Donate to our soldiers at the March meeting

By The Nagasugis

 

            The Community Service Project has shipped 7 packages to soldiers in Iraq so far this year! We will be collecting donations at the March club meeting so that we can continue to mail packages to them.

            Some of the items soldiers requests are: individual water flavoring packages like lemonade or kool aid; snacks like granola bars and cookies; and hard candy.

            The cake decorating project signed valentines for our last package. If your project would like to include notes or cards, please let us know. Please bring your donations to the March meeting. If you have questions, please contact Anna or Holly Nagasugi at 589-5526. Thank you.

Chickens Galore

By Toni Hammork

 

I have 4 hens, 2 pullets and 1 rooster. Lacey is the prettiest chicken in the whole entire world. She is good at posing. She also flaps. I love all my chickens.

Do you have any questions about your animals? Do you need help? I can probably help, and if I can’t, I can help you find someone who can! Just email me at Gabartolon@verizon.net.

PRESENTATION DAY

By Alex Martin

 

The Presentation Day theme is Turn that Frown Upside Down . Our club has volunteered to run the breakfast food booth in the morning and the poster judging room, as it has for several years in a row now. Project Leaders - after talking to Vicki, we are asking that each project in our club prepare 1 poster for the room as well. These posters should be posed as a question, with 4 reasonable answers rated from best possible answer to acceptable answer. All answers need to be ranked on the back on the poster. The Presentation Day Committee has worked out a plan with the County Council that from December through the end of the 4-H year, anyone who wants to do a demonstration, either as practice for Presentation Day or Regional Field Day, or just needs to do another demo for credit in their record book, can contact the 4-H office to be put on the agenda for County Council. They will accept the first 2 who request a space each month. ENTRIES ARE DUE FEBRUARY 8TH TO VICKI. If you have any questions, please feel free to call Alexandra Martin 714-323-5951 or e-mail at alex.martin@cox.net .

Youth Expo

By Alex Martin

 

Youth Expos theme is SMILE, and will be held from Friday, April 25^th through Sunday, April 27^th. The Youth Expo Competition Book can be found online at the 4-H County website www.oc4h.org and should be looked at by Project Leaders to see some of the changes that have been made in entry categories and limits and so that you can get some good ideas for entries. Livestock leaders even if you won’t have animals ready to bring to Youth Expo, there are building entries that your projects can submit like educational posters and grooming kits. The committee is always looking for more representatives, so if anyone is interested in attending some meetings and helping out, we would look forward to the extra assistance. It is always a lot of fun, and it would be great if a few more families could join us at the meetings. Februarys meeting will be held on Thursday, the 31^st at 7:30pm at the 4-H office. We want to thank BJ Bender and Ashleigh Mathias for volunteering as youth representatives for our club. ENTRIES ARE DUE MARCH 16TH TO VICKI (that gives us a week to organize them and get them to the County office.) If you have any questions, please feel free to call Alexandra Martin 714-323-5951 or e-mail at alex.martin@cox.net .

Cavies

By Heather Hendron

 

Squeak squeak squeak. That’s all you could hear during the last cavy meeting as we learned how to show our guinea pigs. The hardest part was flipping the guinea pigs on their back because they kept struggling and squirming. We were all very thankful to have an experienced junior leader to help us. You might not know this but guinea pigs are very social animals so they kept running off to sit next to the other guinea pigs making learning all the more difficult, but showing a cavy is much like showing a rabbit simplifying it once again.                                     

Got any questions? Comments? Do you want to appear in this newsletter? Send me any news, meeting news, stories, bulletins, pictures, ideas, crosswords, word searches, anything you can come up with. Be creative! Just email me at Gabartolon@verizon.net.

Steer

Vicki Dodridge

 

On January 3rd, the Trailblazers got their first steer in a really long time. They came all the way from Montana where they were
born on the KG Ranch. They are almost a year old and weigh almost 800 pounds. They are pure bred angus calves and should weigh at least 1200 pounds by the fair. We got five of them. They still run away from us but soon they won't.

 

Guess the 4-H message

By Heather Hendron

 

T C S H T L A E H H R F S P S

E A E C P E T S E T R W C H H

H K S A E E R S R I I F O O O

S E R V I C E A E N R M R T W

S N O I T A T N E S E R P O M

S Y H E D O D D S S L D D G A

P R T S I S G N I T E E M R N

H O D I H G O E G F A M M A S

E E U I N I U N D A D O I P H

A F P L H U I G N R E S G H I

D I Z S T R M W A C R H V Y P

T Z A P A R K M B B S E S K I

U F Z C L W Y N O G H A N D S

R A B B I T S P U C I R S V M

G N I T A R O C E D P T R Y A

 

Circle all the letters from the words below in the word search puzzle.  Then with the left over letters, try to figure out the secret message.  Hint: think about our Club Leader J

