Good Morning from the Knolltop. It’s overcast and a balmy 23 degrees out. The temp is supposed to rise into the 30s today and rain and 40 by Monday. So we are out of the cold spell right now….how are you out there in Montana, Pryorvu?

It’s a basketball Saturday. Sarah and Jake both have games today and Luke gets to ref two of the little kids games today and then Luke has basketball practice tonight…during milking time…he gets out of chores….again. And I bet at some point we will be watching basketball tonight as we munch on our popcorn.

Last night, Jake was laying on my bed watching basketball while I was sitting in a nearby chair reading a book. During the game, they had a mic on one of the players so we could hear what they were saying on the bench and during the huddles. Now this was an NBA player. I looked and listened to what he was saying because it was interesting and then Jake said, as serious as he could be, “See mom, now you know what we talk about in the huddle and on the bench.” I raised my book up to my face and began laughing my head off….honestly, does he honestly think his conversations with other little 8,9 and 10 year old boys could be the same as what 25 year old NBA stars talk about? Well, now that I think about it…maybe they are similar.

Gotta get…chores are waiting!

We are currently under 6 inches of snow with more coming down as I write. And then it’s supposed to blow. And then on Monday we are supposed to get rain. What a winter!

The kids have the day off, of course. I don’t know of another school district that is holding school in southern Michigan. A three day weekend! YEEHAW!

Last evening we drove south to Waldron for JW’s basketball game and the JV’s won, but the varsity lost…in a close one. Waldron has a very good team this year…. it would’ve been nice to knock them off the top…but the baskets just didn’t fall.

Yesterday I had a package arrive….my official Red Shirts! Now I can wear my official American’s in Agriculture Red Shirt Friday shirt that Trent Loos is always yackin’ about on his radio show. Trent was nice enough to donate one for our auction at next week’s Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Frankenmuth….for heaven’s sake, it’s the least he could do when I’ve relented to be on his Rural Route Radio program so many times over the past year. I mean really….you have to be tough or dumb to be on his show the way he and Kyle like to verbally abuse me….so I guess I’ll call myself tough. Well, come to think of it…..it’s not all that bad….I guess…. 🙂

Oh, and if you too want to support our troops all over the world by wearing the official Red Shirt, you can order one on Trent’s website listed over on the left of this blog….Faces of Agriculture.

Okay, okay, that’s enough promotion for him….I’ve got lots to do today….good thing the boys have the day off so they can go to the barn and do my chores!

Well, I have to say, someone who reads this blog is a major prayer warrior! Yesterday morning the gutter cleaner worked like a champ. Yes, it needs some repairing, but besides that, it worked really well…it can only be attributed to God answering someone’s prayer! More prayer is needed for the Knolltop…please don’t stop now…God’s on a roll…keep praying for the whole operation…if you don’t mind!

Unfortunately, other obstacles got in our way of making it to our district meeting…but that is the way it is on a dairy farm. You learn that early on…you may or may not get to where you’re going. If you get there, you will probably be late.

Of course staying home proved to be very productive…I got all the laundry done…after I de-iced the water lines going into my washer. The laundry room is on a southwest wall and when we get a good stiff wind, no matter what, the lines freeze. So I was up on my washing machine with my handy blow dryer getting them thawed and once that was done, I kept them thawed by doing lots and lots of laundry. So, today, I don’t have any to do!

The milk inspector is due back today to check on a few items…just three and I took care of one of them this morning…putting in a new lightbulb over the bulk tank. So, two more to go and they are easy fixes, just have to run to the hardware and get the supplies….spray foam to fill a couple of holes.

Better get going….later!

Yesterday with my 40 degree temps, I was chuckling at Mel from Pryorvu and how he posted his chilly temps and how they had to make sure everything was plugged in. I’m laughing no more….it’s down right cold this morning. It’s 1 degree with 25 mph wind and a -20 windchill. Now that’s just not needed in my world.

We are on our way to our Holstein district meeting this morning with the neighbor…providing chores go well, the gutter cleaner gods have not been good to us lately. So I may be on my way to Mooville Creamery today or I may not….it’s all up to the gutter cleaner. For those of you incline to…PRAY!

Gotta go get cold again…it takes about 10 minutes just to put all the clothes on…yes, I’m a baby!

The kids have the day off of school today since it warmed up and then cooled down just enough to ice the roads over. As of this morning we have very little snow…most of the ground is bare and it’s very warm…41! I like this! But it’s supposed to get cold and nasty tonight.

