Catch the Excitement!

When I was a kid I was in Boy Scouts, and I remember working on my "Citizenship in the Community" merit badge. Part of that, as I recall, was to sit in on a local board or council meeting. My grandmother took me to a meeting of the library board of the Scott Township, Pennsylvania library.

I'm not going to lie to you; I remember it as being painfully, skull-crushingly long and dull.

But one lesson I learned is that it's good way to know exactly what is going on with the tax money we pay every time we buy something. We give the government money and we trust them to make good decisions with it. And, if we don't trust them, we can go and keep an eye on them.

That said, the approved minutes of this year's library board meetings are now on the library's website. Find them here:

Library Board Meetings

On that page, you'll see when meetings are scheduled and what has been done at those that have passed.

Tell a scout!

Agclassroom.org & Wisagclassroom.org

Ever since I arrived in Wisconsin, one thing I have noted is the high profile agriculture has in this state as an industry and employer, much higher than anywhere I've ever visited or lived. What's more, there is a fascinating and admirable diversity to the agricultural production. I've read about dairy, malting barley, wheat and even ginseng being grown not terribly far from Chippewa. The ginseng thing just amazes me, for some reason. Did you know Wisconsin produces 95% of the ginseng grown in the U.S.?

All this is bringing me to some information we just got in the mail from the USDA. They have a really interesting online resource called Agclassroom, which is chocked full of information for students and teachers seeking to learn (and teach) more about agriculture in the United States. Lesson plans, virtual tours, government publications, all online and all free. There's even a profile for every state.

And, if you want to just concentrate on our great State of Wisconsin (America's leading producer of snap beans), try the Wisconsin-centric page of Agclassroom.

Take a look.