Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Mid Week Madness
Ok so today hasn't really been maddening, it's just you know the middle of the week. I was on the radio again today, it was fun! We were not on the air quite as long as yesterday but still was a good time, makes me want to be on the radio more! This is going to be a short post, but before I end it here are some interesting things I did today and what I have learned:
1) If you have a potato bug problem and you are trying to do things organically then why not try Safer Brand Insecticide Soap. From what I have read on it, it is all natural products that will kill the bugs on contact but won't hurt your plants. My only caution with that is to of course read the label on the back on how often to apply and how much. It's like anything too much of it is probably a bad thing.
2) Along those same lines if you are trying to use dish soap and water make sure it is properly diluted, if you have too much of the soap and not enough water you could cause the leaves to have tip burn and your pretty plant will no longer be pretty.
3) If you keep unknown insects in a jar for over a week they will pretty much eat anything in the jar that they came in. This includes a stick and a small green caterpillar. ( They had the stick broken in half in three days and caterpillar went missing two days ago.)
4) Lambsquarter which is consider a weed is actually edible when it is real young and is far more nutritious then spinach. (Yay for Farmers Market) Not to long ago people were eating them and they were featured in a nutrition book listing off just how healthy it was and boy did it beat the spinach by a long shot!
5) Every Farmers Market has it's own flavor even if they are in the same county. People really bring their personality to the market and it shows in the way they conduct their business. I have enjoyed both of the farmers markets I have been to.
6) Life may seem hard at times but it will get better (I didn't just realize this today but I felt it needed to be said. Just in case there were people out there who need a bit of a pick me up after a hard day.
Well it is back to working on the horticulture FYI sight my boss and I have been working on, then it will be off to a meeting at 4 to discuss my community garden project. Well whether it be night or day when you read this I hope it is a swell one.
-Kaitlyn
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
The wonderful world of being an intern!
Today I had a chance to be on the radio! It was exciting and I was very nervous but it went fine and I felt very confident in myself by the end of it. Tomorrow I will be going on the radio again but for a shorter segment and different radio station. We went exploring the county to see why certain people were living in certain areas, all I can say is all we saw were nothing but trees and cabins. There was an ocational farm to explain the demographics of the area but not enough to really explain anything.
During our exploration we stopped at a farmers market which was fun getting to introduce myself to them and see how things were going on their side of things. Once they knew who my boss and I were thats all they wanted to do was talk about horticulture issues. After driving for awhile we ended up bakc at the office were we worked on the website and making sure my payroll was set up. I am learning fast just how important having a paycheck can be. I am very grateful to my bosses and coworkers for being supportive and doing everything they can to get me the money I have been working hard for.
I am keeping a positive mind set about this and hoping that everything will work out in the end. OH if you don't know this about me already I am an opptimist. So when life gives me a good kick in the back I stand right back up because tomorrow is a new day. It will work out I just got to keep believing it will. Otherwise I think I would go crazy! Well like I said yesturday not all these posts are going to be super long. Just thought I would give an update on the exciting world of an intern.
Whether it be night or day when you read this I hope it is swell!
-Kaitlyn
During our exploration we stopped at a farmers market which was fun getting to introduce myself to them and see how things were going on their side of things. Once they knew who my boss and I were thats all they wanted to do was talk about horticulture issues. After driving for awhile we ended up bakc at the office were we worked on the website and making sure my payroll was set up. I am learning fast just how important having a paycheck can be. I am very grateful to my bosses and coworkers for being supportive and doing everything they can to get me the money I have been working hard for.
I am keeping a positive mind set about this and hoping that everything will work out in the end. OH if you don't know this about me already I am an opptimist. So when life gives me a good kick in the back I stand right back up because tomorrow is a new day. It will work out I just got to keep believing it will. Otherwise I think I would go crazy! Well like I said yesturday not all these posts are going to be super long. Just thought I would give an update on the exciting world of an intern.
Whether it be night or day when you read this I hope it is swell!
-Kaitlyn
Monday, June 24, 2013
First Couple of Weeks as an Intern
Hello, My name is Kaitlyn. I figure I can start this off by introducing myself and letting you all know where I am in life. I am a 22 year old woman going to school for Agricultural Education in Wisconsin. It is my goal to teach in a high school and eventually get my doctorate to become a professor. I will be student teaching in the fall. In order for me to graduate I need a certain amount of occupational hours in Agriculture. This lead me in a search for an internship which then lead to finding the Summer Horticulture Educator Internship for an extension office in central Wisconsin. I had been living on the western half of Wisconsin which meant that once I found out I had the internship I had to up and leave where I was living and move to an area where I knew no one.
I was so excited when I heard I got the internship because I had been applying to several and I was always so close to getting them but not quite what they were looking for. It was getting to be the middle of May and still no internship. I was scared I wasn't going to get one. Then this opportunity came along. I had interviewed on a Friday and was told by mid Monday that I had the job! I was jumping for joy, then came the realization that I needed to find housing. That was a stress in itself, because I only needed to be at a place for three months. Every time I would call apartment places, they would be way to much for my budget or they would only do a short term lease of six months not three. It was a moment where I thought I was going to have to go live with my parents and drive two hours to work every day. Thanks to Craigslist though I was able to find a place that was fairly close that didn't care how long I needed to stay and it was affordable. I had found the place about one week before I had to start the internship. It was nice having that stress off my back.
