The event drew in 60 contestants from 12 states. Areas of competition, during the event, included aerospace, bicycle, computer, electric, lawn tractor, robotics, small engines, tractor and welding.  All of the contestants had won county and state competitions to qualify for the national event.

Contestants and accompanying adults spent a day on educational field trips at Purdue University and Indianapolis. Included in the tour were workshops in the Departments of Electrical Engineering Technology, Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Aviation Technology and tours of the Fowler Ridge Wind farm and Rea Magnet Wire Company.

The event was conducted by Extension Agricultural Engineers and 4-H professionals from participating states. John Deere and Company sponsored the Lawn Tractor and Small Engines contests. Lincoln Electric sponsored the Welding contest. Landis and Gyr and Stuart C. Irby Company sponsored the Electric contest.  Additional funds locally were provided by the Illinois 4-H Foundation.

If you have questions about the competition or how your child may become engaged in 4-H, call the Peoria County office at 309-685-3140.

Mr. Murdock is associated with Artists of Note in the Chicago area. He has centered his life’s work on the Great Lakes; the tales and folk music that have come about as a result of the shipping industry in the Lakes, the history of the Irish and their movement across the country ultimately landing in the South Side of Chicago. We often hear those wonderful Irish songs at the Erin Feis.

One of the songs to be studied is “Follow the Drinkin’ Gourd,” a chanty which was developed by the slaves as they moved north to Canada. Come see if you can detect the “code words” which outlined the path of travel they would take to freedom.

This will be a very entertaining yet very educational offering, one which is affordable at the low rate of $5. This fee includes the lesson and all handouts. If you are a member of Home Extension the program is free.

Mr. Murdock will have his book and accompanying CD available for purchase that day at a reduced rate.

The Peoria County Office of University of Illinois Extension is located at 4810 N. Sheridan Rd, (corner of Sheridan and Glen) in the Glen Plaza. Seating will be limited to 53. Call with reservations to Julann at 685-3140.

Egg cartons were stamped with one of three codes: P-1026, P-1413 and P-1946. These are the plant numbers stamped at the end of the carton and are followed by the Julian Date. The recalled shell eggs are packaged under the following brand names: Lucerne, Albertson, Mountain Dairy, Ralph’s, Boomsma’s, Sunshine, Hillandale, Trafficanda, Farm Fresh, Shoreland, Lund, Dutch Farms and Kemps.

What does this mean to you? Jenna Hogan, University of Illinois Extension nutrition and wellness educator, recommends the following:

·  Do not eat recalled eggs. Although cooking them to the proper temperature will reduce the risk of illness, you should still discard them or return them to their retailer for a refund.

·  Consult your health care provider if you think you may have become ill from consuming recalled eggs.

·  Do not eat raw eggs.

·  Avoid ordering restaurant dishes made with raw or undercooked, unpasteurized eggs. Young children, elderly persons and persons with weakened immune systems should especially avoid raw, undercooked and unpasteurized eggs.

·  Always wash hands, cooking utensils and food contact surfaces with warm, soapy water after contact with raw eggs.

·  Refrigerate leftovers made with eggs promptly.

·  Keep shell eggs refrigerated at or below 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hogan recommends visiting www.fda.gov for a complete list of recalled eggs with brand, plant number and Julian dates.

For more information on nutrition issues, call the Peoria County Office at 309-685-3140.

While cooking and eating outside, food can easily reach room temperature and stay there for a long time. Harmful bacteria, or germs, grow quickly in foods that are left at room temperature. Any food sitting out in temperatures between 40° F and 140°F (commonly called the “Danger Zone”) is at high risk for bacteria growth. Foods that sit at this temperature for over two hours should be thrown away. Coolers with ice should be available to store leftovers if you are not immediately returning home after eating.
Washing hands before and after making and eating food is extremely important. If there is no running water, make sure to have hand sanitizer available. Washing all fruits and vegetables before cutting and eating is also important to avoid eating pesticides and bacteria. Keep food covered before, after, and in between eating to protect from bugs.
Prevent cross-contamination of foods by packing raw meat and produce separately and using separate utensils and dishes before and after cooking meats. Meat needs to reach certain temperatures on the inside to make sure that it has been cooked all the way through and that all harmful bacteria has been killed. Buying an inexpensive meat thermometer at the grocery store and checking the temperature of your meats while cooking is an easy way to be sure meats are safe to eat. Meats should reach the following temperatures in the middle:

