Knolltop Farm Wife

Good Monday Morning from a sunny, warm Knolltop! It's Dairy Days this week and while we have no cattle going up, the kids will still participate in the contests.  Today is quiz bowl, so Luke, Sarah and Jake will go up for that while JW will be working for Koebels all week.  Yes, JW is back in our midst, if only for a matter of hours before he leaves again.  I've been following him around like a puppy since he got home asking all about is NASCAR adventures.  We have laughed so much, mostly because of his story telling, he's very good at it, but his view of NASCAR compared to so many others. JW works for Competition Tire and they will go to a NASCAR race and mount and balance all the tires used by all the race cars.  Some of these cars will go through 15 sets of practice tires and then 20 sets for the actual race.  That is  an amazing number of tires if you ask me, especially at $500 per tire!  Anyway, JW and the crew work down in the pits d...

It's a beautiful morning here on the Knolltop.  A very hot day is in store for our neck of the woods! Sarah and I will head to go pick blueberries before it gets too hot and then I'm just not sure what we will do. Last evening, in the heat and humidity, Sarah had a volleyball workout and Luke went and played basketball.  When they got home, Luke's shirt was soaked!  I asked him if that was all sweat and he assured me it was and then said, "That's what happens when you want to win every game...you get sweaty." Today he's off again to bale more straw and then will take his Farmall M to a tractor show a few miles south of here.  JW is in St. Louis at a NASCAR race.  He is mounting and balancing tires for Comp Tire.  They provide all the tires for the racing teams and he gets to go to the races and do his tire thing.  Last weekend he was in Chicago for a race and the highlight of the weekend was that Danica Patrick (sp?) said "Hi" to him.  He w...

Yep, it's July, already and I can't believe how I have neglected this blog the way I have. This is ridicules!!!! Let's just not worry about how longs it's been but just move forward.  It's a beautifully, hot day here on the Knolltop ! After walking this morning I was going to pick blueberries at Jennifer Lewis' place but decided to take the kids swimming instead.  It's just too hot to do anything else.  Now I've decided to update this blog!  For those of you who may not know, Sarah, Jake and I went to Montana with my parents for my nephew's wedding.  Here is a story about how it went.  It was a 1600 mile drive, the longest drive I had ever made to sing at a wedding. But then again, this was no ordinary wedding. After encountering heavy rain, downed power lines, detours through back roads, wrong turns in the mountains of Wyoming, 20 miles of gravel road in the middle of a destitute Indian Reservation, a western store where the sales lady tri...

Good Morning from a sunny, cool and beautiful Knolltop! With JW"s open house over, it is now time to get back to "regular" life.  I have no idea what that is, but I do know it includes not worrying about the lawn, flowers, weeds, food, paper plates, a tent and a guest list. JW's graduation came and went in a flash.  The day seem to just fly by.  It was the days of preparation before hand that seemed to be very, very slow, especially for the other three children who had to slave away for their big brother's open house while he just sat around, or so they say.  Never mind the days they were in school and I had him removing the swing set, taking trash out, running countless errands and sending out last minute invitations(with the wrong addresses, I might add.) Here is one of the slaves painting the fence and posing.  Yup, we got the fence all painted....in time. And here is another slave and his girlfriend slave.  They scraped a lot, in that one spot. ...

Good afternoon from the Knolltop !  It's cool, a bit windy but not a cloud, well, maybe a couple of clouds in the sky! I just got back from walking outside, yes normally I walk on the treadmill, but today, I ventured out while Sadie was sleeping.  I have to sneak out like a mom with an anxious baby.  Sadie loves to go with me but she is getting so old, blind and deaf, she doesn't hear cars coming and of course she doesn't hear me calling her.  Yes, I know what you're thinking....put a leash on the dog gone dog!  Good idea....but it's easier to sneak out. The boys have a game today at home. I will take my trusty camera and get some pictures.  It occurred to me I have no baseball pictures and I will need some for JW's open house.  Oh my heaven's I said the O.H. words! Every time I speak or hear those words I start to cringe!  I'm not organized enough to have a full fledged open house...doggone it I said it again (cringe, cringe, cringe) I'm ge...

