When life gives you lemons, make lemonade

The Extension office is making a lot of lemonade these days! Due to COVID-19 our offices are currently closed to the public. Due to the Chatham County cyber incident, our county office phones and voice mails continue to be inoperable, but we can be contacted by email. To contact a staff member please click here to open our staff directory.

The Chatham County Center will be closed on January 18th, 2021 in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Join 4-H! Check out the Chatham County 4-H Clubs

* Currently, most 4-H Clubs are meeting remotely via Zoom.

Charging Champions Livestock 4-H Club

Leader: Loretta Batchelor

This club focuses solely on livestock, primarily beef and dairy cattle with an interest in goats as well. They show their animals and compete in the dairy bowl and other livestock competitions. Meetings are held monthly near Siler City and members range in age from elementary to high school age.

Horsekateers 4-H Club

Leader: Mary Dickerson

Our horse club, heavily involved in horse showing and competition, including horse judging, quiz bowl, and hippology. They frequently have speakers from the horse industry for educational activities. Members are middle school and high school age, and meetings are held at the club leader’s house near the Chatham/Durham County line.

Chatham County Mini Moos 4-H Club

Leader: Stacy Hicks

Our cloverbud dairy club has a variety of projects that include STEM, animal science, and behavioral science. They meet bi-weekly in the Silk Hope area of the county.

Club de Creadores: El Trébol de Chatham Community 4-H Club

Leaders: Lindsay Shore-Wright and Jazmin Mendosa- Sosa

A community club, this club also consists of youth ranging from 5-16; this bilingual and bi-cultural community club focused on elementary and middle school age kids and their families. We enjoy exploring nature, animals, crafting, science, and helping the community. They meet in the Siler City area the 3rd Friday of the month.

Chatham Fields, Firearms, and Fun

Leader: George Pankow

A community club with interests in micro-farming, shooting sports, and community service, this club likes to get their hands dirty when they can.

Chatham County Shooting Sports 4-H Club

Leader: Robbie Walters

Our newest shooting sports club, this group focuses on archery and riflery disciplines and meets at a range near Siler City.

Helping Hands 4-H Club

Leader: Elizabeth Fridley

A true community club, the Helping Hands Club focus on a number of educational topics including gardening and community service. They meet once a month in/around Pittsboro.

If you are interested in joining one of these wonderful 4-H groups, please email and we would be delighted to put you in touch with the club’s leaders and their next meeting time!

If you are interested in organizing a new club with different interests, please contact us and we will walk you through the process of starting a new club! A new group requires an adult leader and five members to be established.

Liz Mauney, Program Assistant - 4-H

It's 4-H Scholarship and Honor Club Application Time!!!

4-H Scholarships and Honor Club Applications are due into the Chatham 4-H office by Monday, January 24, 2021. Contact Liz, Kaley, or Ginger if you have questions or need assistance!

Enroll in 4-H

Enrollment and re-enrollment for Chatham County 4-H has been delayed. We will update as soon as we have more details. We will provide updates on our website.

New Gardening and Horticulture Publications from NC State Extension

Terrestrial Flatworms, Land Planarians & Hammerhead Worms

Winterizing the Herb Garden

Working with Wildlife Series: Building Songbird Boxes

Low-Cost Habitat Improvements

Farm Visit Snapshots: Granite Springs Farm

Robin Hood's Kitchen Converts Food Waste to Meals for Food Pantry

A new group in Chatham County is recovering food waste from local farms and retailers and converting it into nutrient-dense prepared foods for the local food pantry!

ForestHer NC WIldlife Webinar Recordings Available for Viewing Online!

The ForestHer NC Workshop Series went virtual for its four-part series on Managing for Wildlife in the fall of 2020. The webinars were all recorded and are now available for viewing.

Register Now for Chatham Conservation Partnership Webinar on Water Resource Planning

Please join the Chatham Conservation Partnership on January 21, 2021, from 9:00–11:15 a.m. for a virtual meeting to discuss one of our most important natural resources: water resources. Speakers Nora Deamer and Patrick Beggs from the NCDEQ will discuss the Cape Fear Basinwide Plan and the Jordan Lake Rules. Gretchen Smith and Guil Johnson from the Friends of the Lower Haw River will talk about conservation through recreation.

The webinar is free and open to the public. Pre-registration is required.

