The Farming Families of Lyon County (IA)—March 2022

March 2022 | www.AgeMedia.pub

Faith / Family / Friends / Farming

Meet

of Lyon County

JIM BLANKENSPOOR Mechanic Jim Blankenspoor brings new life to Super M’s, Flathead Fords and more, including this 1949 International KB5 custom-fit with a vintage fuel tank.

Story on page 28.

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“The “The Land Land Marketing Marketing Professionals Professionals for for Over Over 100 100 Years” Years”

Why clients choose Brock Auction Company Inc.

When our situation changed and decided the timing was right to sell the family farm, we were referred to Bruce and his team at Brock Auction. As my mom and I met with him and discussed the options, we felt completely at ease that working with him and auctioning the farm was the right path.

Bruce, Austin and the BACi Team marketed and auctioned the farm in a dignified, professional manner and attracted buyers who would not have otherwise been involved. I am confident the market price received would not have been realized through other channels. My dad would have been proud!

George Schnepf CFO of Coldspring Whether you want to buy or sell Agricultural property of any kind, Brock Auction Co. Inc. & Bruce R. Brock Real Estate L.L.C. “The Land Marketing Professionals for Over 100 Years” will be glad to sit down with you for a confidential, no obligation consultation. See for yourself why the professionals at Brock Auction Co. have sold 100’s of millions of dollars worth of Real Estate for customers & clients just like you.

Put the Brock Team to work for you!

After 70 years of working the soil and serving as a great place to raise a family of 11 children, our family decided to sell the family farm after our mother passed away in October of 2021. Bruce Brock and Brock Auction Co. was an obvious choice to help our family through this transition – not only is he knowledgeable about NW Iowa agriculture and a Nationally recognized Auctioneer, but he is also well known for his charitable work with the County Fair, Pheasant Forever Events, and the Little Yellow Dog Auction in Sioux City.

Bruce and Austin and their staff are known by all, and well respected for their professionalism and familiarity with the property and the people of NW Iowa. Our family utilized Brock Auction Company’s expertise to set the Sale Date and provide the necessary advertising to accomplish a successful sale. Sale day arrived with many eager bidders to make what we thought was an exceptional sale.

We couldn’t have been more pleased by the sale results and credit Bruce, Austin, and Brock Auction Company for making the process flow seamlessly from start to finish.

Thank you, Brock Auction Company!

Dave Sitzmann Co-Trustee of the Agatha Sitzmann Estate

BrockAuction.com • 712-548-4634 • Le Mars, IA

Bruce R. Brock World Champion 712 548-4634

Austin Popken Le Mars, IA 712-539-1178

Brian Rubis Le Mars, IA 712-253-5481

Troy Donnelly Elk Point, SD 712-899-3748

Darrell Scott Pat Robeson Steve Gaul Adam Karrels Mapleton, IA 2022 |Sioux City, IA Hawarden, IA FamiliesSturgis, SD 3 March www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Magazine 712-208-0003 712-259-1734 712-551-6586 605-490-1701

of Sioux County PUBLISHERS Garrett and Mindy Gross, AGE Media EDITOR & IOWA MANAGER Bob Fitch, AGE Media Direct advertising inquiries, story submissions and other correspondence to: 712-551-4123 bob@agemedia.pub © The Farming Families, Age Media & Promotion The Farming Families is distributed free exclusively to the farmers, ranchers and producers in rural Sioux, Plymouth and Lyon Counties. All rights reserved. Content in this magazine should not be copied in any way without the written permission of the publisher. The Farming Families assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or photographs. Content in articles, editorial and advertisements are not necessarily endorsed by The Farming Families and Age Media & Promotion.

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PLYMOUTH COUNTY FAMILY

NOT ALL OPPORTUNITIES COME AT OPPORTUNE TIMES

By Bob Fitch

When that first kernel of corn pops on the stove, you know there’s about to be a flurry of action in the pot.

Life’s been kind of the same way for the Popken family.

Todd and Tammy Popken have been farming northwest of Le Mars since 1988. As a general rule, their life is as normal as the family up the road. In May 1996 all was calm – the couple had one son, were renting a small amount of cropland, had a minimal amount of debt, and had older, empty hog buildings. By February 1997, they had a second son, had gone deeply into debt with not one but two major loans, had purchased the land they were renting, doubled their crop ground by renting more land, and built a nursery where they would soon be caring for thousands of pigs. Life was going pop, pop, POP, pop.

Except for the baby, none of it was on the burner eight months earlier.

Stepping back in time a bit, when Todd graduated from South Dakota State University in 1988, he and Tammy moved to an acreage owned at the time by his parents, Ron and Linda Popken. His dad also offered to let them take over rental of a quarter of cropland he’d been farming. “For our wedding gift from my folks, we got 51 gilts and two or three boars.

