Drive Your Tractor to School Day! Small Town Living at its Best!

Today, the high school FFA members drove their tractors to school. (For those of you who don't know, FFA stands for "Future Farmers of America). We live in the country, but not on a farm. I grew up on a farm and we are surrounded by farmers, so I don't really feel like I''ve left the farm.

It makes me giggle to hear other people complain about how slow the tractors are, etc. I get upset with people who drive too slowly, but never with tractors or other farm equipment when I get behind them. I always remind myself that farmers are feeding us, and who doesn't like food? I love "drive your tractor to school day" because all the kids travel into town to the "Co-op" and then parade together to the school. To me, it's just one of the wonderful things about living in a small town.

Recently, someone sent me an email about small towns, which pretty much sum us up!

SMALL TOWNS

Those who grew up in small towns will laugh when they read this.Those who didn't will be in disbelief and won't understand how true it is.

You can name everyone you graduated with. (Pretty much, we had 142, my son, who is a senior has around 120 in his graduating class)

You know what 4-H means. (Proud 10-year 4-H member, as are my kids). Can you say the 4-H Pledge? "I pledge my head to clearer thinking, my heart to greater loyalty, my hands to larger service, my health to better living for my club, my community, my country and my world".

It was cool to date somebody from the neighboring town. Oh yeah!

The whole school went to the same party after graduation. Our graduations are held at Miami University, just over the state line in Oxford, Ohio. Everybody goes to BW3's, afterwards, 'cause it's the only thing still open that late!

You didn't give directions by street names but rather by references.. Turn by Nelson's house, go 2 blocks to Anderson's, and its four houses left of the track field. True, so true.

You couldn't help but date a friend's ex-boyfriend/girlfriend. There are only so many to choose from, so usually, before you get out of school, it happens.

Your car stayed filthy because of the dirt roads, and you will never own a white vehicle for this reason. Actually, I have a white vehicle, but it is hard to keep clean, but doesn't show the dust as bad as black vehicles do!

The town next to you was considered 'trashy' or 'snooty,' but was actually just like your town. Except, our neighboring towns are trashy or snooty! (Just kidding!)

You referred to anyone with a house newer then 1955 as the 'rich' people. Our house was built in 1925...we're not the "rich" people by far!

Anyone you wanted could be found at the local gas station or on Main Street. (Or Woodruff's, our local supermarket....it is impossible to just "run in real quick" to get something because you always run into people you know!

You saw at least one friend a week driving a tractor through town or one of your friends driving a grain truck to school occasionally. Hence, the tractor day today!

The gym teacher suggested you haul hay or pick rock for the summer to get stronger. (but only to the boys)

Directions were given using THE stop light as a reference. Except we now have 2 stop lights! (This is not our town, but you get the idea)

When you decided to walk somewhere for exercise, 5 people would pull over and ask if you wanted a ride. This always happens....it's best to drive into town and walk the track!

Your teachers called you by your older siblings' names. I was the oldest in my family, but it did happen to my younger siblings.

Your teachers remembered when they taught your parents. Yes, we still have teachers at school that were my teachers that my kids now have.

You could charge at any local store or write checks without any ID. In fact, yesterday, my husband went to town to get gas and realized after he pumped the fuel, he'd forgotten his wallet at home....of course, he was allowed to go home without paying on the promise to return right away, which of course, he did!

There was no McDonalds. No, but we do have a Subway, J's (local family diner) and Pizza King (the best pizza ever!)

The closest mall was over an hour away. We do have a small mall 20 minutes away, but to go where all the good stores are....you guessed it, an hour away!

It was normal to see an old man riding through town on a riding lawn mower. My neighbor drives his scooter into town all the time!

You've peed in a corn field. Many times...hey, when you gotta go, you gotta go!

I would not have wanted to be raised any other way!!!! It's the best. When we lived in Indy, I passed the same people on my way to work every day...no one ever waved. Here, you can actually pass people on the road and everyone waves whether you know them or not! What's not to love about all of this~!!!

