05/31/2026
Praying for a fellow dairyman 🙏❤️🩹
Some of you may have heard, many of you likely have not. I've waited to share until I had...well...better news than what I thought I was going to have.
On Tuesday (5/26) my dad was involved in a terrible farm accident. We were spot planting corn, meaning we were taking the planter through some spots in the fields where the corn was thin. At the same time, we were trying to use up leftover seed, which meant a lot of getting in and out of the tractor to shuffle seed from unit to unit. My dad was in the side by side, and I was in the tractor. Dad was following me in the side by side and when the planter ran out, he and I would get out of our respective cabs, go the the planter, and refill/shuffle seed. Then, he'd go back to the side by side parked behind the planter and I'd go back to the tractor and take off. We did this 3 or 4 times with no issues, it's a pretty routine thing we do each year.
Unfortunately, the 5th time did not go as planned. We shuffled seed around and he started back to the side by side and I started back to the tractor. Unbeknownst to me, he turned around on his way back to the side by side and for some reason ended up in front of the planter (I truly don't know why). Not knowing this, I took off. A bit later, I looked in there mirror and there he was...laying on the ground.
I have to type this out because I won't make it through a video. I thought I killed him. I truly don't know what happened. I called 911 immediately and held him until they got there. He was stabilized miraculously in Manchester and was life-flighted to University of Iowa hospital (there's a beautiful story in there for another post)
So that was Tuesday. Today is Friday. For the first time, we were able to speak to one another. His first words to me were "Thank you". He's undergone significant surgeries, has many broken bones but somehow by God's grace there is no major organ damage. Which if you saw what I saw in the field, it should be impossible.
We are far from out of the woods, but today was a huge step in getting his breathing tube out and breathing on his own - but he needs to do that for the next 18 hours for the Dr's to call it a success. The next big milestone is Monday. He has a surgery to repair some fractured vertebrate. Again, somehow there is no spinal cord damage, he can wiggle all his toes and fingers and can hold our hands.
We have seen so, so many prayers answered. Please join us in continuing to pray for my dad. His name is Richard.
I'm sure you understand we won't be posting for a while. Teeg will be helping me out by posting Sunday's YouTube video, which I am only posting because I'm hoping it will give my dad something to watch once he is recovered.
Thank you, Lord.
