Digging In to Help the Community

The Orrum Church Rascals 4-H club members are hitting the ground running. In one of the first meetings the group decided that they wanted to create a community garden to help feed low income and senior members of the community. Thanks to a little help from a neighbor to the church the group is digging in to meet one of their goals.
The club broke ground Thursday on a set of raised bed gardens that they plan to grow vegetable in. The youth and adults staked out the land and made their plan of what they will grow and where. The youth at the meeting included Kirby Calder, Robert Allen, Alex Calder, Garron Henderson, Hannah Henderson, Kaylee Bebe, Justin Allen, Melanie Allen, Denny Calder and their organizational leader Barbra Cain. There were also a whole host of parents on hand to support these youth in their efforts, and our own Aggie Rogers went out and supervised everyone having a really good time.
As we get more reports from this club we will keep you informed of the progress with this 4-H club.

This New Club is Right on Target

It is one of our favorite things to do in 4-H and I love when I can yell it out to the world (or write it for all to read). Today we can officially announce a new club in our county. This is a speciality club (meaning it focuses on one area) that will be known as the Dirty Dozen 4-H Shooting Sports Club. What makes this speciality club unique from our others (besides the shooting discipline) is that it is a cross-county club meaning youth from both Robeson and Bladen counties are making up the membership. So far 12 youth have signed up to be a part of the club. Eight attended the first organizational meeting in March and four attended the last meeting. Not only did the youth get to pick a name this past meeting but they also went over the introduction to rifles, proper sight alignment, how to load the rifles, and practiced target shooting. At the end of the day, to reward them for their hard work, the club leader, Larry Russ even let the members play the .22 caliber version of tic-tac-toe. It is much harder than it sounds but they all had a really good time. According to one club member, "it was even better than video games."

The club focuses on gun safety, proper handling of firearms, and helps youth learn about responsibility, and gain self esteem. The club leader says that he hopes to have the team ready to shoot in competitions sometime next year. He is also planning field trips for the club members and lots of time on the firing range to practice everything they need to know, and get them comfortable with this awesome responsibility. Russ, is a certified through 4-H shooting sports to teach riflery to our 4-H youth. Missy McLean, another 4-H volunteer, is also certified in archery and hopes to start that discipline soon.

This club will meet monthly in Fairmont, and the meetings are scheduled from 9-12. Due to equipment and range limitations this club can only accept a limited amount of members. If you are interested in learning more about this club please contact Shea Ann DeJarnette, 4-H Youth Development Extension Agent at Shea_Ann_DeJarnette@ncsu.edu or (910) 671-3276.

How many Eggs Can we Hatch?

When I left the story of the chicks on Friday we had one still trying to make its way out of the shell. On Saturday morning, when I went by the office for a club meeting guess what? That one had not only made it out but another one to keep it company. I quickly fixed up a new brooder box and put the two chicks in their new temporary home. When I looked in the incubator, you guessed it there was one more trying to peck its way out. So I left the office that morning to carry on about our business and when I made it back that afternoon, there was the precious little chick. So I quickly added it to the two in the brooder box. In case you are wondering that takes us up to 26 chicks. When I looked back in the incubator, there was one more, pecking away (it has never taken this long to hatch eggs...of course I staggered the entry into the incubator as part of an experiment as well). So I went home and waited a few hours and called the wonderful person who agreed to take our chicks. She met me at the office and when we got there, you guessed it one more had arrived. She took all four to her father's house who is keeping the little ones happy and fed. This time when I looked back into the incubator that was it no more pecking their way out and no more showing any signs of life. So for our first round we have had an excellent hatch rate and we are looking forward to doing this again after a week off. If you would like more information about this project, or 4-H please contact Shea Ann DeJarnette, 4-H Youth Development Extension Agent at Shea_Ann_DeJarnette@ncsu.edu or (910) 671-3276. Stay tuned for more Embryology news from 4-H.

They Keep Hatching and Hatching...

I realize it is Easter and maybe that is why our chicks are hatching like Energizer Bunnies. Every time I look in the incubator or open an e-mail, they are hatching and hatching. Yesterday after we posted to the blog we had three more hatch in our office. This morning when I came in I looked in the incubator and two more were waiting for me. It looks like there is one more on the way. For those of you keep count we have hatched 23 so far. The sweetest thing was seeing them sleeping this morning.
Most of them were curled up together but two were away from the group nuzzled up against each other
while another seems to have fallen asleep whileeating. It is tiring work being so cute.


When I checked my e-mail Mrs. Armstrong at Pembroke elementary e-mailed me. In the six classrooms they conducted this project in they have had a total of 55 chicks hatch. All I can say is WOW!

Mrs. Davis from Rex-Rennert said they had about 9 hatch per incubator or a total of 36 in their classrooms. She said this is the most she has ever had hatch.

