Winter 2023/2024 Issue - Magazine - Page 15
Paula attended Sentral Community School in Fenton and was involved in many activities, especially track. She loved
running track and hurdles, even going to state every year in high school. After graduating from college with a degree
in interior design, Paula worked at Iowa Select Farms in the finishing and marketing specialist departments for 27
years. She has been involved in many organizations, such as the Pheasants Forever committee (15 years), a Lutheran
church Sunday school teacher (16 years), and 4-H. Since she was little, she has been involved in county fairs and
carried on with tradition by getting her daughters engaged in agriculture. She also volunteers for FFA and many other
activities for her daughters. Especially watching her daughters shoot trap all spring season. Besides working for Iowa
Select Farms and managing the family farm, Paula has had her own business, Paula’s Holiday Pots the past 12 years.
She cuts fresh evergreens and makes gorgeous Christmas holiday pots, delivering them during the holiday season.
She enjoys gardening, landscaping, and decorating. Hence her passion for her business. Paula is a proud mother of
three daughters, Aurora (20), an SDSU student studying pre-vet, Ashton (17), and Addison (12).
Paula’s daughters have changed her life in many positive ways, working hard together to take care of the farm and
each other. Raising her daughters alone after her 20 year marriage ended has never been tough. They are motivated
smart, beautiful girls and have never been reminded to work hard, be respectful, or hold the door for the elderly. The
three girls are splitting images of their mama always here to help anyone out. Her daughters can tell you if they are
out a little too late or driving too fast, they knew the pitchfork to scoop manure was waiting for them, and they would
laugh about it and learn from it together while scooping. Paula’s life changed suddenly during a late summer day last
year. She had decided to work on an auger grain belt. Paula wanted to get corn out of the grain bin, however, the belt
was not moving. She took a pipe wrench to crank the pulley. In the process, her hand slipped into the belt and took
her fingers with it. As she looked at her mangled fingers, she knew there would be no doing chores for a while. Paula
received stitches on her fingers and emergency reconstructive surgery on her hand, nerves, and fingers. In the
process, Paula lost some of her pointer fingers. This accident has changed the way she works with her hands and daily
life skills. Although this was a very painful experience, many friends and family came together for support and to help
with the day-to-day chores.
Another change she went through was deciding to move her mother (Jeanette) into the care center at a young age.
Paula’s father Ted was unable to help on the farm as much anymore. As a single mom, it was just another thing to add
to her plate, but it never slowed her down! Ted had always been Paula’s best friend on the farm, doing their daily
chores together and teaching her everything she knew. He is a strong, caring grandfather and farmer; to her
daughters, he is their whole world, and a man they look up to.
Paula’s biggest lesson is starting to do things for herself more in her life, like taking a break throughout the hard day
of work just to stop and get a glass of water. Paula has always been there for others helping them out with hog sites,
farm work, or anything for her friends, daughters, parents, and neighbors but has started to take time for herself to
do more extra enjoyable things in her life.
As a mother, bookkeeper, housekeeper, caretaker for her parents, cattle/hog producer, and farmer, some days are
incredibly challenging. But Paula has learned to stop, laugh, and deal with the situation. If reading this and you work
on a farm, something is always dead, broken, or sick, but with blood, sweat, and tears, it pays off. Nothing lasts
forever, whether a piece of machinery or a loved one. So, enjoy every day with those you love, for tomorrow is not
promised… so never forget to thank a farmer.
Being honest, tough, kind, caring, be a leader, have fun, going to church, praying, do things that make you happy,
making a daily to-do list, saying please and thank you, keeping things tidy, staying organized, and pursuing an
education, are all things that helped her during hard times by plowing through them. Time will heal pain and face-toface interaction goes a lot further than a simple text. Since she was little till now, she has always walked fast, talked
fast, worked fast, and ran fast because life goes by too fast she doesn’t want to miss a thing in her life, and tomorrow
is not promised.
Her saying is:
