Final blog- this is good night, not goodbye!

Final blog!

Well, today is my last day as the Grant County Extension intern! I can’t believe how fast this summer has gone by! I have had a GREAT last two weeks! We are finally recovering from county fair, but it’s time for State Fair now! Over the past two weeks, we have been preparing for State Fair and also for all the schools in Grant County to be back in session. I am glad that my internship went until state fair time because entering and dropping off fair entries is something I had never done before and I am glad that I got to experience this! This is kind of a short blog entry, but I am so blessed to be a part of this wonderful program this summer! I couldn’t have asked for a better supervisor to work with! I have learned so much about extension and this has only made me want to be an extension agent even more! I am sad to leave this summer, but as the lyrics from Linger go: this is good night, not goodbye!

It Is Not Goodbye-It's I'll See Ya Soon

My last day of working at the Meade County Extension office was on August 2^nd but it has taken me about a week to figure out how I want to summarize this amazing experience that I was able to be a part of. First off I want to cap off my last two weeks of the job which consisted of our county fair and our farm field day. The last two weeks by far went by the fastest but I learned some valuable lessons during both of them.

During fair I was responsible for checking in exhibits and getting in contact with a judge for the forage and crop show. Not only did I work with this part of the exhibit I also acted as a judge for the 4-H horticulture and arts and crafts entries. Throughout the week I assisted with the livestock shows and helped out whenever it was needed. It was a great week to work with the community on a more personal level.  

On Thursday of fair we had our annual Farm Bureau Fair Breakfast which was the day the video that Aurora Laslie, the 4-H intern, and I made would be showcased. This video was about the impact and the importance that extension has in a county. The presentation of the video was great and it is actually a video that the extension office will continue to use for public relations and advertising.  Extension is an amazing resource in the community but some people are unsure of the services offered and this video did a great job of showcasing the different opportunities that extension truly provides a community with.

Below is a link to our video:

Meade County Extension

The last week of my internship was full of preparing for the farm field day which was held at a local farm. This included taking pictures, folding brochures, printing tickets, and contacting individuals for information.  Field day would also be the day that our soybean test plots would be showcased at one of the stops. In order to get ready for this I had to make sure that all information about the plots was correct including stand count, seed drop, and projected seed drop. Then I had to create signs to stick out in the field to display the information about each plot, 18 in total.

On Thursday, the day before the field day we went out to the farm and set up tables for lunch, hung banners, signs, and drove the antique tractor drivers through the course so they knew which paths to take the wagons on.  I learned that preparation is key and that having all bases covered is vital when planning a day like this.

We also weighed three different round bales of hay. We did this to show the differences in the way hay looks and weighs. Our drive home point is that an animal will not care how much hay costs or weighs, but a person buying the product should be aware of what they are getting for the money they are paying. With the weight of the hay, I was the only one who knew the actual weights because it was a guessing game for the farmers.  Whoever guessed the closest to the actual weight would receive a prize.

Friday, the day of field day and my last day as an intern, was super busy but it was a great day. We had over 130 people there to learn new techniques about agriculture. We had six different stations that the tractors drove to, these included the quality of hay, bull selection, the soybean stand plots, two stops about conservation, and the last one was on fungicide use in corn. There were four specialists from the University of Kentucky that came down and helped present the information to the farmers. During the field day I was responsible for keeping the drivers on course and on time. I had a blast interacting with all kinds of different farmers, industry individuals, and even those who were not farmers but just wanted to learn. I also helped with the booth where the individuals who came to field day could guess the weight of the hay. I believe this was a good learning experience for everyone because no one was within fifty pounds of the actual weight.

                                              
                                        

This summer is one that I will never forget. I want to extend a huge thank you to Andy Mills, the ag and natural resource agent at Meade County, for teaching me so much this summer. Not only did I learn a lot from him he also taught me how to utilize resources that are made available to me. I also want to thank the individuals at the Meade County office. They truly made me feel like I was a part of the team and I cannot begin to thank them enough. Because of this experience I truly feel ready for the “real world” and I know that I will be successful because I have learned so much this summer. This internship has opened my eyes even more to the future job possibilities that are available. This truly was a summer that I will never forget.

Wrapping up my Internship- the Last 2 weeks

The last two weeks of my internship were not nearly as busy as previous weeks, but they were still full of excitement. During Week 9, I set up a booth at the Farmer’s Market and gave out samples of our delicious Bacon & Tomato Dip to almost 50 people and talked to them about home canning. I also canned glazed carrots during two separate Pressure Canning Workshops in the same day.

