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  • Baling on the hottest day

    Well, I have to say, I’m the lucky one to be the dispatcher today. I get to stay inside and run things while the rest of the crew is baling hay, unloading hay, delivering wagons, delivering water and supporting the crew on this very steamy day.

    Luke got to use his tractor today for something other than riding in a parade. He got to rake hay and there is nothing better than watching a young boy on his tractor doing a man’s job. Let’s just say Luke is all business today. Those of you on farms and ranches across this great nation can relate to the value of a young man contributing to the family business with something of his own. It’s a great feeling.

    Now that JW can drive all on his own…and let me tell you…it was a little scary watching he and Luke drive out of the yard last night to head to TSC for baling supplies….we now have someone who can run to town for this and that. And he loves it! Today he went to the John Deere dealership for shear pins for the baler. Anything to drive down the road!

    Yesterday was also a fun day because I was on Rural Route Radio with Trent and Kyle. It was really great because we discussed the topic from the day before. If you get a chance, listen to Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. You’ll be amazed at what crazy ideas are out there from people. One vegan believes that if we all stop eating animal products, meat and dairy, then the world will return to paradise, like before when Adam and Eve had sinned and that crime will go down and that we won’t have so many sociopaths because people who eat meat have sociopathic tendencies. Interesting…..

  • Baling on the hottest day

    Well, I have to say, I’m the lucky one to be the dispatcher today. I get to stay inside and run things while the rest of the crew is baling hay, unloading hay, delivering wagons, delivering water and supporting the crew on this very steamy day.

    Luke got to use his tractor today for something other than riding in a parade. He got to rake hay and there is nothing better than watching a young boy on his tractor doing a man’s job. Let’s just say Luke is all business today. Those of you on farms and ranches across this great nation can relate to the value of a young man contributing to the family business with something of his own. It’s a great feeling.

    Now that JW can drive all on his own…and let me tell you…it was a little scary watching he and Luke drive out of the yard last night to head to TSC for baling supplies….we now have someone who can run to town for this and that. And he loves it! Today he went to the John Deere dealership for shear pins for the baler. Anything to drive down the road!

    Yesterday was also a fun day because I was on Rural Route Radio with Trent and Kyle. It was really great because we discussed the topic from the day before. If you get a chance, listen to Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. You’ll be amazed at what crazy ideas are out there from people. One vegan believes that if we all stop eating animal products, meat and dairy, then the world will return to paradise, like before when Adam and Eve had sinned and that crime will go down and that we won’t have so many sociopaths because people who eat meat have sociopathic tendencies. Interesting…..

  • More like Georgia

    This weather has got to come to an end! It feels just like Georgia…hot and steamy. Although I don’t mind the hot, I really don’t like the steamy…but how can I change it? I can’t so on to something else…it just made a really good post header!

    Yesterday was a great day. The boys left early to go pick rocks for the neighbor…oh how they wished there was something pressing to do here on this farm yesterday…they really hate picking rocks. But who doesn’t? That’s just one of those things a farm kid has to endure at some point. It’s a rite of passage of sorts. You aren’t a true farm kid unless you’ve picked rocks on a hot summer day in a dry field coming home with a dirt covered face looking like you’re wearing eye liner.

    I had my rock picking days….with my dad and brother. I even have evidence from it. While out in the hot sun with my dad on the loader tractor and my brother and I walking and picking, I picked up two rocks and put them together so I could put them both in the loader at the same time. They were too heavy and too big for me to carry one in each hand so by putting them together I could manage it better. In true Melissa fashion, I accidently smashed my middle finger in between the two rocks. Oh it bled and bled and it hurt and hurt. My Air Force Medic dad decided it just needed a bandaide and it would be fine. Today you can still see a lump on the tip of my middle finger because it healed that way. I don’t mind it, it’s kind of like a rock picking battle scare. And don’t think I didn’t show it off and wave it around the other day when I heard all that complaining!

    One good thing came from that accident…our rock picking session ended early!

    Coffee is perked, gotta go…more later about the rest of the day…so much fun!

  • More like Georgia

    This weather has got to come to an end! It feels just like Georgia…hot and steamy. Although I don’t mind the hot, I really don’t like the steamy…but how can I change it? I can’t so on to something else…it just made a really good post header!

