The following update will have information that relates to the Banquet, Awards, County Wide Activities, and potential Program Area Committee Bylaw Updates.
We are currently taking orders for lamb and goat tags for the spring major shows. These tags are $17 each. Do not forget that if you are showing at the major shows you must have completed quality counts prior to entry submission. The banquet planning meeting that was scheduled for August 1st has been cancelled. We will meet again to discuss the banquet on August 22nd at 5pm in the Extension office. Everyone is welcomed, but this is especially important for the kids on county council or kids interested in serving on county council. The theme is Glow Crazy with 4-H and we will have a baked potato bar and glow in the dark cup cakes. We have 3 amazing volunteers who are making cupcakes for us. The office is providing the potatoes, plates, cutlery and tea. We have asked each group to provide assigned items. Please get with your club manager and see what you can bring. This will be an evening to recognize our 4-H members who go above and beyond but also to celebrate and bring all of the kids together. Awards given at the banquet will be different that what has been done in the past. We will be recognizing completed project areas. To signify completion, a 4-H member needs to have submitted a record book. These record books do not need to be perfect, however they do need to have evidence that the 4-H member was active in that project area. Being active in a project area is more that attending one event; it needs to be a sequence of events that can demonstrate evidence of growth. I know that things have not been done this way previously, however I also want to make sure that we are recognizing the very hard work that a lot of our 4-H members do while they have also progressed in their project areas. It would not be fair for a child who worked hard and completed or organized several activities in their project area to recieve the same recognition as a child who participated in one activity. This is also a way to encourage completion of record books that will need to be available whenever it is time for scholarship applications. At the club level, if you would like to recogonize the 4-H members for each of the activities they have participated in, that is certainly your perogative and a great way to show encouragement to 4-H members who are still exploring their interest areas. If you are concerned about kids not getting recognized, we are still taking record books, we have created a mock record book with a step by step how to guide, and have several additional resources available. You can even bring your 4-H member to the office and I will personally help them get it done. The county council had their first meeting yesterday evening. I am so grateful and excited to see what the three young ladies who attended will develop this year. They have already committed to provide free bottled water at our promotional booth at the Veteran's Salute in Linden in September. In addition to the Veteran's Salute, we are planning on hosting a rummage sale in October in conjunction with Treasure Trails. The county council would like to also sell baked goods. If you have any old trash that might be someone else's treasure, please consider donating it to this effort! We do not have the date for the rummage sale yet, however we are going to start collecting items now. We are also looking for volunteers to help work this event. The 4-H program area committee met on Monday of this week. They elected officers and recommended some bylaw changes. Please look at the bylaw changes and if you have an opinion or a concern, let your club's representative know. We will vote to adopt these changes at the August Meeting. Change 1- Article 6 Voting Procedures and Quorums In an event that an electronic vote is required on a time sensitive issue, the agents will send out a link to all of the voting PAC members. The agents will also contact via text or phone call each of the committee members to ensure that they are aware of the time sensitive vote. The vote will end once a clear majority has been established. Change 2- Article 5 The program area committee shall meet every other month.
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As summer is coming to an end, our 4-H calendar is filling up quickly. Please make sure to read carefully as to not miss any important deadlines.
