This week Aunt Jeanette writes: I was the only girl in my family – except Mom. I had an older brother and a younger brother, and of course, Dad. I pretty much learned that if I wanted to play with someone, I played with the boys. When I grew up and got married, we had three sons. Fortunately for me, …

These days around our parts, you may hear the phrase “We’re doing corn today” quite often. I think of city folks who go to Hy-Vee or their local grocery store, pick up a few ears of sweet corn for the evening meal, take it home, shuck it and grin as the butter runs down their chin and arms to their …

This week Aunt Jeanette (thankfully!) writes: …and I’ll blow your machinery storage shed down…and another storage shed…and your augers…and the trees in your front yard…and the power lines…and your pivots. I will rip the brand new doors off of the building that were installed ten days ago. Then I will put a huge dent in your grain bin and blow …

You’ve all seen the famous “Titanic” scene where the star-crossed lovers are on the bow of the boat, arms outstretched, and Jack’s character yells, “I’m the king of the world!” The movie writers must have been inspired by a farm kid. That’s my theory anyway. Why do I say that? Because they probably caught an 8-year-old farm girl on top …

This week Aunt Jeanette writes: Some time ago Melissa wrote a story about pivot stops. We have quite a few of these structures and they are wonderful for keeping pivots out of trees, ditches, roads, or the neighbor’s fields. We also found out they are good places for a bird to set up housekeeping – or should I say ‘nestkeeping’! …

I know people usually post amazing pictures for “Wordless Wednesday” or funny ones for “Throwback Thursday” but this one was just too good to pass up. My Aunt Jeanette writes: Some very good friends of ours snapped this picture while they were out doing their evening irrigating. The photo shows the sun going down behind our farm. It was the …

The annual Des Moines Register’s Great Bike Ride Across Iowa (RAGBRAI) is just around the corner and this year riders can learn about Iowa agriculture through a series of podcasts, coined “Iowa Agcasts“. “The beauty and fertility of Iowa’s land is very evident this time of year and these podcasts will highlight the importance and diversity of Iowa agriculture as …

Aunt Jeanette writes this week … You’ve heard that expression, haven’t you? Well, if it holds true, our three sons grew up to be hay bales, augers and tractor tires! Ha! I bet you thought you were eating plain cereal, right? Wrong. Those were actually hay bales you were eating. And instead of the regular spaghetti noodles, we had augers …

Aunt Jeanette joins us again today: I love plants and flowers. My house used to look like a jungle – until we added a sunroom. When I was teaching, if I had a particularly challenging day at school, I would come home and repot a couple of plants. It was my therapy. Word got around at school (and in town), …

We often refer to our founding fathers when we talk about the signing of the declaration of independence, but they could just as well be called the founding farmers, since that was the primary profession of so many at the time. There is a poem on the internet that I came across written by a California organic farmer by the …