• Chicken (whole & pieces)180°F
• Ground Beef –         160°F
• Ground Poultry –     165°F
• Steak & Lamb -    160°F
• Pork –             160°F

Summertime Marinade
Marinating is a great way to tenderize and enhance the flavor of any meat or seafood, as well as keep it moist while cooking. This marinade is simple, and perfect for any kind of meat or seafood. You can brush it on vegetables and fruit while grilling too!

• ½ cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 cup orange juice
• 1 cup pineapple juice
• ¼ cup olive oil
• 2 tsps ground black pepper
• 1 ½ TB garlic powder
• ¼ cup finely-chopped green
• onions
• Hot sauce to taste
• 1 TB chopped fresh thyme
• (optional)

In a medium bowl, stir together the vinegar, orange juice, pineapple juice, olive oil, pepper, garlic powder, green onion, hot sauce, and thyme. Place meat or seafood in a shallow glass dish or bowl, pierce with a fork on top a few times, and pour ½ of the marinade over it. Turn over and repeat. Place in refrigerator or cooler and marinate for up to three hours.
If you have other nutrition questions, call the Peoria County Extension Office at 685-3140.

There are ways we can protect the plant from dying early. Last year’s problems were mainly due to excessive disease pressure which caused leaf defoliation. Because of the cool and wet summer, leaf diseases were the worst I had ever seen. I do not think anyone was discriminated against by diseases such as: septoria, early blight, bacterial spot and bacterial speck (these being the most common).

To prevent these diseases from repeating their actions of last year, consider the following. First, make sure you rotate your crops in the garden. Many diseases can overwinter in the soil, and planting the same crop back into the same spot only increases the risk. The same is true for all crops. Rotate so that you only plant the same crop family every 3-4 years in the same spot. Tomatoes are in the same family as potato, egg plant and pepper.

Promote good air circulation. The longer the leaf stays wet, the greater the chance of disease. Try these ideas: stake or cage tomato plants; leave plenty of space between the plants; place your rows north-south so sunlight hits either morning or afternoon to help dry plants; have plenty of open space around the garden to take advantage of winds. These can all help. If providing water, use soaker hoses to keep foliage dry, or use sprinklers in the early afternoon so that the plant is dry prior to nightfall.

Strongly consider mulching after the plants have established well. Fungal diseases (septoria and early blight) survive in the soil, and splashing rains bring these diseases into contact with the leaf. You will notice that the first tomato leaves that show fungal disease problems are the lower ones, because they stay wetter longer and they are closer to the soil. Once the disease starts on the lower part of the plant, additional rainfall splashes the disease inoculum higher on the plant. Use straw, (non- treated) grass clippings, newspapers, or plastic after the plants have gotten established (tomatoes like warm soil and mulches reduce soil warmth). This also helps control weeds. The bacterial diseases are carried by winds, and are usually seen first on the upper portion of the plant.

Lastly consider a fungicide, such as chlorothalonil, although if wet weather is absent, disease pressure should be reduced. Septoria and early blight are fungal diseases that chlorothalonil can provide help with. The two bacterial diseases can be reduced with copper sprays. If, and how often, to spray will depend upon summer weather patterns. Dry weather will mean less disease potential, wet weather will mean more. Always follow directions on the label.

If you have other questions concerning gardening issues, call the Peoria County Extension Master Gardener Helpline. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.

Yet, there is that component of social networking which requires that great care be exercised. April Littig, University of Illinois Extension Youth Development Educator, provides some thoughts regarding teens and online social networking.