Business of Farming Series

Business of Farming Series: This will be a four-part virtual series on business start-up, categorizing expenses, year-end tax planning, and accounting systems all related to farms as businesses. Each session is at 1PM during the following dates:

General Health and Care of Sheep and Goats Virtual Workshop

When: January 14, 2021

Time: 6:30PM

Description:  This workshop will cover general husbandry, basic supplies and equipment, vaccine protocols, and common diseases.

Livestock Emergencies Workshop

When: January 14, 2021

Time: 1:00 PM

Details: Michelle Bouchey, DVM from the NCDA will be speaking about dealing with livestock emergencies.

Soil Fertility and Pasture Management Workshop

When: January 14, 2021

Time: 12:00 PM

Description: This is the second workshop in the Forages for Horse Owners Series.

2021 Auxin Herbicides: Best Management Practices

There will be twelve live zoom trainings held January-March each at 10AM. This training will count for 1 hour of N, O, D, or X credit. Please email Kristina Britt for registration and zoom link information to prevent hacking.

Horse Health Series

2021 Tobacco Winter Meetings Go Virtual!!

Tobacco meetings in 2021 will look and feel a little different than in years past, at least those planned for the early part of the year. Each grower meeting will be held in a virtual format (via Zoom) and will largely feature discussion topics that are focused to specific needs/topics of interest put forth by growers and Extension agents during each event. Attendance for our virtual Extension meetings is completely voluntary, but it is strongly encouraged because current production topics will be addressed.

Live forestry Webinars in January

Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians Collaborative Research and Management of Culturally Important Forest Products

This webinar introduces a program on co-produced research and action to manage forests for culturally important plants within portions of traditional Cherokee homelands.

Date: January 8, 2021

Time: 1-2pm (Zoom)

The Top Five Ways Forest Landowners Save Tax Dollars

Forest landowners often try to maximize profits through minimizing management expenses or finding the highest price for their timber. However, taxes are a frequently overlooked area for savings. This webinar will discuss the top five ways forest landowners can decrease their federal income tax liability.

Date: January 12, 2021

Time: 1-2pm (Zoom)

Cost-Share Assistance for Stewardship & Tree Farm Plan Preparation in North Carolina

Participants in this webinar will learn about cost-share assistance for Stewardship and Tree Farm plans through the NC Forest Service – Stewardship Incentives Program. Landowners in 72 North Carolina counties are eligible to receive cost-share assistance for the development of Stewardship and Tree Farm plans.

Date: January 13, 2021

Time:  10am-12pm (Zoom)

Winter Squash: A Deliciously Sweet Nutrient Powerhouse

Looking for ways to add more fruits and vegetables into your meals this winter season?

Winter squash is not only gourd-geous but a delicious way to liven up your meals during the cooler months of the year. These tough on the outside, sweet on the inside squash make a nutritious and tasty addition to the table. Packed with beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium and fiber, these squash can add sweetness to many dishes without the need for added sugar.

Cinnamon and Rosemary Roasted Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

1 large butternut squash (about 3 pounds, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch cubes)

2 Tbl. Olive oil

1 tsp. Salt

1 tsp. Ground cinnamon

1 tsp Dried rosemary

½ tsp ground black pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 400 degree F.

Peel and cut squash in half to remove seeds and strings. Cube the squash.

In a large bowl, combine squash, oil, pepper, cinnamon, dried rosemary, and salt. Stir to coat the squash.

Spread squash onto an oiled baking dish and bake for 15 minutes.

Toss squash and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes longer.

Remove from the oven when squash is tender and slightly caramelized on the edges. Enjoy!

Notes: Squash can be cubed a day in advance. Just store cubes in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Reheat this dish in a skillet or in the oven at 350 F to maintain the texture. Microwave is also an option but texture will be different.

Join Tara's Mailing List

Since joining the Extension team, Tara has been working virtually with other Family and Consumer Sciences Agents in the region by offering online classes. Have you missed those classes? If so, don't miss out on future ones! Tara would love for you to join her email list so that she can keep you updated about upcoming programs. Click on the button below to contact Tara so that she can add you to her mailing list.

Take the Money challenge! Reach your Financial goals in 2021!

