Good Morning from the Knolltop! It’s cold here..although I received warm greetings from a dairy farm in New York state….it’s still cold here! Hey you guys in the west…send us some warmer weather..I’m tired of winter already!

JW’s team won last night and so did the varsity team with a half court shot at the buzzer for the win. We beat Jackson Christian and my pastor and his wife sat with us so we were able to enjoy the victory in their company! Oh….did that feel good. They were good sports about it.

I was reading a blog yesterday from the North east and they were elated that Pennsylvania reversed their labeling laws and decided it was okay to put rBST free on their milk labels. This is a big step backward, I think. Anything that incinuates that our milk supply….our WHOLE milk supply is less than nutritious or safe is dangerous and wrong. Milk is Milk. But I’m not getting on the bandwagon today….I’ll let you do it.

Do any of you out there have an opinion on this issue? I’d love to hear it…whether you’re a dairy producer, city dweller, organic producer whatever…I want to hear what you think.

Boy do I have to write today…I’ve got two stories and a column to create…..what would I do without a deadline?

It’s another winter day on the Knolltop. It’s cloudy, snow is falling and we’re supposed to be getting 2 inches or so. Just enough to cover the ground and make things look pretty. It was actually warmer this morning when we ventured across the road to the barn….it was 22 out.

I talked to a dairy farmer yesterday and he asked the obvious question…anything frozen? It’s funny how we think about the same things because we are all experiencing the same situations. Trying to keep the cows eating, drinking and milking while weathering the cold temps and wind that can freeze water pipes and drinking bowls quicker than anything.

I was on a conference call yesterday with AFACT. This is a group of farmers and industry people who have formed an organization to preserve technology in agriculture. It’s name says it all, American Farmers for the Advancement and Conservation of Technology. AFACT was birthed out of the push from processors for dairy farmers to stop using rBST. It’s quite a group and they are well organized….I was impressed.

Are any of you who read this blog familiar with this group? Have any of you participated in any way with this group? If you have, I’d like to know your impressions.

Well, it’s off to the barn for chores. I’ve got to write today and tonight JW has a basketball game…at home..thank goodness!

The sun is not shining here on the Knolltop…partly because there is cloud cover, but mostly because the Packers lost yesterday. Jake was so bummed, he wanted to stay home from school….well, that was as good as an excuse as any. I told him I’d send an email to his buddy and fellow Packer fan, Mark Adam extending his condolences. That wasn’t much comfort to him. But MSU beating Minnesota kind of took the sting out of the loss….at least one of our teams won.

The Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks. Again, this year I’ve been able to help plan the Partners Program…aka…the women’s program. I wrote a column last week inviting everyone to it. I will include it here today..I’m still chuckling…it doesn’t happen very often that you laugh at your own writing…what a joy!

Along with the Partners Program, I also get to emcee the Thursday night banquet….I get to introduce the guest speaker….guess who? Trent Loos. Yes, I get to introduce him again, this year and I’m having a ball coming up with my intro. As you might remember from last year, my introduction of him was how I finagled a regular spot on his Rural Route Radio show. Instead of reading his bio, I made one up…fictitious of course…and I had never even met the guy. Now that I know him…it will be even more fun to introduce him to the crowd….

Well, enough of that, right now I’ve got to clean up breakfast dishes, head back out to the barn and then work on my speech for Thursday night.

