Good Morning from a cloudy Knolltop.

It’s cool and feels even more like Fall around here this morning. I told the kids this morning I would have to bake something today to warm up the house! I garnered all smiles with that!

Last evening Sarah was doing her homework, she had to write two fables. One was to be 250 words and the other 500. She was complaining about how long they were to be, I told her it was a cinch, and that she’d have 500 words in no time. Of course, both of her fables were stories with cows in it, and what she had written was very, very good! I’m sure her English teacher wonders why she is so obsessed with cows!

We spoke with JW last night, he was doing well out there in Madison. They went to Expo yesterday and saw some familiar faces. A couple of Juniors from Michigan fared well in the Junior Holstein Show yesterday. Tera Koebel had the Junior Champion bred and owned and placed 5th with her three year old. Parker Hardy was second, behind Tera in the Junior Calf class and then he was first in his cow class, I’m thinking it was a Senior Two year old, Dolly. They made Michigan look good yesterday! Congratulations Tera and Parker!

I’m headed out to clean out the cattle trailer and then put two of the show heifers out to pasture with the other bred heifers and dry cows. Sarah has a volleyball game tonight at Jackson Christian…I get to skip chores and go!

Yesterday I had a list a mile long of things I was going to accomplish. Mow and trim the yard, get the laundry caught up, go grocery shopping, cook a meal that didn’t resemble anything we ate last week and get a nap.

But as time went by, my ambition left me and all I got done was trimming the yard, grocery shopping, cooking a meal and a nap, with a couple loads of laundry added in. Meanwhile, my lovely neighbor up the road who also spent the last week at the fair told me she had all her laundry done by 10:50 am! Yes, she cheated, she went to the laundromat!

I haven’t heard from JW directly, but I see from the comment left last evening that the Nunes family is keeping tabs on the boys. The report is that JW and Levi are proficient at pitch fork leaning. You know, pitch fork leaning is a lost art that really takes quite a while to master. I’m glad to see that all the evenings spent in the barn leaning on our fork has finally paid off and he’s getting to show off his sweet pitch fork skills. The pitch fork leaning lessons might have helped too….I’m really good a leaning and Bobby is a master at fork twirling….something he claims he mastered while on the road as a fitter. Oh, those family talents passed down from generation to generation are just so precious!

Good Monday Morning from a cloudy Knolltop!

After a day of recooperation, the kids are back in school and we are back to normal after a week of the county fair. It was a good week, the kids took on more responsibility and handled it well. They also did very well with the cows. On Thursday we had the open show and we had Junior Champion Honorable Mention with Pontoon and Sarah had Reserve Grand Champion with Sandy. I even got to lead a heifer in the show. We’ll have pictures in a couple of weeks when they come from the photographer.

We brought the cows and all the tack home on Saturday night and then the boys and I went out and got the heifers and their trophies yesterday morning. Because it was too late for church, we went to breakfast and celebrated a good week.

JW is in Madison, Wisconsin this week working the Burton-Fellers Planet Holstein Sale and having a great time. He called last night to give me an update and he said their first night on the job was tough and they were glad for a shower and a bed yesterday morning. They slept all day and then went back out to work. He said Levi was wondering what in heaven’s name JW had gotten him into…but JW reassured him it would get easier once all the cattle arrived and were clipped.

Today is catch up day around here.

Good Morning from a very tired knolltop!

It’s open show day today, so I have no idea why I’m taking time to write this other than the fact that I’m obviously out of my mind with fatigue and I don’t know what day it really is.

A brief update: On Tuesday at the 4-H show Jake won his showmanship class and was second with Lexi and Lucy. Sarah didn’t win showmanship…. 🙁 but had junior champion with Brandy and Reserve Grand Champion with her two year old, Sandy. Luke didn’t win showmanship either but had Grand Champion with the three year old Carolyn. And JW, who wasn’t supposed to show at all and spent all morning blowing up tops with Bobby had to don his whites for one class to win it and then went on to win reserve junior champion with Pontoon. (I messed up the paperwork so he had to show one heifer)

That’s it. Who knows what today will bring, but if I don’t get in the shower and head to the fair I know it won’t be a happy day for me!

pictures later!

Good Morning from a cool Knolltop where everyone is busy with the County Fair!

We took the cows in yesterday, 8 head, and when we got them all settled in, Luke sat down and said, “Mom, this is too many cows!” Of course the bulk of the work is on him because he is in charge of the crew. JW is only providing transportation this week because he will be gone next week to Madison working the Agriprize/Planet Holstein/Global Impact sale(s).

Nana and Joann arrived yesterday afternoon just in time to hear JW sing in the talent contest. I guess he did well…but didn’t place in the top three. It was a good experience for him.

I’m on my way out to the fair after I shower, make sandwiches and gather up everything everybody forgot.

I’m not sure how faithful I’ll be here on the blog….but I’ll try to keep you updated. Show day is tomorrow!

Good Morning from another cool morning on the Knolltop.

