A Fair-ly Good Time

By: Cole Bell

     The last two weeks I have been in and out of the office so much I feel like we need a revolving door. I devoted a lot of time to my summer project.  I made a fact sheet to be distributed at farmers market that explains the true meaning of many of the labels that are used to market food.  This project benefits agriculture, horticulture, and family & consumer sciences areas.  Saturday, June 20^th I was at the Paducah Farmers Market from 9am-2pm.  I distributed the fact sheet and talked to visitors of farmers market about Extension. I also filled seed envelopes with Sunflower seed to be given away. 

     I spent several hours last week setting up and arranging for floral and vegetable horticulture entries as well as the 4-h displays.  Then this week I got to be a part of the judging of the horticulture entries.  It was very neat to see all of the volunteers come together to help get all of the entries checked in and entered.  I got to spend some time talking to some of the volunteers and participants in the horticulture division. 

     Tuesday I got to be a part of the McCracken County Extension Horticulture Council Meeting.  The meeting began at 10:30 at Kirchoff’s Bakery & Deli; I had the opportunity to meet some great Horticultural enthusiasts from McCracken County.   Once the meeting was over we all had great fresh sandwiches prepared by the Kirchoff Deli.  Then I had a quick trip over to the Master Gardeners Plot to check on the progress there before coming back to the office.

     Wednesday I was helping with the McCracken County Cattle show at the fair from 9am-2:30pm. Then I got back to the office and had some plants that were brought in by homeowners so I took a look at those with the horticulture agent, along with this week’s samples from the spotted wing drosophila.  After looking at the spotted wing drosophila samples we went to look at a homeowner’s vegetable garden to see if we could find why their plants were dying.  We think we may have figured out why but we wanted to send some plants to the lab before we let the homeowners know.   

     This Thursday Family & Consumer Sciences is having a canning class that I plan to join in with, this class will last all day but later in the day I will be making my way to Calloway County for 4-H camp counselor meetings.  The last six weeks of my internship occur in Calloway County and the first six weeks have been in McCracken County.  Calloway County’s camp isn’t until July 7^th, but this will be my second week at West Kentucky 4-H camp and I can’t wait to go back. 

     I have quickly learned that there just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything.  One day I was with our horticulture agent we didn't finish home visits until 5:00 pm, but I have enjoyed every minute of my time here at McCracken County and I wish I didn't have to leave.  I am sure I will have just as good of a time in Calloway County though!