Daylight savings time took me by surprise! While I was getting the coffee ready for the morning, Saturday night my daughter was having a cup of tea and said, “Aren’t we supposed to set our clocks back this weekend?”
What???? NO!!!! When I realized it was 9:30 pm and in 2 minutes I was instantly going to bed at 10:32 pm…I was devasted! I had forgotten about the spring ahead thing and wasn’t able to get in bed at 8:30 pm so I was going to bed by 9:30 pm.

So this morning when we came in from the barn it looked exactly like it did when we went out to the barn….I hate that. But last night when I was coming in from the barn, it looked exactly like it did when I was going out to the barn….I like that.

Tonight JW’s team begins their district play and we’ll see if they end it tonight too. He left this morning in his new duds. He and Luke went to Grandma’s over the weekend and Grandma lives 10 minutes from an outlet mall. (When I was growing up, that outlet mall was nothing but a field!) And of course Grandma still enjoys shopping today as much as she did when I was younger….so when the boys came home with new clothes, I was actually just as excited for them as I would’ve been had I gotten the new duds! THANKS GRANDMA!

Time for chores……have you gone to see what’s on the Agenda Today?

Good Afternoon from a warm….60ish day here on the Knolltop!

JW and Luke had their last regular season games last night…Luke’s team won, JW’s team lost. The varsity will head into district play next week, we’ll see how they do. Me, I’m looking forward to baseball season!

We let the cows out in the pasture this morning…my did they like that! It’s always fun to watch the cows enjoy those first warm days of…dare I say spring? I know, I know, we’ve probably got snow ahead of us…but I can hope!

We get a night or should I say weekend off. No games, no events, no nothing….just staying home….all of us! I will be busy tomorrow gathering sale results from cattle sales around the country, that should be interesting!

Good Morning from a cloudy but promising to be a warm, sunny day on the Knolltop!

Yesterday we made the trip to Fowlerville for some corn from my parents. Yes, we have a corn burning stove, thanks to my family who seem to be the mecca of corn burning stoves. My parents had one when corn was way cheaper than it is today. Although my stove has been broken, my brother, the saint, came down on Sunday, along with my dad and fixed my corn stove. It’s so much nicer to have that running, it somehow makes the house seem so much warmer! Thanks REX!

Tonight the boys have their last regular season game and then the varsity will play district games next week. Then we’re on to baseball!!!!!

Things continue to be busy on the Dairy Agenda Today front. Before I had children I was the editor of a weekly farm newspaper called the Farmers’ Advance. That’s also one of the papers that my column appears in.

Anyway, when I worked for that weekly paper it was fun and time consuming but I had time to go places, do interviews, write stories and run the roads to every ag event around. I had a friend who worked for a daily newspaper and I always wondered what it would be like to work for a daily. I’m not getting a taste of that with Dairy Agenda Today! Oh my heavens! It’s work, but it’s fun work. I’ve not written so much in such a short amount of time in my life. Of course, I work well under pressure (yes, that’s a positive way of saying I’m a procrastinator…but I’m trying to change that!) so I guess I was made for a daily. It’s a challenge, but it’s a really fun challenge!

Today I will talk to Sue Brown who is the manager at Lylehaven in VT. Those of you who know that name know how fun it will be to visit with her. The Pintale Point Sale is this weekend in MD, so I will call someone there and get to hear about the presale stuff. This is so much fun!!!!!

Okay enough about the Agenda. Dallas told me I had to talk about in every other sentence on this blog…so I’ve done my duty! And all you bloggers out there…please put my other blog on your blog rolls….please? Pretty Please? With a cream puff filled with real whipped cream like the ones at World Dairy Expo on top?

Enough begging….but THANKS!!!!

It’s another cool morning here on the Knolltop. But a clear one! I love this sunshine!

I should be in the barn right now, we’re going to the Lone Oak Ranch this morning to pick up some fuel…corn for the corn stove. Mom–get the donuts and put the coffee on, Bobby and I are coming!

Last night milking was interesting with the out of work neighbor stopping by. He may have been laid off but it’s a good thing for us, he can fix anything! Right now he has our manure spreader….he asked me what he was supposed to do with it, I told him to wave his magic wand and fix it! He also has our truck and next he will work on our feed cart! I love that guy!

Well, like I said, it’s time to go…..later!

Good Morning from a sunny, cold and somewhat back to normal Knolltop.

