CSU Extension believes that every person from every walk of life can experience their healthiest, happiest, most productive life if they continually engage in lifelong learning. At SLV Area Extension, everything we do is designed to foster healthy youth and families, prosperous farms, ranches, and businesses, and strong, resilient, proud communities. We offer a myriad of educational opportunities to SLV citizens, where they live, work, and socialize. 

Here are a few things that have just happened, and a few that are coming up: In Family and Consumer Sciences, Janae Naranjo recently completed and Aging Mastery Class for senior citizens in Saguache County, and an amazing presentation on The Life, Wit, and Wisdom of Winston Churchill from the CSU Osier Lifelong Learning Institute. On December 14, she will be teaching an on-line Cottage Foods class. 

Our 4-H and youth development team is and has been very busy. They recently took seven 4-H members to the Dare To Be You leadership conference in Pueblo, where the kids learned how to make robotic cars and rockets. They learned about Energy from Cool Science and toured the Aircraft Museum. Barb Macias is teaching Saguache County third and fifth graders how to make parachute cord bracelets, and you should see the pride on their faces when they successfully make something so nice with their own hands.  

Kallie Shawcroft has been teaching a variety of skills to Centauri Schools students, ranging from cookie decorating to binary coding! Our District Eight 4-H Council is hosting a community service project on Dec. 15 at our office, making Christmas cards for the residents at Home Lake Veterans Home.  

Registration is now open, with a Jan. 5 deadline, for any 4-H member, ages 14-18, to attend the annual Leadership Development Conference in Denver in January. Carol Gurule is now taking registrations for families in Conejos County for a Juntos Training, to promote higher graduation rates and post-secondary education, and in Center for a Strengthening Families/Familias Fuertes family communications and prevention program. Both programs will begin in January.   

And very important, remember 4-H Enrollment for the 2024-2025 year is underway, with deadlines approaching. Existing members must complete their re-enrollment by Jan. 26. New members are encouraged to enroll by then also, but we will be accepting new members until March 31. If you have children or grandchildren ages 5-18, and if they are not involved in 4-H, I genuinely invite, and strongly encourage you to make an appointment to meet with Cody Groff or Mollie Wells, our youth development specialists, and learn about the 200 life skills projects available, as well as the leadership and community service opportunities your kids could be a part of. 

Madeline Wilson recently presented a Dry Bean workshop for farmers looking for an alternative, low-water-use cash crops. I recently hosted an Ag Commodities Outlook and Business Strategies workshop for farmers, ranchers, and ag lenders. We both recently attended a three-day symposium on the problem of dust on snow, which we believe to be contributing to our spring runoff happening nearly a month earlier than normal, and Madeline presented her work on revegetating dried up farm ground in the Valley. 

We are supporting the efforts of producers in Conejos County to reestablish a conservation district, and if you are the owner of ag land in Conejos County, please to attend an organizational meeting Dec. 14, 10:30 a.m., at the SPMDTU in Antonito. 

In our work in ag family health and 'Do you look after your neighbor as close as your crop or herd', our partnership with JC Carrica of Valley Wide Health continues under the guidance of local ag producers. We recently hosted a very well attended workshop on Ag Stress Management, followed by an Ag Family Communications 101 class. On Dec. 16, we are hosting an afternoon COMET Training which helps us all be good neighbors and play an important role in ag suicide prevention. This will be followed the same evening at 5:30 with a purely social gathering at the Colorado Farm Brewery, open to all families and individuals who are producers, or associated with the ag community. 

Save the dates of Feb. 4-6 for the Southern Rocky Mountain Ag Conference. You can pre-register at agconferencesrm.com. 

Please join us! To learn more about any of these events and opportunities call Jennifer Vandiver or Sara Seger at our office,719-852-7381, as they are the wranglers who keep all this going for us. 

Colorado State University Extension is an equal opportunity provider. Colorado State University does not discriminate on the basis of disability and is committed to providing reasonable accommodations. CSU's Office of Engagement and Extension ensures meaningful access and equal opportunities to participate to individuals whose first language is not English.