“Friendships are everything to teens. The new technology avenues of today have provided many opportunities to network with existing friends as well as communicate with “cyber” friends. In the 2007 Pew Internet and American Life Project – Teens and Social Media report, 55 percent of online teens (12-17 years of age) reported using some type of online social networking site and setting up profiles. Websites such as Facebook or MySpace combine many different features into one: personal profiles, blogs, videos, photos, and the latest news about music groups or fashion. So what are teens using these sites for?

Teens have reported that these sites are places to reinforce pre-existing friendships, flirt and make new friends. Social networking sites are used mostly for helping teens manage their friendships. In the Pew Internet and American Life Project study, 91 percent of all social networking teens say they use the site to stay in touch with friends they see frequently, while 82 percent use the sites to stay in touch with friends they rarely see in person. Other reasons teens use these sites are to make plans with friends, make new friends, and to flirt with someone. Teens (21 percent) are also reporting that they use these sites on a daily basis to send messages to friends. A study done by the National School Boards Association reported that teens were also using the sites for educational purposes such as help with homework or college or career planning.

Social networking sites can be a great way for a teen to communicate. However, there are both positive and negative consequences that teens and their parents need to consider and remember when communicating online. Listed below are just a few tips for helping teens socialize safely online:

• Assume that EVERYONE has access to your profile. Just because you have restricted your profile to “friends only” doesn’t mean other people can’t find information about you that you don’t want them to know. Make sure you have your profile set to “private” so that you can control who has easy access to your information.

• Never post your private information such as a home/work address or telephone numbers and never post your friends’ information either. If you put it online, it is like giving it out to the whole world. Post only information you are comfortable with others knowing. This includes pictures as well. Remember that future employers may look at your profile or pictures to see what type of person you are when hiring you as an employee.

• Remember that once you post information online, you can’t take it back. Even if you delete this information, other individuals may be using older versions in which this information is still available.

• Always assume that there are predators or people out there that may use this information to cause harm to you, or try and find you. Do not add an individual as a friend unless you know him or her personally. Always trust your gut if you have a suspicion about a person or something that is posted online. If something makes you uncomfortable, be sure to tell a trusted adult about what has occurred.

• You may be held responsible for inappropriate content on your profile. Be sure to remember to read the Terms of Service section when setting up your profile. They may differ for whichever site you are using.

Online social networking can be a great resource for teens if used effectively and safely. More information for teens and parents can be found at: http://www.webwisekids.org and http://wiredsafety.org.”

If you have other questions concerning youth development issues, call the Peoria County Extension Office. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.

Before jumping on the band wagon, Chan suggests that you take a step back and make sure that you know all the rules.

First, understand the appeal of Roth IRAs. All earnings in the account will be tax free if two criteria are met: when distributions are taken, the account has been open at least five years and the owner is age 59 ½ or older, is disabled, uses the money for first-time homebuyer expenses, or is deceased. Also, you will never be required to take any distributions from the account during your lifetime. If you don’t need the money, you can pass all those wonderful tax-free earnings to your heirs, but heirs will be required to take distributions.

You can do a conversion at any age without penalty. The downside is that you will pay federal income tax at your marginal tax rate on the conversion. “If you’re under age 59 ½, beware of two catches,” Chan advises. “If you use money from your IRA to pay the tax, you will pay a 10 percent penalty on that amount, and if you take converted money out of the Roth IRA before age 59 ½, you’ll also owe a penalty.”

If you have a required minimum distribution for the year of the conversion, you must still take the distribution—that amount cannot be converted.

Another potential “gotcha” awaits people who convert funds from a SIMPLE IRA. “Until you have participated in the SIMPLE plan for two years, you cannot move that money into anything except another SIMPLE plan. If you move the money into anything else, including a Roth, you will pay a 25 percent penalty,” says Chan.

Non-deductible contributions can be converted tax-free. However, Chan points out, you cannot convert just the non-deductible contributions. You must add together the balances in all of your tax-deferred IRA accounts (traditional, SEP, and SIMPLE IRAs) and calculate the proportion of that total that is from nondeductible contributions.

