Congrats to 4-H winners

Whew, what a busy weekend!
On Friday night, we honoured our 4-H members with their annual Awards Night.
Congratulations to our award winners, and all the 4-H members and their families who took the time out to attend.
The “Chocolate Club” (a relatively new 4-H project) was the theme for the evening and the members did an excellent job of displaying some on their chocolate material.
The Awards Night also is a time when selected 4-H members have a chance to participate in the program and practice their public-speaking skills. Cody, Damien, and Julianna did an excellent job and this is likely one of my favourite skills that 4-H builds within us.
I have now officially retired as the association representative for Rainy River 4-H, so if you have any questions or would like to join, please get in touch with Kim Desserre.
Thanks, also, to everyone who donated to the Shypit family, who recently lost their home to fire.
• • •
Thank you so much to all the participants who took time out of their very busy schedules to attend the species at risk workshop in Emo on Saturday.
I was planning to get to the workshop early but, of course, about the time I should have been leaving home, I had two cows calving. I could have just left, but what if?
I waited and arrived just a few minutes early.
I am so proud of all my farmer friends for being there and showing such great interest. It was an excellent workshop and I hope everyone left with a better understanding how great of an area we live in and how we can all work together to keep it as wonderful as—or even better than—it is right now.
Our speakers and sponsors deserve a huge pat on the back, and I’m certainly looking forward to future partnerships.
Of course, one of the first steps is have a completed Environmental Farm Plan (third edition), so please get in touch with Dick Trivers if you need to complete this step.
• • •
Maddie and Marlee came out to do some farming over the weekend. They had seen some miniature horses on the drive out, so that was the new thing they thought maybe we should add to the farm.
Ugh.
Maddie really works hard doing chores and quickly has learned to keep door and gates shut as you finished. Marlee, meanwhile, still loves to spot “grandpa’s cow,” which is easily noticed since she is the only black one (we think that’s why grandpa wanted a black cow).
When we were doing the walk around to check the cows and calves, Marlee noticed grandpa’s cow, which also is the one which has the adopted calf.
The adopted calf is a red limo and Marlee quickly asked, “Is grandpa’s calf going to turn black?”
I had found, a few days earlier, a switch from a cow’s tail, so I tossed it to the side because I knew that would bring some good discussion. Maddie is extremely interested in anything like this.
We had to walk around and see what cow had lost it and then she asked, “How are we going to put it back on?”
We also had to some trauma to deal with. “Mocha,” our dwarf, lop-eared bunny, was sick and not doing well at all. I thought this might be very hard on the girls since Mocha has had sleep-overs at their house, spent hours and hours in the playhouse, and has been walked (dragged) on a leash.
It turns out the girls are a lot stronger than I am. My boyfriend/partner came home and I told Maddie to tell him about Mocha.
She looked at him and said, “Mocha is either dead or dying” and never even blinked an eye.
Mocha still is not doing well and will not likely recover, but all that was asked was, “Can we get another bunny if she doesn’t get better?”
I gladly will get another bunny but not so keen on the miniature horse, so hopefully we will forget about that as quickly as Mocha herself.