Extension Service serves you

By David Carter | The Natchez Democrat

Published Sunday, November 11, 2007

The Adams County Extension Service is committed to providing all local citizens the access to research based information needed to make your life more satisfying and less stressful. This is done by providing you with the knowledge to make changes for the better and solve complex problems with the simplest solutions. Therefore we will continue to provide the public with workshops, and on-going programs to increase awareness, education and knowledge to all citizens. We have conducted numerous programs in the past 6 months that were well received by the public and have had lots of calls requesting more so here are some time frames you can begin to look for.

Q. Will you ever offer programs in the future like previous ones?

Absolutely, our two biggest on-going courses, Master Gardener and Master Horseman, will both be offered in 2008. We will start the next Master Gardener course on Tuesday, Feb. 26, and meet every Tuesday and Thursday from 1-5 p.m. until April 3. The next Master Horseman course will tentatively begin Tuesday, April 15 and be every Tuesday from 6- 9 p.m. until June 3. More information on both these programs will be available in the near future.

The most popular one day workshops we hosted this year were the Global Positioning Systems workshop and pond and lake management workshop. Both were hands on workshops so spots were limited. I understand some of you may have wanted to attend but the class was full. No date has yet been set, but we will offer both of these courses again in winter or spring. If we have a high demand for the workshops we may offer it on consecutive days. We will also continue to offer programs in all areas of 4-H youth development, nutrition education, agriculture, childcare, wildlife, forestry, horticulture, and some new programs we are currently securing funding and outside speakers for right now.

Q. What are quick bites?

One of the biggest new opportunities for learning is what we call Quick Bites; it has been around for a while but rarely advertised. One day a week, state specialist in different subject areas offer one hour programs to the public on various topics from lawn management, exotic cooking, horticulture, home and garden decorations, pets, financial management, business marketing, and the list continues (over 50 topics). We will offer all of you the opportunity to come to our office and participate in these trainings over our advanced distance media center. We will advertise the week’s topic in this column one week in advance and you can call in and reserve a spot if you wish to participate. This is modern education, from state specialists, on advanced technology, absolutely free for everyone.

FYI: Mississippi State University is the only university in the nation to offer connecting sight and sound media technology to every county in the state, over 100 total sites.This is the closest thing to person to person contact you can have with someone in another part of the state, now you can use it as well.

David Carter is the director of the Adams County Extension Service.