Donations Needed At Barnstead Library
Do you have any Legos, Duplos, or Mega Blocks just hanging around your
home, sadly waiting for someone to play with them? Well, if you do we
have just the place for them! The Oscar Foss Memorial Library is
collecting donations of Legos for a very special upcoming event. Please
call us at 269-3900 or stop by the library if you have a donation. Thank
you in advance for your generosity and support.
Just a reminder that "Meet the Candidates Night", sponsored by the Oscar
Foss Memorial Library in Barnstead, will be held on Wednesday, February
29th at 7:00 pm at the Barnstead Town Hall.
This is your night to be able to ask questions of the candidates
who are running for school and town positions. Light refreshments will
be served. Parking is at the Town Hall and behind the Library.
Please note that we do not have a snow date. If travel is so
difficult that no one should be on the road, the program is cancelled.
Local Youth Services Benefit Magic Show, by renowned "Frates Creations",
at the Epsom Fire Station 2/26 at 2 pm. Sponsored by the
Epsom-Chichester Lions and Fire Aux.
Admission by donation. Refreshments served. Call 736-9942 for more
information.
Letter To The Editor
Dear Editor:
The importance of fresh, locally grown food cannot be overstated.
Food is what binds us all together. It is the balm that mends a broken
heart. It soothes us in our times of loss. Food is the instrument of
celebration in the milestones of our lives. We mark our most important
moments with it. Food cuts across all political, religious and social
lines. Young or old; rich and poor; we all eat.
Food is a vital part of the human condition. It should stand to reason
that we would want to provide the very best for ourselves and our loved
ones. The surest way to do that is by buying fresh, locally grown foods.
Local farms are a part of our communities and are dependent upon our
support. In return, local farmers produce the very best quality product
that they can.
A thriving local farm network is the sign of a healthy, vibrant
community. We need to support and encourage our local agriculture. It’s
what’s good for New Hampshire. It’s what’s good for us.
Don Walker, Cofounder
Barnstead Farmers and Gardeners Network
Barnstead Residents: Needed Immediately By Monday, March 5, 2012
Eight people showed up for the Barnstead Old Home Day meeting on
Wednesday night, February 8, 2012. We did decide to go "Down on the
Farm" for our theme and we will have Old Home Day on August 25, 2012.
This will not happen if we do not have more committed leader-volunteers
who will do the following.
We must fill these positions by Monday, March 5, 2012.
• Live auction coordinators (3-4 people)
• Saturday night merchandise and raffle sales (two people)
• Activity planning (2-3 people)
• Kids activities coordinators (2-3 people)
• Set-up and take-down coordinators (2-3 people)
• Grounds and upkeep (3 people)
• One person to help our vendor organizer.
We need Barnstead residents who will take that step "out of their
comfort zone" to become an Old Home Day leader. It does take work and
commitment, no doubt about that. You will be required to attend a
meeting on the second Wednesday of each month at 6:30 pm in the
Barnstead town hall.
Again, in order to move forward we must have volunteers to fill these
positions by March 5, 2012.
Contact Tim Eade at [email protected]
or call 603-269-2252.
Eagle Project Looking For Community Support
Logan Hales, member of Boy Scout Troop 312, is hoping residents and
businesses of the Suncook Valley will help him fill 100 backpacks for
Foster Kids for his Eagle Project. Rather than just for one town, this
Eagle Project will benefit needy children in the whole state of New
Hampshire. Working with Casey Family Services, Logan’s goal is to
provide much needed supplies for kids who are placed in Emergency Foster
Care. This often happens in the middle of the night, and these children
seldom leave with much more than the clothes on their backs. Logan hopes
to make this situation a little easier by providing backpacks with
pajamas, a t-shirt, a pack of underwear and socks, personal size
toiletries, and a few nice things like a stuffed animal, a small toy, or
a deck of cards. All items will be new.
Although he has fundraisers planned, 100 backpacks is an ambitious goal
because the retail value of the supplies totals over $4,500. He hopes
that community members might help out by picking up an extra new item
for these kids and dropping it off at one of the four community drop box
locations. They are: Clarks Grain on Route 28 in Chichester, Heritage
True Value Hardware of Northwood on Route 4, Maxfield’s Ace Hardware on
Route 28 in Pittsfield, and Cindy’s Hair Affair on Leavitt Rd. in
Pittsfield.
