StillwatersIowa

Your story is 22 times more effective than just facts about you. A story is an interpretation that give facts meaning. The facts of this picture are brothers, Karl, Mike, and Kurt making pizzas. The story happened yesterday at the Pella Christian Clay Target Team's invitational. It was Kurt and Karl's 36th birthday. Grandkids, John, Elijah, and Elliot joined myself in stopping by for lunch, and watching Adi and Natelie shoot. Thanks to Kasey and Matt covering our spraying responsibilities on a Saturday. The story of the PC shooting team starts with kids in the 4th grade. The team consist of close to 100 kids. Thanks to the 27 coaches. Thanks to Loren for handling the ammo. Thanks to Kurt and Emily and their pizza trailer for being available for the meal. We received a settling inch of rain on Easter Sunday. So one of our jobs this past week was to service the planters. We have just a couple of our own and a couple of custom fields left to plant. We did run sprayer some as soil ...

I walked into the Beacon Caseys store one Easter Sunday morning 40 years ago. Mary was making donuts back in the kitchen (before Caseys pizza). She would get to work shortly after 2 AM. She was a rough gal, about 75 years old, could swear like a sailor. One morning her 50 yr old son walked in asking his mother for money. Anyhow, back to my story, Mary hollers across the store, "Steve, He has risen". I reply, "yes He has". Mary says, "No Steve, you're supposed to say, He has risen indeed". I had underestimated this gal. The only other year I can remember a crop going in this fast was 1977. Jan and I started planting our fewer acres April 19 and finished on the 23rd. That year was a severe drought. We brought the Hybrid to the gadget show at the Iowa State Fair. We bought the farm we currently live on. And our first son, Michael, was born. A 2AM friend is the true meaning of friendship. They honor God by loving their neighbor more than they love themselv...

You don't reap "what" you sow. You reap "more" than you sow. With crop margins razor thin these days farmers go to great detail at planting time to try for as many bushels as possible to compensate for the lower prices. Alex kept busy planting soybeans late in the week. After spending the winter months preparing equipment, using dry weather in late March to prepare the ground and finish fertilizing, and getting our inch of rain on April 2, we started planting crops in earnest April 9. Our emptier seed shed late this past week reflects two things. Farmers in southern Iowa are more willing these days to take advantage of dry soil conditions in early April. And if ready, it doesn't take long these days to put a crop in.                                Early in the week Ethan brought Mike loads of clay to a job in Eddyville where Mike was preparing a spot for a building site. Thanks for the picture Mike. Our crew...

Mark Twain once said, "History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes". Yesterday morning during coffee we talked about local old bridges over the Des Moines River. The first year we were married (1975) Jan stopped traffic on the narrow old Hwy 92 bridge just west of Bell Fountain Hill so I could cross with our combine. After 50 years of use that bridge was replaced in 1978. My goal this morning is to get you to think about history possibly repeating itself. And read between the lines about what might be coming in the near future. 50 years ago there were tens of thousands of tractors built in the 1970s. Our family still owns 10 tractors built in that era. New price on these tractors raised about 10%/yr back then, doubling in that 10 yr period. My grandparents immigrated and experienced the good times of the Roaring 20s followed by the tough times of the Great Depression during the 1930s. 50 years later I started farming during the inflationary good times of the 1970s....