Truth from the Trenches
By Melissa Hart

What’s your favorite door prize so far this year? The free calf bottle? The ear tagger? The free bag of calf starter?
Yes it’s door prize season again…otherwise known as meeting season for farmers around the country. And boy is it fun to win those door prizes!
I was at a recent meeting where I won a free calf bottle, a deck of cards and a candle warmer. I just love those door prizes!
I want to tell you about another place where you could not only win some door prizes and have some wonderful food that you don’t even have to cook, but you could walk out with a gift bag of goodies including a book signed by the author.
This year at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference (GLRDC) to be held on February 7th and 8th at the Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth, Michigan, the Partners Program will not only make you want to get up and start dancing you may even want to plan a trip down under and learn how to take pictures of your trip as well.
Author and speaker Rebecca Long-Chaney will share about her adventures as she and her husband sold all their belongings, left their families and headed down under to work on a cattle station in Australia. Rebecca is a journalist from the east coast and grew up on a dairy farm.
She married a dairyman and they thought they would milk cows and live forever doing the life they enjoyed as youth. One day they decided to plan a trip of a lifetime. She will inspire us with this adventure and tell us what did for her personal growth and her marriage.
While Rebecca would be enough to make you want to come, we have more planned for those who wish to embark on a day of refreshment with other dairy women. Bring your digital cameras and learn to take good pictures. You know what it’s like when you sit down to do your scrapbooking… you have the curly scissors, you have the sheets and sheets of pretty paper, you have the cute stickers, the stamps, the ribbons and all those great little do-dads to decorate…only to be let down by the really bad pictures that you took when you really thought you were the long lost national geographic photographer of the year.
You will learn how to take really good pictures to fill your scrapbooks that in reality only have two pages filled in them because good intentions don’t get squat done.
When we have finally learned how to take good pictures we are going to learn how to drink really good wine. Well, that is if you’re not a recovered alcoholic. If your stiffest drink of choice is strawberry milk then you can hang with me and we’ll learn what goes into the good stuff that makes people say and do foolish things. Then while we are slurping our strawberry milk and they are sipping their white wine we’ll take high quality pictures of them dancing on the tables and make a scrap book of their day at the Partners Program that they will remember forever!
And that’s just the first day. The second day we will learn how to make good salsa, take network breaks and make new friends while downing as much free ice cream as we can and then the best part is we’ll learn how salsa dance! Doesn’t that sound like a riot? Then you can meet back up with your husband and show him your high quality, suitable for framing pictures of you and your new best friend salsa dancing on the tables while drinking a really good glass of wine!
Seriously, we will be having a good time learning about Australia, wine making, salsa tasting and how to promote the dairy industry. This my humorous attempt at personally inviting each and everyone of you to the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference Partners Program. You can on line to www.glrdc.msu.edu. Or you may email me at [email protected] or you can even call 517-353-3175 ext.229 to find out more and sign up to join us on February 7-8, 2008 in Frankenmuth.
I look forward to dancing with you!

Well, it’s a very cold morning here on the Knolltop. Although the orange sunrise peeking through the trees in the east was breathtaking….it made for a rough morning in the barn.

Things were going fine, until we started the gutter cleaner. With time running short before church we were trying to get done in time. But to no avail, when I saw that there was no way we would get the gutters cleaned and the bedding done before church I told JW to take the kids and pick up the extra passengers and head to church without us.

The nice thing is having a son who can drive, before we all would’ve had to stay home, but now at least half of us can go to church….that made me feel much better as a mom!

So now I will do a little baking and just a little cleaning on this really cold, breezy morning here. I think the windchill is down to -15. Not bad if you live in North Dakota the wilds of Manitoba…but we haven’t had this kind of cold yet this winter and I’m not adjusted yet!

I just have to post this mom moment for you moms of teenage sons out there who think they may never grow up to be decent human beings. As I was popping our nightly bowl of popcorn, JW came into the kitchen speaking spanish, like I would have a clue….asking me questions…of course I tried to answer…I might have answer correctly and he would’ve thought I was really smart…but I didn’t.

Anyway, a song came on the radio that we both liked and we began talking about the artist. He pulled out his ipod and said he had another one of her songs on it and asked if I wanted to hear it. Like I’m gonna say no? I said yes, of course I wanted to hear this song. So he put one of the ear phones in my ear and the other one in his and we stood there in the kitchen, the pop corn popping, listening to this song he wanted me to hear while he sang along…which was real treat because he has a beautiful voice. It was such a nice moment to stand there with my 16 year old sharing a song with him…I just can’t tell you how fleeting those moments are beginning to be….it may seem silly to the rest of the world, but it was a great four minutes for me….so I just had to share it with you.

I’m off to walk on my treadmill…stay warm!

It was down in the single digits this morning on the Knolltop. But the barn was warm.

Last night while I milked, Bobby and the boys brought in all the dry cows and heifers and tied them in to the empty stalls in the barn. It was a rodeo as those heifers who haven’t been in the barn since they were six months old came in and challenged every barrier there was. But every one of them is now tied in a stall.

The amazing thing was the difference they made this morning as we walked into the barn. It was so much warmer in there….I loved it! It will be a rodeo this morning as we let them out to bed the stalls and get them back in…it will be good to have all the kids to help us out!

Last night we went and supported the girls basketball team as they lost to Litchfield. After the game we always stay and help the athletic director and his wife…good friends of ours, clean up the trash and fold the chairs and stuff.

While we clean Luke and their son, Brad, shoot baskets until we finally pull them off the floor and take them home. We stayed too long last night…long enough so that Bobby and Gary, the AD, got into a game with Luke and Brad. I guess they just wanted to see if they still had “it.” Although Bobby felt great last night when he got home…this morning he was a little stiff. I was proud of my nearly 50 year old husband who could still try to take his 14 year old….I said “try.”

