Bryce Hayes and his 4-H project pig. Courtesy photo.

KELSEYVILLE – Hi, my name is Bryce Hayes I am a member of the Kelseyville 4-H Club.

This is my fifth year in 4-H. I am also a three-year member of the C and L Club, which is a Citizenship and Leadership project. In my 4-H club, I have been the treasurer and vice president, and this year I was the secretary.

I love 4-H because it gives you opportunities to work with other 4-H members and be involved in my community.

The projects that I am involved in this year are swine, horse, cavy, shooting sports, leadership and poultry. For some of my projects I am the junior teen leader. This is when I get to plan and run a portion of the meetings.

The projects that I am junior teen leader of are cavy, horse and shooting sports. The animals that I am taking to fair are two market ready swines. For our poultry educational display I will have pheasant and p-foul, or peacocks.

It is a lot of hard work to raise animals for the fair. Your day starts off really early you have to clean, feed and work your animal for the fair. On top of all that, we need to keep track of the animal’s weight gain and all that fun stuff. You also keep records of every time you clean, water, feed and work with them.

Now all that work you did keeping records you get to turn it into a thing we call a record book. You also have to put everything that you have learned in the different projects that you are taking and how much money you have invested in. Now that’s a lot of paper work. When my book is complete I take it to our first club meeting of the new year where it will be judged by a panel of parents.

So when you are at the fair just remember not all the animals there are pets, some of them are projects and learning experiences that will last a lifetime. So come on down to the Lake County Fair and look for me, Bryce Hayes, from Kelseyville 4-H!

4-H Youth Development is a program of the University of California Cooperative Extension. For more information on the 4-H program contact U.C. Cooperative Extension, 883 Lakeport Blvd., Lakeport, 263-6838.

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