My supervisor, Rita Stewart talking about the proper way to use the pressure canner.

Glazed carrots. Before (left) and After (right).

During Week 10, I went to Boyle County and helped teach a Boiling Water Canning Workshop where everyone learned how to make an Apple Cinnamon Conserve. It is always exciting to have new people come to a class, and we had five new people this time. They all were very interested in what we had to say and had lots of questions.

On my last day to talk on the radio, one of the DJs decided to sing me a special song. In her song, she sang about all of the things that I have mentioned on the radio this summer. It was hilarious!  That same day I also went back to the Farmer’s Market to give out samples of the Cucumber, Corn and Bean Salsa that I made. Everyone loved it and was asking for the recipe. I also passed out information on freezing and drying foods at home. I also got the chance to go to a quilt store and help pick out fabric for a quilt that will be used as a sample during the upcoming quilt retreat (the quilt retreat took place the week after my internship ended). I had never realized how much work goes into making a quilt before. It is not an easy task, but I believe that the end result is always worth all the hard work. 

The gift bags that I decorated for the Quilt Retreat. I cut the flowers off of the stem and glued them onto the bags with a couple leaves.

Some pretty material that I found at Paul's Discount in Somerset.

Since Thursday, July 25^th was my last day at the Lincoln County Extension Office, I decided to take flowers for all of the ladies in the office who were not on vacation and some of my homemade carrot cake. We had a couple meetings in the morning/afternoon and then I was surprised with a pizza party. It was funny because I was asking if I could go ahead and have my lunch before the second meeting started at noon and I couldn’t figure out why they wouldn’t let me. Quite a few of the homemakers were there and they had all signed a card for me. One of them even dug up a flower from her garden for me to take home and plant! It was really sweet. 

And of course Friday was the Intern Roundup in Versailles. I enjoyed getting to talk to everyone about their experiences. Below are a few pictures that I took. 

 I have truly had such a great experience at the Lincoln County Extension Office this summer…so much fun that I didn’t want to leave! Hopefully I will be able to make it back for a visit sometime soon.

The End Has Come...

Well folks, this is the last day of my internship here at Harrison County.  This summer has been filled with so many memories, good stories, and lots of learning opportunities!  I am definitely going to miss working with all of the people in our office and I will be stopping in for regular visits. The past couple of weeks have been a little slower than what the rest of the summer has been but it has still been pretty busy.  Gary and I have went on several farm visits to check out tobacco issues, tree problems, soybean and corn issues, as well as just going and helping local farmers out.  

There has been a meeting every night this week except for Monday so that has kept the evenings pretty busy and during the day we have had several calls about different issues with crops and going on visits.  We have also had a lot of soil samples come through the office the past couple of weeks so I have made several trips to Lexington to deliver those.  I am going to miss this job but hopefully one day I will be able to become an Agent so I can continue to help out the community. I am so thankful that I was able to work in my home county and get to know the Agents even better. I couldn't have asked for better supervising agents than what I have because I have learned so much not only about Extension but also about many things in life that shouldn't be taken for granted.

It's been a great summer, see you all at school!!

an end brings a new beginning

This is it!  The end of my summer internship at the Union County office.  Feels kinda weird!  Even though my time has been winding down, it’s still been pretty busy around here.  Mostly has been tracking down the last few histories of the remaining quilt squares, checking in exhibitors for their State Fair entries, and back to school events. 

The elementary schools here in the county had a ReadyFest last week for the kids to meet their teachers and parents to get all that back to school information from behavioral health to church groups to us – 4H!  I think we recruited a few “newly” turned 9 year olds.

Tuesday, Stephanie and I attended a drug coalition meeting.  Union County is at the founding stages of forming this coalition to address drug issues in our county.  This was the first initial meeting and it was a diverse group, which I think will be good once they are up and running. 

State Fair is just around the corner, but I won’t be attending this year since school starts right around the same time.  I’m excited to see how our UC kiddos do with their exhibits!  There are some really interesting pieces waiting to be taken to Louisville.

Today (Thursday) the whole office staff is taking me out for lunch, and they surprised me with a gift this morning with a cooler bag full of everything from a rain gauge to Plate It Up potholders.  So sweet of them!  I’ll be representing UK well down in Murray (as long as I don’t wear any shirt at my grad assistant job on campus).  This has been a whirlwind summer, but I’ve enjoyed it!  I always tell people that I look for diversity in a job to break the same old routine – extension covered all that and then some.

