It’s a beautiful sunny morning here on the Knolltop. A cool 27 out this morning, I think all my flowers will finally be dead. I tried to keep the ones by the barn under protection, but I don’t think they made it. I’ll check on my way out to the barn…which is right now.

More later!

Finally, I’m on this computer. What a morning! It’s cool today with sun and clouds. This morning I remembered that the boys asked me last night to make something for their FFA lunch. Why not?

So I started some sweetrolls as soon as I got in from milking. Then we went through our normal breakfast but I had to take the two younger kids in to school because JW and Luke went in early to pitch. Actually, JW was pitching and Luke was catching. It’s basketball season you know….so it’s time to wake up early and practice pitching????? It makes sense to them…so I guess it’s all good.

After breakfast clean up we headed back out to the barn to let the cows out, bed, clean the mangers, put more feed out and let them back in. While I was sweeping I remembered I needed to roll out the dough and make it into sweetrolls so they could have time to rise. I ran in, made up the sweetrolls, put them in a pan and covered them with a damp towel.

Back out at the barn, the gutter cleaner decided to act up. This thing hasn’t given us a bit of trouble for months….this morning, when I have sweetrolls to make by 11:15, it decides to tangle up.

While elbow deep in fresh cow manure my memory sparked and I said, “I have to run in and put the sweetrolls in the oven, I’ll be right back.” Leaving Bobby holding the links, I made a mad dash to the house, slipped the beautifully risen rolls in the oven, set the timer and ran back out. We finally got the gutters cleaned and when I made the last stroke with the broom, I yelled across the barn to Bobby, “I’ve gotta go take the rolls out or they’ll burn and my kids will never forgive me!” Not waiting for a reply, I ran back into the house and the rolls needed a few more minutes, thank heavens. That gave me time to, change clothes, head to the bathroom, run the hair dryer through my hair to take some of the sawdust out, spray on some perfume and even slap on a little Marykay.

I delivered hot and I mean HOT sweetrolls to waiting FFA members and came home to start more laundry, clean up more of the house and finally get this blog post on! Now I’ve got to figure out what to have for dinner and clean up the rest of the house….but not before I catch a cat nap!

It’s a very cool 30 out this morning! Even the coons stayed in their warm nests this morning during chores. Usually they are bold enough to come right out and practically say good morning and put in their order for breakfast.

Yesterday the rain came and went. It stayed long enough for harvest to shut down. So the fields will be quiet today and the dealerships and cafes will be filled with farmers.

That rain was just in time, I have a Michigan Holstein meeting today and the odds are, most of the board will show up since they can’t get in the fields.

Better get to sipping my coffee before I head back out to the barn and then to the meeting.

It’s cloudy and dare I say…we had snow falling this morning during chores! I’m not that excited about snow yet. I’ve still got to mow the yard one last time and really, I don’t want snow yet.

This is a very special day at Four Dot Dairy in Joliet, Montana. The matriarch of that ranch is turning the big 50 today! Yes, my wonderful sister, Virginia Stene is now a half century old! She won’t mind me telling her age…in fact, she should be proud of it. She is a beautiful woman who is so accomplished. She has done more in 50 years than most do in a life time. She not only is a stay at home mom of five boys but she has homeschooled her boys and three of them have graduated. She is also a horse breeder and breaks and trains her own horses, she now has a dairy where she retails their milk and besides that she has a homeschool choir, plays the piano at church and does a whole host of other things. I should do a story on her, I could sell that story to any farm publication, the homeschooling pubs, a few horse magazines and any Christian outlet could use it as well. Just think how much money I could make off my sister!!!!!! 🙂

Honestly, she is an amazing person and I’m so lucky to have her as my sister!

And I almost forgot! MSU Beat U of M! That’s the best birthday present she could ever want!

The annual Legends of the Fall Sale, managed by the one and only (thank heavens) Burton-Fellers Used Cattle Sales team garnered another great sale at Gloryland Holsteins in Grottoes, Virginia.

When the last cow was struck off the sale averaged $14,964 on 68 lots. The high selling consignment was lot 1 sold to David Tait and Lawson Bennett for $150,000. Those are the sketchy details as of right now. Maybe I’ll have more later!

