Hands on trades and hard work seem to be going out of style.  Although blacksmithing is both of these, it has grown in popularity over the past few years.  As a blacksmith, it is my desire to pass the love of this trade on to a younger generation. Out of this desire was birthed “Forged in 4-H”.  This program is designed to teach metallurgy and blacksmithing skills, as well as provide school enrichment through demonstrations, in a safe manner with the use of chemistry, geometry, physics, math, and hands on projects.

The equipment is housed in Union County which is the principal teaching location. The equipment is mobile so that it can be moved to any county in the state to conduct short term projects, demonstrations, day camps, and school enrichment. This program and equipment is being used to teach 4-H youth of all ages, as well as homeschool groups.

The use of hands-on learning techniques will allow students to experience and learn the trade of blacksmithing.  This program is “cutting edge” for several reasons.  First, we are leading the way in offering this in 4-H.  Only a few counties in the nation offer a 4-H program similar to this one.  This may be due to lack of agents and volunteers who do not have the knowledge or funding.  The interest in just my county has been overwhelming.  Second, blacksmithing is an ancient art, but we are teaching it in a new, modern and exciting way. We will be teaching the life skills of blacksmithing to the younger generation, instilling an appreciation for an ancient art form, and preserving skills that we do not need to lose as a society.  Third, we are providing hands-on knowledge and skills in a field that may become a career for some 4-H’ers.  Forging, welding, metal  working, and fabricating are not going away any time soon. As a youth development agent it is my job to help young people choose a life path.  If I can help these 4-H’ers become productive citizens, then I have done my job.

This program will impact the citizens of South Carolina by teaching an old trade and art form in a modern way to our younger generation. As a 4-H agent and team player I will provide this equipment, along with my knowledge and help, to any county in South Carolina for trainings, workshops, or day camps as requested.  In a world filled with technology, all too often we do not teach youth how to make something real and tangible. With young people spending an exorbitant amount of time on computers and cell phones, real world skills fall to the wayside.  Putting simple math and geometry skills to work, seeing chemistry and physics in action, and developing simple hand-eye coordination can easily be overlooked.  Blacksmithing puts all these skills and knowledge together in a fun and interesting way.  Keeping participants engaged and wanting to learn more has not been a problem

A note from Chris LeMaster:

I’m happy to begin a new adventure serving the livestock and forage producers of Union County.  I’ve been the Livestock Agent in Cherokee, Spartanburg, and York since 2014. I live on my family’s farm in the Grassy Pond Community of Cherokee with my wife and son. Along with my family, we background calves as well as raise horses and hay. I look forward to meeting the farmers of Union County.                   clemast@clemson.edu

Hello Everyone,

My name is Julia Newsome, and I am the new Rural Health & Nutrition Agent for Union and Cherokee Counties. I moved from Upstate New York to Upstate South Carolina in June 2022, and in November 2022 I became part of the Clemson Extension team. 
Two programs I’ll work on are the “Know Diabetes by Heart (KDBH)” and “Health Extension for Diabetes (HED)” programs.

• KDBH is sponsored by the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and American Heart Association (AHA). It is a free education session offered in-person or online. The program aims to help participants better understand the link between diabetes and heart disease. By participating in this one-hour session, you will learn more about risks related to diabetes and heart disease, how to take control of your risks, and learn about community and clinical resources.
• HED is a free diabetes support program recognized by the ADA as a practice-tested diabetes support program. The main goal of this program is to help participants better manage diabetes to prevent or delay complications. HED is 4 months long and includes a series of 8 education sessions and intermittent support sessions; Each session is designed to help participants learn more about diabetes and provide them with necessary skills and support to successfully self-manage diabetes. Participants will receive bi-weekly materials and weekly follow-up to help navigate resources and reach healthy lifestyle goals; A Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes diagnosis is required for enrollment.

The goal of the Rural Health and Nutrition Extension Team is to help all South Carolinians prevent and self-manage chronic disease. Our programs are valuable because they are free, mobile, and can be held virtually, in-person, or hybrid (delivery is program specific). Please feel free to email me if there is something you think I can help you with. Overall, I’m looking forward to serving Union and Cherokee counties, while maintaining the Clemson Extension standard of service.

