We will have our bimonthly meeting on Monday, March 2, 2015

at 7 P.M.

If you are a Council delegate or a president of your club you

should be here to represent your club and vote on issues that

affect all 4-H Clubs in Ellis County.

All adults who are “active” on 4-H Connect are welcome! We hope to see you there!

The Fort Worth Stock Show opened on January 16th and thirty- eight Ellis County 4-Hers will

be showing their animals before it ends on February 7th. The results through January 26th are

listed below.

HEIFERS

Anna Arnold 5th Santa Gertrudis Lillie Beason 2nd Maine Anjou Mason Bellmon Dairy Reserve Division Champion Clayton Brown 3rd Simmental Brayden DeBorde 2nd Hereford Reserve Champion Spring Yearling Brooke DeBorde 2nd Angus Samantha Garcia 3rd Shorthorn Grace Haight 7th Simmental Kylee Harrison 3rd Simmental Zachary Hill 7th Charolais Jake Johnston 2nd Brangus Joe Martinez 2nd Simbrah Lexi Wilson 14th Beefmaster Reagan Wilson 4th Beefmaster

GILTS Hannah Blankenship Cross Bred Gilt

Adult Leaders and County Council Meeting

I N S I D E T H I S

Ft. Worth Stock

Show Results

1

Thoughts For

The Month

2

County Roundup/

Share The Fun 3

Council An-

nouncements

4

State Photo

Contest

5

Recordbook

Training

5

Social Media 6

Teen Retreat 7

State Clothing

Advisory Board

7

All 4 Him 9-10

Arts 4 His Hon-

or

11

Spring Lake 12

Calendar 13

Fort Worth Stock Show

B U S I N E S S N A M E Ellis County 4-H

CloverLeaf F E B R U A R Y , 2 0 1 5 V O L U M E 1 6 , I S S U E 2

S P E C I A L

P O I N T S O F

I N T E R E S T :

Ft. Worth

Stock Show

Opens

Recordbook

Training

Scheduled

County Round-

up/Share The

Fun Date

Change

P A G E 2

County Council

Meeting 1-5-15

@ 7:00 p.m.

“People may hear your words, but

they feel your attitude.” –John C.

Maxwell

Have you ever been on a team or

part of a group where someone

walks in constantly complaining, or

is just down on everything you are

doing, or has this attitude that tells

you that they just don’t want to be

there? What kind of impact did

that have on your team? Did it

make you want to be better? Did

you want to work hard to get your

practice completed or your chal-

lenge met? The answer is most

likely “NO.” Poor, negative atti-

tudes can be just as contagious the

flu! So, how do you avoid bringing

your whole team down? Positivity!

Wade Boggs said, “A positive atti-

tude can cause a chain reaction of

positive thoughts, events, & out-

comes. It is a catalyst & it sparks

extraordinary results.”

My challenge for you this month is

to look for the ways where your

attitude affects your club, team, or

project group. Are there ways that

you can improve? If there are,

begin the change now. Be the rip-

ple that can cause that little puddle

of positivity to become an ocean.

“Attitude is like a flat tire. If you

never change it, you won’t go any-

where.”

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Thoughts For The Month With Megan

P A G E 3

County Roundup/Share The Fun

County Roundup and Share

The Fun are going to be held

together this year on April

2nd. The location will be

announced at a later date.

Participants must be bona

fide 4-H members enrolled

in a local club. There will be

three age divisions (junior,

intermediate and senior) for

each contest. A 4-H mem-

ber’s 4-H age is determined

by his or her age on August

31, 2014.

Juniors 8-10

Intermediates 11-13

Seniors 14-18

The top 2 Share The Fun

entries in each age will con-

tinue to the District 8 con-

test. The top 3 Educational

Presentations in each age

division will continue to the

District 8 contest. District 8

participants are not allowed

to enter both Share The Fun

and Educational Presenta-

tions.

All contest entries must

be submitted on the des-

ignated form and are due

in the Extension Office no

later than March 30th.

Subject Matter

The skills and knowledge

used in any 4-H contest

should be a result of experi-

ences in a project in which

the member has participat-

ed. A presentation should

be related to the contest

entered and should contain

current information. It

should be appropriate for

the member’s age and ex-

perience. Appropriate cred-

it should be given for refer-

ences used.

Time Limits

Educational Presentations:

Contestants are permitted

twelve (12) minutes for

Educational Presentations.