We grew from there. So we started in the hog business and just rented one piece of ground,” Todd said.

Tammy and Todd Popken.

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“We grew the sow herd until the early ‘90s.

We peaked at 300 sows and we were just selling weaner pigs. In ’92 or ’93, whenever pigs were at 28 cents, I was losing money and was tired of working for a donation.

We said ‘enough is enough’ and we ended

Austin and Alex Popken.

up liquidating the herd.” To supplement the farm income, they both had jobs off the farm.

Fast forward to 1996, he was ready to get back into pork production and was remodeling his existing facilities with the thought of custom-feeding hogs. In April that year, the local co-op connected him with an integrator who hadn’t done much business in the area. He looked over Todd’s facilities and said “I’m not interested in what you got.”

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“That kind of let the air out of my balloon,” Todd said. However, the integrator laid out a plan for a large nursery building, many times the size of area pig nurseries at the time. “He said, ‘I’ll give you a 10-year contract if you build this.’” In the midst of these discussions and lining up financing, their son, Austin, was born in June.

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HUNTING FOR THE MONEY “We started hunting for money, but the banks said ‘no go.’

Financially it was a slam dunk, but the banks really put the brakes on since it was a size that nobody else had and the integrator was from out of state.” Through their co-op, they finally found a bank that was interested. “But we were short $40,000.

If we could come up with that $40,000, the bank would work with us. I found a third party investor who loaned me that 40 grand and said, ‘Yeah, I trust you.’”

Tammy said, “The bank held up their side of the deal” in June and they started pouring concrete in November 1996. The first pigs arrived in February 1997.

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Simultaneously that summer, they found out the quarter they had been renting was going for sale on auction. “So I was already strapped and it was not even 30 days since I’d gotten the ‘go’ from the bank for the new barn. Luckily, the guy who was selling it sold it on contract, so he was financing it except for the down payment,” Todd said.

They were lucky enough to receive some help again for the down payment.

Then about the time the contractors were pushing dirt for the nursery, the owners of the land where they live now wanted to know if Popkens wanted to rent their 280 acres.

“So I had to go back to the bank for an operating loan. We basically doubled our acres.”

Revenue from the pigs paid for the land and the hog building with a enough left over to help them get by. Plus they kept their jobs in town. Looking back, he said, “We jumped in with both feet pretty hard. We stuck our neck out further than a giraffe. But not all opportunities come at opportune times.”

At the 10-year mark, they made the last payment to the bank on the hog building. The ink was hardly dry on the check when they had an opportunity to purchase the 280 acres they’d been renting (it had grown to 320 acres by that point). “That was in 2006-07 before land prices went crazy. Luckily the timing worked and we’re still living here.”

TECHNOLOGICAL & MECHANICAL SKILLS PROVIDE CAREER FLEXIBILITY Todd and Tammy’s oldest son, Alex, graduated from SDSU in December 2010. He married a fellow graduate of Le Mars Community High School and SDSU in August 2011. His wife, Maria, works at Iowa Farm Business Association in Sheldon. “It was a good move for her and it helps with the farming side, too,” Alex said. Because Maria doesn’t have a farming background, working at Iowa Farm Business Association has helped her learn about farming and bring some financial and tax insight to the Popken operation.

Alex and Maria own and live on the acreage where his maternal grandparents, Dave and Judy Hawkins, used to reside and farm several miles east of Struble. They have a daughter, Denali, who is six and in kindergarten.

Denali likes ballet and is in a dance company. Tammy said it’s been good for Todd to experience some girl-focused activities.

Alex works for the Feuerhelm family who own Plymouth Dairy and Perry Creek Dairy. He helps with their farming plus drives truck and does maintenance work for them. Alex said, “They give me the flexibility to take off in the fall and help Dad with harvest.”

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Harvest at the Popken farm east of Akron/north of Le Mars. Photo courtesy Austin Popken.

Previously, Alex worked for Icon Ag in Le Mars for 10 years.

When Icon was rolled up in a merger, he decided the new company’s plan didn’t match his vision for his career; plus he wanted the flexibility to help on the farm. But the years at the John Deere dealership paid a lot of dividends. He was the “technology guy” at the dealership and the Popkens often got to test new technology on their farm. But Alex also worked in all aspects of that business, including sales, maintenance, and parts. “I got to know pretty much everything and that knowledge ended up helping us here drastically reduce our down time.”

The networking he did with college classmates paid off because some of them are now engineers and program writers at Deere. He’s able to stay in the loop with new technologies and sometimes get equipment questions answered faster than others.