I don’t care…I’m just glad to have the kids home. In fact, I found out that in all the craziness of teenagehood, they still are human…sometimes. When I came in last evening early from chores so I could go grocery shopping because I was working on a story most of the day yesterday, JW was standing there in the kitchen. I looked at him and I must have looked really stressed or something…even though I wasn’t anymore stressed than any other day. He looked at me, reached out and gave me a big hug and told me he loved me. Wow….I kept waiting to hear the request….the confession…the other shoe to drop….but it didn’t. He just wanted to hug me and tell me I was a great mom. Now we all know those moments are fleeting….so that’s why I’m writing them here to tell you and I also wrote it down in my daily journal. That way I can look back and see that at one point, they are still human and somewhere I did something right as a parent. And some day, when I’m dead and gone, he may pick up my journal and read about his kindness and remember that he is a good person…and then he’ll go read it to his wife in order to convince her that he’s not the awful husband that she thinks he is! HA!

Well, I’d better get…but before I do…I have a prayer request from a reader named Sara…not my daughter…just Sara. She emailed it to me and because I know some of you who read this are wonderful prayer warriors….you’ll want to stand in the gap for her. I’m seriously considering starting up a prayer blog…we could call it “knolltop prayer circuit” or “God’s hotline”….or “You pray, He answers.” Anyway…if and when I do that, I’ll let you know! Here’s Sara’s situation.:

Let me just say right off how much I enjoy your blog. It just great… Finally someone who understands dairying and farming. It’s just so refreshing.

Anyway my family (mother, grandmother, aunt and myself) are in need of much prayer at this time. We of course dairy which at times is its own prayer category, but this at present is more needed. 🙂 This is the situation… after years of looking and much prayer we decided to get a new home. A modular or a stick built. It would be much faster than a stick built. ANYWAY all was going well… We had found a contractor for the basement, the loan was having a hard time going through or so she said because of the housing market troubles. In the beginning it was just supposed to be 30 acres with the other 130 free and clear. Well for it to go to construction loan it had to be the full 160. It was just going to be for 6 months and then the 130 would be free.

Well things happened. The contractor wouldn’t give receipts or lien waivers. And now the 6 months are almost up. The house isn’t on the basement as the contractor didn’t give us the right height in the basement walls, there is no rebar to speak of and we’ve had to hire a lawyer since he has money that hasn’t even been spent. The mortgage company says it’s our fault for signing the draw forms but they didn’t even get receipts and he (the contractor) wouldn’t give them to them. All in all it’s a royal mess.

The lawyer has sent out letters to all parties in this thing. I could go on but at the present time I will stop. At this point I don’t know how to pray or what to ask for. All I know is the farm is in jeopardy (even though the lawyer says don’t worry) I trust God and that he can work through our lawyer. We should have been moved in before Thanksgiving… Not being cold or having cats fall in thru the bedroom ceiling.

Thanks so much–Sara, Little Brown Cow Dairy

Well, I’m glad it’s Monday here on the Knolltop. Last weekend was too busy for this family!

On Saturday I was privileged to speak to the Michigan Cattlewomen’s group at the Michigan Cattlemen’s Annual Meeting. Boy did we have fun! After listening to Mark Thomas of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association talk about marketing and then hearing the new director of the Michigan Department of Agriculture speak at a delicious lunch it was the ladies turn to slip away and have some time of encouragement.

Although I had heard rumblings of some of the men wanting to join the ladies at our conference, I kept telling them “no!” I guess they thought cattle worming might not be the most thought provoking topic of the day. Who could blame them?

So as we all got in our places and were settling in for our afternoon session a man came bursting through the door! Randy H. the auctioneer from Napoleon Livestock…and he’s the owner too. He said he wasn’t leaving…I even threatened to talk about female stuff and he didn’t budge.

As it turned out he contributed a lot to our conversation and even helped some of us understand how men think. It was a real blessing to have him in there with us. We talked about beef promotion, life in agriculture and family life on the farm for 2 hours and it was hard to stop then! It was a great time to be with that group!

Then yesterday, after church, JW and I headed back to East Lansing for a Michigan Junior Holstein meeting. Those are always fun…plus we always eat lunch out. It’s fun to get my kids alone and visit with them one on one. JW and I always have intriguing conversations. Yesterday was no different.

Okay…I’ve got so much more to write…but I’m so late for the barn…Bobby will think I’ve given up on coming out!