Julia’s Contact Information:
Office – 864-424-8275
Email – Janewso@clemson.edu

Forged In 4-H

Mark Cathcart

Being a 4-H agent is the most rewarding, frustrating, difficult, and easiest job I have ever had.  4-H agents do everything at once while everyone thinks you are doing nothing or just playing with kids.  On top of that, we must figure out how to pay for it all. It is often difficult to obtain proper funding to conduct programs at the desired level. Every now and then an opportunity comes along that can help with funding our programs.  The Extension Innovation Award is one of these opportunities.

As a blacksmith, I have a desire to pass the love of this trade on to a younger generation. The blacksmithing “tools of the trade” are always two things, heavy and expensive.  With that in mind, I piloted a blacksmithing program with a homeschool group with “makeshift” equipment and some of my own personal tools to see what would happen.  The enthusiasm was overwhelming!  At this point I realized that with a dedicated set of equipment their learning curve would steepen, and the love of this trade would deepen.  Now I had a new problem, MONEY.  After receiving the Extension Innovation Award, I was able to leverage the City of Union to give some more money to buy the proper equipment.  This equipment has allowed me to accelerate the home school group’s knowledge and technique as well as conduct two summer day camps.  We even gave the program a name, “Forged In 4-H”.

“Forged In 4-H” is designed to teach metallurgy and blacksmithing skills, as well as provide school enrichment through demonstrations, in a safe manner, with the use of chemistry, geometry, physics, math, and hands on projects. This program and equipment are being used to teach 4-H youth of all ages and any student through school enrichment including homeschool groups. The equipment will be housed in Union County, where the principal teaching location will be. The equipment will be kept mobile so that it can be moved to any county in the state to conduct short term projects, demonstrations, day camps, and school enrichment.

The use of hands-on learning techniques will allow students to experience and learn the trade of blacksmithing. With a resurgence of interest in blacksmithing, this is a need that begs to be met. This program is innovative for several reasons. First, we are leading the way in offering blacksmithing in 4-H. Only a few counties in the nation offer a 4-H program similar to this one. This may be due to lack of agents and volunteers who do not have the knowledge or funding. The interest in just my county has been overwhelming. Second, blacksmithing is an ancient art, but we will be teaching it in a new, modern, and exciting way. We will be teaching the life skills of blacksmithing to the younger generation, instilling an appreciation for an ancient art form, and preserving skills that we do not need to lose as a society. Third, we will be providing hands on knowledge and skills in a field that may become a career for some 4-H’ers. Forging, welding, metal working, and fabricating are not going away any time soon. In a world filled with technology, all too often we do not teach youth how to make something real and tangible. With young people spending an exorbitant amount of time on computers and cell phones, real world skills fall to the wayside. Putting simple math and geometry skills to work, seeing chemistry and physics in action, and developing simple hand eye coordination can easily be overlooked.

As youth development agents, it is our job to help young people choose a life path. If we can help these 4-H’ers become productive citizens, then we have done our job.

Area Forestry and Natural Resources Report

Jeff Fellers

Summer is nearing an end and now is the time to get ready to make our way into the fall and winter.  We have had a busy summer in Extension as operations have returned to normal after the Covid outbreak.  This summer I have hosted two forestry association meetings, hosted a Hardwood Regeneration Workshop, wrapped up Master Tree Farmer with three different field tours across the state and made numerous direct contacts through field visits, office visits, and phone calls.

In May, I hosted a Hardwood Regeneration Workshop in McConnells, South Carolina.  In a state where pine is the number one timber crop, many times our hardwood stands get ignored.  This program was geared towards both landowners and professionals.  The program offered continuing education credits for professional foresters and those that needed pesticide credits.  This was an eight-hour program that went in-depth about how to convert an existing hardwood stand into a hardwood stand with favorable species for timber and wildlife.  The program had a classroom session and field tour that occurred at a demonstration site at Draper Wildlife Management Area.  Participants learned about herbicide prescriptions to control and kill existing timber, the basal area that needed to be left to maintain an existing canopy, and planting techniques for species that would be desirable in this situation.  We had 16 people attend this program, which included both landowners and professionals.  We had seven surveys completed on the program.  Of those seven, five were professionals and two were landowners.  The survey participants represented 903 acres owned and 131,000 acres managed.   Dr. Stephen Peairs (Clemson) and Dr. David Clabo (Georgia) provided the presentation based off of Dr. Peairs research and demonstration on the Draper WMA.  This workshop provided a good example of how research from Clemson University can help our local landowners better manage their hardwood stands.