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Austin is eight years younger than his brother. During his junior year at SDSU, Austin was approached by Bruce Brock, owner of Brock Auction Co., to see if he’d like to shadow the auctioneer for the summer. “I loved every second of it.” In May 2019, he graduated on a Sunday and was in the Brock office working on Monday. Bruce also gave Austin the flexibility to help on the farm during the busiest times of the year.

In the world of auctioneering, “You never know what’s going to be behind the machine shed door – from a rare piece of

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Tammy Popken’s father, Dave Hawkins, died unexpectedly in 2011, leaving behind 125 antique John Deere tractors. The story of the collection and the auction sale was told on the show “Strange Inheritance” on Fox Business Network. While his father-in-law primarily collected two-cylinder tractors, Todd went the opposite direction: “I grew up on John Deere 4020s, so I’ve collected most of the 20 series, as time and money allow.” Photo courtesy Alex Popken.

machinery to baseball card collections to firearms to you name it.”

Following his May graduation, the remainder of year 2019 was the Pop pop POP year of Austin’s young life: Not only was June his first full month with Bruce Brock but he also went to auctioneer

school; in July, he got married; and in December, he got his real estate license. Then, in January 2020, he and his wife bought into Brock Auction Co. Austin met his wife, Nicole, at SDSU. Her family runs a cow-calf operation in Eureka, S.D., about 70 miles west of Aberdeen. She is currently a secretary for Sioux Center Public Schools, but he hopes one day she’ll be working with him at the auction company.

Nicole has also become Austin’s partner in vaccinating the nursery pigs. Alex said, “I was gone one day and she filled in and all of a sudden she was doing it. I don’t miss it.”

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Austin wasn’t always convinced that farming was going to be part of his life. “Farming is not always rewarding financially,” he said, “And I saw the hardships my parents and Alex went through.” But he discovered a great career off the family farm – and it’s one that lets him stay connected to, active in and supportive of his parents’ farm.

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Fourteen years ago, Tammy was a long-time accounts payable supervisor with a major local food processing company. When the corporate world hit the skids in 2008, she was a victim of some human resources bloodletting. The unexpected change was devastating to her morale. But she started a new career the following day.

“The next morning I went to work in the hog shed with Todd and I’m still going to the hog shed today. The little pigs are always very happy to see you – they don’t complain and they don’t talk back,” she said. Tammy helps out with the grain cart in the fall (even though the steering is done from the combine, she in place for an emergency). Most importantly, she’s 99 percent responsible for the finance and bookkeeping side of the farm business.

LIVE AND LEARN Except for a part-time truck driver in the fall, the work on both the livestock and crop side is all in the family. Todd said, “I feel fortunate that both Alex and Austin had jobs waiting for them before they graduated” and that the employers give them the flexibility to help on the farm.

“Without these two guys, I can’t run the acres I run,” Todd said.

Alex brings technology and mechanical skills to the crop side of the operation. Austin lives on the site of the nursery, so it’s natural he helps with the pigs. Their dad said, “They also know how to do each other’s jobs. And harvest is the big time when it’s all hands on deck.”

after Alex graduated from college, Todd said, “He planted some acres and I ended up spraying it. I came back and told him I wasn’t combining it. He went to combine later and said, ‘Yep, not doing it that way again.’”

Alex and Austin have learned from some of those mistakes. Fortunately, “Mom and Dad taught us how to work hard; and how to have fun,” Austin said.

Alex and Maria Popken with their daughter, Denali.

Photo courtesy Alex Popken.

The family values the rural area and being able to know their neighbors.

“You go to the local café, you talk more than you eat,” Todd said.

Tammy’s life goal is to get the right mix of family and farming, while always keeping the faith.

The sons have begun to directly rent cropland of their own. Todd said, “Their ground, my equipment. You sit in the seat, you plant your own stuff. When you mess up planting, you get to learn in hurry.” Not long

Austin and Nicole Popken. Photo courtesy Austin Popken.

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KEEPING LOCAL HISTORY ALIVE

HIGH TIMES AND HARD TIMES IN EARLY LARCHWOOD The first white man settled in the Larchwood area in 1869. Early settlers in Lyon County were plagued by many problems: Drought in 1871, grasshoppers in 1873 and other years, diphtheria, and blizzards in 1881 and 1888.

Early scene on the Phillip Heyer farm, which Heyer purchased from Sykes Brothers.

The problem of obtaining supplies was particularly difficult as lumber and building materials had to be hauled from Le Mars, Sioux City or Sibley. In turn, grain was hauled to shipping points by oxen team and wagon. Reports said grain caravans were as long as two miles.

The Larchwood land tract was first held by Charles W. Holder of Bloomington, Ill., beginning in 1869.

The town of Larchwood recognizes 1872 as the its real launch point.