New items needed (boys and girls, all sizes from infant to teen):
backpacks, pajamas, plain T-shirts, packs of socks and underwear,
coloring books, small packs of crayons, small stuffed animals, small
dolls and matchbox cars, combs and hairbrushes, hair elastics,
toothbrushes and small toothpastes, deodorant for teens, notebooks, pens
and pencils, packs of playing cards, small baby bags, baby onesies,
small packs of diapers and wipes, pacifiers, baby socks.
Individuals or businesses who would like to sponsor a whole backpack can
contact Logan at
[email protected]. Sponsorship amounts for complete
backpacks are $33 for a baby bag, $45 for toddler to size 6, and $50 for
size 7 to teen. He would also be happy to pick up any supplies that you
or your business may be able to donate if you call him at 269-7760.
Every little item will help make a difference to these kids.
Men’s Breakfast
Saturday, February 25th, Center Barnstead Christian Church will be
kicking off its Men’s Breakfast for 2012. Our resident chef, Kevin
Goble, will be cooking. Our Pastor, Brian Gower, will be speaking. This
is a nondenominational men’s breakfast. All men are invited to come and
enjoy a free breakfast from 7:30 - 8:30 am this Saturday.
The Center Barnstead Christian Church is located on Route 126, next to
the Town Hall. For more information contact the church at 269-8831.
Making Sense of Seeds
Submitted By Kelly McAdam, Belknap County Extension
When I was young, I slowly began to take over the family vegetable
garden and it became my 4-H project each summer until we started our
farm stand at our dairy farm. Every year I was bound to find an unusual
vegetable in the garden. Typically, it looked like a cucumber and a
squash combination. Granted, I didn’t have a lot of space dedicated to
the garden but it was pretty neat to see something weird in the garden,
besides weeds.
You may have wondered yourself how you got some of those strange looking
vegetables in your garden. And, could you save those seeds and get your
newly invented vegetable next year? These days, many seed varieties are
cross bred in an effort to get a vegetable that is tastier, a plant that
yields more, is disease tolerant and has a more uniform shape to it.
These varieties are called hybrids, and when you see F1 in your seed
catalog next to the variety name, you know that variety is a hybrid. If
you enjoy saving seeds from year to year, a hybrid will not result in
the same vegetable you grew from the seeds you bought.
If you want to save your seeds from year to year, give open-pollinated
varieties a try. Open pollinated varieties depend on the wind, bees and
other insects to act as pollinators. As a result, the harvested seeds
will be the same as their parents, aside from the occasional mutation
that can happen. Heirloom varieties, which are open-pollinated, have
been around for a long time and are increasing in popularity. What the
open-pollinated varieties do not have is the disease tolerance and
uniformity that is bred into the hybrid varieties. However, there are
many heirloom varieties that are quite suitable for the home garden and
many sources for heirlooms and other open-pollinated varieties, such as
the Seed Savers Exchange.
Organic seeds are also available to home gardeners. These seeds have
been produced without applying pesticides or synthetic fertilizers to
the parent plants. Certified organic farms in New Hampshire must use
organic seeds to maintain their certification. Organic seeds are
typically no more expensive than their conventional counterparts.
I am trying to turn my six year old into a gardener, and as a result
need to be very careful about using fungicide-treated seeds when my son
is helping plant the garden. Treated seed typically has a pink coating
on it, and should not be handled by children. The seed packet must
indicate if the variety has been treated with a fungicide. This
treatment is most often applied to prevent a fungal pathogen from
destroying the seed before it is able to germinate in the soil. This is
especially beneficial in cool, damp soil conditions. However, if you
have the kids in the garden helping you it’s best not to let them handle
these seeds.
As seed catalogs arrive in the mail and your local stores start setting
up the seed racks, consider participating in a local workshop on growing
your own food. A full schedule of spring workshops is now available on
the Belknap County Extension website.
For more information, contact UNH Cooperative Extension at 527-5475 or
visit www.extension.unh.edu.
Childfind
Barnstead School District
In an effort to comply with State and Federal Laws governing special
education, to maintain eligibility for Federal Funding, to engage in
sound long range planning and to provide evaluation and programming
where appropriate, the Barnstead School District is making a
conscientious effort to identify any potentially disabled individuals
residing within its jurisdiction.
Parents of children up to 21 years of age who suspect that a child may
be educationally disabled, are invited to contact their special
education director. Assessments will be performed to determine if
children qualify for special education programs and services. Areas to
be screened will include hearing, vision, communication and motor
functioning.
For further information, parents should contact their local school and
ask to speak to the Interim Special Education Director: Misty Lowe,
Barnstead Elementary School, 269-5161.
