by Beth Bergeron
Our 4H Outdoor Adventure project group is open to students in grades 4 through 12—all 4H members.
Our goal is to provide fun experiences in the outdoors while inspiring awe, and learning to love and care for this beautiful world with which we have been blessed. This group kicked off their fun adventures at Big Ridge State Park last November. They rotated between archery, hiking with Ranger Josh and environmental games.

Murder hornets scared the whole United States a few years ago with their first appearance in Washington State. Do you remember news reports from just a few years ago?
The good news is these hornets are still a long way from East Tennessee.

Union County 4-H had a strong showing at this year’s Big 9 Sub-Regional Achievement Day, which was held at the First Baptist Church in Dandridge in May.
This competition included participants from the surrounding counties of Blount, Claiborne, Cock, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox and Sevier. Well over 100 elementary- and middle-school-aged students turned out for the all-day event, many with their parents, siblings and Extension Agents accompanying them. It was a full day and a packed house!

Nashville, TN– Presley Lay has been named the 2023 National Dairy Month Chairman for Union County.

Lay will be honored June 8 at the Tennessee June Dairy Month Kickoff Event at Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville. The event includes recognition from Brian Flowers, president of the American Dairy Association of Tennessee. The official kickoff celebration recognizes Tennessee 4-H members’ efforts to promote National Dairy Month in Tennessee.

In-Person Event Returns to UTIA Campus

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Green Industry Field Day will be hosted in person this year by the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. The event takes place on June 27, 2023, and participants will enjoy a variety of sessions that will take place beginning at the UT Gardens Plaza and ending in the Brehm Animal Science Building Lecture Hall.

It has been my privilege to write for Historic Union County for over five years. This month, I am reprinting my first article to remind myself and any readers I may have of the purpose of our teaching. I also want to sincerely say thanks for reading, and I hope my teaching has been a benefit.
In 2 Timothy 2:15 the Apostle Paul charged Timothy to … “rightly divide the word of truth.”

Country Connections By James and Ellen Perry
It’s an early morning in June 2023 and Norris Lake is quiet. No jet skis and fast boats with raucous passengers. No houseboats and pontoon boats bouncing over waves created by jet skis or fast boats this early June morning. All the barbeque grill fires are out with most
grills put up ’til the 4th of July.

By Rick and Lori Southard
We are Ricky and Lori Southard and we left everyone we loved and everything we knew in California and moved to Knoxville. We, along with our two dogs, moved here in November. It was cold and the once colorful fall trees were now bare.
Everything was wet. And cold.
But it was absolutely beautiful! Our house is older and needed a little work done to it. Most of our belongings were way behind us. But we knew we were home. We made it to our little part of “God’s Country”. We were scared to death yet more excited than at any point of our lives.

I was a silent stalker during elementary and high school.
Sounds ominous, right? Just exactly who did I stalk?
For whatever reason, from my first day of my two weeks as a Headstart student to the end of my public-school student experience, I was fascinated with schools and teachers. Same with church and preachers. Same with funerals and undertakers. Anything that had an air of formality and order attracted my attention.

Last week Anne came into the house in a hurry with something on her mind. She had been down at the road getting the mail. “Guess what?” she said, “You have been called for jury duty.”
“ME?” I screamed. “But I'm ninety-five years old… Yes, I would love to serve on a jury. Say! You know I COULD do it. There is an elevator at the back of the courthouse. I could take it to the second floor, wheel myself down the corridor to the court room at the front of the building and sit comfortably in my wheelchair at the jury box. I would be fulfilling my civic duty.”