The Contest Missed

For the last eight years, we have added another project to our list of fun-Forestry.  It is easy to get involved in a lot of projects if you have a lot children who like different things.  Or, as in my case, children who love ALL projects.  However, to avoid complete burn out of this 4H mom, I told the boys they really needed to pick and choose carefully and only 3 projects.  So thankful that my boys do like most of the same fun, or even with this limit I would have had 9 projects to enjoy!  No one has that much time!

Forestry was the hard one to cut.  No one at my house really wanted to take it out of our busy 4H weeks.  However, the decision was finally made due to conflicts in other activities.  I am sure that is why I sat watching the trees today as the light rain came down thinking we were missing something today.  Then it hit me like a lightning bolt...today was the Forestry contest!

For those of you who do not know about this project, it is a very good project to introduce youth to the forestry industry.  The participants must be able to learn several skills to determine quality of lumber (mainly pine but hardwoods as well).  The 4H website describes it well:  "The forestry project stresses general forestry knowledge, tree identification, insect and disease identification (national level only), compass & pacing, and judgment about land management decisions."

So, when afternoon came around and I knew results would be in, I started calling around to find out how our 4Hers fared at the contest.  I finally got the call in a few minutes ago.  Our teams did not place in the top so would not move on to the next level.  I am sure they worked hard.  I know they had a lot of young newbies in the project this year and the new leader of the project (Wanda) was a great instructor.

In spite of the team not doing well, we did have one 4Her who did excellent.  David placed high point individual for 4H and overall (this is a FFA contest and they are judged separately).  He is our Senior this year and I know he works extra hard to understand the information and skills of the contest.  The best part for him was that he was eligible for scholarships this year.  He was awarded $3000 in scholarships for his outstanding performance today!  I am so proud of him!  Great job!  You represented us well.

So, although we did not participate in this project, I could not end the day without a shout out to the Forestry group. I hope you enjoyed it for all of us.  We were there in spirit!