Today the boys have to work for the neighbor and then Luke has basketball practice. Sarah and Jake also have practice and I will spend the day cleaning, baking and running!

After a cold windy night on the Knolltop, we went to the barn and found everything just as we left it last night. No frozen water lines or anything…now that’s a real blessing! This weekend promises to be even colder, so we’ll have to button the barn up good and tight tonight.

Bobby and JW got home at 11 pm last night with the report of a win for the JV’s and a loss for the varsity. JW fouled out…a good night for him. Today they only have a half day of school, so they are excited this morning.

I think I’ll include a column today…

Truth from the Trenches
By Melissa Hart

Are you ready for some courage? Here’s my courage transplant for the beginning of the year.
It was about a year ago and I was complaining out loud about how cold it was outside and I just didn’t want to do my daily walk in the cold. I blurted out, “I need a treadmill!”
Realizing it was a buyers market for milk and a sellers market for corn, there was no way I could ever squeeze out any money for much more than macaroni and cheese to feed my family, much less a treadmill. So I decided to do the next best thing….pray for one.
I told my kids that I was praying for a treadmill and my daughter said, “Mom you should pray for a cheap one, not a free one.” I looked at her and said, “I know a God who owns the cattle on a thousand hills, I’m sure He has a treadmill out there he can wrangle for free!” And with that, I began praying for the FREE treadmill.
Months went by and no treadmill. The warmer weather came and I began walking outside again and soon forgot about my treadmill dreams. I had mentioned wanting a treadmill to a few people, but just in passing. One Sunday I shared that I’d been praying for a treadmill with a group of Christians and the look I got was incredulous. I just looked back and said, “God owns it all, why not pray for a treadmill? If anyone can give it to me He can. He tells us in His Word to ask, seek and knock….why are you all looking at me as if I’ve just broken the Ten Commandments all at once?”
Not losing my courage to pray, I just kept on praying. When summer came, some friends of ours came home on furlough. They were missionaries and were home for six months. The wife of the family asked me one Sunday, “Are you still looking for a treadmill?” I told her that I was and people think I’m crazy for praying for one. She said, “When we get ready to go back I’ll give you the one I’ve got in my house, someone gave it to me to use while we’re in the states and I knew you were looking for one, so it’s yours!”
I just about jumped for joy! I was excited to say the least and I couldn’t wait to share the good news with my kids. At the end of the six months, she asked me to come get the treadmill. When I walked into their garage she pointed to a bunch of stuff and told me to take anything I wanted, it was all mine if I wanted it.
I looked around and couldn’t believe my eyes. When I shut the van door and headed out the driveway I not only had a new treadmill, but a brand new 27 inch TV, a DVD player, a radio/CD player, an ironing board of which I really needed and I left behind the printer and furniture she offered me.
I know possessions aren’t everything, but I’m constantly amazed at God’s provision for our necessities and overwhelmed with His wild love for us to provide the things that we want too.
At the beginning of 2007 I was asking for a treadmill, by the end of 2007 I had a whole gym. Not only did I get a treadmill, my neighbor offered me her Nordic Track. So instead of buying a membership to the fitness center I can pop my exercise DVD into the DVD player hooked up to my new TV and do my exercises after I’ve worked out on my Nordic Track and walked four miles on my treadmill all while listening to my favorite CD!
I’ll think I’ll start praying for a new dishwasher and see what happens!
Yes, God is good.

Good Morning from the Knolltop. It’s supposed to be a warm day today and then get cold and windy. Being on a hill in an old farmhouse on a windy day is not a good combination!

Sarah redeemed herself and didn’t know it. Last night when she came home from AWANA she asked if she could invite one of her friends for next week. Okay…I can breath a sigh of relief. After thinking about it yesterday I realized that she has gone to church her whole life and really can’t imagine not going. So I’m sure she is thinking everyone else does too and they just need to go by themselves. Wouldn’t it be great to live in such a rosy world? I’m thankful I have a 12 year old who still sees the world through rose colored glasses.

I had a nice surprise this morning. With my eggs, ham and toast, I found a jar of peach jam on my jelly shelves. I didn’t think I had any left, but I guess I had one more jar of it. And boy was it good on my toast!

Bobby is headed to JW’s game tonight over in Climax. It was my turn to go this week, but when he climbed into bed last week at 11:30 pm from the basketball game in Burr Oak, I decided then that he could go this week too. While I love to watch JW play I know Bobby gets a lot of enjoyment out of it too. Besides, I have two speaking engagements next week leaving them all home by themselves…so I guess I can stay home tonight.

