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Pierce County 4-H celebrates Achievement Days

By Sue Sitter - | Jul 16, 2022

Sue Sitter/PCT Students competing for Best in Show in the Pierce County 4-H livestock competitions are from left, Raegan Hager, Rylah Hager, Morgan Scherr and Sawyer Brossart.

Young Pierce County 4-H members gathered July 7-10 at the Pierce County Fairgrounds for Achievement Days, an event they’d waited for all year.

The members showed off items from handmade furniture to art and baked goods during the first day of the event.

Items on display for the 4-H static exhibits ranged from a dozen eggs from an entrant’s hen to flower arrangements and furniture.

One sculpture, an anchor design made out of beer bottle caps earned a blue ribbon.

Across from a table laden with photos of wildlife, livestock and clouds, contestants sat with judges to describe their work in all kinds of categories.

Family recipes,

fancy cakes

Bria Brossart waited for her turn to talk to baking judge Jessa Ostrem about her cake decorating entry. Brossart held a cylinder made of foam board decorated with white and peach-colored icing.

“I used vanilla icing,” Brossart, an eighth grader, said of her entry. “I tinted it orange and pink.”

She said she’s been in 4-H for two years.

“This is my third year. The first two years, I won two grand champion awards the first year and I got the reserve champion the second,” she said.

“Then at state, I got an orange ribbon,” she said of a cactus rock garden she had entered in the North Dakota State Fair.

“It’s fun to enter contests,” she said.

Carter Teigen received a blue ribbon for his Dutch apple pie.

“Overall, it took awhile to make this pie – upwards of an hour and a half,” he said.

“I peeled and sliced the apples by hand,” he added. “For the crust, I used flour, shortening, a little bit of sugar and some salt. And I added some water to moisten it up. It turned out pretty well.”

Teigen said he topped his hand-peeled, cored and sliced apples in the pie with a mixture of brown sugar, white sugar and flour. He added cinnamon, brown sugar, white sugar and a little water to the apple filling.

“This is my fifth year of entering contests,” Teigen, a freshman at Rugby High School said.

“I’ve won a few grand champions, reserve champions and blue ribbons,” he said of past contests.

Teigen said he also entered a family tree graphed on poster board.

“I did that to learn more about my family tree and see where I come from,” he said.

Sadina Bohl, a 4-H mom, helped her sons Bently and Bryant put their entries on a display table.

“These are English cucumbers,” Sadina Bohl said of a plate of home-grown veggies. “They’re pollen-less, so they don’t need bees to germinate.”

Bryant Bohl said the cucumbers grew in the basement of his family home. He and his family started harvesting them in April, while the ground outside was still frozen.

“We use grow lights,” he said.

“We put them in pots in our basement and they planted six seeds in each pot and put the grow lights on, and they just grew,” Sadina Bohl added. “After about a month, they started producing. From now on, we’ll do this in the winter so we’ll have fresh produce all winter.”

Bryant Bohl said he and his brother enjoy 4-H activities and contests.

He also liked his veggie-growing project.

“I like to have cucumbers all year round,” he said.

“We mix them with vinegar, oil and Alpine Touch seasoning and have vinegar salads,” Sadina Bohl said. “We get tired of waiting for harvest. So, in the winter, we can just say, ‘Let’s have a salad now.'”

Electricity

and more

Brad Wangler, a 4-H dad, walked around the displays with his wife Ashley and children.

Wangler said his children Paisley, Paxton, Pendleton and Pius had been busy during the year with “all kinds of different stuff” for Achievement Days.

“Each kid had at least six items that they brought in,” he said. “Paisley baked coconut macaroons. They’ve got shooting sports stuff here; they have an old wooden spool that they repurposed into a kid-sized shooting bench; they’ve got an old tailgate off a Chevy pickup that they turned into a bench to sit on.”

Wangler pointed out wood spool made into a table with epoxy resin top, with cup holders cut into four edges of the circle and playing card decor.

Walking to a display table, Wangler said, “Pius made a battery out of dirt. He also made a simple motor out of a wire and some magnets.”

He pointed to a set of wires constructed to power a tiny, fan-shaped object that seemed to spin in midair.

“It’s a very primitive motor but it’s teaching them the basics of electrical stuff,” he said.

Next to the motor sat an ice tray filled with dirt, each section holding a nail with copper wiring.

“It turns a light bulb on,” he said. “Ashley helped him with this.”

Wangler said, “I can’t believe the creativity out of these kids across the board from all ages of the 4-H members. Even the smallest of the kids that are in this have great things.”

Wangler said parental involvement played a key role in the projects.

“That’s what makes this so good,” he said. “It almost commits you to help your kids by teaching them and showing them how to do these things.

“A lot of times, you wouldn’t really take that extra time out of your schedule for them, because you can do these things in a fraction of the time you’d take to explain it to them,” he said. “So, it’s a true test of patience, but the awards are so great that it makes it worth it.”

Judges Ostrem and Brianne Welk said the quality of the kid-produced baked goods impressed them.

“It’s nice to hear where the recipes come from and a lot of them have family roots for the recipes,” Welk, a special education teacher who judged entries from 8-12 year olds said. “It’s nice to hear the kids’ stories about how the process went for all of it, so this is great.”

Ostrem, an occupational therapist who judged items submitted by teens, said, “I love to bake, so it’s so fun to see the kids have passion in this as well.”

Animal shows

The following day, members gathered with their pets and small livestock in the new building that would be named the Don Jelsing Ag and Event Center later that evening.

That day saw fewer animal entries than usual due to a bird flu outbreak that banned showing chickens and other fowl.

However, an Australian Shepard and Corgi mix named Diesel starred in the show, earning a reserve grand champion ribbon.

On July 8, the final day of the 4-H shows, seventh grader Sawyer Brossart brushed his calf.

“I like showing the animals and being with my friends,” he said, adding he hoped to have his own her someday.

Dan Brossart, Sawyer’s dad, said his children had been involved with 4-H for years.

“Sawyer likes 4-H and my oldest son, Jackson, they both like it,” he said.

“Sawyer really loves his birds. We have so many birds, but he can’t have them at the fair this year,” he said, adding his son had a hatchery for ducks and chickens.

“We raise both crops and livestock,” he added. “The boys love the livestock. They love to be part of that.”

Garlands, streamers and colorful signs decorated each animal’s pen. Morgan Scherr, who showed two calves and a heifer, displayed her animals’ names: Lola, with calves Dandelion and Daffodil.

The animal competitions began with five and six-year-old Cloverbuds showing their calves.

Rylah and Raegan Hager showed their pigs.

“The black and white Hampshire is mine, and his name is Link,” Rylah Hager said. “It’s like sausage links.”

“The red and white pig, her name is Maple, for maple syrup,” she said. “They were born in January.”

Hager said her family would butcher the pigs for meat when they reached 285 pounds.

“This is my fifth year I’ve been raising pigs,” she said. “I like showing them and watching them grow.”

Hager won the Grand Champion overall award for livestock events.

“Everyone did a really good job and it was fun,” Hager, a Rugby High student said. “I like 4-H. I’ve been in five years.”

Mark Miller, NDSU Extension agent for Rolette County, judged the 4-H livestock shows.

“I’ve been doing this for three years,” Miller said. “From when I first started, the kids have made a huge improvement.

“The kids are learning and the parents are doing a heck of a job with these kids,” he added. “The 4-H leaders are doing a heck of a job.”