Knolltop Farm Wife

Over the weekend, we celebrated Madi and Jordy's birthdays.  They were born within hours of each other, and they will turn two at the end of this month.  A big two-for-one celebration is the norm for them, and I decided to take my camera and try to capture the day for their busy moms who hosted the event.  I enjoyed snapping photos of the kids and their celebrations, but it wasn't until I began the editing process that my heart swelled with emotion. There were so many cute moments, but this one gave me a catch in my throat. Jordy received a motorized pony, and the uncles were excited about it, so they opened up the package for her.  She hopped on and had no problem steering her pony around the barn.  She was amazing! But what I noticed was her cousin Harper standing nearby, watching her enjoy her pony.  Harper didn't make a move or a sound when Jordy got on the pony; she just stood there smiling, enjoying the ride for Jordy. This is remarkable for a toddler...

 I saw a post on Facebook by a woman who wanted to place her beehives on your land in return for a supply of honey.  Knowing how much honey my husband consumes daily and is constantly looking for a good supply of raw honey, I immediately contacted Emily the Beekeeper and invited her to our place to see if it was suitable for her beehives. We went back and forth and finally agreed on a date and time to meet and greet about the possibility of beehives on our property. Bobby had just gotten home and we were finishing up chores when an old model truck drove in the yard.  It was a rust bucket of a truck with equipment on the flatbed and I wondered if the guy was lost or if this was, in fact, Emily the Beekeeper. A long, lanky man stepped out of the truck and let's just say he looked like he could have been on a most wanted poster hanging in the post office. He had a mugshot look and his clothing matched, complete with an open fly on his pants.   He introduced himself...

Can I break from my normal opinionated commentary to tell you about something I’ve been wearing for the past two years?  Hang with me; you might find this helpful if you live in a northern climate, want to look nice, but don’t want to fall on your behind while unloading groceries at your local store or running across the barnyard to catch a runaway heifer. Durango Boots asked if I wanted to try a pair of their Lady Rebel line, and not ever having tried their boots, I figured I had nothing to lose.  I’ve been wearing them for two years now, and I have no complaints. When I put my jeans on in the morning, I have plenty of boots to choose from, but when the snow flies or I’m going to be out and about on the farm, I reach for my Durango Lady Rebels.   I had no idea how much I would enjoy these boots until I wore them in the ice and snow of our Michigan winters. They give me plenty of traction; they are water-proof and give me all-day comfort.  If I’m going to st...

 By Melissa Hart Something is happening in our world that is as scary as I’ve ever seen, and it has nothing to do with communicable diseases or artificial intelligence killing off the world as we know it.  It’s about the absolute disregard for one half of our population because of their gender. We have a full-on assault on men and boys in this nation, and it’s got to stop. For decades, Hollywood has portrayed men as nothing more than useful idiots in our sitcoms, movies, and now on social media.  Dads are dopes, boys are bad, and young men are a danger to society. The most troubling trend on social media is pregnant women who are blatantly saying if they find out they are having a boy, they will immediately abort the baby.  What infectious mind disease have these women surrendered their good sense to? Who has convinced these women that boys are bad and girls are better? Who has continued to perpetuate the storyline that women are superior because we are women and men...

As I was cleaning out the pen of the girl’s miniature pony, they were bouncing around the barn, playing with the hose and doing what toddlers do when given the freedom to explore.  Suddenly I heard Madi yelling, so I looked out to find her standing on the top of the gate yelling, “ROY! ROY!” She wanted Roy, the horse, to come up from the pasture so she could see him.  As passionately as she was yelling, you would think her relationship with Roy was like the Lone Ranger and his horse Silver, inseparable.  But that’s not an accurate description of Madi and Roy. Madi calls for Roy every time we go to the barn, but as soon as Roy gets up close and personal, Madi’s fear kicks in, and she quickly backs off.  She loves him from afar and believes she wants him to come closer, until he does, and then she wants no part of him. Her relationship with Roy is much like our relationship with faith in God.  I can’t count the number of times I’ve stood on the proverbial ...