In 1873, Holder sold his land grant to Jesse Fell for $1.25 an acre. Fell planted the European larch trees which would become the town’s namesake. Fell sold the land in 1881 to the Close Brothers who were headquartered in Le Mars. The Close Brothers were Englishmen active in land speculation and development. They sold the land later that same year to Richard Sykes of Manchester, England, for about $1 per acre.

Sykes began the real development of the town. In the beginning, Sykes followed the model of the Close Brothers and retained ownership of much of the land – there was a company barn for implements and animals; and company houses on each of the 32 quarter sections.

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Threshing crew on the Phillip Heyer farm.

S.B. Willard built the first house in what is now the town. His home served as a stop for the stagecoach and freight wagons on their way between Sibley and Sioux Falls. The first post office was also located there.

By 1900, most farms in the Larchwood area were locally owned and so profits from farming stayed local.

The first 30 years saw Larchwood grow rapidly as the farm area was settled. When the railroad was built through the town in 1886, Larchwood had a real spurt in growth of businesses, and the business district was moved from the old part of town, (west and north of the City Park), to its present location.

The first local store was erected to serve the needs of the growing number of farmers by Rulland and Helgerson in 1874. The first postmaster was W.S. Willard and the first school was taught by P.J. Allbright in 1874. The first church service was in the school house in 1874 and was conducted by Rev. Palmer, a Congregational minister from Sheldon. The first wedding was in July of 1874, when William Friscius and Hanna Nelson were married.

Larchwood was a sports town from its earliest beginnings. The late 1870s and most of the 1880s saw the young English bring racing horses and polo ponies to this area. In the area of Emerald Park, the race track was

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

Irving and Wilbur Wightman using gang plows, each with a five-horse hitch.

The Martin Ruud home built near the Sioux River in Sioux Township.

Pictured are Martin Ruud, Grandpa Ruud, Mrs. Ruud and Grandma Nels Peterson holding Hilda Ruud.

Larchwood’s Breuer family: Mrs. Breuer, Tillie and Agnes in the car; William with a team of horses; Marie with horses; Lambert; and Everett in the buggy.

The Larchwood pool hall. James Perkinson Sr., center, and Mr. Crandell, a drayman, seated.

A local implement dealer showcased new drills and seeders in the streets of Larchwood in 1898.

established. Crowds of more than a thousand attended and betting on races was common. With the exodus of English sportsmen from Larchwood came the great game of baseball, which became an important part of the town's history.

The 4th of July celebration in Larchwood featured baseball games, foot races, carnival rides and fireworks. Each summer for many years, Chautauqua furnished educational and entertaining programs. It was a highlight of the summer when the big tent was erected and the wonderful singers and speakers appeared. Stage plays were also included in these programs.

Telephones made their appearance in 1897 and expanded rapidly in the early 1900s. The city of Larchwood built a direct current light plant in 1912-13 to serve the community.

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By 1900, the population had grown to about 500 people, creating a need for businesses such as livery stables, grain dealers, lumber yards, dray lines, stores, millinery, drugs, hardware, feed, hotels, broom factory, creamery, banks, saloons, restaurants, law office, butcher shops, nursery and seed company, photography shop, harness shop, land loan and insurance agency, implement dealers, newspaper, meat market, shoes and clothing, blacksmiths and woodworkers and jewelers.

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Here is a sampling of prices paid for farm products in December 1905:

“The Big House” was built in 1881 used by the Sykes Co. as a “home for the English.”

Wheat - 71 cents per bushel

Butter - 18 cents per pound

Oats - 23½ cents per bushel

Eggs - 20 cents per dozen

Corn - 29 cents per bushel

Hogs - $4.30 per hundredweight

Real estate gained in value through the years. In 1900, a 160-acre farm was advertised for sale at $32 per acre. By 1905, land was being advertised at $50 to $65 per acre.

In 1910, corn yield was approximately 60 bushels per acre and land prices had advanced to $100 to $125 per acre.

The horseless carriage began appearing on the scene in 1903-1904, and, by the end of the decade, it was becoming well established. This caused a great deal of concern for the drivers of teams and wagons and buggies, with numerous runaways, personal injuries and property damage. George Castle became Larchwood's first automobile dealer.

Many of the old settlers' houses were replaced in the years 1910 to 1915.

The new houses were of fine large design and furnished with the best materials available. Maple, oak, walnut and hard pine were used extensively in the interior decoration. Central heating and carbide lights or Delco light plants were installed, making them very modern. Indoor plumbing and pressure water systems appeared in some.

Joe Schoenfelder in his Larchwood harness shop in 1910.

Silent movies became a part of local entertainment in about 1916 in a building on the east side of Main Street, south of the present highway.

The west side of Larchwood’s Main Street.

