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4-H Equine Educational Contests at Southern Regionals

Written by: Mary Dickerson, 4-H Club Leader

The Chatham County Horsekateers were well represented in the 4-H Equine Educational Contests at Southern Regionals in Perry, Georgia on July 26 - July 30, 2021.

Victoria Smith was on one of the two NC Horse Judging teams, which placed 4th in Oral Reason, 4th in Performance Judging, 2nd in Halter Judging, and 3rd Overall.

Samantha Durham was on one of the two Horse Bowl teams, which placed 1st overall!

Both Victoria and Sam were selected for the National Judging and Horsebowl Team, respectively, that will go on to compete at AQHA Congress in Ohio in October and 4-H Nationals in Kentucky in November.

Co-leaders Ruth Vorder Bruegge (Horsekateer alumni and previously on ALL the Nationals Teams) and Mary Dickerson had the honor of coaching the Regional/National Horsebowl Teams. The two Horsebowl teams placed 1st and 2nd overall!

Horsekateer Alumni Taylor Cloer is a Senior at NC State and is working for the NCSU Equine Horse Husbandry department, so Taylor was in Georgia with us keeping everyone from NC organized and the contests running smoothly.

Horsekateer Alumni Laura Dickerson used her expertise from previous Nationals Teams to give one-on-one coaching to Victoria in Judging before the team left for Georgia.

These kids and alums can tell you how great traveling on a NC Team is, so it is something we hope you will all strive for.

Congratulations to Sam and Victoria, and thank you Taylor, Ruth, and Laura for all you do for the Horsekateers and for NC 4-H.

Equity in Prevention Lunch and Learn Series

Equity in Prevention: A Live Webinar Series from NC 4-H and RIZE Consultants

Join us for our upcoming Equity in Prevention Lunch and Learn series, hosted by NC 4-H Empowering Youth and Families Program (EYFP) and RIZE Consultants.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to light the issues of social and structural inequity that create differences in outcomes based on a myriad of characteristics, such as race/ethnicity, gender, income level, and geography. Although the history of inequity is centuries in the making, the recent experience of the pandemic has created a shift in consciousness, thus allowing us an opportunity to discuss how far we still need to go to achieve true equity and inclusion within our communities.

In this series, we will look at each step of the prevention planning process and discuss what the issues are, why they matter so much in the field of prevention (and beyond), and how we can move towards solutions right now. This event is free and space is limited to the first 300 registrants.

Sessions will run September 13–17, 2021, daily from noon–1 p.m. (EDT) via Zoom.

Chatham County 4-H partnered with Chatham County Parks and Recreation for this year's summer day camps

Chatham County 4-H had a wonderful summer partnering with Chatham County Parks and Recreation for this year's summer day camps. The summer day camps hosted by Parks and Recreation lasted 6 full weeks for campers 4-13 years old. Chatham County 4-H and Chatham Artists Guild partnered to create nature journaling and nature diagramming activities for youth during the summer camps. These activities were facilitated weekly by 4-H summer interns Kristin Peters and Trishell Moore. Youth learned how to diagram a leaf of their choice, identify plants around them using an online application, and listened for nature sounds to hone their identification skills of what animals or birds were around them. Youth also received kits with a nature journal, coloring and activity sheets, lesson guides, and much more to take home with them for continued use with family and friends.

Register Now for the Carolina Backyard Naturalist Program

Purpose and Description: Increasing urbanization, habitat loss, climate change, invasive species, water pollution, and other factors threaten the function and viability of ecosystems across North Carolina. Improving residents’ understanding of their natural environment is critical to its protection and enhancement.

North Carolina Cooperative Extension, in conjunction with other government agencies and universities, presents a 14-week, online webinar series open to anyone interested in learning about the biodiversity, ecosystems, and conservation efforts in North Carolina.

From NC State extension publications

Central North Carolina Planting Calendar for Annual Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs

Central North Carolina is a wonderful place to garden. Almost any type of vegetable or fruit can be grown successfully provided you choose appropriate varieties and plant at the right time. The climate, the season, and potential pests all affect the selection of what and when to plant.

Kale Grow It, Eat It

Often called the queen of greens, kale is rapidly gaining popularity because of its exceptional nutrient richness, health benefits, and delicious flavor.

Kale is one of the healthiest vegetables you can eat—one serving is both low in calories and packed with vitamins and minerals, including 200% of your daily Vitamin C requirement.

Sustainable Vegetable Gardening Resources

Fall Armyworm

Fall armyworm (Spodoptera frugiperda) does not overwinter in North Carolina. Moths migrate into the state each year and low caterpillar numbers can often be found by late May in the northern Coastal Plain. Only late planted corn, after early to mid May, may become seriously infested. Thus, the major tactic for preventing loss to this insect is to avoid both late planting and very late maturing hybrids (e.g. 126 RDM). The recent trend to plant tropical corn in mid-season for silage invites serious infestation by fall armyworm (and other late season caterpillar pests).