Relay for Life Fundraiser

Our local Relay for Life event will be held in May. Preparations begin early. Our local Library spearheads a fundraiser that caused quite a stir in our small community a couple of years ago and certainly raised some eyebrows. We had an art-bra contest. Community members and organizations decorated bras. We had around 22 entries all together. The community voted on their favorites by adding money to collection cans and the top 12 vote-getters received a coveted spot in a calendar for the following year. The bras were auctioned off during the event. All proceeds went to the American Cancer Society. It was a lot of fun! I am posting two of the bras.

This first one, was the one I submitted, entitled "Nobody in here but us Chickens"....my tribute to small-breasted farm girls. Call me crazy, but it is proudly perched atop my refrigerator. How many people do you know have bras displayed in the kitchen?

We love to use our local resources, so the business class in the high school took the bras around town and photographed them for the calendar. My chicken bra was photographed surrounded by bales of straw with live baby chicks! The kids really got into this project!

I believe I have mentioned my oldest daughter, Sarah, has special needs. She graduated in 2005, but we still volunteer daily in her high school transition class. The kids in this class learn daily living skills as well as skills to use post-high school in the work force. Two years ago, the transition class opened a coffee shop in the school. This student-run business serves Starbucks coffee, hot chocolate, tea and occasionally smoothies to the student body in the morning before school and make deliveries to teachers, etc. throughout the day. I will post more on this coffee shop soon. Anyway, this class entered a bra entitled "Tea for Two". The students strung beads and one of the aides in the classroom sewed them onto a bra. The beads resemble teacups. This was a community favorite and earned the January spot on the calendar.

This bra was purchased at the auction and then donated back to the classroom. You can't tell from the picture, but the stand is covered in coffee beans and there are two spirals arising from the cups of tea to resemble steam. It is proudly displayed in the coffee shop/classroom.

This year, the Library relay team is going to do another auction and calendar. We're decorating hats displayed with hat boxes. Our fundraiser is called "Every Hat has a Story". I have in mind what I'm going to enter, and will let you see the finished product soon.

Does anyone else have fun/crazy/eyebrow-raising fundraisers in your communities?

Snow Plows and Mailboxes Do Not Mix!

I came home from work to this nice mess....the snow plow got our mailbox and several others on our road. This is the second time this week we've been hit! The first time, it knocked off our address sign and then this! The really bad thing is we got hit last year, as well. So, guess we know what our first priority is once the ground thaws!

Well, it's certainly been an interesting week with snow around here! I didn't get out earlier this week to take pictures of the "big snow", but it's supposed to get into the 40s today and the snow is already melting all over the place!

The kids were out of school 3 days last week and then it was somewhat warmer on Saturday, only for it to melt and get really cold and turn to ice! Then, more snow on top of that! My son's wrestling team was to have had their Sectional tournament last Saturday about an hour south of here...but it was postponed due to the weather. All other tournaments in the State of Indiana had theirs but ours. They decided then to split it into a two-day event on Monday and Tuesday. The wrestlers were let out of school at 2:00 to travel to the event (I left work early so I could go, too) and we got all the preliminary rounds in. It was after midnight when we finally got home. The final rounds were to be completed the following night. It started to snow mid-morning on Tuesday and it dumped between 4 and 6 inches of snow throughout our area. The meteorologists called it a Snow Bomb. There was just this small band of snow on the radar, but it hovered over our area and just snowed and snowed and snowed. Needless to say, the kids had an early release from school and the wrestling tournament was postponed again! Wednesday, 7 of the 8 schools involved in the tournament were closed, but they went ahead and had it anyway. Again, left work early! But we made it back down to the tournament and 7 boys from our school are advancing to the Regionals in Richmond on Saturday (tomorrow), including my son! So, this afternoon, I'm making macaroni and cheese in the crockpot and a big veggie tray...some of the other team moms are bringing food too. Some of the boys have to make weight so don't eat much before weigh-in, but they can eat afterwards so we want to be sure and have some good food ready for them.

We still have quite a bit of snow, but it's really melting quickly. Yesterday, we had thick ice on all the trees and it was really beautiful, it's all melted now. I really wanted to get some pictures, but just didn't get it done.

These are a couple of my birdhouses that I left out after the holidays...I think they're "wintery" with the greens, so will leave them out a little while longer. I'm really getting antsy thinking about spring, especially when the weather gets a little warmer and we've all been cooped up inside.

Everyone have a nice weekend, I think it's gonna be relatively warm next week! Whoo Hoo!

Kelly