High Desert Grange Happenings CANTALOUPE FESTIVAL Everything anyone wants to know from knights to homesteading will be available at the High Desert Grange display at this year’s Cantaloupe Festival. All Grange displays and activities will take place inside the Grange tent. Fifth graders will be special guests for an agriculture educational event the afternoon of Thursday, August 26 during setup and on Friday, August 27 at 8:00 AM when older Grange youth will demonstrate fitting goats, clipping lamb and goat hooves, and milking goats. Knights of the Grange plan on keeping everyone’s attention with demonstrations of their sword prowess, knowledge of chain mail armor, and discussions of the role of knights in world history. The Grange sewing club will display their creations and share information on the group.
By Suzann Gilliland Peterson
HIGH DESERT GRANGE CLEANS LAHONTAN DAM STATE PARK CAMPGROUND Once every year the High Desert Grange in Fallon, NV, chooses a large community service project that benefits the residents of Churchill County. This year’s project was the Lahontan Dam State Park Campground Cleanup that took place from Friday, July 31 through Sunday, August 2. Grangers brought their own cleanup tools and began campsite setup on Friday. Guest speakers from the Nevada Outdoor School featured their Leave No Trace program, a hands-on activity that teaches the seven basic rules of enjoying the outdoors responsibly. This was the only event open to the public. Chloe Kent Clipping Her Goat
Poultry, cavies, goats, sheep, geese, ducks, and desert tortoises will be shown by livestock youth for all visitors to see and learn about. Homesteading is a popular endeavor and the Grange homesteading group will share their stories and information about homesteading in our area.
While some people stayed the entire weekend, others joined in during the days. Saturday found Grangers on their mission to clean up the park’s campground. Grange member Taylor Reynolds, who works for the park, focused on clearing the hiking trail and showed families what needed to be done. Participants removed dead wood, cleared and pruned trees, and raked the trail. Once their work was accomplished for the day, everyone headed back to camp where the youth took advantage of the down time to swim in the lake and collect toads. At noon, Grange instructors taught eager students how to construct five bat houses and six Wood Duck boxes. Four of the boxes were given to the rangers to place in the park. The bat houses are available from the Grange for a donation. Thirteen year old Riggin Stonebarger and his family live just up the dirt road from the park. When asked what he liked best about the weekend, he said, “It was neat to give back right here! My favorite part about our cleanup weekend was that we were able to come together to help our local dam and camping facility become a safer and healthy place, not just for humans but for animals, too! With the drought this year and the low, low lake levels, ensuring that the wildlife have safe places is really important.” In addition to camping, working and playing the entire weekend, Riggin found himself reuniting with many families he had not seen for some time. Next on the agenda was an evening of Dutch oven potluck. Families came together to enjoy each other’s company and taste the culinary gifts of family cooks. Alyssa Gardner Milking Her Goat
Sir Taylor Reynolds 34 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
The Progressive Rancher
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