Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2021

November 2020
Harvest was still full
steam ahead as was
making cornstalk
bales. It’s all handson
deck during this
time of year with a harvest crew
and a stalk bale crew. Sometimes,
it doesn’t always work that way, but
when it does it sure makes the process
go faster! The kids would come
home from school, do homework and
their heifer chores, and somedays
ride with dad. Their time with him is
always short during this time of year,
and secretly we pray for rain every
couple of days just so we can see him.
Yes, I married a farmer. Sure, I kind
of “knew what I was getting into,”
but no, I didn’t grow up with this. I
lived in town and saw my parents
every day, and we had a sit-down
supper every single night. We
always ate together and listened
to or watched the nightly news.
This is a tradition I have tried to
instill into our home, but it has
become so hard to implement with
the lifestyle we live. And, since
the pandemic hit, we still aren’t
watching the news of any form; it
seems to be politically driven and
always bad news, and we simply
don’t need the constant negativity
and drama in our life. I try
extremely hard to roll with the
punches, but it isn’t easy. Some
days are harder than others,
especially since our kids are at
the age where they realize they
are stuck with mom quite a bit and dad
isn’t home to do “dad” things like their
friends from school. Maybe the challenge
lies in us having to share our husband,
daddy and farmer with the world. Many
don’t understand or appreciate all we are
giving up so he can work from sun up to
sun down to allow for them to put food on
their table. And, when we are constantly
fighting the packer to get a fair price, it’s
easy to get frustrated, angry and discouraged
as well. But this, unfortunately, is
nothing new in the agricultural industry.
You just learn to deal with the daily challenges
better.
COVID-19 continues to ravage the
United States and Iowa, with numbers at
all-time highs. We had to home school via
virtual learning the week of Thanksgiving.
Uh, that was rough especially with a
Dear diary
first
grader and kindergartener and
most all the work done on an iPad. It was
hard to keep their interest and focus and
took quite a bit of time. Unfortunately,
because the numbers were peaking, my
elderly grandparents were out on any sort
of get together, and we had a very untraditional
Thanksgiving. We survived, but
it was definitely not a memorable holiday
or one we would like to repeat.
December 2020
The kids stayed in school for
the remainder of the month,
finishing Dec. 22 for Christmas
break. Covid numbers
continued to soar, limiting
Christmas gatherings.
It was depressing, but I
was sure to decorate the house
extra this year so the kids didn’t
notice or miss a beat. There
was Christmas everywhere in
our house, which made it feel
a little more like the holiday it
wasn’t. We did have gatherings
with our immediate family, but
for the most part didn’t see our
grandparents for yet another holiday.
We had Lane’s 6th birthday
party on his birthday, Dec. 23.
We invited all the regulars and
left the decision to attend up to
them. Much to our surprise almost
everyone attended, even Santa!
It was a fun birthday party and
helped fill the void of all we had missed
this holiday season.
January 2021
The new year started off in a
foggy haze, much of how the
2020 year had been for most
of us. It made for a beautiful
backdrop frosting trees,
fences and cows, however, we longed for
sun in these long, dark days. We spent
our evenings cheering on our favorite
college basketball team, and while the
boys longed to be in the stands at Carver
Hawkeye Arena like years past, the edge
of the couch was the next best option.
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