Natural Resources Weekend to be Held in January

Information was released today about the January 25-26, 2014, Natural Resources and Wildlife Weekend hosted by Virginia 4-H.  The event will be held at Holiday Lake 4-H Center in Appomattox and features activities like bat house building, a night hike, and edible insects.  Youth and adults are encouraged to attend.  The sample schedule is shown below and online registration occurs at www.tinyurl.com/nrweekend.

Hopefully an Orange 4-H delegation will attend.  If a club/group wants to reserve the 4-H van for travel, call the Extension office!

Fwd: FW: Vol Pic 2013 Lynchburg, VA

The 4-H Symposium and Fall meeting of the Virginia Association of Adult 4-H Volunteer Leaders took place this past weekend in Lynchburg.  The group photo below was taken just prior to the banquet, in which Orange County was recognized for considerable contributions to the 4-H foreign exchange program.  

We are grateful to the Harris, Nammack, Godin and Johnson families for opening their homes to four 4-H youth from Costa Rica.  

 

 

Virginia 4-H Livestock Judging Team wins in Nebraska | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech

Our own Blake Hopkins, Treasurer of the Livestock Club, is featured in today's Virginia Tech news.  Blake is on the Virginia 4-H Livestock Judging Team.

Virginia 4-H Livestock Judging Team wins in Nebraska | Virginia Tech News | Virginia Tech

True Blue Cloverbuds Conduct Service Project

Members of the True Blue Cloverbud Club are reminded to please bring a Made in Virginia product to their meeting on Tuesday night.  These items will be added to a group basket that will be auctioned for the benefit of Sam's House, a local project hoping to build a new house for the Stewart family.  Sam is a former Orange 4-H'er who participated in TACO, what was then known as 4-H Special Riding Camp.

Goat Cloverbuds Learn What Goats Eat

Members of the Goat Cloverbud group learned last evening about what it takes to care for a goat.  Leader Sarah Thionville presented various feeds for the children to glue on their goat feeding poster, including hay, minerals and vitamins, and sweet feed.

Crazy Pets Club Hosts Bake Sale Before Thanksgiving

Take one thing off your to-do list for Thanksgiving meal preparations!  The Crazy Pets 4-H Club is hosting a bake sale on Saturday, November 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Locust Grove Exxon.  The group plans to have cakes, pies, breads, cookies, and more for sale.  Proceeds benefit a club service project of helping to provide a therapy dog to a friend who is disabled.  Thank you in advance for your support!

Farm Tour Part 2

On October 29, 4th grade students from Lightfoot Elementary, Gordon Barbour Elementary, and Orange Elementary visited Kenwood Dairy Farm and Knight Cattle Company.  They spent their time at the dairy learning about baby calves, the milking parlor, what calves and cows eat, watersheds, and how things grow. While visiting Knight Cattle company, students learned about area and perimeter, Virginia regions and products, animal agriculture, how to grow a hamburger and making healthy food choices, and then made an art project with four different grains.
All the students were provided with a choice of white, chocolate, and strawberry milk to go with their lunches, courtesy of Kenwood Dairy farm.  We would like to thank all of our volunteers who were able to make this an awesome educational experience for all of the students!

Stock Show University

Stock Show University is coming up on December 28 and 29 at the Rockingham County Fairgrounds, presented by Sullivan Supply.  This clinic is a free program where you can work one on one with the "professors" and learn today's techniques for clipping and fitting cattle.  The program is free for anyone to attend: adults and children, beginners or advanced clippers and fitters!  
This is an excellent hands-on opportunity for kids to learn proper washing, grooming, clipping and fitting techniques for their 4-H beef cattle projects.  Youth are encouraged to bring one of their calves for the workshop, but youth who want to come but don’t have a calf or can’t make arrangements to get it Harrisonburg are also welcome.  It will be an excellent learning opportunity for anyone with any level of experience.  Please feel free to call Herc Williams at (540)460-6194 with any questions you may have. 
Registration forms do need to be filled out and submitted at least one week before the clinic.  Please visit the document library and look under the "Livestock" folder for the registration information.

Poinsettia Sales!

Christmas is coming (and getting closer all the time!) 4-H's annual Poinsettia sale is up and running. Celebrate (and decorate) for the holidays with Battlefield Farm's gorgeous red poinsettias. Profit will benefit the Orange 4-H clubs and programs.  
Battlefield Farms is located right here in Orange County.  They grow beautiful red poinsettias for us to be able to sell.  6" pots (Regulars) are $7 and 8" pots (jumbos) are $13.  Feel free to pass out this flier to anyone who may be interested!
There are order forms on our document library that you can order from.  Orders must be turned into the extension office by November 21st.  Orders can then be picked up from the extension office on December 4 from 3-7 and on December 5 from 8am -5pm.  
If you have any questions or need more information, please contact the extension office at (540)672-1361.