May was a busy month, as I also hosted a meeting for the Newberry Forestry Association and the Laurens Forest Landowners Association.  The Newberry Forestry Association met for the first time since the Covid outbreak.  We had 29 people in attendance and had a program on Chronic Wasting Disease in Deer presented by Charles Ruth from SC Department of Natural Resources.  The Laurens Forest Landowners Association had 35 people in attendance and had a program on cost share available to landowners.  This program was presented by Chisolm Beckham with the SC Forestry Commission and Lisa Good with the Natural Resource Conservation Service.

Both of these Association also met in August.  The Newberry Forestry Association had 33 in attendance, and the Laurens Forest Landowners Association had 36 in attendance.  Carla Carlos from the SC Forestry Commission presented at both of these meeting on pine genetics.  These groups meet on a quarterly basis with their meetings typically being held in February, May, August, and November.  If you would be interested in attending any of these meetings, please contact me, at fellers@clemson.edu.

Master Tree Farmer was offered this year as a hybrid course.  The majority of the course was virtual with presentations online for participants.  Field tours at the end of the course were optional. We had 180 participants take the class, and roughly 130 participants took part in the field tours.  Field tours were hosted in the Upstate, Midlands, and Coastal area to help reduce travel for the participants.  Field tours were held on private lands where property owners were actively managing their timber.  The property owners provided details on how they managed their property, mistakes they had made, and things that they had done right to help better educate participants in timber management.

I also serve on the Indian Creek Quail Restoration Committee.  This committee puts out two newsletters a year.  One was published in March, and the next will be published in September.  These newsletters are great tools to get more information on managing for Quail.  This committee also hosts two workshops a year.  Our previous workshop was hosted in May, at the Belfast plantation owned by the SC Department of Natural Resources.  Attendees were able to see how the staff at the Belfast Plantation manages the property for Quail.  Participants visited sites that demonstrated timber thinning, beneficial native plant species, prescribed burn areas, and chemically treated areas to benefit habitat for Quail.

Lastly, I always enjoy the one-on-one site visits, phone calls, and office visits.   One-on-one visits provide a personal education experience where landowners learn how to better manage their specific property or natural resources.  This summer I have had 82 direct contacts that touched on subjects from timber management, wildlife management, invasive weed control, pond management and general horticultural/garden questions just to name a few.  Through these methods of direct contact, I have reached at least 100 people and 725 acres of owned property.

It has been a busy summer, with many programs offered for forestry and natural resource education.  If you would like more information on programs available for forestry and natural resource, please contact me, at fellers@clemson.edu.

It’s An Exciting Time For 4-H

FCL membership is growing in Union County!

The mission of the South Carolina Family and Community Leaders is “to improve the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities thru fellowship, dedication, education, and service.” In Union County, that’s exactly what they do.

FCL has been an active organization in Union County for years. There are four clubs in the county, the Santuc Club, Patchwork Quilters, Twisted Stitches Crochet, and Mailwatchers.  As with most organizations, membership numbers go up and down. Union County FCL is coming in strong for 2022 with over 10 new memberships.

The Union County FCL uses the meeting room at the Union County Extension office. Their clubs have monthly educational lessons, workshops, they do fundraisers, service projects, and more.  Some of the money raised provides funds for their annual educational scholarship, which is available to one local youth or adult. They have also made items such as lap quilts, diapers, and hats and donated them to local senior centers, hospitals, and charities across the world.

In keeping with community service, Union County FCL is a big supporter of Union County Extension and Union County 4-H. For example, the extension office handles the agricultural and home ec entries during the local fair, and the FCL members are always there to help. They have also provided monetary donations to assist the local 4-H youth and programs. Some of these donations have helped 4-Hers attend programs outside the county. Without their help, they may have not been able to participate.

With their growing membership, they will have the numbers to continue their mission “to improve the quality of life for individuals, families, and communities thru fellowship, dedication, education, and service.”

Thank you Union County FCL!