Week Six with Extension by Heather Knauss

Working on the flyers for the open house.

This week was a great week. The pumpkins that we planted a few weeks ago are growing and the asparagus has started springing up. On Monday we had our connection day, during which we talked about vision statements and mission statements as well as conflict resolution. My vision statement at the moment is that I want to do whatever I can to make the world a better place and heal the earth. To go along with that, my mission right now is that I want to make the world a better place and heal the earth. Healing the earth starts with learning so finishing my education and getting a job in a field that focuses on that stuff will be where I start. The next step is educating, the more people that I can share my knowledge with and help to understand how to heal the planet the more effective it will be. I pledge to learn and then spread my knowledge to benefit the earth.

Wheat field at the National Wheat Growers Farm Tour.

On Tuesday I toured the National Wheat Growers Farm with my mentor. The first half of the day we learned about the farm equipment they use. We also saw the chemical storage shed and learned that if the biggest chemical tank broke that the drain had a large enough space to catch everything so nothing extra runs into the field and eventually makes its way to a body of water. After that we took a tractor ride down to the wheat field which was in rotation from where it was last year. We got to take a piece of wheat off one of the plants and learn how to get the grain out. (You roll it in your hand and then blow away the extra.) We broke for lunch after that, provided by the National Wheat Growers Farm. The second half of the day we got to talk to some professionals in AG Law. I didn’t have any questions for them personally, but it was fascinating to hear other people’s questions and the responses they got. As we drove back to the Extension office we got a very heavy rain and found evidence of hail when we were back. There were holes in some of the pumpkin leaves, some of the sunflowers were destroyed and the wind from the storm destroyed some of our pepper plants. It’s such a shame too, all of the plants that were destroyed had peppers already growing on them.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I worked on some of the flyers that we will be handing out at our open house on August 25th. On Thursday I also took count of our moth collection. There was one corn earworm this week and nothing else except a wasp that did not appreciate getting stuck in the corn earworm trap. On Friday I helped my mentor weed the pumpkin field and he laid down fertilizer to help them grow. I also weeded a few of the peppers and got rid of the ones that were knocked down by the wind.