First Two Weeks in Meade County

Hello everyone! I hope that all of your internships are going as great as mine! I am located here at home in Meade County where I am working with Carole Goodwin, who is the 4-H Agent here.

My first two weeks have started off slow, although I have had a few meetings to attend and camp workshops to start planning. Having a little bit of down time has allowed me to work with our Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent, Andy Mills, along with fellow intern, Callie Hobbs.

In my first week I was able to come up with a lesson plan for the workshop me and Callie will be teaching at camp the last week of June.  We will be focusing on science, and teaching the kids how to make straw rockets and how the forces of flight work together.  We spent some time making our own rocket and shooting it off down the long hallway in the office.  You know, so we’d be pro’s at it by camp.

While Carole was on vacation this week, I tagged along with Callie and Andy on a few house/farm calls.  Our big project this week was sowing several plots of Bermuda grass for a couple of farmers in the county.  One farmer wanted to experiment with Bermuda hay, the other just wanted warmer season forages for his cattle. Since Bermuda seed is very tiny, you have use a four-wheeler to sow it.  Me being the only one in our group who knew how to drive a manual ATV, I was the one responsible for sowing while Andy and Callie helped me stay in straight, even rows.  Having never done this before, it took me a few passes up and down the field to get the hang of driving at the same speed, turning at the exact right moment, and staying in a strict line. Besides our Bermuda plots, we were able to go out and diagnose a few problems local residences were having with their trees and shrubs, as well as assist one day AI-ing a few cows.

Although I spent a lot of time inside the office doing busy-work these past two weeks, I know this will be the last of my “down time.”  We start off next week with meeting and workshops, and really start preparing for Conference and Camp. After that, more in-county workshops and prepping for fair!