The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has issued its Federal Automated Vehicles Policy. Although this policy applies solely to on-road vehicles, CNH’s recent introduction of a concept autonomous tractor suggests that NHTSA’s policy may have agricultural implications too.

Of all the farming projects I’ve undertaken, our home garden has been the least profitable.

Being very small farmers, we don’t own brand-new equipment. The men of my family are good mechanics who can keep older machinery running rather than spend the total worth of every crop we’ve harvested in the past 15 years on anything straight off the assembly line.

With the cattle market looking a little shaky, we’ve decided it’s time to look for additional sources of income. After scrolling through 95 infomercial channels in search of one TV show my husband and I could agree on, I have hit on the perfect solution: a week-long, fat-blaster workout called the Hay Hauler’s Shape-Up.

I failed and broke a promise. Not long ago, I told my friend Mary Beth that I would always write about her son-in-law for my Memorial Day column. SFC Forrest Robertson made the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan; he died protecting each one of us. He is the only hero that I knew personally that made the greatest sacrifice, and that is why I have vowed to never forget. Then Monday happened.