I'm just getting around to reading forum posts. But I found that if I started with a question I needed answered for the story, which seems to be what you are doing, that got me some great results.

I needed to know why the neighbor hated the farmer and didn't care when he suspected the farmer might not be alive. Oh, what if the farmer slept with the neighbors wife? Yep. That would do it.

I do sometimes find interesting things with just general what if's about the story, but I'm most pleased with the results when I start with a specific question I need answered. I write all the possibilities, even stupid ones. The farmer was abducted by aliens and trained to hate the neighbor. You never know where even dumb ideas lead. Granted, that one doesn't lead to anything (yet), but still, you never know.