Discover the Secret Science of Fireflies

Farm Visit Snapshots: Turtle Rock Gardens

Grower Nicole Rosenberger has been growing beautiful sustainably grown cut flowers at Turtle Rock Gardens in Silk Hope for three years. In early 2019, Nicole moved to North Carolina from Pittsburgh where she had been growing and selling vegetables and cut flowers through a local farmers’ market. Once in North Carolina, she started working at Red Roots Farm and soon expanded her flower operation on land adjacent to Red Roots. She quickly became known for her beautiful bouquets!

Nicole markets her flowers through Community Supported Agriculture (sign up in the spring to receive weekly bouquets!), through farmers’ markets (info below), and wholesale at Chatham Marketplace in Pittsboro and Carolina Eclectic in Ramseur. In addition to the fresh bouquets and stems she also offers dried flowers and wreaths in the fall.

Register Now for a Fall Tour of the Pollinator Paradise Garden

Fall tours of North Carolina Cooperative Extension’s Pollinator Paradise Demonstration Garden in Pittsboro start at the end of August! The tours are led by Chatham County Agriculture Agent Debbie Roos.

The garden features over 225 species of perennials, trees, shrubs, vines, and grasses, and 85% of them are native to North Carolina. This is a great opportunity to visit the popular gathering spot for honey bees, native bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and beneficial insects in addition to their human admirers!

There is no charge for the tour, but registration is required to limit group size.

Take a Virtual Tour of the Pollinator Garden!

Debbie has created virtual garden tours over the past year and is busy making more for this year.

Visit our Chatham County Farmers’ Markets!

Now is a wonderful time to visit one or all of our Chatham County farmers' markets! You'll find amazing flowers and foods like strawberries, green garlic, cheese curds, and greenhouse tomatoes. Plus gorgeous greens, meats, eggs, plants, and so many other wonderful locally grown products.

Chatham County Youth Livestock Team participates in their first competition

On July 29th and 30th, the Chatham County Youth Livestock Team participated in their first competition. The Skillathon Contest on July 29th included breeds, tool, feed, and meat cut identification, a written test, as well as judging hay and wool. The Livestock Judging Contest on July 30th included judging 10 classes of hogs, sheep, goats, and beef cattle and giving oral reasons to explain their placings. We are incredibly proud of our team and can't wait for our next competition in October. We would like to recognize the following members for their awards:

Avery Hatfield:

7th Intermediate Division High Individual Overall

4th Intermediate Division High Individual Sheep Judging

8th Intermediate Division High Individual Beef Judging

Nathan Barbour:

9th Intermediate Division Skillathon High Individual Quality Assurance

Pesticide Classes

Kristina Britt and Ashley Robbins hosted a Pasture Weed ID and Management Class at the Chatham County Ag Center on August 5th. This course covered cool and warm season weed identification, control methods, toxic weeds, and more. We were very excited to see members of the community and discuss best management practices related to weed control.

** If you are a private pesticide applicator and need V credit for license renewal, join us on September 9th from 6-8PM at the Chatham County Ag Center for our last Safety Recertification Course of the year.

Need to know if you have credits or when your license expires? Contact Kristina, she'll be happy to assist you.

Ask an Expert: How Dangerous is Wildfire Smoke?

Recent wildfires across the western United States and Canada created unhealthy air quality as far away as North Carolina. NCSU Associate Professor, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, discusses how wildfire smoke impacts air quality and human health.

Benefits of Using a Consultant Forester

A well-managed forest pays multiple dividends from the sale of timber products, improved wildlife habitat, aesthetics, recreation, and pride in ownership. Consulting foresters are ‘your friends in the business,’ working on your behalf, to manage your woodlands in the ideal way that you would if you had their years of experience, education, and skill.

What’s a Timber Sale Contract? What Landowners Need to Know

Most of North Carolina’s forest land is owned by private landowners, and many of these landowners will only sell timber once or twice in their lifetime. Selling assets such as timber, homes, land, etc. should be done with a legal contract. A well-prepared contract describes the sale process and legal requirements.

Assessing Storm Damaged Pine Stands

Dr. David Dickens (UGA), will provide a general overview of storm damage assessment and potential management strategies for landowners.

This event is scheduled for Sep 15, 2021 at 1:00 pm.