My first week flew by fast! I got acquainted with the office, met lots of people and got to sit in on a teleconference. I also began on my big project for the summer getting a community garden started in the county I am in. I also met with my bosses to discuss what exactly I would be doing during the summer. In that first week I clocked in 41.5 hours! I had helped build a butterfly garden at an Early Learning School and made new friends in the process. It had been down pouring but the end result made it worth planting in the rain. The day after that I helped out at a June Dairy Breakfast by helping out with kid games. The breakfast turned out to be waffles which is very different from other Dairy Breakfasts I have been too. It had a huge turn out and I was I could be a part of it.
The second and third week I spent working more on my projects for the summer. I watched webinars from all over the state of different counties that started their own community gardens. It was nice getting to see the challenges and successes they had when it came to starting the gardens. I am working closely with a group called Live Sustainable, for they are the ones who want to get the ball rolling on the community garden. It is my hope by the end of the summer to have a planned out area for the community garden and a budget to go with it.
One of the best moments I have had over the past couple of weeks is I got to meet a lot of big names in Extension. I got to shake hands with the assistant dean and meet a lot of other influential people in the world of Extension. It was an honor to meet them and be able to introduce myself. Another great moment was when I got to participate in a Civil Rights workshop where we discussed where it was that we needed to be outreaching to in our community. I learned a lot that day and got another idea of something I could do this summer. I will talk more about that later if I am able to do something with it. So it is on the down low until I know for sure its going to happen.
It is my hope that I will be able to update this weekly if not daily. I will be continuing this blog past the end of my internship so I can talk about my experiences with student teaching. For privacy I will not be mentioning names of people or if I do they will be made up. The names of businesses as well might be changed. The stories though will be and are all true. I look forward to blogging about this internship and more. This way I can keep detailed records of what I am doing and be able to look back and reflect on them in the future. Every moment is a stepping stone for an even greater moment. I look forward to seeing what the future has for me. I promise not all of them will be this long so thank you for reading until the end. Whether it be night or day I wish you a swell one!
-Kaitlyn
I was so excited when I heard I got the internship because I had been applying to several and I was always so close to getting them but not quite what they were looking for. It was getting to be the middle of May and still no internship. I was scared I wasn't going to get one. Then this opportunity came along. I had interviewed on a Friday and was told by mid Monday that I had the job! I was jumping for joy, then came the realization that I needed to find housing. That was a stress in itself, because I only needed to be at a place for three months. Every time I would call apartment places, they would be way to much for my budget or they would only do a short term lease of six months not three. It was a moment where I thought I was going to have to go live with my parents and drive two hours to work every day. Thanks to Craigslist though I was able to find a place that was fairly close that didn't care how long I needed to stay and it was affordable. I had found the place about one week before I had to start the internship. It was nice having that stress off my back.
My first week flew by fast! I got acquainted with the office, met lots of people and got to sit in on a teleconference. I also began on my big project for the summer getting a community garden started in the county I am in. I also met with my bosses to discuss what exactly I would be doing during the summer. In that first week I clocked in 41.5 hours! I had helped build a butterfly garden at an Early Learning School and made new friends in the process. It had been down pouring but the end result made it worth planting in the rain. The day after that I helped out at a June Dairy Breakfast by helping out with kid games. The breakfast turned out to be waffles which is very different from other Dairy Breakfasts I have been too. It had a huge turn out and I was I could be a part of it.
The second and third week I spent working more on my projects for the summer. I watched webinars from all over the state of different counties that started their own community gardens. It was nice getting to see the challenges and successes they had when it came to starting the gardens. I am working closely with a group called Live Sustainable, for they are the ones who want to get the ball rolling on the community garden. It is my hope by the end of the summer to have a planned out area for the community garden and a budget to go with it.
One of the best moments I have had over the past couple of weeks is I got to meet a lot of big names in Extension. I got to shake hands with the assistant dean and meet a lot of other influential people in the world of Extension. It was an honor to meet them and be able to introduce myself. Another great moment was when I got to participate in a Civil Rights workshop where we discussed where it was that we needed to be outreaching to in our community. I learned a lot that day and got another idea of something I could do this summer. I will talk more about that later if I am able to do something with it. So it is on the down low until I know for sure its going to happen.
It is my hope that I will be able to update this weekly if not daily. I will be continuing this blog past the end of my internship so I can talk about my experiences with student teaching. For privacy I will not be mentioning names of people or if I do they will be made up. The names of businesses as well might be changed. The stories though will be and are all true. I look forward to blogging about this internship and more. This way I can keep detailed records of what I am doing and be able to look back and reflect on them in the future. Every moment is a stepping stone for an even greater moment. I look forward to seeing what the future has for me. I promise not all of them will be this long so thank you for reading until the end. Whether it be night or day I wish you a swell one!
-Kaitlyn
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