As I travel through the rural areas of the county, the scenery is beginning to remind me of 2007. Corn is twisting up in the fields, double-cropped soybeans have been planted but have not come up, crops in the sandier fields have stopped growing and are turning yellow, and tobacco is cupping upward and beginning to look like collard plants. Although some areas of the county have received occasional showers since the spring planting season began, most areas of the county are extremely dry.

We were fortunate this past weekend and early this week. Scattered showers provided some relief for most areas of the county, but what rain that did fall was not near enough to relieve the drought problem.

Two years ago, our growing season started off dry and got worse. Occasional showers resulted in decent, but not great, wheat yields in most areas of the county. But the drought got worse as the year progressed, and with very few exceptions, the final yields of all crops were far below normal.

This year is slightly different. It started off dry with very little rainfall in January and February, but occasional showers since then have provided some very good-looking crops in some communities. It will depend what happens during the next 10 to 12 weeks as to what our final crop yields will be. Please keep your fingers crossed for our farmers.

If you are anything like the "average Joe," you are using computers more and more every day. We are a long way from the point where everyone in the county is "computer savvy," but most of us are becoming more accustomed to computer technology in our daily lives. Automatic teller machines at the bank, charge cards, scanners at the stores, and diagnosis of our car engines are now accepted parts of our daily lives for many of us, and they are all possible because of computers.

For those of you who do use computers regularly, especially the Internet, let me tell you about a new tool on your computer. You now have the expertise of all of the nation's land-grant universities at your fingertips. We have recently installed a new web tool on our web site, http://robeson.ces.ncsu.edu. This tool is called "Ask an Expert" widget and is available 24/7 (any time, day or night).

All you have to do is submit your question, and you will get a timely answer from an Extension faculty member. For almost 100 years, Cooperative Extension has been the premier source of credible, research-based information on many topics that consumers face virtually every day. Now, the "Ask an Expert" widget allows you to access that information with greater convenience and greater confidence.

As you can imagine, Extension workers across the nation in more than 3,300 county Extension Centers have a vast assortment of education, training, and practical experiences. As part of a nationwide web site called extension.org, Extension workers have identified their areas of expertise. When you submit a question to "Ask an Expert," the computer searches your county Extension staff first for a trained person to respond. If there is a more qualified person elsewhere in the state, that person will automatically receive your question. If the most qualified person is in another state, that person will receive your question. This system provides you the very best, most researched knowledge from the smartest land-grant university minds across America. It connects knowledge consumers with knowledge providers.

You and all our friends and neighbors can submit questions about agriculture and food, health and nutrition, home and family, lawn and garden, youth development and 4-H, forestry and environmental stewardship, money management and resource conservation, and a host of other topics.

To access the widget, go to our web site and click Ask on the black menu bar near the top of each page. Since this is a new feature, we have made it more easily accessible by placing an "Ask an Expert" section in the "Links of Interest" prominently featured on the main page. Just enter your questions and E-mail addresses in the spaces provided and submit them. Your questions will be directed to Extension faculty members who have the appropriate expertise to provide accurate and timely responses.

This feature does not replace our traditional methods of providing information by phone calls, E-mails, office visits, or farm or home visits. It just makes it more convenient for those who need information by Internet or at odd hours. We still welcome your visit or calls.

In closing, let me remind you that Janice Fields, our foods and nutrition agent, will be providing more Food Preservation Workshops at the Extension Center during the next few weeks. A Water Bath and Pressure Canning Workshop will be provided Monday, July 20, from 1 until 5 p.m. The Pickling and Jams Workshop will be provided Tuesday, August 4, from 1 until 5 p.m. A small fee will be charged to cover the cost of materials, handouts, and supplies. If you want to learn more about how to preserve your own foods, please call your Extension Center at 910-671-3276 to register.

E-mail address: Everett_Davis@ncsu.edu

Mailing Address:
P. O. Box 2280
Lumberton, NC 28359-2280

Phone: 910-671-3276
Fax: 910-671-6278

Date Created 07/14/09