The east side of Larchwood’s Main Street in 1900.

A livery stable in Larchwood.

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Later they moved to the City Hall.

World War I was followed by a land boom, which inflated land prices to the $400 to $600 per acre level, which continued until about 1921, when the bubble burst. Many farms were lost and bad investments created an era of hardships, coupled with drought in 1926 and poor markets, which brought business to a virtual standstill. These troubles were compounded by the stock market crash of 1929, which ushered in the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Hundreds of people were jobless.

Burdened by indebtedness, this was the most hopeless time since the area was settled. Farm prices were so low that corn was burned as fuel.

Eggs brought 6 cents a dozen, milk 5 cents a gallon, hamburger was 25 cents for three pounds, round steak 15 cents per pound, and choice cut steaks were 18 cents. Hogs dropped to 3 cents (or less) per pound.

Country school teachers' salaries dropped to $45 per month by 1933.

Due to the inability of farmers to pay bills, stores were overloaded by credit they extended and had difficulty paying wholesale bills. Foreclosures of farms were widespread, bringing on many legal tangles and much hard feelings.

Land prices fell to $50 per acre, but little was sold as no one had the money to invest. Banks closed, which added to the financial problems of the area.

Many people were forced to accept welfare, work on WPA projects and young men joined the Civilian Conservation Corps when no work could be found.

The winter of 1936 was known as one of the worst winters in history.

An abundance of snow and constant winds blocked roads for a major part of the winter. Snow removal equipment was not adequate.

Roads were opened so farmers could get out to town for groceries, fuel and other supplies, only to blow full of snow again, sometimes before they could make the trip to town and back. Many times the road equipment was in operation 24 hours a day so that doctors could attend the sick. Horses were used extensively as a method of transportation and even then there were many places where they could not go. Extreme cold prevailed through much of January and nearly all of February (-20 to -30 degrees and more were common daily temperatures).

War was on the horizon in Europe and the Far East, but so were better economic times.

Material for this story was excerpted and adapted from “Larchwood, Iowa Centennial: 18721972.” Published by the Larchwood Centennial Committee. Thanks also to the Rock Rapids Public Library for retaining a large number of histories from the communities in Lyon County.

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PASTURE AT SUNSET PHOTO BY MAGGIE VANDER LAAN, MAGGIE MAE, CREATIVE CO.

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SIOUX COUNTY FAMILY

Andy, John, Sarah holding Natalie, and Rahkel Hansen.

THE HANSEN FAMILY:

CATTLE, CORN, TRUCKS – AND SAVING LIVES

By Bob Fitch

John Hansen has two questions for his fellow farmers: “Is this a safe thing you’re going to do?

Are you going to be able to come home tonight?”

John is an EMT and licensed paramedic. He and his wife, Rahkel, became first responders more than 30 years ago. Both became emergency medical technicians (EMT), as did their son, Andy, and daughter, Jessica.

In addition, John has been teaching emergency medical services (EMS), CPR and ag rescue for many years.

“EMS is just one of the loves of our life. If the pager goes off, I’ll have to leave. Hopefully it won’t go off,” he said during the interview. “You always hope it won’t go off,” Andy added.

“I just like helping people, trying to save a life,” John said with a hint of emotion. “When people come up to you after you’ve saved their life, when you’ve done CPR on somebody and they come back to thank you, it means a lot.”

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Age Media Qtr Page Color 1-8-20.pdf 1 1/8/2020 11:21:34 AM

An aerial view of the Hansen farm near Granville.

In addition to teaching first responders and EMT students locally, he’s spoken at a number of national conferences in places such as Des Moines, Duluth, Minn., and Las Vegas. He’s probably trained 200-300 students in EMT classes; and attendance at his seminars at national conferences can be anywhere from 100-500 people.

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“The teaching part of it is meaningful when the student finally realizes how important our efforts are. It just tickles me and it’s really fulfilling when that light bulb goes on and they understand why we do things the way we do it. Being a teacher for 30-plus years, I think we’ve impacted a lot of people.”

People ask him why he’d need to speak about ag safety in places such as Las Vegas. “Well, they’ve got tractors and augers and bins – the purpose might be different, but when an emergency happens, the response is the same as what we’d do here. There’s so many lines of work where you can have a PTO engagement or a tractor rollover, a grain bin entrapment or a chemical accident.”

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John said, “There are a lot people who know more about it than I do, but they don’t like to speak in public. I have a way of presenting the information that people respond to.”

Every season on the farm brings its own set of risks. “In spring, I worry about grain bin entrapments because people are taking corn and beans out of bins that have been sitting there for four or five months. If the grain was put in at the wrong moisture, we have a tendency to have more problems at that point.

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John and Andy Hansen.

