Week 5-6!

           The past two weeks have seemed to fly by!! There has been so much going on; over the past week, we have been preparing for camp, county fair, and preparing for my cooking class, and day camps at the office.  During the last week of June, our office was doing a lot of prep work for camp.  Our camp orientation was June 27 so the whole week we filled with getting paper work printed and organizing our camp binder.  This experience opened my eyes to how much work really goes into camp from an agent position.  We had to go through all the camp applications and make sure all parts were filled out.  This was a time consuming activity, but this just means we are closer to being at camp! At orientation, we had a really great group of kids show up! We have a good group of first time campers and returning campers.  Our orientation went very smooth.  Lamar Fowler, Chelsea Young (Grant County 4-H Program assistant), and I work very hard making sure all went well and after the night most of the missing parts of camp applications were filled out.

            Besides all the paper work, during the last week of June, there was a no sew class that week.    At the no sew classes, we made projects from cloth material, but there is no sewing involved.  We made animals out of CD’s and felt, tshirt scarves, and dream catchers.  During this class, Chelsea, Katrina (Office program assistant), and I decided we were going to make a felt and CD creator.  We made “LJ”.  LJ stands for Lamar Junior.  Lamar was not in the office when we created his mini-me, so it was even more of a surprise when he returned to find a new friend in his office.  LJ has become a huge hit in the county! Lamar plans on taking him to camp and even in the schools in the fall! 

(LJ even has Lamar's signature yellow shirt- he wears it when he works with youth because he wants to look colorful, Lamar's signature cargo pants, and Lamar's signature key chain that's always clipped to his pants!) 

Also during this week, I got to go on a farm tour with the Agriculture and Natural Resources agent, Chris Ammerman.  We visited Tourello Berry Farm.  A specialist from University of Kentucky came on our visit with us.  We spend most of the morning at this farm.  The farm was beautiful!  During the last week of June, Lamar, Chelsea, and I did an Operation Military Kids program with a summer program put on in the county.  Lamar, who was in the Military, gave them a small taste of what boot camp is like; he taught the youth commands, candids, and how to march.  In the group there were a few that were interested in the Military, so this was a good opportunity for them and they made a connection with someone who can give them an in site of the military.

            The last weekend of June, I attended 4-H Cloverbud camp.  This was my first time at Cloverbud camp, but was held at North Central 4-H Camp.  There was only one delegate from Grant County, but we had a blast! Since the delegate from Grant County was a male, I ended up staying with Pendleton County (my home county) girls.  There were around 250 youth at the camp! This was a really fun weekend! I had a blast and I’m sure all the children there did too!

 Hanging out with some of the agents!

 Grant County delegates!

Grant and Pendleton delegates! Goofy faces!

            The first week of July was just as busy as the week before.  I got home from Cloverbud camp Sunday and on Monday we traveled to Pendleton County to judge their fair entries.  I also was asked to judge their poultry and rabbit show.  I have never been on the judging end of the county fair, so this was a different experience.  

 Judging poultry!

 Judging rabbits!

Giant zucchini!

             Tuesday, I attended the Kentucky Association of County Agriculture Agents (KACAA) conference. This was my first Ag conference.  I have been to many 4-H Conferences and it was interesting to see the differences in the two.  I was very busy this week with making final preparations for my cooking class.  I have 12 youth signed up for the class which is a good number to have.  I put together folders for all the children.  The folders have all the information that will be used throughout the week.  I decided to do a four day cooking class entitled “4-H Cooking with Kelsey”, for my special project.  Each day of the class is themed.  Our themes are: Dairy Foods, Picnic Foods, Jams and Breads, and International Foods.  I am really excited for my class, but also very nervous because it has been such a large project.  Lamar thinks it’s going to be a very beneficial class for all the kids. I hope my class goes well! You will have to stay tuned for the next blog to see how it goes!