By Melissa Hart Contentment can be an elusive concept when we are constantly bombarded with influencers telling us we are missing out if we don’t buy a product or service. The highlight reels of a family on a stunning vacation or the accomplishments of their kids can send us down the path to pity in a big hurry. Or simple fall decorations on a porch can make us feel like we are falling short of the expectations the world has seemingly put on us. We can fall prey to the need to be better, belong, and be happy if we only had a little bit more. Yesterday, I was reminded by my two-year-old granddaughter that I am blessed beyond belief. As I was preparing her toast for breakfast, she was sitting on the counter, watching every slab of butter I slathered on the warm, toasted bread. Suddenly, she said, “Are those your new drawers?” She was referring to the new drawers I had built for my kitchen to replace the 50-year-old drawers that had fallen apart after decades of use. I want a new kitchen....

 By Melissa HartIt is not lost on me that I have one of the best jobs in the world. Traveling is fun but traveling to so many state fairs and cattle shows is something I have enjoyed my entire life.  I think I inherited the love of a cattle show from my mom, who would have spent her entire summer on the road showing something anywhere she could if she had not been busy with a family and a farm. When I interviewed Alta Mae Core of Salvisa, Kentucky for our DAT Extra podcast, I realized she lived that life with her parents.  They went from show to show all summer long and last weekend, as a grandmother, I followed her into Broadbent Arena with a spring calf and followed her out with the Supreme Champion of the Kentucky State Fair. There is just something about the smell of shavings and the sound of clippers with hair flying that reminds us that we are near people we can relate to….we are home. We started our state fair coverage in Columbus at the Ohio State Fair. This f...

 On our 250 th birthday of the great experiment called the United States of America, there is so much patriotic content to consume and I’m here for every bit of it. The choirs singing patriotic songs, the flag that is being carried on foot by country loving patriots from Washington state to Washington DC and the constant barrage of fireworks from freedom loving Americans is just what this country needs. This beautiful yet battered experiment of people wanting to be free from the tyranny of a king needs to be front and center for every American citizen.  The FIFA World Cup has brought in visitors from around the world who are discovering America for the first time and loving it.  They love our freedom. They love our free refills and they love the beauty from corner to corner that is America. They have given us a gift. They have reminded us that we have taken for granted that we live freely, speak freely and travel freely through a country filled with like-minded y...

 Who is excited about artificial intelligence and data centers? My social media algorithm must have picked up on my skepticism of AI, because lately it has been feeding me anti-AI videos with a vengeance. I can’t say I’m upset about it. I recently watched clips from two college graduations where featured speakers praised the promise of AI — only to be booed by the graduates. The next generation does not seem entirely sold on AI, and honestly, that gives me hope. We are living through one of the worst eras of graphic design. Social media is flooded with AI-generated images that all seem to share the same crowded, overworked look. They are often so busy that the main message gets lost. For people without design experience, AI can feel like an easy shortcut — an instant file that creates the illusion of creativity while depending entirely on the work of human designers who came before it. Think about it: there is nothing truly original about AI. Nothing. There is no human ha...

It was a situation I glossed over.  I didn’t have to deal with it every single day but it was often enough for me to go to my Bible study group and submit it as a prayer request.  They would listen to me and invariably one or two of them would tell me, “You’ve got to take care of that. Get rid of it.” I knew I should, but I didn’t want to face the conflict and I was fearful of the consequences.  Life would not be the same. I would have to find other avenues to fill the void that the resolution would create. So instead of facing it once and for all, I worked around it.  I figured out ways to deal with it. My work was suffering because of it, but I kept making excuses that it would get better over time.  If I just kept feeding the monster, it would be satisfied, and things would work out. But that’s not what happened. I had sleepless nights of worry; I was short-tempered and spent a lot of time wringing my hands and waiting for a better result. Before you start ...