Exposure to anhydrous ammonia and chemicals also present risks at planting time. “We’re also pumping hog barn pits and the pits under cattle sheds, having that exposure to pit gases.”

In summer, tractor rollovers are the most common emergencies. “What I see is older farmers wanting to mow the road ditch tops. They’ve done it for years, but now their reaction

time is slower and they tend to get too close to the edge of the road and they’ll roll the tractor over.

If they’re not in a cab, they get pinned under the tractor or rolled over and crushed.”

CALL A HELICOPTER John said, “One of the things I tell my students is, if you get a call to a

farm, call a helicopter. I don’t want to make light of it, but if a farmer still has one arm and one leg, he’ll drive himself to the hospital. It is so true – if they’ve called an ambulance, you know it’s severe. I had an uncle who fell off a combine once and fractured his pelvis, but he still drove himself to the house. It’s one of those traits of farmers – they’re independent and they don’t want to bother anybody.”

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John and Rahkel’s daughter, Jessica, works as a registered nurse. Her husband, Alex Vinkavich, is in the Coast Guard and stationed in Alameda, Calif. The couple lives in the San Francisco Bay area with their daughter, Lexi.

John and Rahkel’s other son, Matthew, lives in the Twin Cities. During the summer, he’s a stone mason and in the winter does independent home repair. He’ll occasionally come home and help with trucking – the Hansen’s other major enterprise besides cattle and corn.

LOCAL AND LONG DISTANCE TRUCKING

Sarah and Andy Hansen with their daughter, Natalie.

Fall is the most dangerous time of the year on farms, with threats from moving parts such as augers, PTOs and combine heads for corn and soybeans. “There’s so much rushing.

Everyone’s in a hurry,” Andy said.

ATV accidents are year-round issue.

“I teach a lot about ATV rollovers because that’s become the second leading cause of death on American farms. It will probably become the first soon because tractors are becoming safer and ATVs are becoming more numerous,” John said. “Most farms now don’t have just one ATV, they have two or three. Kids learn how to drive ATVs pretty young, but they also learn no fear. They think they can go, go, go.

The leading injury in ATV accidents is traumatic brain injury because we don’t wear helmets and any time you hit your head, there’s likely a chance of brain injury.”

Rahkel hasn’t been part of the EMT squad for some time, but is busy as a volunteer court appointed spe24

cial advocate (CASA). Her role is to ensure that abused and neglected children have a voice in the court systems. She’s been working on cases for 15 years in both Sioux and Plymouth Counties. She now also coaches new CASA volunteers on their cases.

The couple farms with their son, Andy and his wife, Sarah, southwest of Granville. Sarah is a native of South Sioux City and teaches history at Holy Cross Middle School in Sioux City. “Most of the farm work is done by the time I get home except during harvest. Most of my farm work consists of taking food to the field,” she said.

In addition to growing corn and soybeans, Hansen’s feed cattle and custom-feed hogs. John is the fourth generation of the family on the farm, Andy is the fifth, and he said Andy and Sarah’s newborn daughter, Natalie, will be the sixth. “I have high hopes.”

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

They truck for hire, both local and long distance. Andy said, “We go to Montana, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and South Dakota – wherever the need is.” They haul about 60 percent cattle and 40 percent hogs. “It depends on the year.

Some years are a little stronger on cattle, others are stronger for hogs,” Andy said.

John’s dad trucked for a time in the 1960s and 1970s, but quit for health reasons. John incorporated his own trucking company in 1996 and began hauling hogs to Ottumwa, Iowa, on a regular basis. “We had enough corn and cattle to haul that we needed the trucks; so it made sense to expand. The problem turns into: You want nicer equipment, so you buy more, when you buy more, you have to haul more. It’s a vicious circle. We started with one truck and now we’re up to six, although we’re planning to sell a few.” Andy added, “The problem now is keeping drivers.”

In addition to cattle, crops, pigs and trucking, the Hansen family also finds time to do some custom planting and custom combining.

“We have no idea how we have the time to do all that. We get very busy around here,” John said. “We’ve expanded our both our rented and owned acres. We have really good

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landlords. We’re poised to expand more if we make connections with other landowners who want us to assist them custom work-wise or renting-wise.”

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Rahkel said labor was a problem in the sod business, especially when it came time to cut and deliver. “When you have orders, you need people who can show up at the last minute. When our boys went to college, we lost our labor force and then, with the drought in 2012, we thought that was a good time to get out.” Eight hours at a time using a 22-foot mower, she mowed the sod at least twice a week. “I don’t know where we found the time.”