Well, thank you for the prayer, yesterday went as well as expected. My schedule was only messed up a few times, but everything got done and I made it to my meeting on time. In fact, I had a few minutes to spare and had time to catch my breath and check my outfit in the mirror. It was a good thing I did too. As soon as I walked into the meeting, I made a beeline for the bathroom…it had been a long drive. Looking in the mirror, I fluffed my hair, check to make sure there was no food or manure on my face and turned around to make sure my outfit was complete all the way around. As soon as I turned I spotted a tag hanging from under my arm! I thanked God for letting me see it and ripped it off! Can you imagine walking out to speak with a tag under my arm? What a hoot!

The best part of the evening was the friendly crowd. The worst part of the evening was that almost everyone in the crowd knew me from my childhood. As the emcee introduced me he had no notes, just my name. I took the mic and said, “You don’t know me at all so you have nothing to say, but there are some people in this crowd who know me too well and even have nick names for me….thank heaven’s they don’t have this mic in their hand!”

I have to say it was probably the most difficult presentation I’ve made because I was a known quantity. You remember the saying that you have to get at least 50 miles away from home before you know anything? I was a mile an a half away from home last night….needless to say, I still don’t feel like I know anything!

Moving on….Luke’s team lost their game last night….bummer. But now we have to concentrate on the county fair! Tomorrow we take in our non livestock projects in and Sunday we take the cows in….it’s going to be an exhausting week!

Good Morning from a very sunny Knolltop!

It’s going to be a very busy day. I’ve got to load the truck with our straw and tack for the fair then I have to sound intelligent on Rural Route Radio for an hour. Then I have to head out to the fairgrounds with our tack and on the way drop off a crockpot of cheesy ham and potatoes to the boys at the school for their FFA lunch today.

After making a pack for the cows at the fairgrounds I’ve got to stop and get a couple of things at the store and head back home to try to write something, get ready for a speaking engagement that I have for tonight, get my clothes around for tonight and make dinner. All the kids will be home today since SArah doesn’t have practice because they won last night and Luke has a game tonight. After supper we head to the barn and half way through chores Bobby will head to the football field, JW and I will finish up chores and I will run(literally) into the house get ready to speak and head to Fowlerville, an hour and 15 minutes away for the annual Farm Bureau meeting. They said I won’t be on until 8 pm….thank heavens! Other wise they’d have to take me in my barn clothes!

Then I’ll come back home….I think I’m too old for this, I’m tired already! So….you know what this means……I’m in desperate need of prayer! Pray that my day is ordered, that I speak what those folks need to hear and that I have enough energy to drive home. And thank you in advance.

By the way, I have this BFF Angie who is a farmers wife, a stay at home mom who also homeschools and she’s also an EMT/firefighter. She and her family came down to visit last weekend and brought me some peaches…..she’s a wonder woman! Just though I’d mention that.

JW rolled in last evening with a very heavy bag….full of awards! He was very tired, but had enough energy to spread out all the awards on the table and tell us all about the contest.

He said he had the highest placing score, but his reasons weren’t as good….that’s why he was third. So, let me list his accomplishments and then I’ll get off my “proud mom” kick.

JW was third high individual over all and his team placed first in reasons, first in Holsteins, first in Jerseys, first in Brown Swiss and first in Ayrshires. They only breed they didn’t win was Guernseys. He came home with two medals, three ribbons, a plaque for the Jersey win, a plaque for the Brown Swiss win, a milk bottle for the Holstein win and a really pretty plate with an Ayrshire on it for the Ayrshire win.

Both the FFA and the 4-H team won the contest but the collegiate teams didn’t fare so well. So as Joe Domecq, the judging coach at MSU, said the future is bright for Michigan Dairy Judging teams!

Renee McCauley took them out to PA and I guess she was as excited as the kids were….which she should be! When they got back to MSU Joe was there to greet them and as only a judging team coach can do he looked at JW and said something like, “I guess you did alright”…..JW looked at him and thought he would’ve gotten a little happier greeting than that for coming home with all this hardware….but Joe said, “Dub, I saw your reasons score, we’ve got some work to do!” You gotta love judging team coaches!

For those of you who get the Farmshine…JW’s team picture should be in there sometime soon, so please look for it and let me know if you see it!

I want to thank everyone who prayed for JW, it paid off for him! By the way, I also received some good news from Sara, who I asked for prayer for over their housing situation. She said it looks like they are making progress with a difficult situation and things are looking up! God is so good!!!!

Today is the rummage sale…I can’t wait!

Well, I had a post all typed out, but I lost it all!

Although I haven’t heard from the horses mouth yet, JW, I did hear from another mom of two kids that are on the same judging trip that the Michigan kids did really well. Ella Mann, mother of Sarah and Matt Mann called and said that Sarah called her all excited because Sarah had won the whole contest! Isn’t that amazing?????!!!!! And then she said that JW was third in the overall contest!!!! Now that is awesome! I’m so proud! That is a huge accomplishment and a great payoff for all the hard work they’ve done this fall.

It seems like this fall they have worked a lot harder on their reasons and have looked at a lot more cattle. I know JW said a couple of times he was tired of looking at cows and giving reasons! I’m just glad they were rewarded for their work.

I just tried to call but all I got was JW’s voice mail, so when I hear more specifics, I’ll post it here!

In the meantime, I finally got all my peaches put up and I”m going to head down to the garden and pick some tomatoes….ugh!