By Melissa Hart On the cover of the recent Michigan Dairy Cattle News is a photo of the Wolverine Purebred Livestock Sales Pavilion, a massive sales arena that sat on Grand River between Williamston and Okemos in the 1950s and 60s.  This same photo was on the cover of the 1955 Holstein Michigander, the predecessor of the Michigan-Indiana Holstein News and the Michigan Dairy Cattle News. I put that photo on the cover because it harkened back to a time when the Registered Holstein business was thriving in Michigan.  There were sales in every corner of the state and Michigan Holstien genetics were sought after by breeders from across the country. The Wolverine Sales Pavilion was built by Clarence B. Smith after World War II who came north from Kentucky as an auto worker.  His love for cattle led him to manage Baynewood owned by E.M. Bayne at Romeo, MI. There he developed the great Royal Ormsby, the 141 st cow of the breed to produce over 1000 pounds of fat in one ye...

 By Melissa Hart News isn’t news anymore, it’s drama used as a weapon to stir up emotions and fuel our hatred for the opposite, polarizing point of view. I used to watch it religiously, but now I rarely spend my time or energy on it. If I were to believe what they tell me, every convenience store would be in a state of robbery, every country leader would qualify to be institutionalized and race would be the basis of every decision from friendship to farm loans. I just got back from a trip to Texas and witnessed the opposite of what you see on any media source.  I saw vast farm fields full of fertile soil getting ready to grow cotton, rice, corn and beans. Vibrant farm towns were still in existence with pick-up trucks parked outside of local diners packed full on a Saturday night. I drove thru Clear Fork Coffee Company in Albany, Texas for a great cup of coffee and a Texas Cheater that hit the spot. Kind people were the trend not the exception. I missed the trash can wi...

Hauling things out of my parent’s farmhouse to sell in a yard sale was how my sister and I spent our Memorial Day weekend.  With each dust-covered box, we found a treasure trove of history we were just now discovering about our mom. Sorting through files and photos, we were seeing the dimension of a self-less mom grow into a person we never knew existed. I mentioned in an earlier column about the things we never knew about our mom, but the sacrifice of her life has never been clearer. Growing up, stories of her college days were plentiful but several details were left out as she concentrated on raising a family and helping her husband of six decades run a farm.  We knew she was a successful vocalist in college, but we never knew she recorded an album until we pulled out an old 78 vinyl record and listened to her lyrical voice through the crackle and pop of the old relic. We knew she was the first woman on the Michigan State livestock judging team, but we had no idea she wa...

Sitting in a motel room in Princeton, West Virginia, is not where I expected to be this week after a long two months of being on the road covering shows.  But here I am looking out the window at beautiful mountains in full color. My daughter was headed to cover the South Carolina State Fair when she called with her car broken down on the side of the highway at 8 pm on a Friday night.  We got the car safely towed to a shop but we had to get her and her assistant headed to Columbia, SC.  Because her assistant was also a Virginia Tech graduate, Wytheville, Virginia was a friendly place to be stranded.  Several phone calls later and helpful texts from the exhibitors in Columbia, South Carolina, the two girls were on their way in a borrowed car from Virginia Tech Dairy Judging Team coach, Dr. Katharine Knowlton. Thankful for a generous judging coach who has made a career of teaching and loving the next generation of our ag leaders I was elated when I heard the show ...

By Melissa Hart Imagine four-wheel drive John Deere tractors gathering cobwebs in a pole barn with doors that hadn’t been opened in months.  Can you see fallow farm ground growing up with weeds and annoying brush?  Or farm lanes that are grown over because there was no traffic in or out of the farm. The grease guns are never used, the farm implements rusting away behind the barn and no fuel trucks in and out of the driveway for lack of need.  The neighborhood equipment dealer would cease selling new tractors, and electric lawn mowers would be the new hot item.  The parts manager would also serve as the bookkeeper, the part time mechanic and the custodian.  There would be one grain elevator to serve the entire county, one farm store would be able to serve three counties and the seed dealer and chemical salesman would be an online store somewhere in Kansas.  Stockyards would close up, vibrant diners that served local farmers would shutter their doors and ...

