New John Deere video series takes off in Balsam Lake

Jahnnalee Randall grew up with an airstrip in her backyard. Measuring half a mile long and 70 feet wide, it’s been there since she was a girl, though neither she nor her father can remember exactly what year it was constructed, only that it was before 9/11.

“It’s common, everyone has one!” she joked. But there’s also sincerity in her remark; the airstrip has become such a day-to-day aspect of life on her family’s East Balsam farm that it has ceased to feel unusual for her.

Jahnnalee’s father, David Randall, was and is a small-time pilot. But, with jobs both on and off the farm that had been in his family’s hands since the Second World War, he hardly had room in the day to drive the 30 minutes to Osceola or 20 minutes to Amery, where the nearest municipal airfields are located.

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