I have also gotten a handful of thank you notes from students at Knuckles Elementary. I can tell you each and everyone of them learned so much that they almost filled up the page with what they learned. While I appreciate their thanks I must give a special thank you to the teachers who were brave enough to implement this project and curriculum in their classrooms and to the principals who are so supportive of this project and encourage their teachers to do it.

I hope everyone has had a great time doing it and stay tuned because we will be giving out incubators again April 12 and eggs on the 14th. One of our 4-H parents is even giving us a few blue and pink eggs to hatch as part of this experience. If you would like to come by and see our our new babies as we get ready to hatch them they will be located in the lobby of the O. P. Owens Building. As far as our chicks we have hatched, they will be leaving us today headed to their new home with a teacher from East Robeson, who has a backyard flock. She came by today and saw them and fell in love with them and we know they are going to a very good home.

Our Last Night Together

I think I might cry. It was our last night of Strengthening Families and as our group came together for the last time to celebrate accomplishments and review what we had learned making it a bittersweet evening.

As always we had a special dinner, fried chicken, Christy's very special mashed potatoes (as prepared by Penny with only one Emergency call to make sure they were right-and oh boy were they right!), green beans, biscuits and a very special dessert.

After we ate we broke into our parent and youth groups. The youth worked with Aggie Rogers reviewing our commitments to walk away from peer pressure, walk away from bad influences, and try to communicate with our families. The parents discussed the tools that they have implemented and how well they work. The parents also discussed how asking for help during stressful times can make families stronger. They worked on exercises that included how different agencies to suggest in helping other families and how, as friends and neighbors, they can make a positive difference in their lives.

In the family session we reviewed what we had done over the last six weeks and watched a slide show of our different meetings. After, parents and youth completed evaluations that will give us the data we need to show what a positive impact this program can have on their lives. Last but not least the parents and youth wrote letters to each other that have been sealed in envelopes to be mailed to them in three to four weeks. We hope this reminder will encourage them to keep up the hard work, and be an example of how far they have come as a family. To cap it all off we had our graduation ceremony with certificates for each family. After graduation we celebrated with our closing circle, and cut up our special dessert, a blue ribbon cake because all of our families are blue ribbon families.

We hope to offer a followup session in November for all of our participants over the last two years. The followup session will give everyone a chance to come together and share the tools that are working for them and other things that they have found that are making a positive difference for their families.

If you would like more information about the Strengthening Families Program please contact Christy Strickland, Family and Consumer Sciences Agent at (910) 671-3276 or Chrsity_Strickland@ncsu.edu.

They're Here!

Can you hear them? The new cheeping going on around the county. As you get closer to second and third grade classrooms it is getting even louder. That's right we are at the end of round one of Embryology and the eggs are hatching. Embryology is a 4-H curriculum that is implemented in the second and third grades as part of the standard course of study. What a better way to study life cycles?

On Wednesday we traveled to Union Chapel where we actually saw one chick hatch, another class had one pecking through, and yet another classroom had two that had been born with several more trying to get out.

J.C. Hargrave e-mailed us Wednesday afternoon and said they expected several to be making their appearance today. At Knuckles we have heard there is a total of nine new chicks in the world with two more expecting to make an appearance today. Can you say WOO Hoo?

To support the teachers in this endeavor we also have an incubator at our office. Our eggs started hatching on Tuesday. We had our very first chick after a long day of labor on Tuesday and that one encouraged seven more out of their shells on Wednesday. On Thursday morning we had nine more chicks just waiting for us in the incubator, with three more still trying to hatch out. If you would like to see video from this morning you can click here and see them in the incubator and how they were doing once we placed them in their brooder box (a brooder box is a box with a light where they can move around and stay safe and warm). What an egg-citing day!

Stay tuned to the 4-H blog for hatching updates around the county.

Spring=Summer

Biggs Park Mall was full of Easter spirit, shoppers, and parents looking for a great summer experience for their children. More than 20 agencies set up shop in the mall as part of the annual Summer Camp Expo. There parents and youth could learn about the different opportunities from outdoor overnight camps to educational tutoring options. Truman the dragon even walked through waving and hugging as he made his way through the mall and lead parents and kids by the Summer Camp tables.

Robeson County 4-H took the opportunity to advertise their Summer Fun day Camp programs and the week long overnight camping opportunity. We talked with more than 100 people and even ran out of information on site but will be sending it out to those who are interested. If you would like more information on what is going on in 4-H this summer you can e-mail Shea Ann DeJarnette, 4-H Extension Agent at Shea_Ann_DeJarnette@ncsu.edu or call the 4-H office at (910) 671-3276. We even had the opportunity to shoot our very own video advertising our summer camps. It will be posted on the Biggs Park Mall Facebook page.