With the county fair coming, 4-Hers prepare projects and work toward self-improvement

Jul. 13—With the Geary County Free Fair right around the corner, many 4-H families are running around trying to finish projects, complete record books and otherwise prepare.

This includes the Dibben family of Geary County.

MiKayla Dibben (age 16), Kourtney Dibben (age 14), Brittney Dibben (age 12) and Deyton Dibben (age 10) of Humboldt Creek 4-H Club all have a list of their respective projects they're working on and they all have to be finished more or less at once.

The amount of time spent on 4-H projects varies from week to week. They work with their animals all year long according to their mother, Dianna Dibben.

"Since we have so many kids doing it, some will work on arts and crafts while the others are baking," she said. "We have to have organization and — I don't know what you want to call it. It's chaos, but it's organized chaos. That's what (the) 4-H fair is to us."

Every year, they try not to put projects off until the end, but some projects can't be done too far ahead of the fair and there's a natural inclination to procrastinate a bit anyway.

"They work really good at helping each other," Dianna Dibben said.

In the end, it's all a lot of fun — both the learning and the winning, when they win.

According to Brittney Dibben there are "kind of a lot of" setbacks and disappointments. They deal with these as they come.

"Most years with our garden things either don't come up at all or they're not ready in time for fair or they're ready before fair and they die out," she said. "We just kind of work with what we have."

The beans and peas died out this year — eaten by bugs despite insecticide — but they have plenty of carrots, onions and potatoes, some of which the children plan to enter this year.

MiKayla Dibben plans to enter some of the vegetables in the horticulture project this year. In addition to horticulture, she's also involved in foods, arts and crafts, buymanship, photography and poultry.

MiKayla Dibben said her personal favorite projects are beef, which she is not in this year, and foods. She's also taking part in poultry.

"We took a break from doing market steers," she said.

This year, she plans to enter a loaf of bread — among other things — in the foods project. Bread is complicated to make and when it's good it tends to win big at the fair.

She doesn't know exactly what she wants to do when she graduates from college or where she wants to go for her degree, though she's considering Kansas State University. She also knows she wants to go into agriculture, which she loves — it's what keeps her going when challenges arise.

"I plan to come back here to farm and hopefully do something in agronomy," MiKayla Dibben said.

She's still trying to figure out the specifics.

MiKayla Dibben encourages others to take part in 4-H if they have the chance for the enrichment opportunities.

"People should definitely get involved," she said.

Kourtney Dibben takes part in buymanship, foods, horticulture, arts and crafts, photography and poultry. As the Humboldt Creek 4-H Club Reporter, she will also have a reporter notebook to submit to the fair this year.

Brittany Dibben takes part in all the same projects as Kourtney Dibben aside from the reporter notebook, but she also has a bucket calf this year.

Deyton Dibben takes part in buymanship, poultry, bucket calf, foods and arts and crafts.

Kourtney Dibben says she has historically enjoyed taking part in the beef project, but decided not to this year. Of all the projects she's doing this time around, she enjoys photography the most. She said the project has taught her a lot, including the rules of photography such as the rule of thirds.

"I just like taking pictures," she said.

Brittany Dibben said she enjoys the beef project as well. Having her bucket calf has taught her responsibility and leadership because of the ways in which she leads her calf while showing it.

In general, her 4-H projects have led to her "having to give presentations in front of (her) club and just having to be a leader," she said.

Deyton Dibben said he is also fond of his bucket calf.

"I think they're cute," he said.

Kourtney Dibben said she hopes to turn what she learns in 4-H into a career. She wants to go into the agriculture business when she graduates from college, the same as her older sister. She feels, in addition to the knowledge she has gained about agriculture itself, that being able to talk to anyone — something she has learned from 4-H — will help her in her future business career.

One of the biggest challenges for the Dibben children is time management. They have had to learn not to procrastinate because doing so leads to problems down the line.

"Finding time to do everything," Kourtney Dibben said is the biggest challenge. "If you keep on procrastinating on everything you have to do all of your projects a couple weeks right before fair. And then the record book after it's all done takes a long time to do."

Record books are the bane of many 4-Hers and their families. The Dibben children said they are time-consuming and according to Deyton Dibben they're the most challenging thing he has to do to prepare for the fair.

All of the Dibben children feel they have gained public speaking skills and confidence from 4-H.

MiKayla Dibben agreed she had picked up "lots of leadership and just jumping right in" and participating in activities.

Their mother, Dianna Dibben, was never in 4-H herself, but while watching the children take part she has come to see the value of the program.

She has noticed the organizational and public speaking skills they've picked up. She sees them stepping out of their comfort zones and believes 4-H has lent them these skills.

"We kind of push them," Dianna Dibben said. "Sometimes they don't want to, but we make them because it's good for them."

While there's a lot of preparation going on, Dianna Dibben said COVID-19 has put a damper on fair this year, perhaps because last year's fair was so much smaller and the public was not permitted to attend.

"I don't know why," she said. "I've talked with other parents too and they're just like — not into it. I feel it. It's weird."

They're working toward fair nonetheless. It's about self-improvement and doing their best more than anything.

"I think it's more to better themselves from the prior year," she said. "4-H is good. I probably should have done it."