I truly enjoyed my internship experience and learned quite a few things – some leadership, some agriculture, and quite a bit of teachable “life” moments.  Tomorrow is my official last day, but I thought I would go ahead and share this wonderful moment.  Thanks UK and Union County!

This is Only the Beginning, Not the End!!

           My last three weeks have been a whirlwind of fun! I am so sad that my internship is over. It may be over but this is just the beginning I feel. I have made lifetime friendships with my co-workers and I am going to miss all of them. Most of all I will miss my supervisors. They were the best supervisors I could ask for. We have had a ton of fun together, and they have taught me so much that I will remember forever.

Me and Carol



Me and Alex



 

The week after our fair, we had to start getting ready for the field day that was coming up fast! KSU would be coming to visit in the morning and it would be open to the public that evening. I was in charge of making sure we had everything together (chairs, tables, sign-in sheets, etc) and helping get it there. I did a craft time with the kids while I was there too! We made a butterfly using coffee filters, markers, pipe cleaners, and a little bit of water. I think the kids had a good time. I know I did. The field day was held at our small farm assistant (Rickey Miller)’s place. We had several speakers, and we had a draft horse drawn wagon ride, which was a huge hit not only for the adults but for the kids. They loved being able to ride a wagon into a field surrounded by cattle. We had a pollinator station, a raised bed and taste testing section, a pond management section, a mineral requirements station, a turnip pasture for replacement heifers, a GOAP program station, bee management station, and blackberries station. We had about 85 people come which was an amazing turnout since the farm is located 30 minutes from our office! Once the Field Day was over, time was growing shorter for Rickey Miller’s time with us. He was retiring on July 31st. He has been such a help to me throughout this summer. I call him my grandpa now :) 



But everyone was going to miss Rickey because he always helped with the horticulture side of the business. Now Carol is going to have to take on both the big crops and large animals, along with the odd animals and horticulture side. Everyone in the office (excluding Carol and Rickey) we’re talking one day about how Rickey says he will miss all of the “girls”. However, We said he would miss Carol most of all. LOL! So then we got this fabulous idea that since Rickey didn’t want any big extravagant gift or big deal about him retiring. They always eat at the Patio when an intern leaves, so that’s where we were all going out to eat at. Carol and Rickey had no idea though what was in store for them at this party. We teamed up with a local person to get a corgate board. It was going to take too long to get the vinyl print in so Lynnette made some calls and talked to Andy Mills over in Meade County and they agreed to help. They have a banner printer and so I sent them the perfect picture and they printed it out. Then brought it back to the office. Next we had to laminate it. But how since Carol can hear everything and is always around. Well she happened to take off on a Thursday and there ya go! We laminated it and took it out to the person who would attach it to the board and then he jigsawed it out!! It turned out wonderful and the best part? Carol and Rickey still didn’t know! Well once the party started, I picked the perfect song “Me and my Shadow” by frank Sinatra. A line says, ‘like you can’t get rid of your shadow, you’ll never get rid of me’. It was PERFECT! Then we hid her in the closet so they wouldn’t see and we brought her out after the speeches, and they about died! They laughed harder and more than I have seen them do the entire summer.

It really made the last week amazing. After Rickey’s big party and the Carol reveal, we kept her in the office as a greeter until Wednesday when it was finally time for Carol to go home with Rickey. Everyone who came through the office, said hello to it before they realized she was a board, and then many even took pictures with it. I came up with the idea that were going to have to make a second carol and start a “Where’s Carol” thing. And take her different places like the gnomes do. It would be fun to put a section in the newsletter and see who can guess where she will be next or see where she has been. Carol could now be at every meeting and every show! I think it’s so fun and the cut out is so real.

 Along with the festive, I also went to the Dog Club Show. They were practicing on having people there while doing their agility and obedience, so that their dogs get use to noise before they head to state. The turnout was nice, and the kids all had fun and did a great job.

 

 

           

On Wednesday, was Rickey’s last day so I spent time with him. He helped me figure out how to plant my community garden. Since my wood after waiting 5 weeks just was finished. Now I have to pick it up. Then we all said see you later and Rickey was officially retired.

 

 And that evening I went to an “I Love Cows” award presentation. The winner got to pick out a heifer and take it home with them. 