 

ART      CAKE     CARING     CAVIES     COMMUNITY     CRAFTS

DECORATING     DEMOS     FASHION     FRIENDSHIP     GOATS

HANDS     HEAD     HEALTH     HEART     HORSES     LEADERSHIP

MEETINGS     PETS     PHOTOGRAPHY     POULTRY     PRESENTATIONS

RABBITS     SERVICE     SHOWMANSHIP     SWINE

Jasmine – My Pygmy Goat

By: Rachel White

 

I am so excited to have my own pygmy goat this year!  I have a 4-month-old agouti doe named Jasmine.  She is so cute!  She came from one of See Jay’s does.  I am having a great time in the pygmy goat project with our new leader Chere.  Last month we learned how to trim hooves and started working on showmanship.  This month we continued to learn how to show our goats.  Jasmine and I need a lot more practice!  We can’t wait for Youth Expo and the Fair!!!

 

From the Editor

By Gabrielle Bartolon

 

I would just like to say thank you so much to all who sent me articles and put this newsletter together. I really appreciate the help, as I am sure our whole club does. Thank you!

The Steer are Here!

Stevie Hammork

 

Hooray! The 4-H steer have finally arrived at the farm! We’ve been waiting for about  years for them to come and now 5 lucky individuals have received them. They are the cutest Black Angus steer that weigh 800 pounds. This year I am lucky enough to get 2 market animals (thanks to lots of begging) and it’s going to be a busy year. Well if you get a chance you should visit the farm and look at the cuties. Hope you enjoy the meeting!

Bunny Needs a Home

Stevie Hammork

 

As some of you know I have around nine rabbits, and I’m looking to downsize! I won an opal American Fuzzy Lop in the name the bunny contest about four years ago. His name is Scamper, and he wins most of his classes and was named best of opposite breed at a few shows. He likes to run around the yard and get brushed . He especially likes to be held and likes to give kisses. If you are interested in him please e-mail or talk to me at the meeting.

Jack

By Heidi Shuch

 

This is a tribute to my rabbit, Jack. My sister and her friend found him 5 years ago. He was wandering loose in our neighborhood. He was fat and happy. I enjoyed showing him at the Fair and Youth Expo. Everyone always commented on what a sweet bunny he was. Since he was a rex (or mini-rex, he was kind of in-between sizes), he had velvet-soft fur. When we would let him out in the house to hop around, he always snuggled with us or the other bunnies. When he was ready to get back in his cage, he would hop back up by himself. It was about a one foot jump!

When he got older, he started to get thinner. A few weeks ago, he had a stroke, and was paralyzed from the waist down. I hand-fed him, and gave him water from an eye dropper. It was really nice to be able to take care of him like that. I would hold him for a long time. He died the next day, in my sister's arms.

He was my first rabbit, and I miss him very much. I'm thankful I have lots of great memories of him!!!

 

Avian Biosecurity for 4-H
by Shelmarie Main
4-H Master Poultry Volunteer Leader

As a leader, I was able to attend the Master Poultry program taught by Dr. Francine Bradley poultry specialist from UC Davis this past fall. It was a great learning experience, focusing on biosecurity for poultry. Some of the ideas to improve biosecurity and reduce disease infection are relatively easy to implement. Things like; don't share your equipment or feed with other bird owners, wash your hands thoroughly BEFORE and after handling birds, avoid contact with other birds, purchase a cage that is easily cleaned and know your bird's normal behavior because any sudden change could be symptomatic of an illness. These are all things that people can do to help stop or greatly reduce the spread of infection.
There are other bits of information that can help to keep your chickens healthy too. Remember that anything that touches your bird can carry disease organisms, be aware of this and keep these items disinfected too. Also, a bird doesn't have to look sick to carry disease. You could be transferring disease that you don't even know about because you thought the bird you were holding was healthy! Some of these things might not make sense to you as the average backyard bird owner but really your back yard birds could carry the disease that starts a epidemic. Just think, a wild bird comes and eats out of your backyard bird's feeder. This wild bird has a disease. Your birds now contract it and incubate the disease. you go to visit your friends in Norco for lunch. You chat it up for a while and go out to their yard and look at their really cool chicken coop. All the while you didn't realize that you had a disease organism on your shoes and clothes. This disease gets transferred to their birds and now they have it. Your friends in Norco don't live too far from a commercial chicken farm, and it just so happens that your friend and the chicken farmer go to the same market on the same day and Voila'! The disease has now been spread from your pet back yard birds to a chicken farm. These chickens could potentially get sick and lose the farmer thousands and thousands of dollars. Amazing isn't it? Remember to stay clean and healthy, always ask permission before handling other birds and better be safe than sorry when dealing with biosecurity!!