Good morning from the Knolltop! It’s sunny here and that helps brighten the spirits!

I am still laughing at an episode I had with my daughter Sarah yesterday. I think I will be laughing for a long time.

We are members of a church that is about 35 minutes away from here. We’ve been going there for 14 years now and although we have looked for a church closer to where we live, we always end up back at “home.” So needless to say, when we invite people to go to church with us, if they are children we have to take them with us and if they are adults we usually caravan.

Over the past year we’ve had one friend of Luke’s go with us and he has been very faithful in going….every Sunday. Now JW has a friend and she’s been going with us the past few weeks too. The other day, a few of JW’s other friends decided they would like to try this church too. Now we only have a seven passenger van and JW’s truck and our truck is in the shop…so needless to say we only have room for seven people. Fortunately the past couple of weeks we’ve had sick family members so we’ve been able to accommodate the extra guests….but now everyone is healthy and we are running out of room.

On the way home from school yesterday Jake said one of his friends had arranged to go to church with us this Sunday. I just whimsically said, “We need a bigger van!” Sarah asked why and I told her we had Jake’s friend and JW’s two friends, and Luke’s buddy….we didn’t have enough room for everyone.

She looked at me and just as seriously as Sarah gets she said, “Mom, this taking people to church stuff has got to end!” I burst out laughing and Jake said, “What are you talking about Sarah?” She continued on and on about how people needed to find their own way to church or get their parents to take them or maybe they should just go to church in North Adams.

I just couldn’t stop laughing about it…I mean I spend all my time trying to get more people to go to church…especially young people. God has given me the spiritual gift of evangelism…so I get really excited when people received Jesus as their Savior and now I have a daughter that thinks we need to just stop taking people to church! I’m still laughing! Either I failed in teaching this young lady how important Jesus is to everyone or she’s possessed! (Just a joke, she’s not really possessed!)

Today I’m picking out a Bible study for Sarah and I to do together…this “cooperative, flexible and kind student of the month” needs a little more than a splash of Jesus…she needs a tidal wave!

Good frosty morning from the Knolltop. It’s still a little snowy here…nothing deep though.

Last weekend at the DHIA banquet, Jake and I stood in the buffet line with one of our local vets and we were visiting about stuff. I figured I’d save myself a phone call and I told him I had two cows, standing side by side in the barn, who had D.A.’s (displaced abomasum or twisted stomach’s) and I needed him to come by on Monday….not over the weekend, I was too cheap to pay for a weekend call.

He looked at me trying to figure out if I was serious or not. I assured him I was and that he or someone else from the practice really needed to come by. He said okay.

Monday afternoon the phone rang and it was him…he asked me “Were you really serious about those cows with D.A.’s?” I reassured him that I was totally serious. He said he would be over at about four. When I headed to the barn to milk the doc was out there with his stethoscope listening to the cows and then he looked at me and with an incredulous look and said, “Melissa, you were right! Both of these cows have D.A.’s!” I looked back and him and said, “Of course I’m right, I told you they did…and you didn’t believe me…now I’m finally validated!”

Now, I’m no vet and of course I wasn’t totally confident of my diagnosis, but it pays off to sound confident…at least one vet thinks I have some smarts!

Good Monday Morning from the Knolltop! It snowed a little last evening.

Yesterday after church, we came home and I decided I would not take Luke to his practice…Bobby wanted to and I didn’t feel the need to tag along. Besides someone needed to stay home and get a decent dinner on the table.

After they left, I cleaned up around the house and then I did something I rarely get to do….I laid on my bed, covered up with a quilt and watched RFD-TV! I think I was there for about an hour or so, it felt so good to watch a bunch of horse stuff that no one else likes to watch but me. I think it’s interesting to hear everyone’s perspective on how a horse should be trained.

Then I figured I’d better get started on dinner. I made ham, fried potatoes, salad and french bread. While all that was cooking I hopped on my new treadmill for 30 minutes before they got home. That’s fun because I listen to one of the kids mp3 players and I love to just hear music going into my ears and nothing else….it’s so peaceful!

Well, no games tonight….just practices so it will be a quite night. We need a few of those after the wild weekend we had. By the way, the DHIA banquet was fun…we had a great meal and a great speaker and it’s always fun to win door prizes! Jake got to go up three times for the prizes…he had my ticket, his ticket and the featured speaker’s ticket. We sat with the speaker, Krissa Thom because I had to introduce her. So Jake must have appealed to her and she gave him her ticket….what a con artist.

He picked a calf bottle and a deck of cards for himself and then I told him to get a candle warmer for me. It was a great time.

Time for breakfast!