herbiejuan

Hawkman Great to see you, this definetly added to my happiness!! I'm flat broke but ya know happiness is more a state of mind than the state of the pocketbook. Take care n stay safe Mikey

At the request of the college and my own ambition I will be taking UWG's MPA program starting next spring. At the rate I am going I should have my Doctorate by the time I'm ready to retire...but with the local economic initiatives I'm involved with I shouldn't have much trouble staying busy during my *golden years*. The West Ga. Winery Association took a winery tour yesterday and we are anticipating growing that industry here, we are also looking into building a cannery in Bowdon to augment the vegetable and meat production in the area...loads of fun for all involved

Gen-2 Glad to see someone remembers the old tongue...my mother was fluent unfortunately she did not pass the gift along to me, however I did get to kiss the blarney stone which probably accounts for my motor mouth. I think that if the government stepped in to resolve this crisis it would place the responsibility for the clean up on the good old US, something akin to another federal bailout, not something politically feasable these days... besides who is better equipted to deal with the problem than the comopany that started it...

My youngest is just down the coast from Pensacola, he manages a tourist oriented restaurant and is thinking of moving to Texas if the oil kills tourism in PC. So sad to see this happening, spent many a summer catching the rays on Fla beaches...

It took forever to figure out arcmap, especially since I wasn't familiar with excel but it worked out ok. The data for the map came from Georgia Organics membership surveys and became the basis for their Local Food Guide. I reworked the ppt's for the first session perhaps they will upload now...Soils1.pptSoils2.ppt Basicly the ppts say build healthy soils and grow healthy plants...there I just saved you several hundred dollars and 100 hrs of classtime ;)

GIS Course Presentation.pptOK here is the first session of the class, please keep your questions till the end of the class chuckle snort snicker ;)I'm also attaching my graduate project that sorta set the stage for this whole project, viewed by county commissioners and other local officials is sets in stark reality the thinking behind the Sustainable Growers School and other efforts statewide. Well the soils session didn't upload properly, pesky debbil spurts...

Krys thans yes it is a wonderful feeling to see this thing take off, I think the timing of these projects with the economic mess we are in just made sense to those who have the power to change things, in some regards we have embarked on an economic redevelopment plan for the county, something thats been needed for some time, things just had to get bad enough for folks to want to make the change, kinda exciting eh?

luna what a fine idea, a planned community, there is one in south fulton county called Serenbe, it is acutally a small town with a community farm and working farm, shops services residential homes and townhouses, its quite impressive I wish you good fortune in your venture. My schooling was in sustainable development Tugwells planned communities caught my eye as a cool way to work out the details before moving folks in. Sir I also have a worm ranch, sometimes it takes me several hours to rustle them up for a fishing trip...municipal composting crossed my mind a few years ago, I think at somepoint in the future we'll institute that at the technical college, they are already catching rainwater and have a garden on the roof of one of their buildings. Just found out yesterday that a local family is interested in purchasing the farm just south of here, converting part of it to a water quality institute (through the local U) and donating the balance @200acres to the program... I'm just going with the flow at this point ;)

Thanks luna and Mark. Developing this program just made alot of sense since Carroll County is #1 in chicken and meat goat production and #3 in cattle in Georgia. Several of us met yesterday to formalize the West Georgia Wine Grape Growers Association (not necessarily the final name) Nitra just north of where I live used to be a major producer of wine grapes before prohibition and with several small wineries opening up in the area we decided it would be good to work together as a group to build this industry back. We have been hiking the woood looking for heritage vines and have found several *mother* vines that date back to the 1800's. We are particularly exciteed about our find as these viens ahve been tested and prove to be immune to Pierces disease and most other diseases (havind survived 100 yrs in the wild without any human caretaking) I've got @ 40 cutting budding and as a gorup we ahve over 1000 so perhaps this too is off to a good start. I did not find the gardening 101 course online (that started out as a victory garden training project for our inmates) that @ 800 folks have taken so far but I do have some powerpoints from my Sustainable Growers School program that I will post online if/when I can figure out how to do so, The program won't answer all questions as it is in short note PPT form but when it's up if there are any questions you may email me Mike@thegrowersschool.org and I'll answer the questions the best I can. Mikey