 Thursday was all about the Princeton Field Day. We left at 5:30 in the morning and got there. I enjoyed myself and meeting all of Carol’s colleagues. They were all super nice and explained a lot to me. It was fun to take what I have learned and listen to the specialists and see the things I learn being said in their presentations. That goes to show you I have an awesome supervisor.

My last day of work… Friday. Carol could not be in so I didn’t get to say goodbye. But I still stayed hard at work. I helped Alex with a bunch of state fair papers that needed to be sent out and made an easy excel spread sheet, for her. Then I worked on some State Shoot things she needed to be done. I will miss each and every one of the people I worked with. They have been so helpful and taught me a lot. I am going to miss this place, but I shall be around. I hope they will allow me to be around and maybe come back one day! It’s been a great summer! And I will never forget it! This is only the Beginning, Not the End! 

Fair week in Grant County!!

 So my internship is slowly coming to an end! I only have two more weeks! These past two weeks has been a lot of preparing for The Grant County Fair. We have been getting ribbons, plaques, and banners set out for the shows, creating our books for the shows, and getting the barn ready for the shows.  As someone who grew up basically living at the fair in Pendleton County, I have been trying really hard not to say “well at Pendleton fair we do…”, but there are many differences between the fairs.  I told Lamar, my supervisor, that if I do accidentally say that, it’s not me comparing and saying Pendleton’s fair is better, just met explaining to him the way that I have been taught it Pendleton.  Their fair is very new to me, but one advantage that I have is that most of our work this week has been with the livestock shows and I grew up showing livestock so I know a little more about how the shows work.   

Before I talk about all the fair activities, which did take up most of my past two weeks, I did attend a Grant County Champions Coalition meeting with Lamar on Thursday July 25.  This was an open community meeting.  They are planning on having a community forum to talk about the heroin problem in the county.  Heroin is not the only drug problem in the county, but like many other small counties when there isn’t a lot to do people often turn to drugs.  Lamar and Patty Poor, the FCS agent, both attended this meeting because they think it’s important for the community to know that they support the Champions and a drug free community.  This meeting was very interesting; there are a lot of great people in the county that want to significantly reduce the drug use in the county.

No onto fair madness!  The Grant County fair started July 27, but my sister got married that day and I did not make it to the fair that day.  The Sunday after the wedding was fair entry day.  We had a lot of really great entries for the fair! Their County has 4-H entries, FCS entries, FCCLA entries, and a farmers market entries (for their produce).  The 4-H entries looked really great!

Besides taking 4-H entries, I have really only spend most of my time in the barn.  All of their livestock shows  are open shows, so there are Grant County 4-Hers and open participants at these shows.  Monday night was their cloverbud /novice show.  They have all types livestock at their cloverbud show, including country hams.  In Grant County, cloverbud are allowed to participate in their country ham projects!  There were many great participants at the cloverbud show. 

The following night was the market goat show.  There were many goat entries at this show.  The show took almost four hours!  The next day was a really long day! There was the swine show in the morning and the dairy goat show in the evening.  I didn’t leave the fairgrounds until pretty late at night and then turned around the next morning for the dairy cattle show.   That night was the sheep show. Needless to say, it was a long two days.  I was thankful that there was no early show Friday morning because I got to sleep in a little! 

These were some pictures that were taken during the week.   The picture below is Lamar wrestling a lamb.... One of the more wild ones sheep got lose, he grabbed after it, and it took him to the ground! He had a a few scrapes and bruises the next day!

All the shows have gone pretty well.  I have gotten experience in book keeping, preparing the ribbons, working the registration, announcing, and even dealing with problems that came up.  It has really been a week filled with learning! There is a lot of hard work that goes into making a fair happen.

 Something that I really liked about their fair was all the participants, cloverbuds included, got tshirts to wear the night of the show.  The cloverbud children got blue tie dyed shirts that said said Cloverbud Fun with a clover on it, the 4-H aged youth got shirts that said "exhibitor".  All participants also got shirts for their livestock sale.

This is an example of their sale shirts! Chelsea (4-H Program Assistant) and I the night of the sale!

I also found this antique ribbon; this ribbon is so old, the clover isn't even the same!

I had a really good, but tiring week at my first Grant County Fair! This was also Lamar's first county fair as the agent and I think he did a really good job! I am really sad that I only have two weeks left in this internship, but I am excited that my internship runs into state fair!