Good morning from a very chilly knolltop. It was 29 when we went across the road to milk!

Yesterday JW was honored as student of the month. That event took place before school, so then while we were out in our town clothes we ran some errands and then home for more chores. This morning JW is on his way to Louisville for the dairy judging contest at the North American.

Today I’m getting ready to head south as well, for the NAILE in Louisville. I am covering it for Dairy Agenda Today, otherwise, no, there is no way I could afford this trip if I weren’t working while I was there!

Mom will come down and take care of the kids and I am actually getting Bobby off the farm! He will be able to visit with all of his buddies and enjoy some down time! We are looking forward to the trip and are thankful for a mom who will come watch our kids and for kids who will take over the farm for a few days!

Okay, by now I”m sure you know, prayer is needed for the Hart family! And I thank you in advance!

Good Morning from a sunny 30 something Knolltop!

Now that I just finished a fresh hot sweetroll with cream cheese frosting and a hot cup of coffee, I think I’m ready for the day. I was snooping around the Pioneer Woman website the other day, I very rarely go there because it’s so addictive, but I found a recipe for pumpkin muffins with cream cheese frosting.

I made the muffins, in the name of nutritional goodness because of the pumpkin, but I refrained from the frosting….it just didn’t seem right for breakfast. But somehow that frosting rule doesn’t apply to sweetrolls, cause I just made a creamy batch of cream cheese frosting, slathered it on the hot sweetrolls and enjoyed every last bite!

Now I’ve got to go work it off in the barn!

Good Sunny morning from the knolltop! What a beautiful sunrise and now a shining morning!

Everyone is back to healthy in the house now. Sarah went back to school! It’s amazing what a little rest will do for a body.

I lost a calf this morning! When I went out to feed the calves their milk, she was gone! Because she is mostly black, I didn’t see her standing outside in the springer pen in the dark. When she heard the clank of the buckets she realized she had better get back home for breakfast! I was able to feed here in that pen, but I will have to wrangle her back home this morning when we bed the barn and clean gutters.

I received a “Save the date” magnet in the mail the other day…it seems TWO of my nephews have decided to make my sister crazy by both getting married within 3 months! John will get married in March and Tim is getting married in June! My poor, poor, poor sister. It’s a good thing she had all boys….can you imagine if she had two daughters getting married????

It makes my head spin…..

PA Acting Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding

It’s another rainy morning here on the Knolltop! I’m getting use to it. This has been one wet fall.

Sarah is still sick in bed with a soar throat and sinus stuff. Poor thing. She seemed a bit improved this morning, but I didn’t thing there was any reason to go spread germs around school, so I kept her home again.

While in Harrisburg in September, I met the Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Agriculture, Russell Redding(pictured above). He had recently taken over after the former Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff who had resigned to move onto the lobbying world.

Of course like any normal media type, I grilled him for information, asking him why he is qualified to be the PA Sec of Ag. He gave me his whole pedigree and when I was satisfied with that I began asking him about the issues that the livestock industry is facing. He aptly answered those questions too and by the time I was done, we knew just about everything about each other and we parted on a first name basis.

This week, Russell was a panelist at a Senate Ag Committee dairy crisis hearing in Washington DC. I emailed and asked if he would send me his thoughts on how it went. He promised he would and a couple of days later his Executive Assistant, Jean Lonie, sent me his comments. In her email she referred to Russell as Secretary Redding. When I read that, all of a sudden it dawned on me that this guy had a high position in government and I had been disrespectful calling him by his first name instead of his title.

I thought about the sec of ag in Michigan and how I would never refer to him by his first name. Then I thought about Sec Redding’s position in government and then I was afraid I had offended my new found friend and I began to think oh my goodness how was I going to weasil my way out of this offense!

I emailed Secretary Redding right away apologizing for my disrespectful error hoping I hadn’t offended him. He emailed back, “Appreciate your note, but keep using Russell, I prefer it!”

By that note it was affirmed why this guy who grew up on a dairy farm and was involved in production agriculture himself, was such a natural pick for his new job! You can take a kid off the farm but you can’t take the farm out of the kid.

Good Morning from a wet knolltop! But it’s not too cold!

Bobby and I are now on a hiatus from sports activities. But that doesn’t mean my children are. We are inbetween sports and now we can take our time during evening chores and when we come in, Bobby can read and I can write or play cards and eat popcorn. But our children have a burning desire to continue in their sporting activities.