“You may need to make estimated tax payments or increase your withholding for the years in which you will recognize the income from the conversion,” Chan warns. Otherwise, you might owe penalties for underpaying your taxes.

Conversions can be un-done, or recharacterized, as late as the due date (including extensions) for the tax return for the year in which you did the conversion. So you could have until Oct. 15, 2011 to change your mind about a conversion done in 2010 and put the money back into a Traditional IRA.

For more information about Roth conversions, check the February posts on the Plan Well, Retire Well blog at www.extension.illinois.edu/go/retirewell. You can also visit www.ace.illinois.edu/cfe/retirement to read about Taking Distributions from Tax-Deferred Retirement Plans.

If you have other questions concerning consumer issues, call the Peoria County Extension Office. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.

In order to paint some “green” thoughts for you, The Peoria County Office would like to provide some information on Easter Lilies. Easter lilies are common this time of year, but interestingly enough, it is one of the few plants that has essentially a week’s worth of sales and then is finished until next year.

“To keep it alive indoors, light and a moist—but not soggy—soil is enough to keep the plant going,” states David Robson, University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator, Springfield Center.

Once it is done blooming, an Easter lily sadly does not have much going for it as a houseplant. Within weeks, the leaves will start to yellow, and the plant dies above ground, though the bulb in the soil is still alive.

Even better, with a little care, you can plant it outdoors after flowering, and it will bloom again the same year. Easter lilies will tolerate summer’s extremes that many other plants will not survive. It just has a harder time living over the winter.

However, you can enjoy the blossoms longer if you keep the plants out of direct sunlight or warm drafts. It is worthwhile to place the plant on an unheated, but frost-free porch at night.

To keep the plant looking its best, remove the lily flowers as soon as they wither and clip any leaf ends that may brown. After all the flowers have been removed, you can keep the plant in a sunny window for its pleasing foliage or remove it to a basement window until danger from frost is over.

Should the plant begin to go into a rest period, the leaves will start to yellow and fall. The plant should then be kept on the dry side to discourage rots. Just allow the plant to go dormant.

The lily can be planted in a sunny garden spot as soon as danger from frost is past, which is between April 1 and May 1. Remove the plant from the pot by inverting it; and, while gently holding the top, tap the edge of the pot on a step or heavy board.

Open the root ball by pulling upward and out from the center of the ball. A few torn roots are better than an undisturbed dense root mass that may not be able to establish new roots in the soil. Clumped and matted roots are more likely to die and even injure the bulb, cautions Robson.

Place the bulb a few inches deeper than it was in the pot, essentially three to four inches deep. Open the root as much as possible, and work soil through them. Try not to damage the bulb, though sometimes the sections fall apart. Water the soil ball before separating it to minimize bulb damage. These bulb sections can be planted, but probably will not mature enough to produce a flower.

Thoroughly water the plant. One-half teaspoon of a 10-10-10 fertilizer per gallon helps promote new top and root growth. Soon after the old tops die, new shoots will start. These will flower lusually in July or August, if given ordinary garden care. Be sure that trees, weeds or other plants do not shade the lily.

Although many people report good results, none of the lily varieties are reliably hardy. If the ground is well drained, you can cover plants with mulch during the cold winter months—just as is done for roses. Mulches of straw, leaves, evergreen boughs, wood chips or ground corncobs are satisfactory and should be applied at least eight inches thick.

Most of the lilies are killed by exposure to winter winds and sun. Mulches limit the heaving action of the soil and, thus, prevent bulb exposure.

If you have other questions concerning horticulture, call the Peoria County Extension Office. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.

The one thing you should not do with the old tree is to burn it in the fireplace. A dry tree will burn with intense heat and may buckle a steel fireplace, crack a flue in a brick chimney or could start a chimney fire. You can use the small twigs for kindling. If you want to use it for firewood, season it a year outdoors first.