Polar I suggest you 1) Measure the square footage of your garden area 2) Get your soil tested (your county extension service can do this for you 3) Ask said county agent to explain the soil test results in plain english and to figure out how much of any recommended ammendments should be added for your size garden AND 4) Add those ammendments to your soil Most plants require 6 - 8 hours of direct sunlight Plant varieties adapted to your region and use least toxic mterials to control the buggies, no all buggies are bad and some of the most weird looking ones are actually beneficial insects, I think our gardening 101 course is online I'll check and see and if it is I'll post a link to it, Happy growing

Too big to fail, too big to screw up? Seems a bit arrogant to me but it's the capitalist way, get big or get out, thats what James Watts told farmers back in the day, look where that got us, imported junk from china that's contaminated, large tracts of farmland in Calif ruined from salts. BP isust one more example of bigger is not always better, especially when prudent oversight is neglected or circumvented... go figure

The porch light is on however I am worried that the stuff in my fridge will go bad so get yer arse down here before the milk sours; Fame...sometimes I think its over rated, all the damn work, worry and uncertainty that goes into treading the road not taken...

LOL good chatting with ya too, the bathroom light is always on unless its daytime in which case ya gots to find it all on yer own :) I finally found the coffee pot after day two, sure was nice to enjoy a cup of java without having to walk 2 blocks to the local Tom Thumb... I reckon CNN and the others will show up eventually, prolly once the program gets going, just remember I've brought in 9 partners for this venture, ranging from the county government to the local hospital to schools etc, tho to be fair it was "US" that brought them together. Anyways take care and enjoy the spring weather.

Here is the link to the latest reincarnation of the program https://coned.westgatech.edu/wconnect/CourseStatus.awp?~~11SSUSAGRI01 I'm taking a vacation next week, gonna go to Fla n visit with the youngest and family...

Ladeedaa...government, higher education...arrrggghhhh!!! Ok so we won't start this spring but (apparently) this fall grants are coming in, the curriculum is finished BUT...a local farmer MAY donate his farm to the program IF we can keep his money grubbing heirs out of the picture...keep yer fingers crossed, I'm going on vacation !!

Thanks ya'll, I'm not so sure it was hard work so much as patient persistance and being at the right place at the right time with the right answer/idea/presentation/project...The buy in from the community is pretty cool, we've got buy ins from everyone in the county it seems, heck the last 3 groups of commissioners have supported the idea of a local stable food supply and the importance of developing the counties farm based economy. The fact that there are 7 million people within 100 miles of Carroll Co AND the fact that Georgians spend 20 Billion a year on food vs producing only 4 billion has helped to make people aware of the economic development implications this project implies. Several of us walked the Moores Bridge site Monday and we have identified two suitable locations for crops and grazing (60 acres) one site for smaller (1 acre) raised bed hobby garden and about 12 acres suitable for the vineyard experiment station (there was a thriving wine industry in the area before prohibition) I'm also going to put in an orchard and olive trees. If any of you saw that fine 2008 film, The Conjuror, the barn used in the film is located on the property and we'll make use of it(hopefully no spirits are hanging around), HBO is making a movie about Lewis and Clark on site, they will be building downtown St Louis toward the bottom of the property, mayhaps I'll hang around the set long enough and get discovered...

