Items on my Desk

I have way too much junk on my desk.  Mainly books, photos, trinkets, reminders of things from the past.  This evening I looked at these old artifacts.  Were you a member of 4-H when you were growing up?  Do you remember why the club was called 4-H?  In other words, what do the four H's stand for? (Answer Below)

Head, Heart, Hands, Health

We'd meet in the gymnasium and would stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.  Then we would remain standing for the 4-H Pledge.  I still remember it:

I pledge my head to clearer thinking,
My heart to greater loyalty,
My hands to larger service,
And my health to better living,
For my club, my community, my country, and my world.

4-H was just a club, but I still remember my advisors and activities that we did and important life lessons we learned, trips we went on, and friendships we developed.

46 years ago I was awarded that wooden ruler shown above for participating in a Forestry Slogan Contest.  I don't remember what slogan I came up with.  Forestry was a big deal in our area.  There were 'tree farms' where pine trees were grown.  Right down the road from where I grew up there was a nursery where pine trees were grown for the timber business.  When large areas of pine trees were clear cut, the land was replanted with pine trees from the nursery.  

To protect the tree farms from fire, there were fire towers in the area.  People were positioned in the tower to scan the horizon for smoke.  If fire was threatening the trees, trucks with bulldozers were called out to the area and fire lanes would be made to stop the forest fires from damaging and destroying the trees.  There are big facilities in Allen Parish and parishes to the north and west that make plywood.

Back to 4-H.  4-H was a fun club.  We all looked forward to going to Camp Grant Walker in Pollack, Louisiana during the summer.  We'd attend Achievement Day where we'd be tested on Seed Identification, Leaf identification, Livestock Judging and all other sorts of things.  Demonstration Day was a day that made your knees knock.  You had to get up in front of the class and give a demonstration on something.  It was your first real shot at public speaking.  I was terrified!

As I look back on it, I think of how naïve and simple the times were.  One of the more popular demonstrations was, "How to Clean a 12 gauge Shotgun."  Yes, we would bring shotguns to school and break them down and show how to properly clean a gun.  No one thought anything of it.  It was innocent.  It's kind of amazing, if you think about it, how much we've changed since then. 

The Parish Fair was a blast!  I would bring my sheep to show in the fair and would win ribbons like the faded one above.  People throughout the parish would bring all sorts of things that they grew in their gardens, or farms, or pickled or canned.  We'd walk through the barns after judging to see who grew the best looking potatoes, or who had the biggest rabbits.  Of course there were the rides!  We'd ride the Twist-A-World, and The Scrambler, The Ferris Wheel, and the Rock-O-Planes.  I got sick and threw up on the Rock-O-Planes!

It's funny how some old trinkets on your desk can transport you back almost five decades to good memories! 

Jeff Davis Parish Fair - 2018

The first week of October didn't bring any cooler weather, unfortunately, but it did bring the Parish Fair that is held each year in our town at the Fairgrounds.  Rides were set up, exhibits put together, animals brought to the barn and the smell of barbecue burgers and funnel cakes wafted over the muggy air.  Benjamin's FFA group sold 'Blooming Onions' at their booth for $8 a pop!

We brought our Jersey cow, Clarabelle, to the fair.  She's not in milk right now, but she is the best showmanship cow as she is gentle, laid back and has a feminine personality.  She bellows quite loud, but I guess that is a redundant explanation with the last trait in the previous sentence.  I kid, I kid.  Once the animal is cleaned up, there is some downtime to relax and visit with each other as well as other exhibitor families.

As show time nears, finishing touches are put on ol' Clarabelle.  Here, Tricia is applying some black shoe polish to her hooves.

It makes Clarabelle's hooves shine like a new penny!

Out in the show ring for showmanship, Benjamin (on the left) was showing against other breeds.  That is a Holstein in the center and a Brown Swiss on the end. 

The judge gave good tips on what went right... and on how to improve on things that didn't go so well.

In the end, Benjamin won Grand Champion Senior Showmanship with Clarabelle.  We took a picture of him and Clarabelle in front of the backdrop.  He didn't win a rosette ribbon or a belt buckle, but won cold, hard cash. 

Some friends in our Dairy Club took a photo of all of us.  We were very proud of Benjamin.  It takes a lot of patience and attention to detail to win Showmanship

Benjamin's 4-H Dairy Club worked on a booth in the exhibit hall to promote milk.  It was a circus theme this year and I think it turned out well.

When we loaded up Clarabelle into the trailer, we noticed that someone had left us a 'gift' in the back of the truck.  A goldfish.  I can remember when I was a boy, they had a game at the Parish Fair in which you attempted to throw a ping pong ball into a fish bowl.  If you were successful, you won the goldfish in the bowl.  I'm sure this was the same sort of game.  Benjamin and I decided to take the fish home and put him in the cows' water trough. 

The poor goldfish made it exactly ONE DAY.

The poor old goldfish was floating on the top of the water by Sunday at noon.  All good things coe to an end, I suppose.  The 2018 Jefferson Davis Parish Fair will be the last time Benjamin will exhibit and animal at the Fair as he'll be graduating from High School.  Tricia and I talked about maybe entering some of our okra or other garden produce as a fair exhibit next year.  Maybe the Sonnier's can still win a ribbon or two.  We'll have to wait until next year to see!

