Le Mars Agri-Center

Their twin daughters, Rebecca and Jill, were born one week before John and Debra moved to the family farm in 1991. Daughter Rebecca is an ISU Extension field agronomist and lives in Washington, Iowa, with her husband, Jordan Vittetoe, their son, Grant, and new daughter, Madison Kay, who was just born on Aug. 2nd. Daughter Jill is a certified pediatric nurse practitioner at Children’s Hospital Colorado, and lives in Broomfield, Colo., with her husband, Vijay Permeswaran, and their son, Kiaan.

Debra has worked at Floyd Valley Healthcare as a laboratory scientist for many years, although she considers the 10 years she stayed home with their children the greatest gift she could receive.

With the arrival of Madison this month, all three daughters have had babies in the past year. The

Covid restrictions has limited contact with the newborns. “The whole year has been difficult … new grandbabies you can’t see them or hold them. I’ve never been to a baptism on Zoom, but we did it. The minister was great, she went to their home,” said Debra.

On top of limited contact with their new grandchildren, John said the lack of a full-fledged Plymouth County Fair this year was “not a lot of fun. It’s hard.” Debra said, “It kind of leaves a void in your heart.”

Over the years, the Ahlers have been involved in 4-H, Farm Bureau, Extension Council, and school activities such as music boosters and PTO. But the Plymouth County Fair has always been very close to the top of their priority list. John is the current vice chairperson of the fair board. Their involvement stretches back decades. In fact, in 2017, John and Debra were named to the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame. “John’s claim to fame is he got to become a 4-H’er through his children. He became an honorary 4-H member and he never had to do a recordbook,” she said.

Plymouth County 4-H and FFA projects were still judged at the fairgrounds this year, with caution taken to ensure the safety of participants. But all the other important elements of “The 5 Best Days of Summer” were missing.

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“All our food is provided by service organizations. For a lot of them, that’s their whole operating budget for the year,” John said. “A lot of them give scholarships to kids or sponsor trips for the kids. The money all goes back into community. When that doesn’t happen, boy, it’s not only the fair that suffers but it’s a lot of organizations that won’t generate their funding for the year.”

Debra said the biggest loss may be the camaraderie. “The fair is what so many people build their family reunions around. For us, the kids always try to make it home for the fair. It’s just a good, wholesome family time. For some families and friends, you might not see them for a whole year, but you can reconnect that one week and recharge your batteries.”

Still, Debra said, “We are very blessed. We all stayed healthy, our parents and kids all stayed healthy. I kept my job and our daughters kept their jobs.” Daniel jokingly added, “Farmers are not guaranteed a paycheck, but we are always guaranteed work. Every day is another day in paradise.”

The Ahlers family finds paradise in simple pleasures. Because a lot of their farmland is very spread out, one of their traditions over the years has been to bring supper to the field during harvest. Debra said, “Now, when our girls come home, they ask ‘Can we have supper in the field?’”

John said, “You know, during harvest, at the end of the day, if we can say nothing got broke and nobody got hurt, it was a good day.”