Well we went from the now 500 acre site to a 300 acre site elsewhere and now we are back at the 500 acre site...my head is spinning :blink: but I have been given a budget (which under the current economic circumstances is surreal) but I get to spend somebody elses $ lololol!!!!! :P

Kenny Loggins Celebrate me home, good beat sweet vocals and becoming a traditional xmas tune

Kimberly indeed, the individual was going to lenghten a green and tee box to a non profitable golf course go figure... Shell still haven't heard from CNN but I did run across this http://www.miroguide.com/items/2327870

We/I own the site TheGrowersSchool.Org however since we are in transition I've not updated it. The college will post their info when their spring catalogue comes out which will be soon me thinks. Also look for info on Georgia Organics website GeorgiaOrganics.Org Also LocalHarvest.Org will have info when the dates are finalized

Thank you we are planning a 2 year degree program starting in 2011 but will probably continue to run the 6 month certificate program as there are many who want the training and experience but not necessarily the degree. As the program advances I'll post some pictures. What is interesting (and ironic) is that the Moores Bridge site was a precivil war farm. A gentleman by the name of Horace King, a freed slave trained in engineering built a toll bridge over the Chattohoochee River which Sherman promptly burned during his 'visit' in Geogia, apparantly this was the only battle fought in Carroll Co., the ironic part is the 1864 house I saved from the bulldozer was the field hospital used to treat the confederate soldiers injured during the skirmish, strange huh...

Been working on this project for the last 7 or 8 years and now it is finally coming to pass. My thanks to Wacky and Shell for listening to me plan plot and gripe my way through the process of making this happen, many thanks to those who are geographically close who did the same (although I doubt they will read this I wanted to say thanks anyways :) ) The WGTC Center for Sustainable Agriculture The West Georgia Technical College’s Center for Sustainable Agriculture certificate program is designed to teach new and existing growers organic and sustainable farming and land conservation practices. This 6 month program provides approximately 350 hrs classroom instruction and 400 hrs apprenticeship and field work. Course days and hours are Monday through Thursday 9 am till 4 pm. Developed in partnership with Carroll County, UGA Cooperative Extension, Rolling Hills RC + D Council, Georgia Organics, Cotton Mill Farmers Market and Farmers Fresh CSA this program is specifically geared towards training students to grow for retail and wholesale marketing venues. Topics covered during the six-month course include: Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture Soil Management and Fertility Soil and Water Conservation Practices Composting Farm Management and Marketing Vegetable Production Poultry Production: Chickens Ducks Geese Ruminant Management: Goat Sheep Cattle Dairy Operations Fruit + Vineyard Production Practices Apiary Science Agriculture Machinery and Equipment Our instructors are successful farmers with many decades of experience in commercial organic and sustainable farming. We've used this experience to craft a program designed for your success. Field work includes working at the Buffalo Creek Community Garden, apprenticeship on suitable local farms and development work on Moore’s Bridge Farm a 435 acre farm restoration project located on the Chattahoochee River near Whitesburg, Ga. You will work with other students and instructors to plan plant cultivate harvest and market produce, learn sustainable animal husbandry practices and utilize a variety of farm equipment including tillers tractors hoes and seeders. This program requires physical exertion and students need to be aware that they are graded not only on classroom skills but also their performance in the field under a variety of weather and working conditions. Graduates may gain employment on existing farms, establish their own commercial farm or market garden, run community gardens or develop school gardening programs. They may also work in related fields including international aid organizations. Many of our graduates are now running their own successful farms and marketing venues. Program Cost: $2500

Hey Psalmie thanks for asking bout us in the boonies. Glad you and yours are safe, we are too but yes we did get slammed with rain, the 100 yr flood is what old timers round here are saying, my driveway was a raging torrent but that was mild compared to the other damage and loss of life in the area. 56 roads were damaged and had to be closed and I think 4 folks drowned in Douglas Co, we lost a 2 yr old when his families mobile home got torn from its foundation and broke in two...mom dad and a 4 yr old clung to a tree for several hours before the rescuers could reach them and of course by then it was too late to effect a rescue of the infant, they did recover him later...prayers for their family is greatly appreciated. I hope the rest of our Georgians are fine Mike

I am involved with law enforcement having recently gotten certified to handle trustee's on my community garden. woo hoo eh? State and federal budgets are tight so hiring has slowed but from my insider contacts patience and persistance pays off. It's a high stress exciting job, pay mostly sucks until you get advanced degree's or certification and time on the job. Good Luck :)