Christmas 2018

Mo & Nathan Stoddard

Brent & Teresa Miller

Both kids spent a lot of time with their special friends this past year. Nathan Stoddard is a local farmer and was the grade ahead of Mo at Iowa Mennonite School. Teresa Miller was in Brent's grade, and is employed at Wellman Telephone Company as a bookkeeper. I'm on the WTC Board of Directors and gave her a reference, but I DIDN'T know at the time that they were "talking".

 This happened. Brent had been talking about getting a dog; I tried to talk him out of it. He's not home much. Guess what came home one day. So many "rules" Brent had for Duke were softened for Roscoe... puppy kisses on truck windows, gets table food snacks and sleeps in the house sometimes instead of his kennel. Funny how that works.

My condition was he had to go to puppy kindergarten. Mo, Brent and I took him for 6 weeks. But what really made him a good farm dog was Doug, who gave him a job and started taking him along to chore. Now Roscoe gets restless if it's time to chore and Doug is late.

Look at that popcorn concentration!

This was the year to put in the quilt I've been piecing for, oh, about 10 years. I took a week's vacation and Mom and I put it in at her house. Despite getting some awful fever while there, the aunts came and quilted away. Ron wanted to learn, but after one inch he retorted, "Why would anyone want to do that!" Mom and Arva finished it and sent it to Iowa. FINALLY on our bed!

Cousin Jon Fielitz came on business to Iowa
and stayed with us. Here he is with my Ford 8N.
He remembered Dad teaching him to drive it!

Brenneman Summer Picnic at our house July 28. The last time we had Orval over.
Orval died August 23. He was like a second dad to me. We really miss him next door. 

Grandma Zaerr came to Iowa in May. Brent's new truck, Duke and the pet raccoon were among the things we had to show her.
I knew it wasn't good when Doug called me one day and said, "Bring the cat carrier and gloves." Yes, he found an orphan raccoon, and of course, Mo had to bottle feed it so it could grow up and eat my chickens!

RAGBRAI passed through Wellman this year. It was so wild; hard to believe it was our little town!

I finally did the paperwork to get our Century Farm (100 year) plague for the Wellman farm and Heritage Farm (150 year) for the Kalona farm. We made a day of it at the Iowa State Fair. The fair was full of farm families in matching T-shirts!

The kids live in Grandma Brenneman's house on the farm just across the yard. They help with the cows during calving, and with the pigs when it's time to sort and sell (2400 to load up twice a year!). Both Brent and Maureen work for BT Farms just down the road from our place. I work full time for the last year or so at the University of Iowa, so it's good for Doug that both of them are nearby.

Harvest was a trial this fall. An August wind downed a lot of corn. In addition to the reel, we bought these roller cones. 

And then the rain started.... wet fields really delayed harvest. Didn't finish until November,
and not without getting the combine stuck!

Merry Christmas!

Join us in watching for God's blessings in 2019

   Update: November 30, Roscoe had an run-in with the pickup and didn't survive it. We are all devastated. Amazing how that raucous, chew-monster, destructo- dog got into our hearts. Duke, however, is not sad one bit.