Catching Up

If you are a regular follower of Down On The Farm, you've probably noticed that I haven't been blogging much lately.  Not to worry, we are all FINE.  And it's not for lack of "want to."  I love blogging.  Even if not one person ever reads anything I type, I enjoy it.  I enjoy the thought I put into what I write about.  I enjoy the pictures I post.  But it seems I have just been so busy!  My days and weeks just absolutely fly by.  I know you all know the feeling.

So, today, you're gonna get a random post, and I'm gonna update you on a little bit of what has gone on the last month or so. 

Both of my kids have had birthdays in the last month.  Alex turned 15, and now has her Learner's Permit to drive.  In Missouri, kids can drive, with a parent or legal guardian, when they turn 15 if they pass a written exam.  So Alex has been doing some driving.  I must admit she's been driving tractors and trucks around the farm for quite a long time.  But, as she is learning, driving a car, on a road, surrounded by other cars is different.  She has been doing great, and I'm really, really proud of her driving ability. 

Cole turned 18 this weekend.  Un-believable.  No way can my baby boy be 18.  He is now registered to vote, and sometime in the next few weeks will have to register with Selective Service.  He is just a little over two months away from graduating from high school.  He is filling out scholarship applications like crazy.  My little boy, is a young man and again, I am so very proud of him.  I am a blessed mama!!!
We took the kids out to dinner last night to celebrate their birthdays.  We went to one of their favorite restaurants . . . Red Lobster.  It was so nice to be together, just the four of us.

National FFA Week was in February, and our kids both drove tractors to school one day.  Isn't small-town America wonderful ? ? ? ?

 This is Cole in front of our New Holland TS115A.

And here is Alex and one of her friends on our John Deere 2555.

DriveYour Tractor To School Day is one of the most POPULAR days at our high school.  The kids love it.  And I think my husband enjoys helping the kids get the tractors cleaned up and ready to go.  We USE our tractors, and most of the time they are either muddy or dusty!  Lately they've been very muddy!  But its nice to have them all spiffed up that one day per year.

The snow from the blizzard is all gone, and we've had quite a bit of rain so it really is still pretty damp around here.  And while it's not spring yet, the grass is TRYING to turn green.  I took these pictures of our farm this past weekend.  If you look closely you can see the grass is beginning to turn green.

We are trying some new cattle feed here at Down On The Farm.   Actually, it isn't anything new, but it's new to us ... wet distillers grain.  From what I'm told, this is the leftover corn by-product from ethanol plants.  It has a funky smell, and is the consistency of mealy peanut butter.  I can tell you that the cows really like it.

With the price of gasoline and diesel skyrocketing ($3.24 for regular and $3.64 for diesel), my husband is going to try his hand at making his own diesel fuel.  I'll post more on this later, but here is the used vegetable oil he will be mixing with some other chemicals in order to turn it into fuel he can burn in his diesel pickup and in other diesel trucks and tractors on the farm.  We are all about saving money any way we can.  And recycling doesn't hurt either.

Sorry for the randomness of this post today.  I told you there would be a little bit of this and a little bit of that.  But hey, that's how my life goes!!!