If you have an animal project for Cass County or for Major Shows, it is time to schedule project visits. Send me an email to set a time up. Ideally these need to happen once every 4-6 weeks, but that is super hard to fit into all of our schedules. Let schedule them early to get them taken care of. I am currently taking orders for lamb and goat tags for spring major shows. If you plan on taking a lamb or a goat to spring major shows, I need your tag order and payment of $17 by August 30th. Today, July 25th at 3pm, there is a shooting sports county round up planning meeting at the new extension office. Please join us if you have any interest in helping us to plan this event. Friday, July 26th we are hosting a show goat clinic at this office at 4 pm.You do not have to bring your goat, but you are welcomed to if you want help learning to brace, etc. Monday, July 29th is the July Program Area Committee Meeting. Each 4-H Club should have representation present. Youth are welcomed as always. Tuesday, July 30th there is a County Council Interest meeting. If you are interested, please attend. This is open to EVERYONE and will start at 5pm. Wednesday, July 31st is the deadline to register for the District 4 4-H Boot Camp. This is a great experience for both 4-H members and adults, so if your schedule allows, please make plans to attend. Thursday, August 1st is our Re-Grand Opening at the new extension office. It will take place from 8am to 10:30 am. Tuesday, August 13th at 5:00 pm there is a new/revitalized 4-H Club meeting at Dark Horse Coffee. If you are interested in seeing what this group will have to offer, feel free to join! They will be taking part in Linden Pride at 5:30. Thursday, August 15th is the deadline for Fall Stock Show Entries. These include East Texas State Fair, Four States Fair, and the State Fair of Texas. I need all competed paper copies and payment turned in to the office by this date. Thursday, August 15th at 5:30 pm we are hosting a show rabbit clinic. If you would like to come and learn about how to get a leg up on your rabbit project please join us. **** We are still accepting recordbooks for project completion recognition at the county 4-H banquet. We also reopened county level award applications, so please fill these out and get them turned in. We will award applications until August 2nd. We are also still accepting letterman jacket applications. Don't let these opportunities pass you by! If you have any questions about the requirments for these, please let me know!**** The last week of June, I was honored to get to attend another Path to the Plate University Training. This training took me to the Panhandle of Texas where I was able to learn about the agriculture industry that is so prevalent there. When I returned to East Texas, I was able to attend a Wildlife Management training, which has given me lots of ideas for future programming in our county. I look forward to sharing more about our steps in this direction soon.
July is a busy month for our office as we wrap up the 4-H year and begin planning for the next. We will have program planning meetings this month. If you have ideas for programs you think would be successful, feel free to give our office a call. We are always in need of passionate volunteers that wish to work in youth development or agriculture and natural resources. July 24th the Extension office is hosting a Show Goat Clinic at 4pm. If you have a youth interested in a meat or dairy goat project, please feel free to join us. In addition to educational programs, we are currently in the midst of two applied research projects. We have set traps for the moths that produce the dreaded Fall Army Worms, in hopes that we will be able to give our producers a leg up if treatment becomes necessary. We are also working to test different methods of capturing swarming honey bees. Following the 4th of July Holiday, we will be setting mosquito traps to determine if Cass County is home to the mosquito that is likely to transmit the Zika Virus. If you would like more information on how to become involved with either of these projects, please reach out to our office. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service---LINDEN, TX
The Cass County AgriLife Extension Service has been inundated with emails, phone calls, and office visits concerning some creepy crawling visitors that are making appearances across the county. The culprit impacting homeowners is a common one: Centipedes. The common house centipede is normally a beneficial insect because they feast on other unwanted bugs. Centipedes can have a 1-6 year lifespan. They lay their eggs during the warm season and love to make their home in leaf litter, soil, and other decomposing organic matter. We are seeing more of these centipedes than normal due to an increase in their ideal environment due to the higher than normal rainfall. These insects prefer humidity and moist environments. The centipedes we are seeing very rarely get larger than an inch and a half and will quickly die once they make their way into a home environment, however that doesn’t mean that we want them inside or swarming our patios and porches. Preventing them from joining you in your home only takes a bit of effort. The first step to preventing the overpopulation of centipedes is to create a form of mechanical barriers. Start by developing a barrier of gravel between your flower beds and your home. Following this, homeowners are encouraged to seal areas and stuff all weep holes with steel wool. To further prevent centipedes, make sure to turn your flower bed mulch as often as possible to help them disperse excess moisture that will encourage centipede habitation. Homeowners also need to be sure to move ideal hiding sites, such as firewood piles, far from their residence. If these methods don’t show improvement, perimeter sprays are advised. Plant based sprays can be effective if they contain the following: d-limonene, rosemary oil, clove oil, thyme oil, or sesame oil. Chemical bases sprays with the active ingredients of cyfluthrin, deltamethrin, permethrin, bifenthrin, cypermethrin, or carbaryl will also be effective. These types of sprays can be found at your local hardware or home improvement store. If you choose to use a spray method, pay very close attention to the label instructions. The pesticide user is always responsible for the proper use of pesticides as well as their intended and unintended impacts. In addition to spraying the home perimeter, homeowners should also make it a point to treat wall voids with borax or diatomaceous earth. Hopefully these methods will alleviate our centipede issue. The Cass County Extension office is always here to serve the people of Cass County, so don’t hesitate to contact us. |
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August 2022
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