Welcome to our Farm!
A hundred years ago, nearly one-third of the population of the United States was involved in farming. One American farmer could barely feed his family and 5 other people. Today, less than 2% of the U.S. population makes their living from the farm, and one farmer feeds 160 people. Our family is fortunate to be part of that 2%, as it's not just a living to us, it's a way of life. It's hard to describe to someone how farming is "in your blood" or why you have "a love of the land." As generations of our fellow citizens have become more and more removed from their ancestors' roots on the farm, there is less understanding of what goes in to making a farm work, and why we do what we do. The large amount of capital it takes to farm today virtually eliminates the possibility of a young person starting out on their own. We have a great appreciation for those generations before us who worked and sacrificed to be able to see their children and grandchildren carry on the farming tradition. That tradition is still very important to us today, and is why we want to convey some of our farm "way of life" to you. We will only scratch the surface here about our farm, as there is much, much more that goes into running a farm than pictures can show. We hope you enjoy our attempt to show you what we do.
Above is a slideshow of some of our more recent farm pictures. We'll try to keep you up to date with new pictures of our farm as we go through the upcoming cropping seasons.
Our Barn was 100 years old in 2017!
One fun project that we started in 2016 was cleaning out and repairing our barn, which is on the homeplace west of Lyons where Evan lives. The barn was built in 1917 by Charles Kiefer, great grandfather to Chuck and great, great grandfather to Evan. Since the barn was 100 years old, we worked to get it shaped up to celebrate it's centennial. Evan completely replaced the electrical wiring and a new roof was installed. Straightening the leaning barn, re-nailing all the old wood siding and bracing, and installing new steel siding was accomplished in the 1980's. Evan has been converting the main floor into his woodworking shop. The barn is still useful on the farm after all these years.
Chuck with son-in-law Ben and son Evan.
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