 By Melissa Hart As I look at my keyboard, I see wrinkled hands and chipped nail polish on a 56-year-old body that has endured and enjoyed five decades as a female.  Living an imperfect life, I am a daughter, wife, mom and aunt.  And I will never be able to change that. It’s how God made me. But lately there is a loud minority of folks who want the privilege to change their gender and are trying to make the rest of us think it’s as natural as a bull sniffing the rump of a cow in heat. There is a young college athlete who was born a male.  He was created by God as a male and no matter what, his DNA will always be XY. With that chromosomal content, he will have the tendency to be a conqueror, a protector and a fighter. But his fight is to become a woman and he is being allowed to compete in the NCAA women’s swimming events, smashing records set by women, as a man. I will not pretend to know what is going through his mind, but I do know that he and everyone who is...

By Melissa Hart  You want me to do what? Produce a magazine four times a year?  I had no experience in magazines, printing, ad design, selling advertising, much less any thoughts about a media kit, cover designs, bleeds, or ad specs. I was a freelance writer.  I knew how to type words in a word document and send it to the newspaper or magazine, but to actually come up with a complete magazine, nope, not for me. I knew I couldn’t come up with editorial content that anyone wanted to read. I knew I would never be able to sell advertising, or come up with a reason why someone should advertise. I knew I would never have the time to sell, write, edit and hire a designer, who was I fooling? Or better yet, what was God thinking? My first reaction to any challenge is fear.  Fear of failure, fear of not knowing what I need to know and fear of people being disappointed in me.  I know I’m not alone, but when I’m sitting in my office and there is no one there to pa...

 By Melissa Hart By the time you are reading this, Pleasant Meadow Farms will have dispersed their herd and the milk pump will never be turned on again by Melvin, Phyllis or Mark Fledderjohann.  When I was asked to write a feature story on this family, my first thought was, ‘ They are selling out, why would I write a feature story about that?’ The Fledderjohanns have been milking Registered Holsteins on their western Ohio farm since 1968 where they provided a living for their families with 70 milk cows. Mark was the only son to come back to the farm where he and his parents have worked together for decades. He has a wife who wants to spend time with him, and two kids who need their dad’s involvement and the demand of the farm has kept him at a distance far too long, so for Mark in his late 50s, it was time to close the chapter on dairy farming. Melvin and Phyllis are in their 80s and while still in great health and with the mental attitude of a couple of 40-year-olds, they t...

 By Melissa Hart   Starch was a staple growing up.  My mom would spend a few afternoons every week standing over an ironing board making sure all of my dad’s clothes were starched and looking crisp.  She didn’t stop there, she would starch her clothes, dad’s hankies, her aprons, doilies, cloth napkins that were used on special occasions and especially the tablecloths that donned the dinner table on Sunday afternoons when we were likely to have company for dinner. Seeing my mom set up her ironing board in the kitchen was a normal part of growing up and I thought all moms did that, until I found out they didn’t. But I did.  Early in our marriage I had a big pile of ironing, just like my mom.  And within the pile, along with my husband’s shirts, his Wrangler jeans, and crocheted doilies were pillowcases.  Again, I thought everyone starched their pillowcases, until I found out they didn’t. This led me to asking mom why on earth we starched pillowca...

I have a new podcast out on Spotify and Apple Podcasts!  It's the Dairy Agenda Today  EXTRA Podcast with Chris Hill  ! Chris and his wife, Jen, operate MD-Hillbrook in Maryland and specialize in marketing purebred dairy genetics. Chris took a few minutes out of his day while he was trucking cattle to the Maryland State Fair to visit about how he became an auctioneer and how on earth he can breath while crying a sale!  If you enjoy the podcast, share it on your social media channels!