Even though she’s not mowing sod any longer, Rahkel is still engaged in the farm fields. She runs the combine and/or grain cart during harvest. John said, “That’s how Andy and I can still go to Montana in the fall since we have somebody here still combining. Once the beans get done, I take off in the truck – the corn will get done when I’m home or she’s doing it.”

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Before he owned his own cattle, John was a sheep producer.

“When I graduated high school, Dad had cattle and I asked if I could buy some. He said ‘No, you buy sheep.’ He said cattle were too expensive and that I could buy five head of sheep for every head of cattle. Dad said, ‘Sheep are cheap, so if you lose one it’s not as bad.’ So I started in the sheep business in 1982.

We fed upwards of 3,000 head at a time here.”

Andy joined his dad on the farm after graduating from South Dakota State University. “It wasn’t always my plan to start trucking, too, but I got back here, started working, and it just happened. I like the lifestyle. At least when we were growing up, we seemed to have some free time. I'm not sure where that all went.” He, Sarah and Natalie live on an acreage about a half mile away.

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“Every town within 50 miles of here has our sodgrass in it.

There are streets in the new developments in Sioux Center where the original sod is 100 percent from us,” John said.

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

John never made it even half a mile away. “This is the only place I’ve ever lived. Rahkel and I lived in a trailer house for two years right on this property.” Rahkel said, “All he did was move his clothes over.”

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LYON COUNTY FAMILY

Jim Blankenspoor of Doon with his 1950 Ford F1 pickup and his 1955 Ford Crown Victoria.

VETERAN MECHANIC BRINGS NEW LIFE TO SUPER M’s, FLATHEAD FORDS AND MORE

by Bob Fitch

A long-time mechanic in Doon knows engines, he knows iron, and he knows what he likes.

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For 62 years, Jim Blankenspoor of Doon has been working on tractors and other equipment for farmers from Lyon and Sioux Counties and points far beyond.

“I started out in 1960 in Sioux Center working at Sioux Implement. They had Dodge trucks and cars and John Deere equipment. I was there six years. I had an uncle and a brother who had Blankenspoor Machine here in town and they needed more help. So I came down here and worked for them. But they decided to quit and do something else. So I went to Wilderman Ford in Rock Rapids. Well, then he decided to retire. Then I went to Driessen Implement, an International Dealer in Rock Valley. Then he decided to retire. So I said, ‘That’s enough of that.’

The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

Under the hood of the 1955 Ford Crown Victoria and the 1950 Ford F1 pickup, plus a shot of the pickup’s interior.

Jim went to his home in Doon and eyeballed where he wanted to build his own shop. “I took four pop bottles and set them out in my yard and measured the distance between them and then I went to the lumber yard and told them here’s the size shop I want.” He opened the doors of Blankenspoor Motors on June 13, 1974.

Over the years, Jim added on to the shop twice. And it needs more expansion now, but that’s up to his son, Randy, and his business partner, Joe Huyser, who own Blankenspoor Repair today. Randy and Joe have purchased land for a new shop, but aren’t moving too quickly because of the current high cost of construction.

According to Jim, “The first tractor I overhauled in this building (back in 1974) was a 1942 or ’44 M Farmall. We had that tractor back in here last summer and it’s still running today. It purrs like a tomcat in a creamery.”

Even at age 82, Jim’s energy seems boundless. Nevertheless, the years march forward and now macular degeneration is beginning to steal his sight. Today, he wears magnifying glasses similar to the ones jewelers wear – the powerful eyewear helps him continue to work in the shop on old International M tractors. “When you get old, your body tends to wear out,” he said.

So far, diminished vision hasn’t limited Jim’s ability to spot the trucks, tractors and vintage equipment which he plans to overhaul and jump-start to a new life. On a cold winter day, touring the inside of his garages and sheds is like discovering a

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The 1951 Ford tractor on the left has a flathead V8 engine; and the 1950 Ford tractor on the right has a 970 John Deere diesel motor.

previously hidden stash of tractors, trucks and motorcycles which have been perfectly preserved – and are now ready to roll onto the show floor.

Jim’s basic process is to assess the viability of a restoration; if chances seem favorable, then he’ll buy it and began dismantling it; he’ll do the initial sandblasting work; but then turn the body finish work off to a professional in that field (typically done

by Memory Lane Restorations in Sheldon.) Then its Jim’s turn to take a look at the mechanical problems and prospects for the engine.

A look at part of Jim’s collection of gas pumps. The Phillips 66 pump is functional.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

“My 8N Ford has got a flathead V-8 in it. It came out of a 1949 truck the Sioux Center Fire Department used. I went through 11 engines before I found a good one. They were all cracked or something else was wrong with them. I completely rebuilt the engine.” Bill advertised on a swap shop program on WNAX

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He has a Harley motorcycle body in which he put a Honda Goldwing engine. He calls his creation a “Honda-Davidson.” He overheard some dedicated Harley owners saying, “That guy ought to be shot, chopping up a good Harley like that.”