An additional nine (9)

minutes will be allowed for

set up and take down. A

penalty of two (2) points

per minute or partial mi-

nute overtime will be de-

ducted from the final score.

Adults are permitted to

assist the 4-H member with

the on-stage arrangement

and cleanup in connection

with the presentation.

Public Speaking: a five to

seven (5-7) minute talk

suitable as a platform

speech or radio broadcast.

Share-The-Fun: a six (6)

minute presentation with

four (4) minutes total for

set up and take down.

Visuals

The use of charts, photo-

graphs, computer presen-

tations, graphics/

programs, and other visu-

al materials are per-

mitted. Visuals should

contribute to the presen-

tation. Each presentation

is an example of the par-

ticipant’s ability to com-

municate an idea. Partici-

pants are expected to

provide visuals and mate-

rials used. Projection

screens, extension cords,

computers, and projec-

tors are the responsibility

of the 4-H member.

Judges Questions on Ed-

ucational Presentations

Judges may ask contest-

ants questions at the end

of their presentation. This

will be done on the

judges’ time.

For contest specific

guidelines and more in-

formation refer to the

web links listed in the

margin.

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Educational Presenta-

tions & Public Speak-

ing:

• http://texas4-

h.tamu.edu/

project_speaking

Share-The-Fun:

• http://texas4-

h.tamu.edu/

files/2013/09/

share_the_fun_letter_

2014.pdf

P A G E 4

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

All 4-H Council Members are encouraged to attend all council meetings and help with

planning and conducting of county workshops, trainings, and events. You are the role

models for younger 4-Hers . And, we need your help! Below is a list of events for council

members to put on their calendar.

UPCOMING EVENTS:

February 28 Rabbit Validation

8-noon Ellis County Youth Expo

March 2 County Council Meeting

7:00 pm Extension Office

March 5 Recordbook Training

6:30 Ellis County Youth Expo

April 2 County Roundup/Share The Fun

TBA

April 21 Recordbook Training

6:30 Extension Office

http://texas4-h.tamu.edu/statephotography

4-H COUNTY COUNCIL ANNOUNCEMENTS

P A G E 5

Recordbook

Training on

March 5, 2015

or

April 21, 2015

Upcoming Recordbook Training

Theme: The theme is

"Inspiration". This year

the theme will focus

on pictures of subjects

that move and inspire

YOU. Photos can in-

clude photos of lead-

ers, mentors, family,

friends, things in your

community, school,

church, or across the

country and

world. Examples in-

clude images of family

members, a leader/

teacher or someone

that you look up to,

something in nature,

or things that give you

daily inspiration.

Changes: Due to past

issues with photo-

graphs not be sized

or formatted correct-

ly, the contest now

has a size crite-

ria. All photos must

be 8x10 in size. Photos

should be at least 800

pixels by 1000 pixels.

The ideal 8×10 quality

is 2400 pixels by 3000

pixels, which is the

same as an 8×10 photo

at 300 dpi

(resolution). Higher

variations of the 8×10

ratio are allowed but

the final file size may

not be larger than

2,048k (2MB). County

Extension Agents are

encouraged to work

with volunteers and

project leaders to

stress the importance

of instructing 4-H

members on this basic

photography skill.

Entry Period: April 1,

2015 to April 15, 2015

through 4-H CONNECT

ry purposes of com-

pleting a recordbook are

for a young person to

develop the skills neces-

sary to set goals, work

toward achieving those

goals, reflect on his/her

experiences, and set new

and higher goals for

themselves. A secondary

benefit is to prepare

young people for the

process of completing

quality academic scholar-

ship applications.

Record-

keeping is a

very valua-

ble skill

taught to

members

of the Tex-

as 4-H program. Mem-

bers are encouraged to

keep project records and

have these records re-

viewed annually by sub-

mitting a Texas 4-H

Recordbook. The prima-

Two Recordbook Training

sessions have been

scheduled, one on March

5, 2015 at 6:30 at the EX-

PO and one on April 21,

2015 at 6:30 at the exten-

sion office. If you want to

make your recordbook

better or if you just want

to learn what a record-

book is and what is in-

volved in making one,

mark you calendar now

for one of these sessions.

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Wesite: http://

texas4-

h.tamu.edu/

statephotog-

raphy

P A G E 6

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Keep up with the latest

from Ellis County 4-H!