    Yesterday was a great day. The boys left early to go pick rocks for the neighbor…oh how they wished there was something pressing to do here on this farm yesterday…they really hate picking rocks. But who doesn’t? That’s just one of those things a farm kid has to endure at some point. It’s a rite of passage of sorts. You aren’t a true farm kid unless you’ve picked rocks on a hot summer day in a dry field coming home with a dirt covered face looking like you’re wearing eye liner.

    I had my rock picking days….with my dad and brother. I even have evidence from it. While out in the hot sun with my dad on the loader tractor and my brother and I walking and picking, I picked up two rocks and put them together so I could put them both in the loader at the same time. They were too heavy and too big for me to carry one in each hand so by putting them together I could manage it better. In true Melissa fashion, I accidently smashed my middle finger in between the two rocks. Oh it bled and bled and it hurt and hurt. My Air Force Medic dad decided it just needed a bandaide and it would be fine. Today you can still see a lump on the tip of my middle finger because it healed that way. I don’t mind it, it’s kind of like a rock picking battle scare. And don’t think I didn’t show it off and wave it around the other day when I heard all that complaining!

    One good thing came from that accident…our rock picking session ended early!

    Coffee is perked, gotta go…more later about the rest of the day…so much fun!

  • Happy Birthday JW!

    Yes, today is a big day at the Knolltop. JW our oldest is 16 today. And yes, we will be heading to the Secretary of State’s office to get his license today and he will be able to legally leave our farm in a vehicle without any of us….yes…I’m sad!

    Although I’m only 28, somehow with this milestone I feel 42. Just 16 short years ago I was in labor with this little one and he took forever to be delivered…might I add I delivered him without any drugs! Silly me…had I known I could’ve had a pain free labor I would’ve begged for drugs with the first twinge of pain while I was pulling weeds in my garden in Southwest, Indiana. I kept thinking it had to get really bad to ask for drugs otherwise they would consider me the wimp of the year. So by the time I wimpered for some medication, the nurse looked at me and said…”It’s way too late for that, just keep pushing!”

    As our oldest child, we have every breath JW ever took photographed and in a scrap book and his first two years of his life are documented…every little detail. And as the familiar story goes, our fourth child was so forsaken he was losing weight before I realized I had another mouth to feed. You see he liked sucking on his fingers and I just never thought about feeding him…I had three other little kids to take care of for heaven’s sake! Waking up a sleeping baby to feed him was absolutely against everything I stood for. Of course before you call the authorities on me, take another look at our baby…he’s well fed.

    So, back to Dub….he was definitely the biggest challenge to raise…he’s ADD, although I’ve never had him officially diagnosed, I know he is…and we live with it! He never wanted to go to bed at night…he was always pushing the envelope and I tell you, he got more spankings than any of the rest of our children. But today, he’s a very hard working young man with a big smile and a very generous heart. He can give a pep talk at the drop of a hat and make you feel like a million bucks. He’s done that for me more times than I can count and then I turn around and ask “Who’s the parent here?”

    So before he gets an ego, because he does read this to see what I’m saying about everyone…I will quit and say…I love you Jaybird! Won’t he love that!

  • Cleaned up and happy

    Well, yesterday I whinned about all our troubles…and today I’m feeling so free! Why is it that cleaning something that has needed attention for a long time feels so good? My back room is where we come in from the barn and take our barn clothes off. Needless to say, it can get pretty raunchy out there at times. It’s also my “collect-all” place, if I don’t know what to do with a shoebox, but I don’t want to throw it away because it will make a great cupcake transporter or a display box for a tractor collection at the fair or a barn for an indoor farm set up…I just put it in the back room. Well, you can imagine how that can get from time to time. But today it is beautiful!

    My garage was also a great place to put unwanted things….now that is clean! I can actually put my van in there! I’m feeling so free, I will now go to my closet and get a little freer feeling today! Then when guests come and Jake gets the impulse to show them every dirty nook and cranny on our farm, I won’t go into hysterics trying to come up with some excuse why they need to stay seated at the table while I casually give Jake the “If you take them out of this room, I cut off your toes” look!

    Off to perk the coffee!

  • Cleaned up and happy

    Well, yesterday I whinned about all our troubles…and today I’m feeling so free! Why is it that cleaning something that has needed attention for a long time feels so good? My back room is where we come in from the barn and take our barn clothes off. Needless to say, it can get pretty raunchy out there at times. It’s also my “collect-all” place, if I don’t know what to do with a shoebox, but I don’t want to throw it away because it will make a great cupcake transporter or a display box for a tractor collection at the fair or a barn for an indoor farm set up…I just put it in the back room. Well, you can imagine how that can get from time to time. But today it is beautiful!

