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!

It’s been a very busy day here on the Knolltop and it’s still going strong. Last evening JW’s team beat Burr Oak. After Luke, Jake and I got done doing chores we called one of my girlfriends and we went out to Saucy Dogs BBQ place and had a bite to eat. When we got home, I crawled in bed and Jake and I watched a little TV. It was nice just to lay there and spend time together…Luke was on the phone to his girlfriend…hmmmm….

Anyway, this morning everyone had to get out to do chores so we could take Luke to his AAU basketball tryout in Adrian. JW went to work for Mr. Kiser and Jake had to stay home to go to his basketball practice. Sarah finally came home from her sleepover….exhausted of course.

When we got home from Luke’s tryout, I took Sarah to her practice, picked up Jake and came home for a short nap. Then I hustled in to get Sarah, got home just in time to slap something on the table for dinner and put in my barn overalls in the dryer and start a load of jeans.

Now I’m headed to the barn and tonight is our annual DHIA banquet…Jake and I will go and we get to hear Krissa Thom speak…she is a Trent Loos protegee…I hope I spelled that right! Bobby will stay home..he’s too tired from being out late at JW’s game last night. JW is gone to the FFA Big Buck Banquet and Luke and Sarah will stay home with Bobby. Normally our Saturdays are not this busy…today is an exception.

Better get to the barn…..later! By the way…it’s sunny out and a great help for my rotton attitude that I’ve had lately!

Yes, I’m a bit late posting this morning. That’s because I had to run to town early this morning and get some hydraulic fluid and some other things, then I had to run lunch money into the school for the kids, they were almost down to eating a free PB&J unless I deposited some money in their accounts. Althought how bad can PB&J be? It keeps your sides from caving in.

And then when I got home I had to help finish chores, clean up a few breakfast dishes start a load of laundry and pick up before I felt like I could get to the computer. And the first thing I did was respond to some newspaper editors about running my column. I’m trying to get my column in some papers around the midwest and they all claim they don’t have room. What I want to say is, you always have room for good material! But I don’t. I just send them some samples and pray they like them enough to start running it.

A few weeks ago Farmshine finally ran my first column and I got a few responses from readers of that paper. Now if a few people responded, how many others wanted to respond but didn’t because of the busyness of life? Well, that’s my vent for the day…I’m done now.

I’ve got to start writing!

Last night JW’s team won again. They were really playing well and JW had 3 fouls….yes, you could say he had an off night.

It’s a partly sunny morning here with a stiff breeze…no more balmy weather, we’re back to winter for a while. It sure was nice to just wear a sweatshirt with no long underwear out to the barn for chores!

The mercury light is out in the yard…boy is it strange to walk out of the house and have it so dark outside….we didn’t realize how much light that thing casts until it quit working. I wonder if we’re the same way, we don’t realize how much light we cast on others….hmmmm

Better get going…lots to do today!

I just heard a rumble of thunder and I can’t believe it. We must have moved to Georgia and I didn’t know it. This weather feels just like the south on the few occasions that I’ve been there during the winter. I like it.

Last evening was such a hoot during chores. I told the kids after Christmas break they needed to start working with their show calves. While we were milking I saw JW and Luke get rope halters and drag their June calves out for a walk.

What was so funny was that JW has Pami’s heifer, Pontoon who is the friendliest of the two calves and Luke has Holly’s heifer, Honey. Neither one of these heifers has been worked with, they only get their chin scratched when I get in their pen each day to clean it out. They love having their chin scratched.

When the pulled them out to walk down the isle, Pontoon fought it every step of the way while Honey walked along as if Luke had been working with her for months. It was so funny to see JW fighting and pulling and complaining while Luke just passed by him with this perfectly trained, or so it appeared, heifer.

JW said it wasn’t fair and I agreed and then I told him he just had to be patient….well, telling a teenage boy to be patient is like telling water not to flow down stream.

I’ve got two rooms cleaned out…today I head to the Salvation Army with my items that are no longer needed but still had a useful life.

How ’bout that New Hampshire Primary? Are you tired of the election yet? I am!

It’s a balmy 55 out this morning and it’s a good thing because Jake wanted to wear his new Packer’s hat to school.

Over the weekend, Jake had another big blessing. The farm family up the road are good friends of ours. They are crop farmers and run over a lot of ground. In the fall and spring, Jake gets to “hang” with these folks…he calls it working. Last year, the whole family received Carhart farm coats with their farm name embroidered on the back. Jake was very envious of these jackets and they knew it. They told him they would order one for him…or so Jake said they said they would order one for him. I kept thinking to myself that it was more of a hope of Jake’s and not a promise of these nice friends.

Well, me of little faith, Jake showed up in the barn Saturday night to do his chores with a brand new dark green Carhart coat that said, “Schoenberger Farms” on the back. I was elated that they thought so much of Jake to buy a farm coat for him. This coat has now sealed Jake’s assumption that he is an actual part of the Schoenberger Farms Team…whether they want him or not. They are an awesome family!

And for a game report from the MSU girls basketball game on Saturday….they lost to Penn State. It was still lots of fun though. What was amazing to me was all the people we knew there. I was going with the assumption that we wouldn’t see anyone we knew in 4-H…instead we ran into so many people we knew and even sat with the crew from Nugentdale Farms.

We had awesome seats…eight rows up from the court and we had a blast!

Well, it’s time to get going. With the kids back in school…all except Sarah who caught Bobby’s bug…life will get back into a routine now and maybe I’ll get something accomplished.