Another beautiful, yet cool here on the Knolltop.

It’s been a busy day today, I’m working on a story for Holstein International and I’ve run up against some roadblocks, but they are slowly getting ironed out! I usually don’t have trouble like this, but I guess I needed the challenge. NOT!

Last night JW’s team traveled to Burr Oak and they mercied them! It was great! Bobby and one other set of parents were the only two there for our team. I guess the gas prices are starting to keep people home. I was glad Bobby went, but the interest rate on the second mortgage to pay for the tank of gas is a little high.

Jake had a scrimmage last night too and he did really well. He got picked to be on an all-star team tournament for next weekend. So next Saturday, Sarah will be playing volleyball in Detroit, JW will be playing baseball in Tekonsha and Jake will be playing baseball in Hudson. Hmmmm….with only two parents I think we’d better rent another mom or dad!

Better get back to work!

It’s a cool morning here on the Knolltop where we are stirring up the neighborhood with unauthorized personnel on the lawnmower.

Our lawnmower has been giving us trouble this spring. Usually I bug and bug and bug til it gets fixed. But this year I decided on the “hands-off” approach. Plus, I’ve got so much writing to do, I hardly have time to mow.

So, two weeks have gone by and the yard is beginning to look like…..well….a jungle. Getting lost on the way to the barn is a regular occurance…at least that’s what I say when Bobby asks why I’m late.

Apparently, the long, upkept look was getting to Bobby too and he started to look at the mower. Three “mechanics” later, the mower was fixed and Bobby had taken over as the greenskeeper. This was all too strange to the rest of the neighborhood and the phone lines started heating up.

I received a call from a neighbor who was inquiring about the new lawnboy I had hired. She said another neighbor had called her inquiring about him too. The first neighbor said, “Is there something wrong with Melissa? She always mows the lawn and now I see Bobby out there mowing, he never mows. I just wondered if she was alright.” To which the second neighbor replied, “No, I don’t think so, but I’ll call to make sure.” She called and we had a great laugh over the fact that Bobby being on the lawnmower was cause for worry!

In 17 years of marriage, Bobby has mowed the lawn three times. And after looking at the strips of grass left here and there I say to myself…he will never mow the lawn again as long as I live!

It is a sunny but cool morning here on the Knolltop. It was 40 when we crossed the road to milk.

Yesterday I interviewed a dairy farmer from Indiana for a story I’m writing for the Michigan-Indiana Holstein News. Marion Hooley, the Indiana Master Breeder award winner, lives in Goshen and is a very chipper gentleman in his 70s. As we visited about his life as a Holstein breeder he told me he is legally blind now. He can’t drive anymore and it’s very difficult for him to see, but he still does relief milking for his son who now runs the dairy. He told me he drove his Gator through the cow pastures from his house to the farm every day.

He told me he had this thing called a Merlin that magnified small print so he could still read his Holstein magazines. As I listened to him talk about how thankful he was for his Merlin and how wonderful and supportive his wife had been through the years and how much he loved breeding Holstein cattle, I thought about how blessed I was. Not because I have my youth, my eyesight and my health, but because I got to listen to a man who didn’t have any of those things and I heard his positive attitude loud and clear. His gratefulness and humility was a great dose of medicine for me.

Okay….off to write another story, this time about Newell Rawlings from Rawlingdale Farms in Armada. He was the Michigan Master Breeder award winner.

It’s a cloudy morning here on the Knolltop, but I think, no, I know it’s going to be a great day, no matter what the weather or circumstances!

JW’s team won both games of their double header last night. JW pitched the second game and did really well. He was hitting well too…but don’t ask me any specific stats, cause I just don’t know!

Right now the vet is out doing surgery on a D.A. Carolyn…one of my favorite show cows is under the knife! JW and I think she’s got A.D.D. She acts so goofy all the time. Every day when I go in to prep her or prep the next cow she turns around and tries to lick my hair. I back up, then she stops. I inch forward trying to stay just out of reach of her long tongue and she reaches around again and no matter how many times I think I’m safe from the reaches of her lick, she gets me….somehow she gets me. In the morning I don’t care because I still have to take a shower, but in the afternoon when I know I have somewhere else to go after chores, I really don’t like sticky hair!

Bobby has gone back to his old business as a hoof trimmer. But these days he only gets two done in a day and the people are really slow in paying! But the good thing is, he never has to leave the farm. He’s been busy trimming his own cows, which he detests. He’d rather have another hoof trimmer in to do it, but he knows how silly that would be, so he’s been doing a couple each day. He’s so good at it too.