Last evening JW headed out to eat with his buddies before they headed to the girls volleyball game. They are in their last week of regular play and are ranked 3rd in the state! Luke and Jake couldn’t be left out so after they got done with their chores, they headed to the gym for “Open Gym” where any of the kids can come in and play basketball. Sarah stayed home, she’s not feeling all that well. No, I don’t think it’s H1N1, but just a sinus infection….at least that’s what I’m hoping!

Yesterday there was a panel discussion on low dairy prices in the Senate Ag Committee and there were dairy producers included along with Russell Redding, the Acting Secretary of Agriculture in Pennsylvania. He said he would send me some of his reflections of how the hearing went, I can’t wait to hear them and see what he thought.

Now, it’s time to get to work….somewhere!

Good Monday Morning from a sunny knolltop!

It’s supposed to stay sunny for awhile then get cloudy. But in the 60s!!!!

Okay, so here we go….Luke’s team won Thursday night…yes must have been that super supper they enjoyed in the stinky weight room. Yuck, it did stink in there. But they weren’t shy when it came time to belly up to the buffet.

They smoked Manchester that night. They put the freshman QB in toward the end of the game and when they needed a tackle, the regular kid who plays that position wasn’t ready to take the field, so Luke ran in to play tackle and while running in, he screamed like a little kid “WooHoo!” It was so funny. He said he loved playing a different position, especially tackle where he could just go hit somebody.

While Luke was playing his last game, Sarah’s team was working on their undefeated season and accomplished that goal! She said they beat Jackson Christian in 2 games! She was happy to say the least and is looking forward to AAU volleyball in the spring.

Okay, we can talk about MSU’s loss to Iowa. A hard fought game and in my opinion, either team deserved that win. So I wasn’t as upset as I normally am when they give the game away. Enough said.

Last night the feed cart extraction team played a round or two in the barn. Bobby has his motorized feed cart back from the shop and was using it last night when he crossed over the wooden bridge and it buckled. Crash went the cart and in came the extraction crew. Luke and JW helped him get it back on solid ground and repaired the bridge. Thank heaven’s for weight lifting class!!!!!

Now I’m headed back out to the barn to bed and let the cows in while Bobby is gone to his Dr. appointment.

Good Morning from a cool and cloudy Knolltop! I thought the sun was going to shine, but it hasn’t yet! Yesterday was absolutely beautiful!

Sarah’s team remains undefeated beating Camden last night. Tonight they have their last game of the season, I hope they win. Unfortunately I won’t be there to watch. Luke has a game at 4:30 in Hillsdale and Sarah’s game is in Jackson and oh yes, we still have a herd of cows to milk!

Fortunately for us, JW has been a huge help pitching in where we need him. He will milk tonight while we go to Luke’s last game and I think we will be done quick enough to get back home for the end of chores. But not quick enough to make it to any of Sarah’s game.

Since I usually feed some of the football boys before their game, today I will run a catering business in the weight room. Bobby suggested we take a meal into them so they have something good to eat before the game. So this afternoon I will be taking enchaladias and a sausage and stuffing casserole with rolls, broccoli and apple crisp to the school weight room and feed the normal crowd. They have weight lifting last hour so they will have some time to eat. Then we will continue the race of getting some of the chores done and going to the game.

But first I have to bed the barn and write a column! So I’d better get moving!

Good Morning from a warmer Knolltop! I don’t have to wear my long underwear to the barn these days and it sure is nice!

Sarah’s team won again last night in a close match with Hillsdale Academy. They are still undefeated and I’m so proud of them!

After the game, JW and Luke had some friends over for a bon fire. They hosted it, all I did was eat smores and make sure no one burned themselves! They had a two hour delay this morning so this enabled them to stay up a little later last night.

Yesterday were parent teacher conferences. I’m just not sure who’s children they were talking about. One teacher would rave about a kid and the other would say he was disrespectful and not working up to his potential. One teacher told me Jake’s strength was comprehension and another told me comprehension was his weakest area. So now I wonder, just what exactly are they doing and are they teaching the same kid?

Let’s just say, a little more attention will be paid to school work, it’s been automatic up until now, but that is going to change!

Time for dishes!