This is the time of year we think about setting resolutions. Yes, 2020 has given us a lot to think about financially. We might not have stayed on track this year, but it is finally 2021 and we can learn from 2020, which might have been a tougher financial year. Setting a New Year’s resolution that deals with your personal finances might just be what you need to start the year off in the right direction.

The best way to start to set a financial goal is to really reflect on your finances from last year; figuring out your spending habits will help you realize where all your money has gone. This process will help you figure out what items you might be overspending on. Knowing this information will help you be more conscious about where and how you spend.

We all have different ideas or goals of what we need to feel more financially set; here are just a few personal finance tips that might help you achieve your financial goals this year.

Tips to Stay on Track:

Using a calendar to write out bills and their due dates

This will help you stay organized. Making payments on time will not only help your credit score, it will save you so much money in late fees.

Paying down debt

The holidays are over, and we might have spent more than we had planned. Avoid accruing large interest charges by paying down the debt as quickly as you can. While paying down debt, it is good practice, do not make any charges on that card until you have been able to pay off the amount. This will help keep the balances to a manageable monthly expense.

Emergency Savings Plan

No matter what your income is, starting an emergency savings plan is a great idea. This can be a hard task if you are living pay check to pay check, but it is not impossible. If you watch your spending habits and really stick to your budget, making an emergency savings plan can be accomplished. The savings challenge that I like is the $1,000 challenge for the year. Think what that $1,000 could do for you and your family.

Take the Money Challenge! If you succeed you will win at the end of the year!

The challenge is a fun way set a goal to save and really stick with it. There are 52 weeks in a year. Imagine that each week is represented by one circle, and within each circle, there is a dollar amount that the challenge will ask you to put that amount of money into your savings. You might not be able to put some away every week, but as you find that you cut back on some spending or just have some extra left over after paying bills, the saving challenge is where you can put those extra funds. So, some weeks you might be able to mark off more circles than other weeks. If you need the money that you were planning on saving for your bills, make sure you use that money for bills instead of the challenge. Paying your bills and debt down will be more important for financial success throughout the year.

At the end of the year you should have a $1,000 in your emergency fund, and this will set you up for future success. As the months go by, some unexpected things could present themselves and you will be able to dip into this fund instead of having to put it on a credit card and spend money on fees and interest.

The new habit of saving will help grow your emergency fund bigger and bigger every year, so maybe 2021 is the year to start setting you up for the extra cushion to your budget.

No matter what your financial goals are, just starting out with a plan and trying to stick to it will help set you up for success this year and years to come.

What's the story behind the pictures?

From time to time I'll pull up old photos that I have scanned from the old slides that I have been converting to digital photos. Looking at theses photos, I've asked myself several times what's the story behind these pictures? The photo above is one of my favorite pictures that I found while converting the slides. The lady above reminds me of a snow angel, all dressed in white with the snowy white background. From time to time I'll pull up this picture trying to figure out where she is. Who could she be calling? Why is she traveling when road conditions could be so treacherous? The only clue that I could find was written on the slide below.

Today I found most of the answers that I have been looking for and was amazed how much history is actually behind these pictures! I started to search through newspapers.com trying to find a story that may reveal the story behind the pictures and finally I hit the jackpot!

These ladies were heading to Washington, DC to witness the swearing-in ceremony and inauguration address on January 20, 1961. As luck would have it, there was a storm brewing, a Nor'easter nicked named the "Kennedy Inaugural Snowstorm" because it hit Washington, DC the night before John F. Kennedy was to be sworn in. According to Wikipedia, " In advance of the storm, the Weather Bureau predicted a mix of rain and snow in Washington, D.C., but instead, the precipitation remained frozen. The unexpected snowfall resulted in "chaos", and thousands of cars were marooned or abandoned, triggering massive traffic jams.[7] According to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, "The Engineers teamed up with more than 1,000 District of Columbia employees to clear the inaugural parade route. Luckily, much equipment and some men had been pre-positioned and were ready to go. In the end the task force employed hundreds of dump trucks, front-end loaders, sanders, plows, rotaries, and flamethrowers to clear the way."[8] The snowstorm prevented former President Herbert Hoover from flying into Washington National Airport and attending Kennedy's swearing-in ceremony.[9] Additionally, the storm dealt the final blow to the Texas Tower #4, a USAF radar installation in the Atlantic Ocean, causing her to sink with the loss of all 28 crew aboard."

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/January_1961_nor%27easter

The audio provided by the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum.