The Beginning of Beginnings.

Hello everyone, and welcome to my own, personal series of excerpts pertaining to my adventure and experiences as an intern for the Boone County Cooperative Extension Service in Boone County Kentucky. I'll be updating this blog with new activities, tasks, and accomplishments every now and then- sometimes once every two weeks, sometimes more than once every week. I hope you all find my experiences insightful and helpful as you investigate and learn about the inside and out of the Cooperative Extension Program, University of Kentucky.

My first day was Monday of this week, May 11th. Boone County has a very large extension program consisting of three 4-H agents, one horticulture agent, one Agriculture agent, two FCS agents, one environmental and wildlife specialist, and numerous program assistants and office secretaries. Monday was a great day to start because the weekly staff meeting is every Monday, and this gave me a good chance to be introduced to all the agents and learn about their responsibilities and they're weekly tasks. On Tuesday, I received the chance to visit the Environmental and Nature Center to observe the educational youth day camp where classes were taught to elementary students concerning soil, wildlife, water, and trees. It was a great program, and it offered students the chance to learn hands-on about subjects that are not typically covered in great depth in schools.

One of the horticulture assistants had assigned me (on Monday) the task of writing an article for the horticulture newsletter, which I finished during the afternoon (I received the choice of topic and chose to write about Beautyberry in home landscapes). During the evening, I attended the camp planning meeting with the three 4-H agents and numerous adult volunteers for camp. We discussed workshops for camp, and I suggested one that we had done at my hometown 4-H camp when I had helped plan camp. The class was called "Roller Coasters", and it always seemed to be a hit with the campers. Foam pipe insulation tubes are cut in half, and campers are also given duct tape and a marble. From the insulation tubing and tape, they can build a roller coaster "track" for the marble to travel on.

Wednesday was the district staff meeting, which was held here in Boone County. The meeting was held in the brand new Enrichment Center, which is an incredible building built for Boone County extension. It contains project rooms, conference rooms, cooking demonstration and lesson areas, and a catering kitchen. The district meeting gave me the chance to meet agents from other counties, and I was able to observe how the agents interact with other agents and other counties. During the afternoon on Wednesday, I travelled to Home Depot and Lowe's and purchased the supplies for my 4-H camp workshop. I am well ahead of schedule because camp is June29th- July 3rd.

I hope I haven't rambled for too long- but these events have been the most important while I have been here for these few, short days. I've seen a lot of Boone County Extension and cannot wait to see and experience more of it. All the best to you,


- Landon Gibbs