He also has a small but beautiful collection of vintage gas pumps. He even re-built a Phillip’s 66 pump to a high enough standard that they use it for pumping the gasoline at their shop.

Jim took the engine from this International 706 and put it into a Super M. Then he put an 8-cylinder combine engine into this tractor, relabeling it a 708.

Other treasures include a 1947 Ford cab-over in which he installed a 454 Chevy engine. It’s been upgraded with air conditioning, electric windows, tilt wheel, cruise control. They hook a trailer to the rear and use it regularly to haul tractors or autos to various shows.

His 1950 Ford F1 pickup with a flathead V8 motor is in pristine condition. The wood in the truck bed has about 20 coats of varnish on it. “I started in April and I didn’t get done until October,” he said.

A beautiful piece you might not find in many local car collections: A 1955 Ford Crown Victoria, with a two-tone paint job, one of which is “Tropical Rose.”

Over the years, his eclectic collection has included 10 Harley and 12 Goldwing motorcycles, three Cushman scooters, and two Wisner motorbikes (sort of an oversized trike for adults). “My wife, Wilma, and I traveled all over the country, including to Alaska on that trike. It’s got cruise, heat, AC, automatic transmission, and tilt wheel. You see, when you’re a kid, you start out with a trike; and when you get old, you end up with a trike again.”

The crew at Blankespoor Repair in Doon: Jim Blankespoor; owners Randy Blankenspoor and Joe Huyser; and Justin Jacobsma (Jim’s grandson).

radio, and he ended up pulling the tractor out of a grove even though the back wheels were rusted out and all the parts were full of moss. “Using a loader, we got it out of there and put it on the trailer and brought it home.”

While he was looking for wheels for the tractor, he happened to spy a John Deere with a diesel engine in it. “So I got my tape out, measured it, and thought, ‘I can get this engine into that tractor.’

So the engine for the 8N came from a 970 John Deere diesel.”

Mix and match is a common theme for Jim. His International 706 was rebranded as a 708 after it was upgraded with an eight-cylinder combine engine. He took the six-cylinder motor he pulled out of the 706 and used it to replace the original four-cylinder motor of an International Super M.

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The Farming Families Magazine | www.agemedia.pub | March 2022

Some might consider Jim’s 1949 International KB5 a masterpiece in automobile restoration. While procuring some parts at a salvage yard in South Sioux City, he mentioned to the owner he was looking for something like a wrecker or a flatbed to mount on the back of the KB5.

The owner, Chuck, replied, “I think I’ve got just the thing for you.” He had a tanker that perfectly matched the size and era of the International KB5 and, after some work, Jim had an antique fuel truck which looks like it just came off the line at the factory.

To restore the engines and bodies of tractors, trucks and motorcycles, he said, “A guy don’t have to be nuts, but it sure helps.”

As he was finishing restoration of this 1949 International KB5, Jim Blankenspoor happened upon this tanker which matched the era of the truck as well as the size of the truck bed.

Even though his son, Randy, and his business partner, Joe, are calling the shots today, Jim still rises at 5:50 every morning, lets the dog out, and turns on the lights in the shop. “I still work on some old M’s that people bring in. That gives me something to do.” He also spent the better part of last summer cleaning up the property where Randy and Joe hope to build a new, larger shop in the not-too-distant future.

work for me. I said, ‘Joe, I’d gladly have you work for me, but you can go to a bigger place, a dealership, and they’re going to give you way more money and way more benefits.’ But he said he didn’t want to go to a bigger place. He wanted to come here. He’s tops. Joe is sharp as a tack,” Jim said.

Both Randy and Joe began their careers working on tractors at Blankenspoor Motors while in high school. They started by cleaning up, then tearing things apart, and finally learning to put things back together again. They both also studied diesel mechanics at Northwest Iowa Community College.

Randy and Joe have since bought out Jim, changing the company name from Blankenspoor Motors to Blankenspoor Repair. Joe is an expert at troubleshooting and fixing electronic problems on International tractors. The company has a reputation of having a knack for repairing hydrostat tractors, with customers traveling from all parts of Iowa as well as from Minnesota and Missouri.

Joe graduated from college at the top of his class. “When he graduated from Sheldon, he asked if he could

Jim said Randy and Joe inherited a lot of “awful nice customers. It helps to have faithful customers.”

Before and after: A 1947 Ford cabover. Jim installed a 454 Chevy engine and added air conditioning, electric windows, tilt wheel, cruise control. The truck is regularly used to haul tractors and autos to various shows.

March 2022 | www.agemedia.pub | The Farming Families Magazine

33

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