Mark Tipton grew up on a family farm near Chester, Neb., but he planned a career as a mechanic.

He obtained his degree in auto mechanic technology from Southeast Community College in Milford, Neb., worked in Grand Island, Neb., for a short time and then moved back to the Chester area to open his own business, Mark Tipton Automotive, in Hubbell, Neb., in 1981.

After he and Deb were married the following year, they moved to the Munden area, living on a farm that had been in her family for a century. Mark commuted to his shop in Hubbell and helped Deb's father during harvest and planting time.

The house they moved into needed a little work. It had been unoccupied for five years (if you don't count the raccoon family that had taken up residence).

"It probably should have been torn down, but we wanted to save history," Mark says.

The young couple replaced the roof, put on new siding and installed a heating system, moved in and started their family with continuous remodeling and improvement as a daily fact of life.

In 1990, there was a new twist. A neighbor approached the young couple about taking over some of his farmland and purchasing his equipment.

"It took a lot of soul searching, but we finally decided to give farming a try," Mark says.

The couple bought one well-used tractor, borrowed equipment from Deb's dad and rented land from the neighbor.

Through the years, Mark has steadily rented and purchased more land and now farms about 1,500 acres of corn, soybeans, grain sorghum, wheat and alfalfa.

As the family grew with the addition of Lauren, Colin and Christian, 4-H bucket calves became the first four cows in a cattle operation. Mark bought additional cows from his father-in-law and a family friend. The cow-calf operation has now grown to more than 50 pairs.

As the family grew, so did the need for more room. In 1998, they decided it was time to do an extensive remodeling project and put on a significant addition.

They dug a basement about 8 feet behind the house and moved the home onto the new basement.

And yes, Deb says, they continued living in the house while the massive project moved along.

Since they did much of the work themselves, the project took some time.

"We were finishing up wallpaper and painting when Chris was born," Deb says. "It's quite a memory; hanging wallpaper while eight months pregnant."

The home now has a circle drive, a wide front porch and two entry doors — one into the home itself and the other into a rebuilt sunroom that serves as the farm office. That separate door enables them to work with seed or fertilizer salesmen or other business contacts without having them come through the family living quarters.

The big new basement provides a generous family room with kitchen/bar area, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

New hardwood floors were installed in the existing kitchen area, which uncovered an original floorboard from a lumber delivery dated February 1880.

Another major challenge came in 2004 when a tornado hit the farm, wiping out everything except their home, including the big, hip-roofed barn and dozens of trees.

With the help of neighbors, they cleaned up the debris, built a modern pole building to replace the barn and added cattle pens, a working sorting tub, and new fences and landscaping.

In 2014, Mark and Deb incorporated the farm and named it Tipton Grain and Cattle with Mark as president.

Deb, while filling the role of a farm wife and 4-H mom, also put her master's degree in speech pathology to work, putting in 33 years at the Learning Cooperative of North Central Kansas before retiring in 2015.

The Tiptons have been involved with crop variety test plots, working with K-State Extension for 14 years, with both Colin and Christian participating in the plots as 4-H and FFA projects.

THE FAMILY: Mark and Deb Tipton (seated) with the family. Back row: Christian (left), Colin, Lauren and her husband, Max, holding baby Cooper.

Christian, a high school senior, is doing his final plots this year.

Last fall, he planted plots with 21 varieties that will be evaluated through the coming year.

Next fall, Christian plans to go to Kansas State University, following brother Colin in an engineering career.

Colin now works for DuPont Pioneer at its headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, as a mechanical design engineer designing, building and testing crop research equipment. He owns 160 acres of land in the Munden area and returns to make decisions and care for his crops. He is also a director on the family corporation and is in contact frequently to assist in production and help with marketing decisions.

Daughter Lauren married Max Mobley in 2009. She graduated from K-State in 2008 with a degree in life sciences and from Creighton University in 2012 with a bachelor of science in nursing.

They live in Hutchison. He is operation manager for Central Prairie Cooperative in Sterling, and she is a school nurse for Reno County Special Education Cooperative. They have a son, Cooper, who was born in December 2015. She also serves as a director on the family corporate board.

Click on the following links to read the other Master Farmer stories: 90 years later, Barker family, Felbush family, Kaiser family, Minnix family and Reinhardt/DeGeer family.