Like us on Facebook!

Ellis County 4-H

Follow us on Twitter! @ ellisco4h

Follow us on Instagram!

@ellisco4h Website: http://texas4-h.tamu.edu/statephotography

Sign up for text message updates! Text

@elliscou to (325) 732-3146, respond with

your first & last name, and you are signed up!

TEEN RETREAT

P A G E 7

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

test. From there their support

grew, the State Clothing Adviso-

ry Board would like to thank the

Alpaca Wool Producers for their

continuous support of 4-H

through their donations of wool

for the wool contest and the

new wool project.

Reported by: Melanie Craig

January 9-11 was the Texas state 4-

H Teen retreat. For 4-Hers age 13-

18. This year we had seven youth

from Ellis County attend the camp.

During the camp we had the op-

portunity to attend 5 different ses-

sions on Vet Science, Dog Project,

STEM, Food Challenge, Fuel up to

Play 360 & Leadership. There were

also team challenges to promote

team work. We also had a dance

both nights of the camp making it

that much more fun. This was a

fantastic experience for all of us

who attended and we hope to see

more of ya’ll there with us next

year!!

Reported by: Hannah Craig

STATE CLOTHING ADVISORY BOARD The State Clothing Advisory Board

this week had their annual January

meeting. Ellis County currently has

two members on the Clothing advi-

sory board; Melinda and Melanie

Craig. During the meeting the State

Clothing and Textiles contests were

discussed along with the date and

time of the annual June board

meeting. It was announced that

the New Alpaca Wool Project has

had over 80 skeins of wool dona-

tions thus far. The beginning stages

of the wool project project started

over three years ago, when the 4-H

approached the Alpaca Association

to sponsor the Clothing Wool Con-

P A G E 8

Ellis County 4-H Livestock Exhibitors

Moving forward into the

2014-2015 Livestock Show

Season, Quality Counts

Verification will be a part

of the process for entry in

all major livestock shows,

as well as the Ellis County

Youth Expo. This means

that as youth exhibitors

you will need to demon-

strate a knowledge of the

Six Pillars of Character and

the Eight Core Concepts

presented in the Quality

Counts Curriculum. To do

this, You will need to pass

an online test on the web-

site ( http://

qualitycounts.tamu.edu/ )

and acquire a Quality

Counts Verification num-

ber.

Things you need to know

about Verification:

* 2014-2015 - All Major

Livestock Shows in Texas

will require Quality

Counts Verification at the

time of entry.

* 2014-2015 – All Ellis

County Youth Expo Exhibi-

tors will be required to

have a Quality Counts

Verification #.

This means youth will

need to be verified prior

to entry in the fall of

2014.

* A Verification number

is obtained by answer-

ing 80% of the ques-

tions correctly on an

online test.

There are two tests Jun-

ior, ages 8-13 and Sen-

ior, ages 14-18. If you

are a junior your test

will be 10 questions,

seniors your test will be

20 questions long.

If you pass the certi-

fication test as a

junior you will have

to retake the test

after you turn 14 to

be recertified.

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

P A G E 9

ALL 4-HIM 4-H CLUB

The All-4-Him 4-H club met at 1:00 At the Church of Christ on Country Club Road. There was no business meeting this month. The project groups met in their usual places for Cooking, Ro-botics, Public Speaking, and Sign Lan-guage through Worship Music. Suzy Ragsdale gave a presentation on Egg Blowing and Egg Art for the cooking class. Since we didn’t have a business meeting, we played games after our project groups. We played Ice Breaker, Fill that Seat, Don’t Lose Your Mar-bles, and a game of Frisbee that was led by our Vice President, Avery Jones. During the games, Michele Terry did Recordbook Training for the adults.

