75 years.   This year marks the 75th crop Feikema’s have harvested in Rock County. In 1950, Clarence and Ann Feikema moved to the current farm site after farming some years in Iowa and South Dakota.  The farms they had previously were near rivers and prone to flooding so apparently the farm high on the Blue Mounds was an attractive change.  I wonder if they knew how much we would battle the solid ledge rock underneath the fertile soil.  A small farm with 120 acres, some dairy

This quote gets at the tension we feel as we wrapped up harvest last week - overall, we are very pleased but not wowed with the corn yields.  We are definitely celebrating and grateful for a great year and yet recognizing the gap between outcome and potential.  I think it is possible to be both content and never satisfied - we can aways look back and see what we could have done different, what new things can we try next year, how we can grow and push ourselves to be better.  

...That’s one way to summarize what has been happening on our farm lately.  The long hours of the harvest season start to wear on people after we have been at it these many weeks. It means late bedtimes, missed kids’ activities, and looking in a lunchpail and wanting to throw the hundredth cold sandwich of the season right out the window.  It also means trying to have a bit more patience, a bit more understanding and maybe a mangled tongue from biting it more often than you w