The ongoing climate crisis has led to an increase in extreme weather events like hurricanes and tornadoes in the southeastern U.S. Hurricanes cause extensive damage to forest stands from high winds and floods resulting from the heavy rains that accompany them. Hurricanes and tornadoes stress, damage, or kill trees by uprooting, breaking, bending, leaning, wounding, and flooding stands. This webinar will provide landowners with assessment tools, preventative action strategies and management plans to mitigate long term consequences and facilitate recovery. This webinar will cover such questions as: What kind of storm damage do individual pines and pine stands sustain? What are the ecological impacts of this damage? What management strategies are available?

Small Farm Unit Tour

September 10 @ 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Digital Inclusion for North Carolina Farmworkers in a Pandemic:

Lessons for implementing and promoting a sustainable internet connectivity

Evidence for the Need to Connect Farms to Broadband Service

The use of broadband and other advanced technology in agriculture is increasing. These applications enable users to obtain greater input efficiencies and yields while mitigating potential climate impacts and carbon footprints. Agricultural technology, or ag tech, can be deployed for crops and animal farming. As technology advances and prices decrease, ag tech adoption is anticipated to increase. Cloud-based and other ag tech systems rely upon secure and robust fixed and mobile broadband connections. Broadband availability in rural agricultural regions will be necessary to maintain domestic and international competitiveness and production capabilities. This document provides an overview of agricultural markets and technology in the United States and demonstrates the imperative to deploy, develop and maintain broadband connectivity in rural U.S. agricultural regions.

Multiple Paths to Solve Rural Broadband Access

Ray Zeisz, Senior Director of Technology Infrastructure Lab at the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation at NC State University is actively seeking ways to help with rural broadband access. His research has implications for rural broadband access for any Cooperative Extension program area.

More information about Zeisz’s work

Friday Institute Publishes Initial Report on Rural Home Internet Access Pilot

RALEIGH, N.C. — In January, the Friday Institute for Educational Innovation announced its lead role in a pilot program to test emerging wireless technologies, funded by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the North Carolina Department of Information Technology’s Broadband Infrastructure Office, to address the homework gap in North Carolina. Although the pilot program will run through the 2021-2022 school year, an initial report has been published with some preliminary results. The three technologies being tested include low Earth orbit (LEO) satellite internet access, Television Whitespace (TVWS) and Citizen Broadband Radio Service (CBRS). Approximately 200 K-12 families will ultimately be connected as part of this pilot program, and quantitative data about the connection quality and speed are being gathered.

In the Kitchen with Tara

Tara shares her roasted okra recipe in this step by step video.

Creating a Budget

presented by: Traci Dixon

Community and Rural Development Agent

Nash County Center

The Dunlap Brothers

Creative Entrepreneurs from Bonlee

Isaac Hunter Dunlap and John Henry Dunlap were not your ordinary farmers, they were creative entrepreneurs who dabbled in a little bit of everything. Their entrepreneur spirit came naturally to them. Their father, Henry Overton Dunlap, had that same entrepreneur spirit.

Isaac Dunlap, the visionary

Isaac Hunter Dunlap loved his town of Bonlee and Chatham County. He enjoyed giving back to the community while having fun with the community members. He would come up with some of the funniest ideas to bring people into his store. The article below is just one example of how he would encourage folks to come into his country store.

Isaac Dunlap knew how to get people buzzing! He had folks submit teasers to the local newspaper on his behalf. Check out the teaser from the Siler City Grit in 1910.

How does someone pull customers into their store in the early 1900's? By marketing to mothers and children, of course! From the Siler City Grit, October 5, 1910 edition.

Isaac Dunlap took care of his community and expected members of the community to do the same. He was Bonlee's first mayor. Below is a notice that Mayor Dunlap posted in the Siler City Grit.

Isaac Dunlap was also the first president at Bonlee Bank and Trust.

The Dunlap family was always thinking ahead about how to make their community better for everyone. Below is a write up from 1912 in the Siler City Grit from an unknown person's point of view when he visited Bonlee.

Isaac Hunter Dunlap passed away at his home on December 26, 1946 after battling a serious illness for two days.

From our Community Partners

From the Chatham County Public Health Department

PITTSBORO, N.C . —The Chatham County Public Health Department (CCPHD) implores all county residents to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and wear a mask in public places to protect themselves and their community against the deadly virus.

COVID-19 Trends Continue to Worsen in Chatham

PITTSBORO, N.C. — Chatham County’s COVID-19 case numbers are continuing to rise as the Delta variant spreads. A recent peak came on August 3rd, when 30 new cases were reported, a number that had not been reached since late January 2021. In light of these numbers, the Chatham County Public Health Department continues to urge residents to get vaccinated, wear masks in indoor public places and be tested if they are exposed to the virus or begin experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

Sidewalk Chalk Festival

Creative Arts - Sidewalk Chalk Festival Sponsored by Carolina Meadows

Saturday, September 11th, 2021