Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Old-fashioned farming
Darlene from Rathdrum, Idaho demonstrates old-fashioned plowing with her three mule team and vintage equipment.
FFA members compete in state trap shoot event. Back: Keigan Wehr, Danielle Tebow, Caleb Singer, MaKayla Baird (behind Singer),Patrick Valverde and William Mann. Front: Colton Hunt and Max Greenwalt.
Old-fashioned plowing took place April 12-13 at the Keith and Leanna Schafer farm, where participants from Washington and Idaho brought teams of mules and horses to demonstrate how old-time farm equipment (plow and harrow) was used to work a field. The Odessa and Harrington FFA Chapters served lunch (sponsored by the Odessa Alumni Association) on Saturday and Sunday of the event, earning funds to support their Jr. Livestock Show projects.
The two chapters also took in donations (to help with medical expenses) for neighboring agriculture educator Scott Mortimer from Wilson Creek who was in a farming accident the end of March. Anyone interested in donating towards his medical expenses can contact the FFA Chapter members collecting donations for him. He has been a great supporter of FFA programs and of area youth.
State Career Development Events (CDEs) participated in recently by FFA students are described below:
State Trap Shooting
The FFA State Trap Shooting event was held at the Orondo Gun Club in East Wenatchee April 18-19. FFA members from Odessa were Max Greenwalt, Caleb Singer, Colton Hunt, shooting on Odessa Team #1 (along with William Mann of Harrington) and Team #2 comprising MaKayla Baird, Danielle Tebow, Kiegan Wehr and Patrick Valverde.
The team starts at Trap House #1 where they shoot 25 rounds each at the 16 yard line, move on to the next trap house shooting 25 more rounds at the 16, move on to trap houses three and four for their handicap and shoot 25 rounds at each house at the 22 yard line; for a total of 100 rounds per team member.
The state shoot was the largest in seven years, having 190 FFA members participate and 43 teams attend the two day event. Greenwalt, Singer, Hunt and Mann took part in the trap shooting games (Annie Oakley, Buddy and Chipper/Bushwhacker), where they did well. Mann was a top-ten finalist in the Chipper/Bushwhacker game. Team #1 placed 23rd out of 43 teams, the top three scorers on each team calculated to get the final team score which was 234 out of 300.
Prepared public speaking
Kim Nelson will compete in the Prepared Public Speaking CDE at the State FFA Convention Friday, May 8, with her speech titled, "Green Agriculture for Blue Water." She will compete against 15-20 other FFA members in the state in the preliminary round in hopes of making it to the finals and on stage. The Prepared Speaking CDE requires FFA members to write an authentic speech on a topic they are interested in or passionate about, utilize resources to cite within the speech, provide a manuscript, and present the speech by memory for a minimum of six minutes and maximum for eight minutes. To give her practice with her speech, interested groups or businesses are encouraged to contact FFA advisor Erica Whitmore at 982-2711 in the afternoons.
Food science
The team that will compete at the state convention in May consists of Kimberly Nelson, Jacob DeWulf, Parker Valverde and Alexis Burdick. The CDE involves completing the following tasks: taking a 50-question multiple-choice test; identifying 10 aromas; participating in a taste- and visual-difference test; selecting safety hazards in pictures and explaining the problem identified; viewing customer complaint letters and deciphering whether a chemical, biological or physical issue is involved; and an overall team product presentation built off a scenario each team is given.
Milk quality products
The Odessa team competing at state consists of Max Greenwalt, Colby Sooy, MaKayla Baird and Caleb Singer. The Milk Quality Products CDE requires them to identify five different cheese types and identify specific characteristics of the cheese, rank and identify the flavor level and what the milk has been altered with, score eight samples of tainted mastitis milk and answer a 50-question multiple-choice test.
Spokane Jr. Livestock Show
The Spokane Jr. Livestock Show will take place May 6-11. Odessa FFA members Max Greenwalt, Caleb Singer, Alexis Burdick, MaKayla Baird, Steven Braun and Katelyn Worley) will exhibit and then sell the SAE project livestock they have been raising for the past 3 to 8 months. The chapter will exhibit four market hogs, one breeding heifer and two market lambs. We still have one lamb for sale (contact Whitmore to obtain quality lamb meat to fill the freezer). The community is invited to come and support the students during the show.
Odessa greenhouse news
An early-bird plant sale will be held April 25 from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The plant sale continues May 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Plants offered for sale are: petunias (Dreams Mix, Patriot Mix, white, red, and yellow), geraniums (red, white, raspberry, lavender, and salmon), portulaca (mix), dracaena spikes, marigolds (yellow), lobelia (purple and white), and hanging baskets (Ayers Rock, Crazy for Crayons, and Strawberry Shortcake), as well as, a variety of vegetables (tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, basil, cilantro, parsley, watermelon and canteloupe).
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