Good Morning from a sunny, going to be a beautiful day on the Knolltop!  Taking me a long time to get something gathered up for my Dairy Agenda Today blog, I finally got around to what I wanted to post, something that wasn't too personal, too mother-ish, too condescending, too preachy, just something that everyone would want to read about(it took copious amounts of graham crackers dipped in melted chocolate) and I finally thought I would just put up a bunch of pictures and then the site went down so now I can't post there so I'll post here instead!  This blog has become such a step-child!  Isn't that awful!  Anyway, Luke and JW have a game today at Jackson Christian.  Sarah had a tournament last weekend and they did rather well.  They were first in the Silver division.  Today I have to bed the barn before I head to town and get some lunchmeat for subs for the boys before they go to their game.  Then I've got to vote for the schoolboard, which ...

It's a beautiful morning here on the Knolltop!  And I've got some good news. For those who hadn't heard, I'll start at the beginning.  During basketball season, Luke took a hard fall and hurt his knee.  Like I always do when the kids complain, I just say, hmmmm....keep an eye on it, and usually it goes away.  But this time Luke kept telling me his knee hurt and it wasn't until he told JW that he couldn't go "catch" him early one morning because it killed him to squat, that I stood up and took action.  I made an appointment with the doctor, we were sent to the Orthopedic surgeon and after X-rays and an MRI, we sat and waited for Dr. Anderson to come in and tell us the news.  I was prepared for the worst but Luke and his father weren't.  You see, his first game of the season was that afternoon at 4 pm and Luke thought he would suit up and squat behind that plate, frame those pitches and be just fine.  But when Dr. Anderson said, no baseball, put...

Last Saturday evening, JW took off in my dad's truck and picked up Leah for the prom.  JW is not a conventional prom goer.  He picked out his own tux, no help from no one, he didn't want to eat with all the other people, (they went to her prom, a different school,) he wanted to eat alone. And they didn't spend big bucks at a fancy restaurant, instead they went to Culvers.  Yes, that's right, the home of the butter burger.  I didn't not teach him to be so unconventional, he got it all from his father.  So when I went to Leah's home to take pictures of the prom couple, he was goofing off and making faces and she was trying to get him to behave.  I was standing a little ways away, but with my zoom lens, I was able to capture the moment.  You know, when he was putting up the peace sign and then she was asking him, gently to put it down and then had to take his hand and push it down.  But of course, that didn't stop the strong-willed JW.  He ...

It's warm but cloudy here on the Knolltop!  We keep having a shower here and a shower there.  Good Morning! Jake hanging on the rim in the sunset....this has nothing to do with the post, just wanted to add a picture! When I came in from the barn this morning I came in the south door and I walked past the magnolia tree and smelled the sweetest fragrance!  After a long, cold winter that is such a welcome sign of spring. It's spring break around here so I've been trying to keep the kids busy with jobs.  I just sent Jake and his buddy out to put down some mulch while Sarah is folding laundry.  She twisted her ankle last night at volleyball practice and so she's hobbling around.  She can still do dishes and fold clothes, so it's all good!  Does that sound like a compassionate mom or what? NOT!  Seriously, I do hope she gets better, we are going to the New York Spring Carrousel in Syracuse to cover the dairy show for Dairy Agenda Today and I...

When my mother in law said, "Have you just quit blogging?" I realized how awful I had been about posting on this blog and keeping all my family happenings to myself.  So, with recent birthdays and Easter, I thought I had better get back to this and hopefully I can hang with it. It's spring break on the Knolltop and the weather got the memo! We've had temps of 70 today, a little breeze and lots of sun! I love it.  The forsythia is blooming and you can see the boys playing basketball through the bush. The crocuses are beautiful even with the ladybugs crawling in them. And the magnolia tree is blooming!  I love Spring!!