Knolltop Farm Wife

It's the same today as it was yesterday...cool and overcast. I'm now wearing my union suit under my barn clothes in the morning...yes, it's that cold....to me. Yesterday we had a wonderful time picturing Holly and Hollywood. Frank Robinson the photographer and Dan Carroll from Select Sires got here and Frank started scouting out the place to picture. He found his place and then noticed the front porch of the house. He said he thought some pictures there would be fun to take...I said...YES..I think so too! Bobby rolled his eyes. I had washed the girls yesterday morning..yes that was a cold job and even colder for the cows, but beauty has it's price. So they were clipped and ready to go when it was time for the pictures. Frank and Dan had a few finishing touches to put on the ladies and they were ready for their glamour shots. The kids got home just in time to help out. Luke got to hold the cows, Bobby and I were at each shoulder, Jake was at the tail, Dan was the noisema...

It's a cool and cloudy this morning on the Knolltop. The milking is done and the kids are in school but we've got a big day ahead of us. Yesterday morning Bobby began thinking out loud. He wondered if Frank Robinson...the Bovine Beautician would be around any time soon so we could get Holly pictured again. I emailed Frank and sure enough he said he could be here today at 3 pm. So today at 3 we will be picturing Holly and her daughter Hollywood. Holly was on her way home from Louisville yesterday and her ride took her to northern Indiana to Heath Penick's farm. So Lori, from Knolltop Morgans and I hopped in the truck and headed down to pick her up. It was perfect timing...we pulled in the driveway and they pulled in right after us. Holly was so glad to get off that trailer...but she had to hop on another one to ride home. When we got home she gladly hopped off again, headed to her stall and dove into the feed that was in the manger. The good thing about picturing today is th...

SNOW! It's spitting snow here on the Knolltop ...we're just not ready for that yet! Well the boys made it home last night and we're glad of it. I can breath a sigh of relief knowing the whole farm isn't on my shoulders anymore. I can handle the cooking, cleaning, laundry, calf feeding, pen cleaning, milking and writing..but don't give me all the feeding, cleaning, grinding and manure hauling. I just don't like having it all fall on me. I think of Mary Lou Topp in Ohio and when her husband died a premature death, the farm responsiblities fell on her and her boys. She took over that farm because her boys wanted to keep farming and together they've made it work and have been mighty successful at it. I admire her, especially after a three day stint of being alone but I don't want that load! Another lesson to be learned for anyone involved in showing livestock. When Bobby got home last night and began to describe every detail of the show he said in Holly...

Well, it's over....and we did pretty well. We were all gathered around the computer...me and my mom a little ways down the road was Lori from Knolltop Morgans, Nana in Griffin, GA, Aunt Carole in Flower Mound, TX and Aunt Ginny and Tommy in Joliet, MT. We needed a conference phone line for all the chatting we did while Luke was in the ring with Holly. "Do you see her yet?....yes, she just entered the ring...no, not that one...yes, the big white cow..does Luke have a white shirt on or a blue shirt?....Oh my doesn't he look grown up...oh my isn't he cute....Oh my she looks the best I've seen her look...Oh my well there's no doubt about it, if Holly doesn't win then that judge doesn't know what he's doing.....uh...Holly..don't put your head down....stand still Holly....Oh Luke don't let her do that....that doggone Holly....I bet she hasn't acted like that in a month of Sundays....she's being pulled in...she's in third...no fourth...

It's a breezy cool morning here on the Knolltop . The cows are milked and the kids are off to school. I went over and plugged the tractor in this morning on my way in from chores. The other morning it was a bit hard to start so I thought it might need a little warming up this morning. I just talked with Bobby, he's all ready for the show...and it turns out the cows will show first so Holly will be in a little earlier than I expected. She will be in the ring at about 12:30 or 1: oo pm..we're guessing....if you want to see Holly live and in person...well kind of....go to http://www.livestockexpo.org/index.htm and click on Freedom Hall East Ring, then after a minute or so, it will show up and you can watch too! Of course those of you who think I'm about as silly as I could be about a cow showing at a national show, you are probably thinking I'm out of my tree about all of this...but this is what breeding purebred cattle is all about. You breed for a good one and when...

It's been a perfect Sunday here on the Knolltop. Since we had to set our clocks back last night I don't have a clue what time it really is anymore. When I went to bed, I just left my clock alone and turned the alarm on and got up when it went off and milked the cows when I thought I was supposed to. I hate the time change... I want it to just stay the same all the time. We were able to get to church...on time....and then afterwards, because a third of us were not here, we stopped and had brunch at Bob Evans and then did a little shopping at TSC...Jake bought a tractor....and then came home to a nice quiet nap! That constitutes a perfect Sunday...church then dinner out then a nap! JW worked for the neighbor all day today and got home just in time to milk with me. The report from down south was different. I recieved this email from Russell, I just had to share it with you. Remember, he's in Louisville at the show and it sounds like they are having a whale of a time down there...

It's another sunny morning here on the Knolltop. We've had such beautiful weather and it was nice yesterday for the international delegation that stopped in. We had such a great visit as Patrick Buckley and Jason Hayes from Austrailia and Russell from Canada stopped in for some iced tea, sweetrolls and lots of story telling. Bobby had a captive audience as he spun his stories of his days on the road fitting cattle and they willingly listened to every word. While Russell knew every cow Bobby rattled off, (two peas in a pod--they know pedigrees back to the beginning of time) Jason and Patrick didn't even have the first clue who Charity was...but they knew some of the contemporary cows so they could add to some of the conversation. We talked, ate, looked at the cows and then of course they demanded that I bring out the "A" to get their picture taken with it. I finally gave in and had Luke go get the little beauty. No, not really, I had Luke go get the tractor so I ...