Hello Everyone!

My name is Joslyn and this was my first week as the summer intern at the Wise County Extension office. I moved to Virginia in January 2019 after graduating from Michigan Technological University where I studied ecology and environmental sciences. I grew up in Manistee Michigan, with Lake Michigan never more than 10 minutes away. I moved to Virginia to live with my significant other, start a career, and a family and I think this is the perfect place to establish some roots. I have always enjoyed spending time outdoors learning about plants, rocks, stars, animals, and rivers. So far in my career I have worked for the National Park Service at Jewel Cave, the Forest Service in my home town, and multiple research projects while attending college. I am very excited to be in Virginia and I look forward to a very productive summer season.

Take a look at what I’ve been up to all week:

Monday 6/03/2019

First day! Spent the morning filling out paperwork and creating login information. Went to the fairgrounds to judge a few of the exhibits. Returned to the office for lunch. Visited Black Crow Farms to collect hay samples for the 2019 Hay Quality competition. Chatted with property owner and hay baler for a while. Picked up invoice for Grow Wise from plant grower. Finished the afternoon with training videos.

Tuesday 6/04/2019

Used the morning to finish online training. Cleaned the garden bed out front and prepped for square foot gardening. House visit to collect aquatic vegetation for ID (American pondweed & softstem bulrush). Second home visit to ID terrestrial vegetation (day lily & morning glory). Took rest of the afternoon to organize and research for upcoming educational workshops. Created an advertisement for aquatic vegetation educational series. Planted tomatoes in the garden.

Wednesday 6/05/2019

Very rainy. Hit the ground running with hay collections today. We now have a total of 6 to send to the lab. Visited a Grow Wise home garden in between hay collections. Nice setup! She really had it figured out. Planted radishes in the garden. Started looking up publications for the grow wise manual for 2020. Supervised the teens at the livestock exhibit at the county fair.

Thursday 6/06/2019

Sick ☹

Friday 6/07/2019

Another rainy day. Stayed in the office today keeping dry. Made some phone calls to schedule home garden visits for next week. Researched publications for the Grow Wise Manual 2020. I think its ready to be put together. Its been a fun and exciting week. I look forward to coming back next week!