Where's the Chicken?

Week One in Iowa
We’re settling into things here in Iowa, that “good place to grow” (Iowa state motto). It’s been a warm week with some highlights here:

Highlights (as usual, after the first entry, the others are in no particular order):
1. Hanging with my dad, seeing the family, of course (both my Grandmas are still doing great, living on their own at 96). Grandma Edna (paternal side) lives on the family farm, and has been there since she was two. Grandma Weidler (maternal side) lives in town (four miles from the farm), and has been there since the early 70s, when she and my Grandpa retired from pastoring the country church my dad’s family attended.
2. Driving tractors. We all have been (Andy and Matt drove yesterday while we were picking up rock – see below).
3. Driving trucks (new and old). There are many opportunities to shuttle folks back and forth to the various jobs to be done, and trucks are usually involved (although my favorite farm “truck” is my dad’s new one – which is actually my Grandma Weidler’s 1987 Reliant K car - for those of you who listen to a fine Canadian band, you might be humming “If I had a Million Dollars”). Andy learned to drive the old truck out in the wide-open cleared bean fields, a very safe and soft place, with few things to run into (except rocks – see below).
4. Riding in the combine with Uncle David (my dad’s brother) – Uncle David patiently puts up with his city-folk kin coming out to ooh and ahh at the work of the big John Deere equipment (while there is a Case/International Harvester dealer here in town, the Drapes (pronounced “droppee” in Iowa), are a green family (which in Iowa means John Deere)).
5. Watching Grandma Edna mowing her lawn on her John Deere.

6. Eating Grandma Edna’s serious home cooking comfort food (she still cooks enough to feed the threshing crew).
7. Hauling beans (soy beans, of course… corn will be in a week or so). Uncle David drives the combine, which “picks” the beans, shells them, spits the stalks and pods out the back, and stores the beans in the hopper of the combine. When that is full, he’ll unload into a grain wagon. When the grain wagons are full (they hold 600 bushel of beans, which at 60 lbs/bushel makes a nice 32,000lb load), we haul them over to the grain bins (the auger moves all those little beans up, up and away), and leave them until they are sold.
8. “Harvesting” rock – Iowa fields grow a great variety of granite, ranging from the nice fist-sized 3 lb variety, up to the truck-sized versions. Most of the Drape (remember, say “droppee”) fields have been cleared of rock for years now, but a few years ago Uncle David and my dad bought Lorenzie’s farm (cousin to Grandma Edna). Lorenzie was not the careful farmer that the Drapes are, and there has been some work (ie harvesting rock out of the fields) to bring the ground up to good farming standards.
9. Watching the Wartburg College football team (my Mom’s alma mater, and the local college here in town - go Orange!) beat rival Luther College up in Decorah on Saturday.

10. Farm cats… There aren’t any farm animals on the farm any more (like hogs or cattle – cousin Adam raises hogs a few miles away, but that may be worthy of a later entry), just a dog (see #11) and a bunch of cats (who are supposed to eat the little critters of the farm). Grandma Edna’s cats are working cats – meaning they don’t have any time for humans. They eat her food, and do their work, but don’t wait for them to come and rub up on your leg, because they won’t. This is troubling news for Matt, but fortunately we have Uncle David and Aunt Phoebe’s cat kingdom to make up for this. They have lots of cats (a newish litter just arrived), and many are willing to enjoy some human loving.
11. Maggie, the dog – Uncle David and Aunt Phoebe’s loving black lab, whose car-chasing prowess is unmatched, though will prove to be her demise, as she “chases” from the front…. It’s quite unnerving, even when you know she is going to do it, as she bobs up and then disappears.

She can go 25mph, and usually moves off to the side of the road when you’re driving faster than she can run.
12. The upcoming birthday party for Grandma Weidler (my mom’s mom) and her twin, who will be turning 97 on Oct. 5.
Thanks for listening. I’m sure there’s much more to tell (more than you may be interested in hearing). We’ll keep you posted….