Good Morning from a very active Knolltop. Bobby’s sitting in Detroit waiting for me to come get him….the chores didn’t go as smoothly as we’d hoped, I’ve got one kind of sick kid on the couch, two kids who are late to school and a new calf!

Obviously I can’t write much…but I do want you to head over to Dairy Agenda Today and check it out…it’s live today and I want you to go to my blog….and make comments….so the guys who put so much work into it can see that people are actually going there and reading stuff! Plus I told them it would be the blog that would bring in the traffic! So go! Be traffic!! But don’t tell them I sent you!

Gotta head to Detroit!

It’s a dreary day here on the Knolltop! The temp is dropping..when I arose this morning it was 47, now it’s down to 35.

Bobby finally made it to Montana after spending a little time in Cincinnati, no, he wasn’t a happy camper when he called. I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that he flies stand by..well that’s great if you’re me, a youngest and you don’t have a care in the world about where you’re going or what time you’ll get there and you’re more interested to see how many people you can meet and get to know. But when you’re an oldest and you like to be in control of your destination….it’s not so good.

He called this morning while standing in my sister’s barn watching my brother-in-law milk his cows. I’m sure that was a trip, watching the man who crafts the most beautiful handmade cabinets, milking cows. I never would’ve imagined!

Meanwhile back at the ranch….or farmstead….the power went off in the middle of the night and I didn’t get up until 5:20 am! I kept waking up during the night wondering why I was awake, worrying about why I, the one who sleeps through anything, was so stressed that I kept waking up. It turns out my body knew it was time to get up, but my clock said sleep!

At this point, the cows are milked, fed, bedded and I’m working, no slaving away in my office, existing on coffee and cigarettes, working on Dairy Agenda Today….oh I’m so excited about this launch on Monday! No, I don’t smoke that was a joke!

Life is flying by here on the Knolltop. Speaking of flying, Bobby is flying out to Montana this morning to put on a fitting and showing presentation to a group of 4-Her’s in Montana and Alberta, Canada. He will stay with my sister and get to see her dairy set up…boy am I jealous! Please pray for his safety.

In the meantime, we have to keep the farm going here….and with the crew I have, we should have no problems! They are great! (Prayer needed!)

Yesterday we went to Indiana to look at a heifer for friend and then we ate at the Shipshewana Livestock auction restaurant. That was a fun road trip, but boy were we tired when we got home!

So, now I’m off to Detroit to deliver the boss and then back to run errands and get some groceries…the kids had a short pick of cereal this morning and they let me know too!

Just a few short days until the launch of Dairy Agenda Today!

Okay, if there are any of you out there who homeschool…you’ve got to go to the Pioneer Woman and see her homeschooling section. It is an absolute RIOT! I just got done laughing my head off at a funeral for a some kind of hawk. The pictures are her writing are so funny!

As a former homeschooler I can so appreciate what she has to say.

And if you’re absolutely against homeschooling….get a life!

Good sunny morning from the Knolltop!

It’s a beautiful but cold, like 13 degrees cold, here in Southern Michigan.

Okay, I’ve started double blogging now. As you know the launch of Dairy Agenda Today will be on Monday the 2nd….and I’ve got a ladies blog on that website. So to have an archive of things on there, I’ve started blogging there too. It’s very strange to blog in two places.

On this blog I feel like we’re all family and I can just lay it all out there for you, but on that blog it’s just not the same. I actually have to think about what I’m going to write! It’s a great challenge for me, but so much fun as I get to write about women in dairying.

So, if any of you women or men have anything you think I should write about on that blog…..please let the flood gates open!

And you probably missed it but Amanda Nolz blogs for several things, one of which is World Dairy Diary…boy those two words are not easy to spell together….anyway, she wrote about this blog…she is such a sweet girl! I wish she lived closer so I could rub up against so much inspiration!

Well, better get over to the barn…I have to get chores done early so I can be on Rural Route Radio this morning…I wonder what Trent has on the agenda today?

Wow, what a beautiful sunrise this morning! It’s cold, but sunny.

The weekend was great! What was so great about it? Glad you asked…..Jake had a buzzer beater in his basketball game on Saturday! He said it was the end of the game, he looked at the clock and from outside the three point line he threw it up and swish! It went in just as the buzzer went off. They were ahead by something like 20 points, so it wasn’t a true “clutch” shot, but it was just as good to Jake. If I saw him reenact that shot once I watched him 27 times over and over and over again in our living room, or should I say our basketball court aka living room.

And while Jake was showing his hoop savvy I was speaking at a ladies day out at the Solid Rock Community Church in West Unity, Ohio. They were the best group of women from so many different backgrounds. After a morning full of fun we had lunch, made by the men, one very special man, Duane Knisely, a good friend of ours. You’ll remember Duane as the retired FFA teacher and beef producer. He and his wife have a farm with beef cattle and they used to milk cows. So when lunch time rolled around his son-in-law walked up and set down a tall glass of milk just for me and said Mr. Knisely told me to tell you this was special milk from a Jersey cow! That Duane!

Well, I’d love to expound more about it, but I just heard the tractor go down to the barn and that’s my cue to head back out to bed the cows.

Later!

Good Morning from a busy Knolltop.

I had to come in early from the barn this morning and passed four sleepy kids on my way across the road. They are taking my place while I head to Ohio to speak at a Ladies retreat.

I sure could use your prayer if you would be so kind. Thank you!
Gotta go, don’t want to be late!

It’s a cold, blustery, sunny day here on the Knolltop. The wind is from the west which means the kitchen is cold and you know what that means????? It’s a great day to bake!

One of the comments from a couple of days ago mentioned singing in the silo. I have an idea who that person was who left that comment since there is only one person in this whole world who has ever sung in the silo with me….and that would be my good friend from my childhood, Nancy. She is a special friend in my life, always will be. She and I shared many, many things and one of the best was singing together. It seemed no matter what, the world was our stage. We would sing all the time, but our favorite place was in the silo.

One of us would break out in a Captain and Tennial song (showing our age)I don’t know how to spell it! Invariably it was this one, “Lonely nights, I cry myself to sleep….tell me what am I gonna do…..” I can hear us now, it was so much fun!

So, now I have to ask, are there any other farm girls out there who did that? Who stood in the silo and sang their heart out? Hearing their voice echo? Enjoying the time all by yourself with no one around to hear you? Come on…fess up!

Yesterday with all the busyness I was still able to get two columns written, now this morning I’ve got another one to write and off to the grocery store, after chores of course!

It’s been a busy day here on the Knolltop. My schedule was interrupted when I was asked to go get hay. When I got back I helped finish up chores all while knowing I had to do my Holstein International Column. They have to get it to the interpreters before Friday and of course in Holland they are 7 hours ahead of me. So…deadlines are a little crazy when you write for an international magazine.

And of course I don’t have microsoft Word on my computer because of…well those computer issues a couple of weeks ago….so I begged Russell Gammon to paste my column into a Word document so he could spell check it and count the words. I can’t be over 350 words with this column….so we are in the middle of emailing back and forth the column for me to edit…now this is crazy!

And of course he only agreed to do it so he could read the column first and because Russell is Russell, he had to send commentary along with the spell checked column. He’s a mess!

So, as I write, I’m waiting for the great Rustico to send it back to me so I can pare it down if I need to and I have to be in the barn in four minutes….all these deadlines…..they govern my world! I need a place without deadlines!

All is well on the Knolltop….just busy running errands and helping the boss.

Just haven’t gotten to the computer yet….but I will….some time.