Happenings

 April 15, 2016

I can't believe how this project blossomed.  It all began when Ron Sonntag proposed a Vagabond Roundtable about Master Gardeners.  He really wanted Ed Kraus to lead it since he was a school friend.  I left a phone message and e-mail with Ed and got no response.  When I approached him at an MG meeting he wasn't interested.  Ron had similar results; he said Ed was getting married.  That turned out not to be true; however, Ed is moving to Ohio.  I can't imagine selling that property and that fabulous garden.  Judy Williamson agreed to work with me on the project.  Ron seems to be giving Judy more attention in it, even though I'm doing all the work.  

I started putting together a PowerPoint with a picture of my daylily in the background.  I worked pretty long on it, then showed it to Sharon Morrisey after one of our classes.  She thought it was very good.  Janet Wintersberger had some corrections and Judy didn't like the daylily background.  I had to agree, because it really clashed with the text.  I used very little text, depending mostly on talking points and pictures.  When I used a dull green background I liked the results better.

I no more than finished the project, when Bonita Clark approached me at an AAUW meeting asking if I had something about Master Gardeners.  I said I would be happy to share what I had.  I'm waiting for a call from Patricia of Alexian Village to arrange a day and time to give a presentation.

Then I got an e-mail and phone message from Sharon Morrisey that Bill Shaffer needed a program about Master Gardeners.  I said I would be glad to share it.  He called me while I was under the hair dryer and he said that he couldn't open the file in DropBox.  He said he would come to my house in the afternoon to pick it up on a thumb drive I'd put it on.  I picked up a free bagel at Panera's, before going home and got the PowerPoint on a thumb drive.  In the meantime, Sharon called and said Bill was in her office and could put the program on a thumb drive.  I also sent the notes to go with the slides.  I think they were very pleased.

I can't believe we do not have a program about the Master Gardener program.  We have talks about so many other subjects.  I hope my work will be put to good use.

Wednesday, May 4, 2016

The day of our presentation finally arrived.  I picked up hand-outs during the week (reference cards, plant sale, How to Become a Master Gardener and a lawn care schedule). I picked up the Vagabond calendar from Pressworks (Tom couldn't find it right away) and got to WG's in plenty of time.  Judy and Janet Wintersburger put some hand-outs on tables while Ron hooked up my computer to the projector.  Nothing happened at first, and I was beginning to panic, until he tried another cable (USB) and it worked just fine.  After a nice introduction, I started at about 5:40 p.m.  My voice got weak into the presentation after talking so long.  I'll remember to take water with me to Alexsian Village.  I thought my half went pretty good.  Judy was not prepared.  She went through the pictures and said a few things, but she could have been more thorough, especially going through the information on the Resource Card.  I got a lot of nice comments when we were through.  Janet was stone-faced.  Judy said she wanted more information, but that was before I started talking.  Janet didn't know what I had in my notes.  I have more confidence now, and I think Alexian Village will go better.