Knolltop Farm Wife

 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...