We are in answered prayer overload on the Knolltop!

Two days ago we had one vehicle and I was praying and asking you to pray for another vehicle so I could get to the Michigan Cattlemen’s Conference today. Well, Thursday my parents offered to bring me a vehicle and Friday morning our truck showed up in the driveway with a new transmission! WOW!

All I can say is thank you for your prayer and thanks to God for his provision! So that brings me to my next thought…if you people are so good at this prayer thing…I shouldn’t be the only one who is beinging prayed for….you should be too! So if you have a prayer request that you want to share with us…let me know. YOu can post it here so we can all read it or you can email it to me and I will keep it confidential if you like. What I’m getting at is that we are seeing God work in our midst and it’s exciting….get in on the action!

I’m headed to EAst Lansing for the conference….yes you can pray for me!

Last evening, I had the best time with the Monroe County group of farmers and conservationists. There were so many nice people there, I loved visiting with every single one of them. There is just something about a farmer that is so appealing. Maybe it’s there great sense of humor or the wild sense of adventure or the fact that they are such risk takers. But I really enjoyed talking with all those folks…especially Delmer Cilley and Herbert Smith. More about them later.

I was able to see a few old friends…one of them was Larry See, a man who thinks blogs are for those with nothing else to do. Well, he might not have put it in that context….but I love teasing him. I’m hoping he’ll log on today and take a gander at my attempt to educate the world on agriculture and stay connected with folks. Larry is the father of Dr. Todd See, one of my old college friends. Todd and his wife Leslie were on the livestock judging team with me at MSU. Yes, that’s where they met and now Todd is on staff at North Carolina State University and they have two kids who enjoy raising and showing livestock. Larry had to show me all the pictures….how fun! By the way….Todd is completely bald….that’s a payback for all the times he made rude comments about my hair on the judging trips!

I also saw the Chapmans, parents of Rob Chapman, someone I graduated from MSU with. Rob is now a pharmaceutical salesman…which fits him perfectly since he was always the salesman of the group. And his wife Kelly Boles-Chapman who was also at MSU, is working for the Battle Creek Foundation and is an international horse show judge. She was such a joy to be around with lots of smiles and a kind word. I miss seeing these friends…we need to have a judging team reunion!

Well, today is a busy day on the Knolltop. JW has a game tonight in Litchfield, I have two stories to write, 4-H forms to fill out and at some point I need to make a quick trip to the store and work on my presentation for the Cattlemen’s annual meeting tomorrow.

BEtter get to it!

Okay…God works at lightening speed! My mom called me this morning and offered to bring a truck down to us on their way to Iowa tomorrow. She hadn’t read the blog yet so she was being used by God and didn’t even know it! Isn’t God Great!!!!

Thank you to all of you who have been praying today. I so appreciate it. And I just got off the phone with Bill Broadie of the All American Beef Battalion it was a great interview and I’ll have more on that tomorrow. This is exciting stuff!

It’s another cold cloudy day here on the Knolltop. I think it’s about 10 out, but no wind…so that’s good.

Today I get to interview a guy named Bill Broadie from Kansas. He has started a campaign to get steaks for all of our troops in Iraq. He and a board of directors have begun the Beef Battalion. I’m doing a feature on him and I’m looking forward to interviewing him. When I spoke with him yesterday he was on his way to Ft. Worth to tape an interview with the American Rancher, a show that airs on RFD-TV. I’ll let you know how it goes!

In the meantime, tonight I speak in Monroe County and anyone who wishes to say a prayer or two for me, I would appreciate it. It seems something really good is going to come out of this and the reason I know this is because I have had a lot of spiritual warfare this week. Now, some of you are thinking…”this woman is really whacked out! What is she talking about….spiritual warfare?”

I’m not whacked out, but when you are trying to accomplish something good for God, then the enemy likes to hang around and tell you lies, make you say and do things you would never otherwise do and basically try to throw a monkey wrench into the whole deal. That’s what I’ve been dealing with…listening to lies, saying things I would never say and being confronted with situations I’ve never had to deal with that come from out of no where.

So, those of you who read this who are incline to pray….please do so for me today and on Saturday as I speak again. And by the way, I need our truck to be out of the shop by Saturday…otherwise I have no way of getting to my speaking engagement in East Lansing…sad isn’t it? Actually, I think it’s funny….but let’s pray and see how God answers that prayer…I will keep you updated!