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THE DIETERS FAMILY

Lyon County, April 2021

Front: Mark holding Brooke; Carrie. Front: Jake and Carlee.

Mark Dieters grew up on a crop and pig farm near Inwood, and he worked for local farmers during and after high school. His wife, Carrie, also grew up on a farm which had farrow-to-finish pigs plus finished Holstein steers. When her older siblings were off the Hull area farm, she became her dad’s right hand. “I was in seventh grade when it became my job to get up at 4:30 and help with the bottle calves,” she said. Today the couple has a cowcalf operation; custom farms; and their company Dieters Trucking hauls both livestock and manure. “For us, trucking is a means to an end to get us to the point we can be selfsufficient as farmers,” Mark said.

Farming is full of life lessons, but nothing in their respective upbringings prepared Carrie and Mark for the challenge of walking their son, Jake, through multiple rounds of cancer treatment and dialysis. During the interview for this story in March, Jake, 7, was recovering from having his second kidney removed, but he was smiling and telling stories about driving a skid steer and four-wheeler, plus helping dad with the calves. But the cancer was relentless and Jake passed away on Sept. 12, leaving his parents, sisters Carlee and Brooke, and the Inwood community to mourn a strong and smiling farm boy.

Mark said, “God’s plan is different than ours and we’ll never understand it until we’re on the side of the Lord and he can explain it to us.”