Saturday, Sept 6 at the Grayson National Bank Conference Center

Dale D'Alessandro from Chesapeake Renewable Energy will be

presenting the information, followed by a panel of professionals

who were part of the Rouse Wind Turbine Installation, including,

James Moss, Grayson County Building Inspector

Don Mendes, electrician

John Roger, electrician

Jack Byrd, electrician,

Carol Huffman, AEP Net Metering

After these presentations will be a Question and Answer period,
followed by a one hour break for lunch on your own or box lunch
delivered (see below). At 1 pm we will carpool to the Rouse wind installation (rough driveway alert) 5 miles north of Independence to see the Bergey 10KW in action. Hope you can join us!

Davis-Bourne Inn has just offered to prepare box lunches delivered to the conference center at $9 each…•choice of ham, turkey and bacon OR chicken salad sandwich with chips, cookie or brownie and tea.

My daddy says that "organic gardening" means you split the garden with the wildlife 90%-10%, and guess who gets the 10%?

My daddy is pretty smart.

But I want to be an organic gardener; I really do. So as I walked down the rows this morning spewing white dust on everything, I lamented yet another failure on my part to produce food without resorting to chemicals. I read the label on the bag of dust with dismay. "Do not inhale. Do not ingest. Do not use near pets. Do not use near children. Absolutely lethal to fish and frogs." Oh, please God, somehow keep this out of the creek and out of the river.

So you dust, I say to daddy, this chemical on your plants and it ends up in the soil; won't it end up inside of your cucumbers and corn and potatoes, and then inside of you?

"In the end, we conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand. We will understand only what we are taught." Baba Dioum, Senegalese poet

4:00 PM Ceremony at the 1908 Courthouse - Independence

Grayson LandCare, Inc., a local non-profit organization, is sponsoring a Land Stewardship Competition. The competition is open to all students in grades 8 through 12 who are enrolled in a school in Grayson County (Grayson County Schools, Galax City Schools, Oak Hill Academy) or who are residents of Grayson County and are homeschooled. Students can enter individually or in teams of two to five persons. The goal of the competition is to encourage the young people in the county to gain a better understanding of the economic and environmental problems that Grayson County faces and come up with real solutions that can help solve these problems. The competition starts March 17, 2008. Entry forms and short summaries of the projects are due April 30, 2008. The Land Stewardship Fair, where students will present their projects for judging and prizes will be awarded, will be held May 10, 2008.