An old tradition dating to the Middle Ages is to move the tree outside and set it up for the animals, decorated with various kinds of foods. Birds will appreciate suet cakes with seeds, strings of popcorn or cranberries and fresh pine cones with seeds still inside. Squirrels will appreciate strings of peanuts or apple slices.

During inclement weather, the tree can provide protection to animals who will roost in it or huddle under it as long as the storm persists. Birds such as cardinals and jays, which stay here all year, are much more likely to take up permanent residence in your yard if invited there for the winter. If you are already providing for the animals, there are other ways the old tree can be put to good use.

In Illinois, where there is always the danger of alternate freezing and thawing, perennials should be covered, not to keep them warm but to keep them cold. For this reason, you need to wait to mulch the garden until after the ground has frozen. The ideal mulch is light enough to permit air to penetrate but substantial enough to shade the soil and keep it from thawing every time the sun shines on it.

A good mulch to use for this purpose, easily available after Christmas, is the left over Christmas tree. Branches from your tree can be cut up and laid over your perennial bed. Two layers of bough, crisscrossed, should suffice. They admit air to the ground, but keep out the sun.

If you have extensive perennial beds or strawberries, you might run out of branches from your own tree, but you can be sure there will be a ready supply as neighbors, up and down the street, discard their trees. After removing the branches, save the trunks. They make good beanpoles or tomato stakes.

In the spring, remove the boughs in two stages, three or four days apart, just as the first new sprouts appear. This permits the tender new growth to become gradually acclimated to the still chilly spring air.

Finally, if you have all-weather containers, stick some branches in the pots, add a few interesting branches such as red or yellow-twig dogwood or burning bush, some berries and other decorations. Containers do not have to be emptied of soil, though the pots stand a better chance of not breaking if thereis no soil in them.

If you have other questions, call the Peoria County Extension Office. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.

The one thing you should not do with the old tree is to burn it in the fireplace. A dry tree will burn with intense heat and may buckle a steel fireplace, crack a flue in a brick chimney or could start a chimney fire. If anything, use the small twigs for kindling. If you want to use it for firewood, season it a year outdoors first.

An old tradition dating to the Middle Ages is to move the tree outside and set it up for the animals, decorated with various kinds of foods. Birds will appreciate suet cakes with seeds, strings of popcorn or cranberries and fresh pine cones with seeds still inside. Squirrels will appreciate strings of peanuts or apple slices.

During inclement weather, the tree can provide protection to animals who will roost in it or huddle under it as long as the storm persists. Birds such as cardinals and jays, which stay here all year, are much more likely to take up permanent residence in your yard if invited there for the winter. If you are already providing for the animals, there are other ways the old tree can be put to good use.

In Illinois, where there is always the danger of alternate freezing and thawing, perennials should be covered, not to keep them warm but to keep them cold. For this reason, you always need to wait to mulch the garden until after the ground has frozen. The ideal mulch is light enough to permit air to penetrate but substantial enough to shade the soil and keep it from thawing every time the sun shines on it.

A good mulch to use for this purpose, easily available after Christmas, is the left over Christmas tree. Branches from your tree can be cut up and laid over your perennial bed. Two layers of bough, crisscrossed, should suffice. They admit air to the ground, but keep out the sun.

If you have extensive perennial beds or strawberries, you might run out of branches from your own tree, but you can be sure there will be a ready supply as neighbors, up and down the street, discard their trees. Also, after removing the branches, save the trunks. They make good beanpoles or tomato stakes.

In the spring, remove the boughs in two stages, three or four days apart, just as the first new sprouts appear. This permits the tender new growth to become gradually acclimated to the still chilly spring air.

Finally, if you have all-weather containers, stick some branches in the pots, add a few interesting branches such as red or yellow-twig dogwood or burning bush, some berries and other decorations. Containers do not have to be emptied of soil, though the pots stand a better chance of not breaking if there is no soil in them.

If you have other questions, call the Peoria County Extension Office. The number is 309-685-3140 or www.extension.uiuc.edu/peoria.