halfway...

Sunrise at Grandpa Gene's, over the Cedar River

We’re at the midpoint of our Iowa time, and having a grand one at that. This past week has been corn, corn, corn: we hauled away appr. 420,000 lbs of it Thursday, and there is much more to go, about 400 acres of it left. If you figure a hopeful 200 bushels of corn per acre @ 60 lbs per bushel, I believe that means we have about 5 million pounds of corn to go yet. We’ll let Andy and Matt do the math on that to figure out just how many kernels of corn that is. Harvesting corn is more intense than beans – things are moving more quickly (perhaps more on that later), and with that Chrissie stepped into Grandma Edna’s role here at my dad’s place (he has a small farm about 13 miles away from the “home place”) – bringing sandwiches to us during combining/hauling, so that we don’t have to come in from the field. She’s so nice.

This Monday morning will be a little mellow – a respite from the fieldwork as we had a good thunderstorm last night and the ground is too wet to work this morning. We’ll do a little catching up on Drape Academy and overseas trip planning, and may make a run into the big city of Waterloo. After lunch, we’ll probably be back at it in the corn.

This week will be an eventful one:
-My brother’s family (Doug, Kim, Zach and Mara) will be joining us all here on Tuesday for the week
-It’s the big annual Waverly Horse Show/Auction, when the size of the town will double as folks come from all over the world to buy and sell (I’m not exaggerating)
-Don’t forget corn, corn, corn
-Andy has a cross-country meet (funny… see below)
-Matt has more school (more funny… see below)
-We’re having an early Thanksgiving with my dad’s side of the family on Saturday
-Chrissie and I plan to go to a wedding (Anne Davies, New School teacher) a couple of hours away from here Saturday evening
-We have the big celebration of Grandma Weidler (born Bertha Afra Baumgartner) and her twin sister Lena turning 97 this coming Sunday
AND
…corn, corn, corn.

So, the funny things on Andy and Matt - We’ve been able to find adventures for them within our larger adventure here. A number of people at my dad’s church teach at one of the local elementary schools. My dad was talking to one, who happens to teach fourth grade (Matt’s grade) a few weeks before we came, and she said she would love to have Matt join their class for a bit. That has all worked out, and Matt is loving hanging out with Mrs. Egli's fourth graders at Margaretta Carey Elementary School in Waverly, Iowa (http://www.waverly-shellrock.k12.ia.us/carey/). Matt, on his second first-day-of-school

On the Andy front, junior high does not present the same classroom connection as elementary, but I did write to the cross country coach, who very graciously and enthusiastically has let Andy join in on the fun. He even wants Andy to run (unofficially, of course) at their cross-country meet tomorrow in Manchester, which, as you can imagine, has Andy sky-high excited. It’s been great to craft some individual experiences for them here that are not just chasing after the big boys on their large working toys (although we are certainly doing a proper amount of that, as you have seen). We’re excited to continue to find ways for Andy and Matt to dig in on this adventure in their own ways that can help not only broaden their experience and understanding of where we are, but Chrissie’s and mine as well.

On the front of finding little adventures within this larger adventure we’re on, Chrissie and Matt cruised over to Chicago (about 5 hours away…) this weekend. Chrissie’s dear high school friend, Brenda Nelson, lives there with her son Noah (a year older than Matt). They had a great time, and it allowed a little family separation that made us miss each other (they were gone all of 36 hours) – so far we aren’t tired of each other, which is good. (Do you hear that, Carmen?!)

So, there you have a bit of week two, and looking ahead to week three here in Iowa. We do miss our Seattle friends and family greatly. We love getting the updates that we do from you. (HINT: Please write!) We’re busy enough that we don’t always notice the missing, but it certainly creeps in around the edges. It’s a blessing to have such connections with you all. We notice we are not complete apart from those relationships. The beauty of this trip is that it is our chance to connect with those we miss when we are in Seattle!