Farm Credit Services of America

Looking forward, indications are Brian’s oldest son, Sawyer, who will be a senior at Western Christian High School, will join Dry Creek Farms in the future. “As far as expansion, that may not be on the dairy end but, rather, on the feedlot end. The dairy has been good to us, but dairy is volatile and we’re not sure we want to dive deeper,” Brian said.

He and his wife, Nicole have been married for 20 years. She owns and operates B Fierce Boutique in Hull, a women and girl’s clothing boutique. Their daughter, Addison, will be a sophomore at Western Christian and younger son, Brody, will be a fourth grader. (Brian said Brody will probably be the guy who designs the robot instead of milking cows with the robot.) Steve and his wife, Amy, have been married for almost 35 years. Amy works in foodservice at Kinsey Elementary in Sioux Center. They have two daughters. Brooke is a first grade teacher at Kinsey Elementary. Her husband, Dan Faber, works at Trans Ova Genetics. They have three sons, Drake, Hayes and Tate. Steve and Amy’s daughter, Morgan, works at Interstates Electric. Her husband, Chad Hoekstra, farms, feeds hogs and does custom manure application. They had their first child, Briggs, in March. While Glenn and Betty’s middle son, Scott, isn’t on the farm any more, he helps out at Dry Creek during chopping season. He’s proudly posted photos of himself with the comment: “This was my vacation.” He has five children and one grandchild. Scott works for Standard Ready Mix Concrete in Sioux City. One of life’s simple pleasures Glenn and Betty enjoy is that the families of both Steve and Brian attend worship with them at Carmel Reformed Church. “So we’ve got a whole family unit here going to the same church. That's great,” Glenn said.

Steve described Carmel Reformed as a melting pot church which is open and welcoming of new people, with member families from many communities. Both Steve and Brian were busy in June helping teach at Carmel’s Vacation Bible School, which is perhaps the largest one in the area.

Steve said he met youth and students there from places like Chicago, Kansas City and Minneapolis; not to mention most of the communities in northwest Iowa. “During the morning opening or the afternoon closing, you’ve really got to step in there because it is quite an experience. The kids are all so excited.” Glenn added: “I think it takes good leadership. And we've had that for many, many years. The Spirit is just alive.”

KAYAKING ON LAKE ALVIN

PHOTO BY JON KLEMME.

BLESSED WITH 150 YEARS OF GOD’S GRACE

By Bob Fitch

Members of Christ Lutheran Church are proud of their building’s high functionality. It was designed in the early 1970s by a team of church experts – Pastor Reitz with input from many member committees. Special memories of a cherished church home came rushing back to veteran members of Christ Lutheran Church during its 150th anniversary celebration in June.