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My 4-H Online Journal
Journal Page ONE | Page TWO | Page THREE | Page FOUR
Hi, my name is Jolene. I am nine years old and I am a member of 4-H.
My mom is helping me keep track of my 4-H projects with this web site.
This is Page one of my Online Journal.
Alwine Community 4-H Club
3/17/2003
I joined the Alwine Community 4-H Club in Westmoreland County in Pennsylvania and attended my first meeting on March 17, 2003.
So far I am having a lot of fun and meeting a lot of new people.
Our club covers a wide range of subjects. Some of them are:
Lambs, Hogs, Rabbits, Pet Care, Photography, Rockets, Cooking, Sewing, Gardening and a few more I can't think of right now.
At the first meeting, I had to introduce myself to the group (I was too shy to) and fill out some papers. One of the things we did was tell our club leader what projects we were interested in.
I was having a hard time deciding on what projects to pick. The leader of our club suggested that first year members pick no more than two projects for the fair.
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Here are the projects that I am interested in: Rabbits, Plants, Pet Care, Photography and Foods.
I have already ruled out Rabbits as a fair project, because I have had Hoppy for several years already, and he does not like to be picked up.
Our Rabbit leader has told me that in order to show a rabbit at the fair, I need to be able to pick him up. So showing rabbits will be a project for another year. Mom told me in a year or two I can get a new baby floppy-eared rabbit and raise him to show at the fair.
Our Rabbit leader told me that for this year I should go to the Fair on the day they are judging the 4-H rabbits, and pay attention to what the other boys and girls in 4-H do. That way when I am ready to raise and show my own rabbit, I will have an idea of what is expected of me.
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Pet Care is a project that I really want to do. However the hard part will be to pick only one of my animals to enter into the fair.
As you can probably see from my Photo page, I have a lot of animals. I have a cat, a rabbit, and a family dog. I also have a crayfish and we have four fish. I am also interested in bugs. Right now I have a collection of pill bugs. I used to have wooly caterpillars, but they spun cocoons and turned into moths, so I let them go.
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I will be doing a little bit of Photography, because I am suppose to take pictures of my plants as I go. My mom might let me use her digital camera, or I might use a regular film camera.
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I am also interested in cooking, so I will be going to the Food meetings too.
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4/21/2003
At my second meeting on April 21, we were asked to arrive a little early to help clean up around the Alwine Community Center. Our club weeded some flower beds and trimmed the bushes to make the front of the building look nice. My mom and I had planned to come and help, but with the road construction in our area, we were late. However, I did help a little with finishing up picking up the weeds and putting them in a bag for disposal.
Then we went inside, said the pledges and started the meeting. I surprised myself - even without studying the 4-H pledge too much - I am beginning to remember the words. Now I just need to get the gestures and I will be set.
We did a project where we divided into groups and had to create a machine using only our bodies and voices. Our group did a washing machine and I volunteered to be the clothes. It was a lot of fun.
Then we did a macramé project. It was a bracelet. It was a little frustrating - because I wasn't sure what I was doing, but mom helped me and I finished it. The leader in charge of the project asked me to come up and show my finished bracelet. I was very proud of it.
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4/28/2003
I went to a gardening meeting on Monday, April 28 and I am not sure that is a project I want to do.
Our Gardening leader owns a Farm and Orchard, and she took us on a tour of her greenhouses to look at some of the plants she has started. She sells plants and flowers and she also grows vegetables to sell.
She also talked with me and the other kids who attended about what kinds of things we will need to enter our plants in the fair.
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5/1/2003
Mom took some pictures of me pulling weeds today (5/1/03) from a patch of flowers that I planted a week or so ago.
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I was suppose to be helping her pull weeds in another of her flower beds, but I got side-tracked by the pill bugs and other insects that I kept finding. I added a few more pill bugs to my pet container.
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5/12/2003
Went to another meeting. The civic center where we meet was having a dinner the next night, so we spent some time wrapping silverware in napkins. Once a majority of the members had arrived, our club president called the meeting to order.
Our activity tonight was a lot of fun. We divided into two groups and stood in a circle. They gave us a hula-hoop and told us to hold it on our hands without grasping it. Then we had to work together to get it down on the ground.
We also did another activity with the hula-hoop. We stayed in the circle and joined hands. They put the hula-hoop between two of the people, and we had to move the hoop around the circle while keeping our hands joined at all times.
At the end of the meeting, our club leader reminded us that the civic center was having a dinner the next day. She asked for volunteers to help serve drinks and clean the tables. I decided to volunteer.
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5/13/2003
Mom and I drove to the Alwine Civic Center to help out at their Ham Dinner. I got people their drinks and cleaned up the garbage from the tables. We also wiped the tables and put out new wrapped silverware.
I had a lot of fun and decided that the next dinner they have - I want to volunteer again.
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5/24/2003
I started some flower seeds today. Dad helped me put top soil and peat moss in a container. Then I planted two different kinds of seeds.
Some Strawflowers and some Snapdragons.
The following are some pictures mommy took while I was working on it.
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5/25/2003
I planted some more seeds today. This is a picture of the container with the Sunflower seeds planted in it. I took a picture of it myself with mommy's digital camera after I was done.
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I can't wait until all of my seeds sprout.
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6-9-2003 - First Food Meeting
Today I went to my first Food Meeting. Mom dropped me off at the leader's house and I meet the three other girls in the group. Two of the girls did this project last year and the other girl is in her first year like me.
We made sponge cake with fresh strawberries. We each did a part of the preparation - measuring ingredients and cutting up the strawberries.
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The above pictures are the cake and strawberries that I took home to share with my mom and dad.
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6-15-2003 - Father's Day
Mom and dad helped me make Fruit Kabobs to take to my Grandfather's (My mom's Dad) for a Father's Day Party. I got the recipe out of a Kid's Cookbook called "Adventures in the Kitchen".
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I went to the store with my mom and picked out the kinds of fruit I wanted for the kabobs. We bought fresh bananas, two kinds of grapes, fresh strawberries, canned peaches, and canned pineapples. The recipe called for putting chocolate sauce and shredded coconut on them, but I decided to leave that off, because it would have made them messier to eat. We ended up with about 45 Fruit Kabobs.
They were a big hit with my cousins - and we didn't have any left to take home.
I plan on making them again sometime. It was a fun dessert to make and they were even more fun to eat.
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6-16-2003
Today's meeting was an "Ice Cream Social".
After the pledge and the discussion of important upcoming events we played some games while the adults got the ice cream and toppings set up.
I had ice cream with strawberries and caramel toppings. After everyone was done, we cleaned up and went home.
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6-24-2003
This is a picture of one of the flower beds I am taking care of. The flowers I planted are finally sprouting.
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My plants inside in my container are also sprouting.
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6-30-2003
Another Food Meeting today. We made strawberry jam and blueberry pies.
We got to bring two jars of the jam home and the one pie that we made ourselves.
I haven't sampled the jam yet - but I ate the blueberry pie myself.
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Click below for additional updates
Journal Page ONE | Page TWO | Page THREE | Page FOUR