    My garage was also a great place to put unwanted things….now that is clean! I can actually put my van in there! I’m feeling so free, I will now go to my closet and get a little freer feeling today! Then when guests come and Jake gets the impulse to show them every dirty nook and cranny on our farm, I won’t go into hysterics trying to come up with some excuse why they need to stay seated at the table while I casually give Jake the “If you take them out of this room, I cut off your toes” look!

    Off to perk the coffee!

  • More like summer

    It’s supposed to be more like summer these next few days. So all the sweaty work needs to be done early in the morning…which is what I have planned today. We will continue to haul junk…the boys will again miss out since they’re on their way to the neighbors to work in the hay. I know how disppointed they’ll be so I’ll save the heavy stuff for them…I’d hate for them to feel left out.

    In two days I will have a teenage driver in my house. JW will get his license and I don’t know how to react. He has to buy his own gas so that will keep him from wandering off too far. He hates to spend his own money.

    Okay…when it rains it pours. Keep in mind, I only tell you this because I know that if you think you have it bad, all you have to do is look around and know there is always someone worse off than you. I told you yesterday that the ceiling was leaking in the bathroom…conveinently over the tub…how cleaver…yesterday I went out in the back room and found the freezer unplugged and has been for a few days…yes…it’s all that bad and worse….and across the road in the barn, one of the fan motors on the milk compressor is bad. A cup of warm milk anyone? Yes, two milkings worth of milk will have to be dumped..but we will get paid for part of it. So we are currently trying to get that fixed and I will clean out the freezer today…anyone want to come help?

    One the brighter side, we had a heifer born yesterday afternoon, her name is Marnie and mom already cleaned! All my kids are healthy and the sun is shining yet another day. God is still on control and will continue to be so I don’t have to worry about that too. Now if anyone would like to pray for us…that would be a great thing!

  • More like summer

    It’s supposed to be more like summer these next few days. So all the sweaty work needs to be done early in the morning…which is what I have planned today. We will continue to haul junk…the boys will again miss out since they’re on their way to the neighbors to work in the hay. I know how disppointed they’ll be so I’ll save the heavy stuff for them…I’d hate for them to feel left out.

    In two days I will have a teenage driver in my house. JW will get his license and I don’t know how to react. He has to buy his own gas so that will keep him from wandering off too far. He hates to spend his own money.

    Okay…when it rains it pours. Keep in mind, I only tell you this because I know that if you think you have it bad, all you have to do is look around and know there is always someone worse off than you. I told you yesterday that the ceiling was leaking in the bathroom…conveinently over the tub…how cleaver…yesterday I went out in the back room and found the freezer unplugged and has been for a few days…yes…it’s all that bad and worse….and across the road in the barn, one of the fan motors on the milk compressor is bad. A cup of warm milk anyone? Yes, two milkings worth of milk will have to be dumped..but we will get paid for part of it. So we are currently trying to get that fixed and I will clean out the freezer today…anyone want to come help?

    One the brighter side, we had a heifer born yesterday afternoon, her name is Marnie and mom already cleaned! All my kids are healthy and the sun is shining yet another day. God is still on control and will continue to be so I don’t have to worry about that too. Now if anyone would like to pray for us…that would be a great thing!

  • One step forward

    It’s another sunny Sunday here on the Knolltop.

    Yesterday we junked a lot of stuff and got a lot of work done. We cleaned out some areas in the barn then we moved some cows around. We’ve got a lot of dry cows right now, so we kicked them out to pasture and moved the milk cows around. Big Daddy was so pleased with all the work we accomplished in such a short time he was feeling great….until ….one of the kids came in and said while they were taking a shower the other night when it was raining…they spotted the ceiling leaking in the bathroom. Like Bobby said, “One step forward, two steps back.”

    I’m not sure how God is going to take care of that one….milk prices are up, but unexpected problems like that aren’t in the budget! But God owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He knows our need and I’m sure He’s got a great plan, we just have to follow it.

    In the mean time, those boys cleaned their tractor barn last night…they swept and got rid of a few things…it’s beautiful! I sat down there on the couch last night and it was so peaceful. I was waiting for Sarah to come back with the halter so we could catch Bud and ride. We rode and rode and didn’t get in the house until 9:30 pm!

    Coffee is good this morning…it’s a bit cool and perked coffee is always better on a cool morning. Better get ready for church!