Thursday, July 19, 2012

Fair Challenge Events Need 4-H Leadership Please


Listed below are the Challenge Events that will be held at the Orange County Fair.  The Fair Board would like to ask various clubs to help with these events by running them using senior 4-H’ers and parents. This would let different clubs participate when they are not showing.  Please contact Carol Koontz (672-2699 or 434-981-9841) if your club would be willing to run one of the events.

  • Bubble Gum Blowing Contest   - Thursday July 26th @ 5:30 pm
  • Water Balloon Toss – Friday, July 27th @ 4:00 pm
  • Watermelon Eating Contest – Saturday, July 28th @ 11:30 am
  • Pizza Eating Contest – Saturday, July 28th @ 1:30 pm
  • Children’s Pedal Tractor Pull Contest – Saturday, July 28th @ 3:00 pm
  • Water Balloon Toss – Saturday, July 28th @ 4:30 pm


Your club's help would be greatly appreciated in running any of these challenge events.



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

TACO Camp on TV!

Check out 4-H TACO Camp on NBC 29 tonight at 5 and 6!  The TV crew from NBC 29 came and visited TACO camp today, and spent some time talking to campers and getting a good view of what goes on at TACO Camp everyday.  There were some camper interviews, parent interviews, and volunteer interviews, plus some awesome shots of our canine demonstration today and campers and horses.  If you don't catch it tonight, we will be sure to post the link online so that you can see it!

Help Get Ready for the Orange County Fair

The volunteer grounds managers for the Orange County Fair are requesting 4-H assistance this Thursday evening starting at 6:00 p.m. at the fairgrounds.  If you're available, please come to help pick up sticks, mow, weedeat, clean-up, etc.  It's amazing how an ordinary hay and pasture field can be turned into beautiful fairgrounds - please keep up the strong OC tradition of helpfulness and doing your part!  Remember to wear long pants and gloves and please bring water to stay hydrated.  Thank you!

Monday, July 16, 2012

Crazy Pets 4-H members invite you to bring your pet to their Pets on Parade activity at 10:00 a.m. Saturday, July 28, at the Orange County Fair.  The event is free and categories exist for: biggest, smallest, cutest, best look-alike, most unique, best trick and judges' choice.  Prizes will be awarded.


Friday, July 13, 2012

Rapid Ann Garden Club Hosts 4-H Floral Design Workshop

This week's non-traditional floral design workshop by Rapid Ann Garden Club members was a hit with 4-H young people!  Check out these photos to get a sense of what they accomplished.  

Garden club members provided an abundance of flowers and greenery, from sunflowers to black-eyed susans to coneflowers and zebra grass.


Members learned the difference between dry and wet oasis before starting on arrangements.  Mrs. Louise Whitaker was the lead instructor for this workshop.


Line design arrangements were first on the agenda.  Here a participant makes a vertical line creation.  There were so many beautiful gladioli, youth had trouble choosing just one!


Mrs. Kay Nix supervises a participant's diagonal line design.


Duo arrangements were next on the agenda.  The tall foliage screen in the center of the container was a backdrop for two different smaller arrangements - one on each side of the screen.


A youth ponders her flower choices: yarrow, carnations, zinnias and so many more...


Stretch arrangements were the final assignment of the two-day workshop.  Participants created two arrangements that were related, but not identical, to each other.  They also had to be connected physically, usually by a vine, a twig, or other material.


The most popular flower chosen by participants were Asiatic and stargazer lilies.  Workshop instructors marveled at the fact that participants nearly always chose large flowers over small, and pink or purple flowers over yellow.


4-H is grateful to the Rapid Ann Garden Club for their sponsorship and leadership of this workshop for our young people.  To learn more about 4-H summer workshops being offered, please call 672-1361.

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Summer Workshops- We've Been Busy!

Shew!  The first couple weeks of summer here at the extension office have been super busy!  Not only did we go to 4-H Camp and 4-H Congress, we have also had 3 workshops so far!




Workshop 1 was our Mad Science and Engineering workshop.  We learned about the scientific method, stood on 2 dozen eggs without any of them breaking, made our own lava lamps, and exploded some Diet Coke and regular Coke.  And that was just the beginning!





Workshop 2 was Wee-Tea.  We learned about having good manners, made tea party snacks, and then had our own fancy tea party where everyone used all their good manners that they just learned about. 


Workshop 3 was Cupcake Wars workshop.  We went over to Greenock Bakery here in town where everyone learned about different types of icing, fondant, and then got to taste some delicious cookies!  Then, we made cupcakes, made icing, and then decorated cupcakes!  They were so beautifully decorated that no one wanted to eat them!




That was just the first part of our summer workshops, we still have openings for our workshops for the rest of the summer, including 2 more Mad Science and Engineering workshops.  Contact the extension office today to sign up and get in on the fun!

Tuesday, July 3, 2012

State 4-H Dairy Show Information Announced

The new State 4-H Dairy Show, which will replace dairy activities formerly held during the State Fair of Virginia, has a new website.  The site contains a schedule, rules, and show contact information.  Entries are due online by Friday, July 20, and the show will be held August 2-4 in Rockingham.


Prince William County Fair Invites Orange 4-H Members

We have been asked to share with you an invitation to participate in poultry, rabbit, beef, dairy, swine, sheep, dairy goat and meat goat shows at the Prince William County Fair, scheduled August 10-18, 2012.  Visit www.pwcfair.com for more info; most entries close July 14!

Monday, July 2, 2012

Dairy club prepares for milkshake sales

The dairy club spent their club meeting Monday night repainting the milk shake shack in preparation for the orange county fair.
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