Linton, ND

Extension Agent Kristen Vetter educated students in March 2008 on the art of photography. More than 300 students enjoyed the availability of 9 digital cameras, a photo printer and photoprint paper made possible through North Dakota 4H. Discussed and studied were 4 rules of photography: Contrast of Color, Focal Point, Zooming In, and the Rule of Thirds. The first three are a bit self explanatory in that you want contrasting color, you need to pick a focal point and you want to zoom in as much as possible without losing the focal point that you want. But the Rule of Thirds is a bit foreign to most. What this means is that you want to imagine a tic-tac-toe board on the display of your camera……Where the lines intersect are called the sweet spots and you want your focal point to be on our around these areas of intersection. What do you think? Are you a scrapbooker or a closet photogorapher? Is this something that you know about? Kristen would like to know. Stop by at her office the next time your in at the NDSU Extension office.

Linton, ND is a small town but not all kids have a parent at home after school. Although afterschool program are still a farily new idea in the Linton area, The Methodist church has been providing this service for a couple of years. Grades k-6 use this opportunity to make crafts, have a snack and perhaps finish homework on a busy homework day. Extension Agent Kristen Vetter occasionally provides educational opportunities for this service. This is an excellent opportunity that is safe for children to go to while parents finish their late afternoon hours at work.

Also, down the street is St. Anthony’s Catholic church that provides an afterschool opportunity for grades 7-12 that is also supervised. This environment provides a unique environment with security cameras and an adult volunteer that supervises them for the hours of afterschool until they go home. The recreation room has a kitchen table and chairs, a small refrigerator, a large sectional, 10 bean bags, a big screen tv with DVD and VCR players and vast array of DVDs. The area is carpeted with subdued colors for relaxing enjoyment. The room also dorns a foosball table, a pool table, a basketball hoop game with two hoops, and a ping pong table. The church is always looking for adult volunteers to supervise the students via security cameras while the JH/HS kids use the facility.

Lessons on stargazing was the topic of choice in Hazelton, Strasburg, Linton and Bakker during the month of January. Students learned about constellations and a website called Stellarium.org>This website downloads a great piece of software depicting a lifelike planetarium to learn about constellations. The main subject of the lesson was to use the software to find Polaris (fancy name for the north star) at any time of the year. We also learned the scientific names of big and little dipper. Do you know these? If you do, prizes await you. Please email your answer to Extension Agent Kristen Vetter kristen.e.vetter@ndsu.edu or stop by the NDSU Extension office at the courthouse in Linton. Other great things learned during the lesson plan are all the other constellations that you can find in the sky and furthermore the importance of space exploration.

Lessons about corn and its origins were given at every school in Emmons County during the month of November. Corn was essential to the native way of life. The Native Americans educated pilgrims when they arrived about how to cook with corn and all its other far reaching benefits such as heat during the winter and artwork for enjoyment. One other item of interest is that the word ‘maize’ is a universal word for corn meaning ‘primary national crop’. For example the maize of China is rice. The maize for North Dakota is wheat. (although quickly changing to corn:) Back in the era of the Native Americans the maize of their nation was corn therefore pinning the name of maize to the modern word corn. The School children ages 5-13 in Hazelton, Strasburg, Linton and Bakker enjoyed the education as well creating ‘corn bracelets’, giant pieces of popcorn to hang from the ceiling and to not forget the real popcorn that was popped in the microwave for a snack:.) yum?yum!

In October of 2007, 8th grade Science Teacher Kevin Oien and Extension Agent Kristen Vetter partnered together to develop a geocache in Linton, ND. 8 visitors have come and checked it out over the winter. It is exciting to think that Linton may have new visitors over the summer too. Perhaps we have ‘closet geocachers’ in Emmons County. For those of you that don’t know geocaching is a sport that utilizes GPS equipment to find camouflaged treasures around the world. You can participate in this sport practically in all countries of the world to all counties in every state. Besides little treasures called ‘geocaches’ created by locals there are waypoints created by surveyors throughout history including Lewis and Clark. When the Louisiana Territory was surveyed they planted waypoints to mark various geographic borders such as the Canadian/US border. Locally waypoints that you may find are ‘right of ways’ marked for roads and railroads! Each geocacher hikes or drives to each point. After you find a manmade geocache/waypoint you can write about it online. If it was a manmade geocache, there is probably a notebook for you to sign, a little treasure for you to take, and perhaps you came prepared with a little treasure that you can leave…..like a keychain, a pen or something else about yourself.

Hague will be 100 years old! Much is planned for the upcoming event. Emmons County Farmers Union President Andrew Vetter and the board of directors have joined in this great event by organizing fun entertainment for children at the Hague Centennial (pronounced hag). The Farmers Union board of directors has asked Emmons County Farm Bureau to partner together to share labor and expenses. Both organizations are looking forward to joining in the celebration and being a part of this great gathering in Emmons County. Hague’s Centennial is set for the 4th of July weekend 2008.