It’s been a busy few months for the Chipmunks.
March
In March we celebrated March Madness. Our favorite seamstress Sandi Behre, along with her friends from the quilting league, taught the members how to make library book bags and aprons. Yet again Sandy worked her magic and had the kindergartners with no sewing experience comfortably using a sewing machine by the end of the first meeting. Everyone learned how to make straight cuts on the fabric and to sew a straight line. Three dads helped one of the leaders teach woodworking. The Jrs made step stools- a project one of the dads had done when he was a 4Her back in 1977. For the first week, this group met at a members' house to use his Dad's woodworking shop as they learned to cut the wood with handsaws. Wayne S. proudly displayed his bench he made all those years ago. The following week, carpenter and father Roy B. taught the group to drive nails and use a screw driver properly. He lead the formal assembly of the stools.
Father Jim K. assisted each week, lending a hand to any kid who needed a little extra help. The Cloverbuds assembled tool boxes and learned to cut PVC pipe with a pipe cutter. The Cooking Group met with the other 4H leader. Week one Cloverbuds made nut bread and buttermilk, while the JR made vegetable soup. For Week 2, the class of three made fresh pasta and sauce. We only heard wonderful things about the pasta--- they ate it all before the rest of us could even ask for a taste!
April
The Jrs had their monthly business meeting and did a wonderful job running the meeting according to the Rules of Order. The group divided up into three committees and each committee reported. The Once a Month Service Committee planned short service projects for each month through Sept. The Fair Theme Committee decided on the theme of the bulletin board for fair- our participation in the Million Trees Service Project. The Adopt a Spot Committee decided to adopt the Trail Head for the proposed Saranac River Trail.
We selected the person we wanted to support for our Kiva service project. (Kiva is an international loan organization that makes low cost loans to industrious individuals throughout the world who would otherwise be unable to get a loan to improve their business or situation.) Everyone turned in their dollar they earned. Our group loaned $25 along with 26 other business partners to Aman of Lebanon. He is a 19 year old construction worker who lives with his family of 7 siblings.
For the 15th April meeting we collected trash along the roadway of Northern Avenue and New York Avenue as we walked from our meeting place to the City Works Department to have a safety briefing in preparation for planting trees in the City. We all learned to “Call Before You Dig.” The City thanked the members for all the garbage they collected. Each Jr was paired with a Cloverbud member for the trash collection. Various teams raced to see who could collect the most garbage. Two groups competed for the largest piece of garbage collected. One team of girls still remembers they collected 216 cigarette butts.
Service Coordinator Pascal reported the One Million Trees Service Project to be a tremendous learning experience for him. He really enjoyed working with City Hall, especially the Zoning and Town Planners office and seeing how the city government operates. He presented our proposed project to plant 15 trees in the city at the Plattsburgh City Council Meeting. He credits having to do 4H public presentations for making him comfortable speaking to the city council.
With the approval of the town and the safety briefing completed, the group met on 22 April to transplant our trees from our downtown winter nursery (a member's garden). Anne Lenox-Barlow spoke to us about pruning trees and tree care in the city. The members evaluated the trees in the backyard of the house for pruning opportunities. Then Master Gardener Diane P. and Anne helped us identify what trees survived the winter. We learned that 8 of the 24 trees had not survived- primarily the golden raintrees and the dogwoods. (The National Arbor Day Foundations map list Plattsburgh as a zone 5 whereas the USDA map lists us as a Zone 4.) Since our trees came with a guarantee, we ordered a new set. We walked to our first planting location to learn as a group how to best plant a tree. We planted 2 trees on Draper Avenue- Eastern Redbuds. We said good-by to Diane and headed to the Trail Head of the Saranac River to plant 9 trees. However as we considered the spacing of the trees as they grew, we realized we only had room for 5 trees. Quite a few large rocks were removed in the process. Then the Jrs dispersed to various points around the city, Clinton County, and Essex County to plant the tree they were assigned to monitor for the next year. 7 of the trees were sent to other communities: 3 to Mooers, 1 to Westport, 1 to Peru, 2 to Ausable/Jay. Extra trees from the trailhead were planted in other spots in the city. Next time you are at the Plattsburgh Public Library check out our small crabapple tree on the front strip between the sidewalk and Oak Street.
May
On May 13th we meet Ranger Rick D. at the Chateauguay Woodlands (near Lyon Mountain) to learn about managed forests. (Yes, he really is Ranger Rick!) We learned he is working his “dream job”. He showed us two different parts of “his” forest and told us the history of the forest. We learned it was once part of a charcoal making operation and has experienced numerous fires. He talked to us about how he chooses sections to be logged. It was a great field trip. Members had time to collect specimens for their leaf/tree books. Professional photographer Kathy Marant joined us and helped the members working on a photography tree book with their pictures.
On the 20th of May learned about the parts of a tree. We “played a game” where we built a tree from the inside out using the members and the parents. Each “part” of the tree had a chant. Our president was the heartwood. He chanted “I support.” Each layer of the tree was a different age group, ending up with our youngest Cloverbuds as the bark, chanting “I protect.” We played a forestry resource game where we learned how trees compete for resources in the forest. In the words of one of the Kindergartens, “It wasn't fair.” We also played a game that has become a favorite over the last several meetings: forestry resources and the invasive Norwegian Maple.
(This game as NOT fair at all! The Norwegian Maple gets most of the resources in an area of the forest.) We all got a chance to work on making a three dimensional paper mache tree for our fair display.
Our monthly service project for May was completed over a number of days.We collected three gas grills though donations from Craigslist. We cleaned, disassembled and painted them in yellow, blue and green Rustoleum. Finally we planted vegetables in them for the residents of the Val Haven Nursing home. Some of the members painted small flower pots and planted herbs in them. The pots were set in the wire baskets of one of the grills. We planted tomatoes, marigolds, cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, lettuce and green onions.
June
For June, our meetings focused on forestry learning and getting ready for fair. We decided to build a three dimensional paper mache tree for our group display. We started the last meeting in May, but had to rebuild due to unfortunate circumstances. Each meeting some of the Jrs added a little more. We played the invasive tree game both meetings upon request.
For the 10 June meeting we had our monthly business meeting. The Jrs had lots of fun motioning and seconding items. Our Service Coordinator shared that our loan to the gentleman in Lebanon through the Kiva project had already earned some interest. The group agreed we would leave all our money in Kiva until the loan repayment was complete next year and use the money plus all the interest to make another loan to another person.
Cloverbuds made birthday cards for the Val Haven Nursing home in Peru in lieu of attending the business portion of the meeting. They learned how to use old cards and stamps to make scenes on their cards. Then everyone came together to review the parts of the tree and learn more about how/why forests are logged though a logging game. The Jrs planned what the bulletin board will look like.
The 17 June meting was “dentistry”--we did roots and crowns of the tree. After playing the invasive species game, we learned about how roots grow and the types of roots. We all measured the crown of a tree outside to see how many square feet ti covered. (Thanks to the older JR members for doing the math.)
Our monthly service project was put on hold as the town put barriers up along the Saranac River Trail head so they can begin construction. We could not not plant our flower gardens around our trees. We were asked to wait until next year. On the positive side our baby trees are all protected by an industrial sized fence. The club members voted to just use the extra time to collect items for the Adirondack Humane Society service project in July.
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