South Dakota

I learn so much by attending our Horizons monthly meetings…for instance last night in Estelline I learned about Chicken Tractors, yes I said chicken tractors. One of the educational activites that Estelline has offered in their community is on the topic of Permaculture (permanent agriculture). One of the concepts they talked about using for their planned community garden was a chicken tractor.

It’s a simple, portable cage that you can move around the yard. The chickens eat the bugs and the weeds, and leave behind some “fertilizer.” Then you move them on to the next spot in the yard. Want to build your own chicken tractor? Click the link below for an example. I’m going to stick that little piece of information in my brain, just in case one day someone asks me, “do you know anything about chicken tractors, and I can say yep, I sure do!”

How to Build a Chicken Tractor

Horizons project staff will host three seminars about welcoming an aging population to communities. The seminars begin at 6:30 p.m. with a supper and continue with remarks from three speakers. To register call Debbie Bortnem, (605) 688-6191, before April 21. The seminar dates and locations are:

* April 23, Mitchell Technical Institute Technology Center, Room 111, Mitchell

* April 24, Whitewood Senior Citizens’ Center, Whitewood

* April 28, The Galley Restaurant, Webster

Click here for a copy of the flyer.

To all of our community bloggers, one way we have been trying to capture the changes and progess made in your community is by asking you and others in your community to answer questions in the 12 categories defined by NWAF. Just today I sent our main community contacts the final two questions.

If you are an Administrator, you can check to see how many posts you have per category in the Dashboard. Just go to Manage>Posts> and click the drop down menu under the “Category” heading as seen in the example below. This will help you to see if you have any categories that may need a little “beefing up”. Questions, let Cheryl know by leaving a comment here or send me an e-mail.