While I realize normal is only a setting on a dryer, we are about as normal as we can be around here. Bobby came home, solved all the problems that had cropped up in his absence and we are all quite happy!

The launch of Dairy Agenda Today was fun yesterday. With several glitches still to iron out, it was nice to hear positive comments from literally around the world! If you haven’t gone there…GO! (And comment on my blog while you’re there) By the way….THANK YOU! to all who went yesterday and comment…that was great!

Okay, now it’s time to clean the gutters and bed the cows!
Later!

Good Morning from a very active Knolltop. Bobby’s sitting in Detroit waiting for me to come get him….the chores didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped, I’ve got one kind of sick kid on the couch, two kids who are late to school and a new calf!

Obviously I can’t write much…but I do want you to head over to Dairy Agenda Today and check it out…it’s live today and I want you to go to my blog….and make comments….so the guys who put so much work into it can see that people are actually going there and reading stuff! Plus I told them it would be the blog that would bring in the traffic! So go! Be traffic!! But don’t tell them I sent you!

Gotta head to Detroit!

It’s a dreary day here on the Knolltop! The temp is dropping..when I arose this morning it was 47, now it’s down to 35.

Bobby finally made it to Montana after spending a little time in Cincinnati, no, he wasn’t a happy camper when he called. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that he flies stand by..well that’s great if you’re me, a youngest and you don’t have a care in the world about where you’re going or what time you’ll get there and you’re more interested to see how many people you can meet and get to know. But when you’re an oldest and you like to be in control of your destination….it’s not so good.

He called this morning while standing in my sister’s barn watching my brother-in-law milk his cows. I’m sure that was a trip, watching the man who crafts the most beautiful handmade cabinets, milking cows. I never would’ve imagined!

Meanwhile back at the ranch….or farmstead….the power went off in the middle of the night and I didn’t get up until 5:20 am! I kept waking up during the night wondering why I was awake, worrying about why I, the one who sleeps through anything, was so stressed that I kept waking up. It turns out my body knew it was time to get up, but my clock said sleep!

At this point, the cows are milked, fed, bedded and I’m working, no slaving away in my office, existing on coffee and cigarettes, working on Dairy Agenda Today….oh I’m so excited about this launch on Monday! No, I don’t smoke that was a joke!

Life is flying by here on the Knolltop. Speaking of flying, Bobby is flying out to Montana this morning to put on a fitting and showing presentation to a group of 4-Her’s in Montana and Alberta, Canada. He will stay with my sister and get to see her dairy set up…boy am I jealous! Please pray for his safety.

In the meantime, we have to keep the farm going here….and with the crew I have, we should have no problems! They are great! (Prayer needed!)

Yesterday we went to Indiana to look at a heifer for friend and then we ate at the Shipshewana Livestock auction restaurant. That was a fun road trip, but boy were we tired when we got home!

So, now I’m off to Detroit to deliver the boss and then back to run errands and get some groceries…the kids had a short pick of cereal this morning and they let me know too!

Just a few short days until the launch of Dairy Agenda Today!

Okay, if there are any of you out there who homeschool…you’ve got to go to the Pioneer Woman and see her homeschooling section. It is an absolute RIOT! I just got done laughing my head off at a funeral for a some kind of hawk. The pictures are her writing are so funny!

As a former homeschooler I can so appreciate what she has to say.

And if you’re absolutely against homeschooling….get a life!

Good sunny morning from the Knolltop!

It’s a beautiful but cold, like 13 degrees cold, here in Southern Michigan.

Okay, I’ve started double blogging now. As you know the launch of Dairy Agenda Today will be on Monday the 2nd….and I’ve got a ladies blog on that website. So to have an archive of things on there, I’ve started blogging there too. It’s very strange to blog in two places.

On this blog I feel like we’re all family and I can just lay it all out there for you, but on that blog it’s just not the same. I actually have to think about what I’m going to write! It’s a great challenge for me, but so much fun as I get to write about women in dairying.

So, if any of you women or men have anything you think I should write about on that blog…..please let the flood gates open!

And you probably missed it but Amanda Nolz blogs for several things, one of which is World Dairy Diary…boy those two words are not easy to spell together….anyway, she wrote about this blog…she is such a sweet girl! I wish she lived closer so I could rub up against so much inspiration!

Well, better get over to the barn…I have to get chores done early so I can be on Rural Route Radio this morning…I wonder what Trent has on the agenda today?