Melissa's Idea Garden

No lazy summer days here...though we are fitting in tons of summer fun:) Since coming back from the beach, we have been doing school work (trying to get ahead to make up for when we go to Australia in the fall).

Jack spent five days at Go Tell Camp with other youth from church. He came back happy, tired, and full of stories about the inspirational messages he heard while he was there.

While Jack was at camp, Katrina's friend, Kaley, spent most of that time with us (and many days thereafter). The girls have been taking full advantage of summer and enjoying being able to visit and play as much as they want to. One day while Jack was at camp, we met some 4-H friends and went swimming at Miller Park Pool.

For the 4th of July, we planned to go on a cool hike that is held every year here in Bedford County. It is a sunset hike up to the top of Sharp Top Mountain. . Normally there are two ways to get to the top of Sharp Top. Ride a bus that lets you off near the top or hike up from the bottom. I have never ridden the bus, we have always hiked. On the 4th of July, they let people walk up the road to the top. Once at the top, you can see fireworks displays from a multitude of surrounding communities. However, the weather deterioriated and we weren't looking forward to driving an hour only to be told the hike was cancelled or worse, get on the top of the mountain in a Thunderstorm...so we stayed home and lit up our own fireworks. We did fireworks for an hour and had a blast. One of the benefits of living on a country road!

Continue reading "Busy At the Markhams" »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Here are some photos of our 4-H club officers.

Posted by Melissa Markham at 9:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Yesterday we attended our first 4-H meeting of the year. Last year was a 'rough year'. We started out with about 50 kids at our get to know you meetings. We have ended up with a group of about 15 kids more or less. We did a lot of good things last year and we had to find our way. The way our 4-H group is set up is that once a month we have a club meeting and once a month we have a class. Elizabeth and Cheri, extension agents in Campbell County, often are in charge of the class. Other days we have field trips or other experts from the community that come and lead the classes. Last year, we spent half of the year learning about electrical stuff. Then the second half of the year, the kids learned about the environment and recycling.

As a project, the group took on raising money to send packages overseas to troops. We raised several hundred dollars with bake sales and a yard sale and the money we raised went to sending packages overseas on three different occasions. We haven't decided what project we will do this year.

Last year was a bit rough as people dropped out. And we had to create our constitution and that took several hours of work on the club officers parts. We had two leaders that had to drop out due to personal situations. But things are looking great for this coming year.

Continue reading "A New 4-H Year...and Two Officers Reside With Me." »

Posted by Melissa Markham at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)