsepower (humility). There is strengt...

What gets you up in the morning? What do you see when you look in the mirror? What do others see when they interact and watch you? How will you be remembered? When I look at myself I'd answer faith, family, friends, and farming.  Jayden, Lane, and Jackson helped Grandpa and Uncle Mark get a skidloader track back on. Much of farming is repairs and maintenance. Jim is welding on Kurt's sprayer boom so he can get back to spraying second pass soybeans. One of my favorite parts of summer is grandkids. Kurt and Emily's Jackson and Jayden's job was to wash Uncle Karl's truck. BJ and Cassia's John is replacing a receiver-dryer and condenser on our Red Pete so Jim has air conditioning. I'm reading Solomon's advice and wisdom in my early morning devotions. I'd like to share a few: "Don't befriend angry people or you will learn to be like them and endanger your soul". Pr. 22:24 "Don't eat with ungenerous people who are always thinking abo...

"Grace" is a Latin girl's name meaning favor or blessing. All the Graces I know are as pretty on the inside as they are on the outside. Last Sunday we had lunch with grandkids, kids, brothers and a sister, nephews and nieces, friends, and friends of friends, at the annual Labor Day campout at Doug and Ginger's house. Brynn, Sydnie, and Malaki went with their parents to visit the grave of their great-grandfather, my father. They are looking forward to a new little brother or sister in early November. Last night was a full moon. In June it's called a strawberry moon because it comes up in the southern part of the horizon this time of year. As Jan and I watched it come up over our crop I couldn't help but think of God's faithfulness. Thanks for the picture Jan. It has come up over our previous 48 crops. It came up over my parents crops when I was a kid. It came up during my grandparents lives as new citizens of this country in the early 1900s. I'm confide...