Introducing The New Jeff Davis Parish Dairy Club Livestock Show T-Shirts

Each year our Dairy Club produces t-shirts for all of our livestock exhibitors to wear during the livestock shows.  A custom made t-shirt looks nice and uniform.  It sets our youth apart and it makes them easy to spot in a barn full of young 4-H'ers and FFA'ers.  This year due to the color primarily, but also the message, our youth will really stand out at the parish, district, and state shows.

What do you think?

I like puns and plays on words and this one is pretty good.

It may be a tall order to get Benjamin to wear a PINK shirt after the livestock shows are over, but I think Tricia will gladly appropriate the pink shirt!

The Jeff Davis Parish Dairy Club Prepares

A couple of weeks ago, the Jefferson Davis Parish Dairy Club met.  It is for the kids of course, but the adults like getting together as well, visiting, carrying on and enjoying each other's company.  It wasn't just a social visit, there was work to do.  The Parish Fair was coming up in early October, and we had lots of planning to do.

First, we discussed our club's exhibit.  We came up with a theme.  We all were amazed that in all the years of doing this, we had never used the popular, "Got Milk?" campaign.  We decided to do it.  Rather than have celebrities with milk mustaches, we had the dairy club members submit pictures of themselves with a milk mustache.  Okay, we didn't actually use milk - we used shaving cream.  We decided to put dairy facts written on mustaches stuck in milk bottles to educate the public about milk cows.  Even though we live in a rural area, you'd be surprised how little people know about agriculture.

Then the club decided on when and where to have our annual BBQ Burger fundraiser.  During National 4-H Week, we'll honor our 4-H sponsors at all of the local schools and bring them a goodie basket in appreciation for their service working with 4-H in our schools.  The club members gathered on Tuesday of this week in the fair exhibit hall to put together our booth.  I think it turned out nice.  The livestock show will be Friday morning and Benjamin's big chore tomorrow is to get the clippers out and trim Clarabelle.  He'll be showing her in the fair.  She is expected to calve in late October, so this will be her last time to show as a heifer.  Benjamin and his buddies went and watched the talent show at the fair this evening and walked around the fairgrounds.  Benjamin's FFA group will be once again frying "Blooomin' Onions" for sale at the fair to raise money.

The fair always brings back great memories of my youth and I was thinking back to a funny experience I had riding a ride called The Rock-O-Planes.  I posted about it IN THIS POST FROM 2015.  If you click the link, it will bring you to it.  The story is at the very bottom of the post.  You see the craziest stuff at the fair.  Jeff Foxworthy says it best:

"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.'"
Jeff Foxworthy

Learning By Doing - 4-H

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I pledge my head to clearer thinking,my heart to greater loyalty,my hands to larger service, and my health to better living,for my club, my community, my country and my world.

It has been more than 35 years now since I was a member of 4-H and though I sometimes forget important dates, appointments, and even what I ate the previous day, I can still recite the 4-H Pledge that is posted above.  Odd how that works.  I'm not sure how it works in other places, but around here, 4-H is administered by the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service and exists to provide youth with "life skills that enable participants to become positive, productive, capable and compassionate members of their communities."

Benjamin is involved with his Homeschool 4-H club in activities.  They attend meetings that an Extension Agent facilitates that helps them work toward those goals.  Just recently he built a working lamp out of a soft drink can.  He also takes part in "Shooting Sports" where they go to a range and practice target shooting with a .22 rifle and a .20 gauge shotgun.  

A recent Agriculture Day was held at the Jeff Davis Fairgrounds in which all elementary school students in the Parish were bused in and had an opportunity to become more familiar with agriculture.  Tricia and Benjamin were in charge of the Dairy Booth and had a milk cow there to demonstrate how to milk a cow and educate the kids on where milk comes from.  Before they gave the presentation, they asked kids what products come from a cow.  Believe it or not, these were some of the answers given:

• Eggs
• Orange Juice
• Moth Balls

I'm not making that up.  One student asked if brown cows give chocolate milk.  I can almost understand that, but moth balls?  I think this experience underscores the 'urbanization' we're seeing where people are distanced from their food.  Our Parish is a rural parish.  The largest 'city' has just south of 12,000 people.  If our 'country kids' don't know where their food comes from, what in the world is going on in the major metropolitan areas?  4-H is attempting to do something about that in educating students.

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Aside from growing up on a farm, 4-H played a role in giving me a love for agriculture.  I remember showing sheep at livestock shows, going door to door selling seeds for a 4-H fundraiser, giving a demonstration on how to clean a shotgun at 4-H Demonstration Day (Yes, we actually brought guns to school), attending 4-H Camp at Camp Grant-Walker in Pollock, Louisiana, taking tests on Weed identification and Seed identification at Achievement Day and being on the Livestock Judging Team.

Benjamin showing his calf

I tip my hat to the extension agents (Mrs. Monceaux & Mr. Martin) that took the time to teach me and those that continue to do so with my son (Mrs. Myers) and the next generation. In a highly industrialized and consumerist-based economy, it is critical that we re-introduce people to the land, the animals, the crops, and the work ethic and values that built our great country.  

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