When he stopped doing it full time he still had guys with show steers calling him to come trim. He told them he wasn’t doing it anymore, but they wouldn’t stop calling so he told them if they brought the steers to the farm he would do it. AND he charged them a lot more too. Do you know those steer jocks would haul two or three steers here to the farm every 4-6 weeks during the show season to have those steers done? Because they had it done so often, Bobby didn’t have to do much, just trim a little here and there and they were done. But when those guys would take the steer out of the chute, they were sure that steer walked and looked 300% better than when the walked in the chute. They really believed their steer would have the edge in the show ring because of a good hoof trimming job. It was so funny!

Better get to breakfast!

It was a very busy weekend here on the sunny Knolltop. On Saturday Bobby, Jake and I went to Sarah’s volleyball tournament while JW went to motorcycle school and Luke played in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament. Sarah’s team fared well, they placed fourth in the gold division. No, I don’t know anything about the divisions…..scoring…..placing….nothin’…not a thing….zippo. The only thing I can gather is that “gold” must be good. All I care about is watching her and seeing her team improve over time.

It was Bobby’s first tournament….and he compared it to watching paint dry. But like any good dad, he cheered the team on and paid close attention to Sarah…and then had to analyze the whole thing.

Luke’s team placed 2nd in their tournament. When he came to the barn that night, I said, “Hey there’s Mr. Second place.” He absolutely hates losing and really hates it when I rib him about it. But since it was just a 3 on 3 tournament and not the State Championship…I had to trash talk a little. He grabbed me by the arms like he would take me down but I got lose. Then, a safe distance away and standing between cows I said, “That’s okay Lukie….everyone’s a winner!” Oh how he hates that statement! He just gave me a big grin and then started in with the blow by blow commentary of each game. He and Jake are famous for their sports commentaries…you really don’t even have to go to a game to know what happened, they are excellent with all the details. Luke has been that way since he was five.

Then on Sunday, Luke was asked to play on a high school 3 on 3 team. Some kids from Jonesville asked if he would play, boy he loves playing with the older boys. So Bobby, Jake and Luke headed for Jonesville, JW went to take his motorcycle test and Sarah and I went to church….where we all should’ve been!

Today, JW has a double header and yes…I remember…thanks to my neighbor Lori from Knolltop Morgans, that I have to provide the food!

Better get on it!

Wow…I can’t believe it! I forgot to post anything on my blog this morning! My mother called and reminded me and until then I was totally out of sync.

That’s what happens when you change your routine. This morning when I got in from the barn, I had to take Sarah to the school for a field trip. When I got home it was time to fix breakfast. I had a headache so I relaxed for a bit after breakfast and then realized I needed to get my column written. As soon as I started my column, the phone began ringing and my list of things to get done grew by leaps and bounds. Pretty soon I was begging for more time for my column and was out the door to run some errands. Forgetting all about my blog!

So…here we are….it’s a beautiful morning, or what’s left of it, on the Knolltop. JW’s team lost both games last night. But that has been overshadowed by JW’s excitement about motorcycle school. I’m not even going there!

Schedules are a good thing if you actually read them. Yesterday I said in my post that I had to provide food for the baseball team last night. Well, yesterday I ran to the store to pick up a few things then I donned my apron and baked sweetrolls, chocolate cake and rice crispy treats for the kids. After chores I loaded up the van with all the food and headed to the game only to find out that my day to provide the meal is Monday not yesterday! The lady that so carefully planned and typed out the schedule looked at me in disbelief. I apologized to her for not paying attention. I felt bad because when she made out the schedule, I’m sure she was counting on competent adults to actually read and follow the directions. But then there’s me. The one who thinks she knows what she’s doing and most of the time doesn’t!

Oh well, I told her it was better to have too much food than to not have enough.

And finally, Beth saw JW’s picture on the front of the Farmers’ Advance. Yes, I wrote that article, and whenever I write a story where any of my family is involved, I always ask Erin not to put my by-line on it. I forgot to ask and my by-line was on it…and I’m sure there are lots of parents out there who are chatting about Melissa Hart promoting her own son! Oh well. Life goes on!

It has to be the most beautiful sunrise here on the Knolltop I’ve seen in a long time!

Although we had a stay at home night last evening with no games or practices….today will make up for it! JW has a double header with Climax, one of the toughest teams in the league. I have to provide the meal for both teams after the game. We all share in the meal, one mom does drinks, one does snacks and a couple of others do the main meal. I can’t decide what kind of dessert I should make.