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Suzy Ragsdale Nicki Donathan Reporter Photographer

P A G E 1 0

ALL 4-HIM 4-H CLUB (cont’d)

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

Suzy Ragsdale Nicki Donathan Reporter Photographer

On January 29th, at 10:00am, the All-4-Him Cooking Project group met for a field trip at HEB in Waxahachie. One of the managers, Elizabeth, gave us an awesome tour and taught us about healthy living, healthy eating and exercise. We discussed the food groups and making healthy choices when shopping. After the tour, Ms. Peggy Donathan gave us each a shopping list to make a family dinner. We had to find all of the ingredients and compare prices between generic and name brands. We had fun learning about how to make wise and healthy choices when shopping for our gro-

P A G E 1 1

ARTS 4 HIS HONOR 4-H CLUB The Arts 4-His Honor 4H club met on Tuesday, December 2 for our regular meeting and Christmas party.We played several fun games and had a gift exchange. In addition, on Decem-ber 19th several of our members per-formed in the play " Little Women." Participating from our club were: Anni Williams (Jo), Paul Carr (Laurie), Philip Carr (Mr. Brooke), Kaylie Honeycutt (Mary/ Annie M.), and Cassi Williams (backstage manager). The play was directed by 4-H adult leader, Miss Sarah Carr.

At our January meeting, new Ellis County Extension Agent Megan Parr was our guest. She spoke to us about team work and communica-tion, as well as leading us in a group activity. We appreciate her time and ability to join us! Thank You, Ms. Parr

Cassi WIlliams, Reporter

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

P A G E 1 2

SPRING LAKE 4-H CLUB Spring Lake has 5 differ-

ent project groups currently

meeting. Our Horticulture

group met the second week in

January and learned about

composting leaves, building a

compost bin and Raked leaves

in a park for a local church. In

the future we’ll be building

worm bins, touring botanical

gardens, observing honey bee

production and taking a tour

of master gardeners butterfly

gardens.

Our club has 25 youth in

our robotics club. We have 6

teams for this years competi-

tion. The Gear competition

announcement will be out in

another week and we will be

building our competitive ro-

bots and learning program-

ming. Everyone loves the cur-

rent creative building pro-

jects and competitions in cat-

apults and bridge building.

Some of our senior robotics

team will be heading to the

Hyatt again to train military

youth from across the nation

in the new EV3 Lego robotics

the first of February.

We also have 13 meeting

for Consumer Decision Mak-

ing and 22 practicing and

learning speech.

E L L I S C O U N T Y 4 - H

P A G E 1 3

SUN MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 San Antonio

Stock Show be-

gins

12 13 San Ange-

lo Stock Show

begins

14

15 16 Presi-

dent’s Day

Office Closed

17 18 Broiler

pickup 3:30—

6:30 @Expo

19 20 March

Newsletter

submission

deadline

21

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Invitational

Archery Tourna-

ment

Rabbit Validation

February 2015

March 2015

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat

1 2 County Council/

ALA Meeting 7:00

pm

3 Houston Stock

Show begins

4 5 Recordbook

Training

6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 Star of Texas

begins

16 17 18 19 20 April Newslet-

ter submission

deadline

21

22 23 D-8 Horse

Judging entry

deadline

24 25 4-H Day at the

Capitol

26 27 28

29 30 County Round-

up/Share The Fun

entry deadline

31 1 2 County Round-

up/Share The Fun

701 S. I-35 E

Waxahachie, TX 75165

972-825-5175

972-825-5184 (Fax)

E-mail: ellis@ag.tamu.edu

Ellis County Extension Office

Mark Your Calendar

Mark Arnold

Ellis County Extension Agent

Rita Hodges

Ellis County Extension Agent

Megan Parr

Ellis County Extension Agent

February 11—San Antonio Stock Show begins

February 13—San Angelo Stock Show begins

February 16 - President’s Day—Office Closed

February 18—Broiler picup 3:30—6:30 at EXPO

February 20—March Newsletter submission deadline

February 28 - 6th Annual Ellis County 4-H Open Invitational Archery Tournament at the Expo

February 28 - Rabbit Validation at Expo from 8:00 a.m.—noon

March 2 - County Council/ALA Meeting 7:00 at Extension Office

March 3—Houston Stock Show Begins

March 5 - Recordbook Training 6:30 @ EXPO

March 15—Star of Texas Stock Show Begins

March 20 - Newsletter submission deadline

March 23—D-8 Horse Judging entry deadline

March 25—4-H Day at the Capitol

March 28—Archery Tournament @ Expo

March 28—Rabbit Validation @ Expo 8—11:30

March 30—County Roundup/Share The Fun entry deadline

April 2—County Roundup/Share The Fun

Find us on the web at:

http://ellis.agrilife.org./

or

facebook at http://www.face

book.com/EllisCountyExtension

Follow us on Twitter! @ ellisco4h

Follow us on Instagram! @ellisco4h