Beginning the Journey of 2018!
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Paul's Grains
Feb 1, 2018, 12:55:09 PM2/1/18
to Paul's Grains
Hello, everyone!
Time keeps flying by and another year has passed since we updated all of you as to the happenings around our farm. I will try to put a year's worth of activity into a brief summary.
At the moment, we are having a calf and some hogs butchered at the locker. So, if any of you are interested in some pork or beef that was raised on our organic farm and is free of all the chemicals injected into a lot of the meat on the market, just give us at call at 641-476-3373 or email us at: sp...@heartofiowa.net and we can give you the details of price, when it will be ready to pick up,etc.
As for the rest of life, we are looking forward to another year of cultivating crops of wheat, rye, oats, soybeans, corn, alfalfa, etc. Last year we experienced some drier weather, but the crops fared pretty good and we were thankful for the harvest. The cattle herd was productive, so we began having some water issues as the summer progressed. Our shallow well wasn't able to keep up with the increased demand for water from the cattle and provide for what we were using at the house, so we had to haul water from time to time. By fall we decided we should just have a deep well drilled since we had had water issues off and on for quite a few years. The process of deciding when and where to drill began and on December 21st the well was finally drilled. The following day we finished all the outside connections that needed to be made and then the cold weather set in the next day. We were SO thankful to not have to be working on it in the extremely cold weather that arrived over the next few weeks.
Our son, Daniel, and his wife Amy, as well as our daughter Lydia, flew to California to visit relatives, leaving Rachel (our youngest daughter) and Steve and I behind to take care of the farm chores. We didn't have any idea what was in store for us, but we took it day by day and saw the Lord provide time and again for the needs that arose. For a good portion of the time as the temperatures plummeted our list of repairs grew. Both our gas and wood furnaces acted up several times, some water lines froze, thawed, and refroze inside the house requiring hauling of water to some of the animals, some of the equipment required repairs due to needing to start in extremely cold weather, etc. The wind chill temperatures dipped to -45 degrees and the actual temperatures were below 0 some of the time. When Daniel and Amy returned from their trip they brought some warmer weather with them. It was actually above freezing when they got home! It was a short-lived thaw, but a couple weeks later when Lydia returned from California, she brought more warm weather and we enjoyed that so much. It is getting colder again as I write, so we are thinking we need more visitors from the west!
As for our family, our daughter's family keeps growing up and Nathaniel who was just a few months old when I last wrote, is a big one-year-old. He is eagerly trying to enter into the activities of his older siblings, Melody (2) and Lukas (5). They don't always like the way he tries to play, but they are figuring it out. Our youngest grandson was born about 1 1/2 weeks ago--Wayne Geoffrey. He has made some big changes to his family. Ruby (8) is no longer an only child. Wayne came about 5 1/2 weeks early so he isn't home yet, but is doing well. He checked in at 4# 4 oz. and then dropped to about 3# 12 oz. but as of last night he had gained back to 4#. We are so thankful that he hasn't had any real complications due to his early arrival and his mom, Ami, is regaining her strength. We can hardly wait for him to get home and allow us to snuggle him whenever we want! We have another grandchild due February 18th--less than three weeks away. Daniel and Amy decided not to find out its gender ahead of time, so we will have to wait a few more weeks for that surprise.
Hopefully everyone will be settled into their somewhat regular routines before all the sheep, kids, and calves arrive. We are hoping to raise some broilers this spring also. We are trying to enjoy this season before the next activities spring us into more action. It has been good to touch bases with all of you again and we look forward to whatever the Lord has in store for the year ahead for all of us. His ways are past finding out, but He has promised to walk through each day with us when we welcome Him into our lives. What a blessing!
If you care to write and let us know what is going on in your lives, we would like to hear from you. If you need any flour, beef or pork, let us know. We are here to serve you!
Until next time,
Teresa (for the Paul family)
Time keeps flying by and another year has passed since we updated all of you as to the happenings around our farm. I will try to put a year's worth of activity into a brief summary.
At the moment, we are having a calf and some hogs butchered at the locker. So, if any of you are interested in some pork or beef that was raised on our organic farm and is free of all the chemicals injected into a lot of the meat on the market, just give us at call at 641-476-3373 or email us at: sp...@heartofiowa.net and we can give you the details of price, when it will be ready to pick up,etc.
As for the rest of life, we are looking forward to another year of cultivating crops of wheat, rye, oats, soybeans, corn, alfalfa, etc. Last year we experienced some drier weather, but the crops fared pretty good and we were thankful for the harvest. The cattle herd was productive, so we began having some water issues as the summer progressed. Our shallow well wasn't able to keep up with the increased demand for water from the cattle and provide for what we were using at the house, so we had to haul water from time to time. By fall we decided we should just have a deep well drilled since we had had water issues off and on for quite a few years. The process of deciding when and where to drill began and on December 21st the well was finally drilled. The following day we finished all the outside connections that needed to be made and then the cold weather set in the next day. We were SO thankful to not have to be working on it in the extremely cold weather that arrived over the next few weeks.
Our son, Daniel, and his wife Amy, as well as our daughter Lydia, flew to California to visit relatives, leaving Rachel (our youngest daughter) and Steve and I behind to take care of the farm chores. We didn't have any idea what was in store for us, but we took it day by day and saw the Lord provide time and again for the needs that arose. For a good portion of the time as the temperatures plummeted our list of repairs grew. Both our gas and wood furnaces acted up several times, some water lines froze, thawed, and refroze inside the house requiring hauling of water to some of the animals, some of the equipment required repairs due to needing to start in extremely cold weather, etc. The wind chill temperatures dipped to -45 degrees and the actual temperatures were below 0 some of the time. When Daniel and Amy returned from their trip they brought some warmer weather with them. It was actually above freezing when they got home! It was a short-lived thaw, but a couple weeks later when Lydia returned from California, she brought more warm weather and we enjoyed that so much. It is getting colder again as I write, so we are thinking we need more visitors from the west!
As for our family, our daughter's family keeps growing up and Nathaniel who was just a few months old when I last wrote, is a big one-year-old. He is eagerly trying to enter into the activities of his older siblings, Melody (2) and Lukas (5). They don't always like the way he tries to play, but they are figuring it out. Our youngest grandson was born about 1 1/2 weeks ago--Wayne Geoffrey. He has made some big changes to his family. Ruby (8) is no longer an only child. Wayne came about 5 1/2 weeks early so he isn't home yet, but is doing well. He checked in at 4# 4 oz. and then dropped to about 3# 12 oz. but as of last night he had gained back to 4#. We are so thankful that he hasn't had any real complications due to his early arrival and his mom, Ami, is regaining her strength. We can hardly wait for him to get home and allow us to snuggle him whenever we want! We have another grandchild due February 18th--less than three weeks away. Daniel and Amy decided not to find out its gender ahead of time, so we will have to wait a few more weeks for that surprise.
Hopefully everyone will be settled into their somewhat regular routines before all the sheep, kids, and calves arrive. We are hoping to raise some broilers this spring also. We are trying to enjoy this season before the next activities spring us into more action. It has been good to touch bases with all of you again and we look forward to whatever the Lord has in store for the year ahead for all of us. His ways are past finding out, but He has promised to walk through each day with us when we welcome Him into our lives. What a blessing!
If you care to write and let us know what is going on in your lives, we would like to hear from you. If you need any flour, beef or pork, let us know. We are here to serve you!
Until next time,
Teresa (for the Paul family)
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