Sarah has volleyball practice and Jake has baseball practice. So it will be a busy night to preceed a very busy, tournament filled weekend. On Saturday, Luke is in a three on three basketball tournament and Sarah has her volleyball extravaganza! JW is taking motocycle classes so he can learn to drive a motorcycle. Yes….pray for this very nervous mom who doesn’t want anything to do with her son driving a motorcycle! He says he’s doing it so he can save on gas this summer….great reasoning…I’ll give him that!

Daylight’s burnin’! Better get going!

The Knolltop is rainy!

JW had a game last night and they lost. It was a bummer. They battled back and then lost it due to poor defense. After we said our goodbyes to the grandparents, we rushed Jake to practice and then I came home and flaked out. Well, I did a couple of loads of laundry and then made some caramel corn and some regular popcorn and then sat down to watch American Idol.

It was so nice just to sit for an entire hour. I mean, I didn’t move! With the remote in my left hand, the caramel corn in my lap, feeding myself with my right hand, I was in heaven. There were a million things I should’ve been doing, like preparing for the interview I have to do this morning and setting up a couple of other interviews for the rest of the week, I didn’t, I just sat down and enjoyed the company of my kids…whoever floated in and out.

I will pay for that. I have four stories plus two columns due by next Tuesday. But procrastination feels soooooo good!

So…I’d better get off my procrastination groove and get going!

My sweetcorn is planted and I now have authorization to plant the rest of my garden! Yes, the farming gods came down and planted eight rows of corn leaving me enough space for the rest of my garden. Now, I’ve got to find the time to go get the seeds and actually plant them!

I made Mr. Darvan stop and pose for the picture, he even smiled! He has no idea how world famous he is now. As you might of guessed, this crop farmer isn’t into blogs, in fact he had no idea what a blog was. Nor was he interested in finding out! He just loves planting his crops and watching them grow. At last count, Jake said he farms around 2700 acres. Oh, that’s right, you’re not supposed to tell how many acres you farm….oops!

JW had a game last evening, they got beat by last year’s State Baseball Champions, the Reading Rangers. The score was 6-1, so I guess that wasn’t a bad outing considering who they were playing. Tonight he has a home game against Pittsford and Jake has practice.

Better get breakfast!

Who had the best Mothers Day? ME!

Good morning from an overcast, 40 degree Knolltop! Yesterday was another great day for this mom. It started with my most favorite morning greeting in the world….”You stay in bed honey, the kids and I are going to do the chores!” YES! So, I dropped back into bed and obeyed!

I slept until 6:30 and then finally got up and made breakfast for everyone….since we were out of cereal and I didn’t want my kids to have to come in from the barn and then scrounge around the kitchen trying to make anything from scratch. Although, I don’t think they were planning making breakfast….but….you never know so I saved them the trouble.

When we got home from church, I changed clothes and settled in for a rainy day Sunday afternoon nap. When I woke up, I heard whispering…something was up….but what? I went to the kitchen and started making cookies and took some ground beef out for hamburgers on the grill. The older boys were getting ready to walk out the door when I asked them where they were going, they said they had to run to Buddies to get something for Daddy. By the smirk on their faces I could tell that’s not exactly where they were headed. So…trying to make them squirm just a bit more, I asked them to pick up some hamburger buns and some chips for me….they quickly said yes and were almost out the door, but then JW walked over to Sarah and whispered some instructions. I acted like I had no idea what was going on and continued to work in the kitchen.

As I worked in the kitchen preparing for the meal, Jake finally said, “Mom, why don’t you just go lay down!” Sarah sneered at him and said, “Jake, you’re going to give it away!” I agreed I should just lay down and that’s what I did until the boys arrived back home 30 minutes later.

They walked in with pizza and said, “Wow, mom, did you know that they sold pizza at Buddies? It’s a new thing they’re doing now!” They were so proud of themselves I couldn’t let on that I knew anything….so I just acted surprised!

It was a real treat to have my kids do that for me. I also received a bouquet of hand picked flowers and a card from Sarah and Jake made a couple of special projects in school for me. What a great day!

And what did I do for my mom? Well, she got to spend a day watching game after game after game after game after game of volleyball at Sarah’s tournament on Saturday. She and my dad came down and after watching a couple hours of volleyball, dad took us to lunch at this really great cafe…which when he picked it out, I was very leery of eating there, but it turned out to be a great lunch……I really should learn to trust my dad and his eating establishment choices. Then we went back and watched more volleyball until the last ball was bumped!

So…moms…time to report in…what did you do for your special day?