Grafton County

Gardening Workshop & Open House Summer Series

Location: Grafton County Complex, Route 10, North Haverhill, In the display garden next to the greenhouse (unless otherwise stated)

Wednesday, June 24th 5:30-7:30 pm--Gardening Workshop: Weeds and Watering

Wednesday, July 8th 5:30-7:30 pm--Display Garden Open House:  Open House hosts will be available to give garden tours, explain the gardening principles incorporated, and answer questions.

Wednesday, July 29th 5:30-7:30 pm--Gardening Workshop: Pest Management and Harvesting Tips

Thursday, August 13th 5:00-8:00 pm -- Canning Workshop: Deb Maes will be conducting this workshop at The Green Thumb, in North Haverhill.  Space is limited to 20 participants (additional workshops can be added if there is enough interest). Call Priscilla Brown at 787-6022 to reserve a spot.

Wednesday, August 19th 5:30-7:30 pm--Display Garden Open House

Wednesday, September 2nd 5:30-7:30 pm--Gardening Workshop: End of the Year Clean-Up/Winterization and Frost Protection

All workshops are free and open to all ages and experience levels; come to one session or all of them.  Bring yourself, your questions, and photos or samples of problems from your own gardens!

For persons with disabilities requiring special accommodations, please contact Heather Bryant at 787-6944 within 48 hours of the workshop so proper consideration may be given to the request.

 

Health and Wellness Fair at PRHS

Every year Plymouth Regional High School holds its Health and Wellness Fair on the Friday before April vacation. Robin Peters, Nutrition Connections Educational Program Coordinator, has attended for years. This year she kicked things up a notch. In addition to promoting the new HEALNH website designed by UNH Cooperative Extension, she brought Dance Dance Revolution in the hopes of getting the students up and moving!

Dance Dance Revolution, abbreviated DDR, and previously known as Dancing Stage, is a long-standing music video game series. Players stand on a "dance platform" or stage and hit colored arrows laid out in a cross with their feet to musical and visual cues. Players are judged by how well they time their dance to the patterns presented to them and are allowed to choose more music to play to if they receive a passing score.

Many schools across the country are incorporating it into their physical fitness programs. The good news is in addition to being fun, DDR is considered aerobic exercise and has lead to weight loss in some regular users. 

Please view the students playing DDR and check out the new HEALNH website.

Website for Farm Families Focusing on Family Credit and Debt

Family spending plans can be an area of low priority for many farm families.  At the same time family living expenses may exceed the available income and thus debt may occur. To assist farm families in reducing the risk of being crushed by family debt UNH Cooperative Extension has designed a  Farm Family Finances website. The goal of this project was to use web-based education to motivate farm families to communicate about family goals, budgeting, the impact of credit decisions, evaluating debt load and preparing a debt repayment schedule.  A website is open 24/7 so whenever a farm family has time to get information about family expenses, this website is available.

Thirteen New Hampshire farm families who volunteered to be the focus group assisted Suzann Enzian Knight, Extension Family Resource Management Specialist and Katherine Fredette, Extension Program Assistant, Family Resource Management with the development of the website.  Their involvement and input was extremely valuable during the development process.  An advisory group comprised of Michael Sciabarrasi
Extension Professor / Specialist, Agricultural Business Management, John Porter Extension Professor / Specialist, Dairy, Emeritus and Sherrill Harris, Farm Loan Manager, New Hampshire State Farm Service Agency provided guidance throughout the project.

One aspect of the website is to provide a step by step process of getting a credit report.  There are many good reasons to check your credit report.  If your credit report isn’t accurate, it can negatively impact your cost of borrowing money.  One of the farm family focus group members stated "Because of the site that you are developing, this process doesn´t seem as overwhelming.  For example, I always knew that I should get a copy of my credit report annually and review it.  But I didn´t know where to start.  It is also helpful to know why it matters."

Another aspect of the website is to develop a spending plan so that family expenses won’t exceed the income.  One of the farm family focus group members stated:  "Our family sat down and went over the spending/savings plan.  It was nice to see what our goals were, broken down by time frame.   Obviously, the exercise prompted our family to discuss the immediate goals and longer term goals we would like to see." 

Check out the new Farm Family Finances website regularly for new information and links to what’s new in managing family finances tailored to New Hampshire farm families.