StillwatersIowa

Cousins are the friends you never knew you wanted but so glad you have. Holidays are the times you take to enjoy those friends. Specifically Memorial Day weekend is the time you remember the ones you've lost. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned my father went to Korea right after he married. I misremembered. He went to Germany right after the Korean conflict. His cousin and best friend went to France. On November 6,1954, Roger was killed when he was caught between a grader and a dozer on an air force base. My father asked if he could escort his cousins body home. That request was denied. In 1956 I was named Steven Roger in memory of Dad's cousin. Fast-forward 5 generations. I stopped by our shop office Thursday noon and was delighted to see a daughter-in-law, a grand-daughter, and two great-grand-daughters had stopped to visit. Little Oakley and Rosie are cousins. Matt and Michael stopped on a wet day to visit and see how things with Becks Seed were wrapping up. Sixty years ago o...

This past Wednesday morning granddaughter Rachel (BJ and Cassia) and her husband Carson welcomed Rosalynn Rae to their family. Rachel and Carson were married on our farm a year ago last April. "Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised"(and his response to it whether humble or proud) Proverbs 27:21 Great-grandpa holding Rosie. After visiting little Rosie in the hospital Jan and I drove to Eddyville to watch Sydnie (Karl and Kristin) and her team at a ball game. I enjoyed getting this picture. Allison (Mark and Stacy) is moving her 4-H pigs. It reminded me of building temporary fence and finishing fat hogs on hay ground every summer back in the old days. This is Kurt mowing road ditches near their home west of Leighton. We started both mowing and fencerow spraying this week. Thanks for the picture. With windy days and low humidity it was an excellent week to get hay baled. BJ and his son John mowed, raked, and baled most of the week. I h...

In 1954 Mother's Day was observed on May 9. My mother was married on May 7 of that year only to tell her new husband good-bye the following week when the Army sent him to Korea for 14 months. Yesterday, May 10, was her 92 birthday. Elliot and Ezra, her great-grandsons, and myself brought her some flowers Jan had picked from her yard. My father returned home from Korea in the summer of 1955. A year later I was born. In 1961 my parents sent me to kindergarten at Oskaloosa Christian School, and I used a desk like this. The hole in the desk is an ink well, which we didn't use. I'm old but not that old. Fast-forward a couple of decades. On Mother's Day 1989 this was the family God gave Jan and I to raise and care for. Jan was and is an amazing wife and mother. This recent first week of May was different than most I can remember in a long time. With the crop in and emerged, we kept busy with other projects. Kurt is folding up his planter after washing it and pulling out the s...

Friday evening Jan and I braved the chill and showers and went to Tulip Time in Pella. As usual toward the end of the parade are the antique tractors. However traditions are changing. Instead of all A and G John Deeres and F-20 and H Farmalls, the antique tractors are now the ones I grew up on and even used when we first started farming. Interesting. Must say something about my age. 😊 We actually went to the parade to watch family. Kurt, Emily, and family pushing a cart, the grandkids in the band, and Hazel. Hazel is a 2nd grader. She is Brian and Becky's youngest. She was a flower girl and rode with Queen Addison in all 6 parades. For the last 30 years I've had a tradition of collecting obituaries of visitations or funerals I've attended, traffic warnings and tickets I've received, and church history where we're members, in one of my office drawers. An interesting combination. When I went to put Brant's obituary away I did some counting of my collections, and ...