It’s a cool, cloudy morning here on the Knolltop. We might get some rain…we might not.

Yesterday afternoon we had three of the four kids at the supper table which is a rare occurrence these days. As we sat and enjoyed BBQ meatballs, baked potatoes, steamed vegetables and bread, the boys talked about the Haunted Barn that the FFA is putting together for the elementary kids to walk through this evening prior to the last football game of the year. Then they asked, “What are you making for the bake sale mom?” SURPRISE!

I quickly replied while searching the empty corridors of my memory of this bake sale, “What bake sale? You didn’t tell me about any bake sale…did you? Please tell me you didn’t tell me so I can console myself that I’m not really losing my mind yet!”

JW and Luke looked at each other and kind of grinned and then flashed their sweet smiles at me and said, “Well, maybe we forgot to tell you that the FFA is going to have a bake sale during the football game….but you will bake some stuff…right?” And then one of them said, “I don’t care what you make, just as long as you out do Mrs. _____”

So, now you know what I’m doing today…as soon as I get my column written that should’ve been done yesterday!

Good Morning from the Knolltop. It’s clear, cool with a little breeze blowing in. It’s going to be another pretty fall day here in southern Michigan.

I went to SArah’s game last night with my BFF Sue and they won! Both the 7th and the 8th grade teams beat Camden and they were pretty close games. They seem to be really improving, I’m anxious for AAU Volleyball to start again next spring so Sarah can improve even more and play more games. But until then we have one more football game, for the varsity and then we have a couple of weeks off until basketball practice begins and Sarah will be the only one coming home after school. Luke will have practice, Jake will be the manager for Luke’s team, so he will stay also and then JW will have practice after Luke’s team gets done. I never thought I’d have to go back to cooking for small groups even though I have a house full!

As Sue and I were visiting last night I told her I was praying that God would lead us to another van after the deer herd of Southern Michigan attacked my best mode of transportation. She suggested I start praying for the van like I did the treadmill. I said, “Duh!” That’s exactly how I should be praying, for a free van! Only I need it sooner than a year and a half….well…at least I think I need it sooner than that. Maybe I don’t.

At any rate, I’m going to start praying for a free van and see how God answers. Feel free to pray along with me….when you stop laughing at my silly request. But when God answers….watch out!

Good Morning from a cool Knolltop! I thought I would share some more pictures, now that I’m getting into this new picture program.
Last week when Sarah and I ventured north to the Great Lakes International Draft Horse Show, plowing was the first thing we saw, and right before this farmer started plowing he was on his cell phone. I tried to capture it, but was too late.

As we walked through the barns we were most impressed with the displays, I mean the horses were nice too, but the displays were so great. We both think we need those curtain things that go around a stall at our cow shows so we could put all of our junk in there and no one would see our mess! They are becoming more and more popular at the dairy shows, but we don’t have one…..YET! This exhibitor was all the way from Texas and they had a great display.

Then we came along these two wall hangings. Oh my goodness! I was so excited to see what someone had done with all of their ribbons! I’ve seen it done before and I’ve always thought it would be a great idea. In fact, if someone who enjoyed quilting ever wanted to go into a business….they could so this kind of custom quilting with a farm’s show ribbons!

I’m on my way to run some errands and then back home for laundry, dinner and Sarah has a volleyball game!

It’s another cool, clear morning here on the Knolltop. The kids have a two hour delay, so it’s pretty calm around here right now.

Yesterday we had parent-teacher conferences and while I won’t tell you all the stuff the teachers said about my kids I will tell you how times have changed.

This year we’ve hired several new teachers and I think my kids have every one of them. So we got to meet all the new educators and see what they were like. Of course, they didn’t know us, so when we walked in I would hold out my hand and say, “I’m Melissa Hart, JW’s mom” and then Bobby would say, “I’m Bobby Hart, JW’s dad” and then one of us would say, “And yes, we’re married to each other…..and we’re also the parents of Luke, Sarah and Jake.”

I never thought I would have to say that, but in this day and age, I feel compelled to explain that I’m married to one man and we have four children….together! How strange is that?

Last night Sarah’s volleyball team beat Hillsdale Academy in a thriller. It was a great game…as great as 7th grade volleyball can get.