Oak Street Station

Marcus, Eva, Ella, Paytan, and Landan with their “Min-Pin” puppies.

When he made the decision to join the South Dakota Air National Guard, they sold their Inwood acreage. Knowing there would be extended periods when Mark was gone for his duty as a fireman in the Air Guard, they knew it wasn’t feasible for Heidi to take care of 1,000 head of cattle plus the hogs – and take care of their five children.

They rented a home in Worthing, S.D., and Mark took a job with Sioux Falls Animal Control. Heidi worked to help launch The Clean Bean coffee shop in Sioux Falls. The enlistment process stretched out for several months. Despite the unknowns surrounding when he would leave for basic training and not knowing if and when he might be deployed, they started building a hog finishing barn near Highway 11 west of the Newton Hills. “We dug that hole in the ground as fast as we could,” Heidi said. Mark was his own contractor and did the concrete work himself.

As the hog barn construction was wrapping up, suddenly their world started moving at light speed. “The first pigs came in two weeks before he left for boot camp,” Heidi said. “I looked at Mark and said ‘I don’t think I can do this.’ But he said ‘Honey, you’ll figure it out.’” When they lived on the acreage at Inwood, Heidi was not involved in feeding the livestock. Mark joked, “I’m not sure she even knew we had pigs. She was wondering why it smelled like pigs all the time.” Heidi replied: “I was too busy raising your babies.” “That’s true,” said Mark. The couple had five children in six years from 2007 to 2013.

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