Extension Service’s ‘Winter School’ offers family-friendly fun

Winter School attendees work on still life charcoal drawings Monday at the Whitley County Extension Service office in Goldbug.

From slow cooker recipes to common landscaping mistakes, the Whitley County Cooperative Extension Service is offering a wide and varied range of classes that began this Monday at its first ever "Winter School."

University of Kentucky Agricultural Extension Agent Phil Meeks said all the classes are free and sort of bring together, for the first time, each of the focus areas of the Extension Service – agriculture and natural resources, family and consumer science, 4H and fine arts.

"Many times, all of our four program areas sort of go in different directions. This is an attempt to have it happening at the same time," Meeks said. "We wanted to have things the whole family could come out and participate in. That’s kind of what we are shooting for with this."

Winter School kicked off Monday with classes in introductory charcoal drawing, how to build terrariums, recipes for cooking diabetes friendly desserts and primitive fire making.

The school will meet each successive Monday (excluding the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 21) at the Extension Service office off U.S. 25 in Goldbug.

Classes will include:

¥ Jan 14. – Beginning crochet, beginning beekeeping and gourd art at 6:00 p.m.

¥ Jan 28 – 12 landscaping mistakes and how to avoid them, leather craft and slow cooker use and recipes at 6:00 p.m. At 7:00 p.m. a class will be offered on primitive cooking.

¥ Feb. 4 – Food budgeting, stamp making and plant propagation at 6:00 p.m. Introduction to the night sky at 7:00 p.m.

Meeks said the idea for Winter School was gleaned from a few of extension service offices in Kentucky that had done something similar.

All the classes are free and open to the public. Registration for each class is required and can be done online at the Whitley County Agriculture Extension Service website http://whitley.ca.uky.edu/. For more information, call 606-549-1430 or email dl_ces_whitley@email.uky.edu.