Settling In, Let the Fun Begin!  Weeks 1 & 2.

Bedding Plant Variety Trials

            My first two weeks have been great! The first few days of my internship were spent shadowing and getting to know the staff at the laurel office. I’ll admit it wasn’t the most exciting thing but interesting to see the inner workings of the office setting. I’m even getting to learn some of the receptionist duties.

             Things picked up about mid-week and have been going by fast since- I can’t believe two weeks have gone by so fast! Some of our events going on were the market sheep, goat and hog Tag-In for 4-H students hoping to show at the county fair later in July.  My duties in assisting Ag. Agent Glenn Williams & 4-H Agent Kim Whitson were in directing some of the paperwork involved with the Tag-In Event. Overall there was a good turnout of local participants and district show hopefuls from some of the surrounding counties. Other events going on that I attended were the Area Staff Meeting for District 2 on Wednesday.

Our big project for the week was the continued preparations for the Children’s Garden that is being put together by the Extension and its Master Gardener’s program. With the soggy weather lately it has put things a little off schedule but luckily with a break in the weather preparations on the garden beds in the community garden is under way. A meeting with one of the master gardener’s members brainstormed a list of needed supplies and activity preparations that still need to be done. My main has been to prepare the large outdoor coloring board for the garden; this was created by using a transfer image projected onto a smooth mica board and then outlined with a sharpie. Turned out really good  and Mrs. Sigmon was very pleased now all we have to do is trim it to size and mount it up.

Coloring Board for Children's Garden

That Thursday, after planting 200 bedding plants for Variety Trials,  found us out on a farm visit where we helped install an irrigation system for one of our Farmer’s market Vendors.  The Caleb’s farm raises several acres of tobacco & cattle in addition to a few vegetable crops sold locally and grown via plasti-culture.

Week 2 Started off similar to week one but went well overall. On Monday we had a formal staff meeting with just the office staff.

Tuesday found us back out at one of our Calebs farm to help them in hosting a tour for Lynn Camp’s FFA group.

On Wednesday, master gardener’s class was held. Mrs, Sigmon taught on three topics that day , partially because it was make up for cancelling last week; topics were on Extension History, Irrigation systems & Organics. Preparations continue for the children’s garden and getting camp papers turned in.

The final big thing these weeks was discuss what my special project will be.  After giving it a long hard thought and discussion with my Agent I have decided to teach a class  on Polymer Clay & mixed media Art, something that I enjoy doing in my spare time that I think other’s in my community may find interesting as I have . we have already managed to produce fliers, set a date and advertise with successful results as already 4 people have signed up.  

It’s been great and exciting so far and looking forward to the next weeks adventures!

Kim Patton

Laurel County Extension