Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Calhoun County will offer pesticide applicator training and testing needed to obtain a Texas Department of Agriculture pesticide applicators license.  The training will be offered February 21, 2012 @ 8:30 AM in the Extension Building, 186 CR 101 in the Auditorium, Port Lavaca, Texas.

A private pesticide applicator is a person who uses or supervises the use of a restricted-use or state-limited use pesticide or a regulated herbicide for the purpose of producing an agricultural commodity.  This license is not for those receiving monetary compensation for pesticide application.

To participate, you must RSVP no later than Thursday, February 16, 2012 by calling the extension office @ 361-552-9747 to make your reservation and pay a $50 fee for training materials and the course.

Texas AgriLife Extension Service seeks to provide reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities for any education meetings.  Please contact us and advise what auxiliary aid or service that you will require a week in advance of the training.

Educational programs conducted by Texas AgriLife Extension Service serve people of all ages regardless of socioeconomic level, race, color, sex, religion, handicap or national origin.

The 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) will be held February 17-20, 2012. The GBBC is an annual four-day event that engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where birds are across the U.S. and Canada. Please visit the official website at www.birdcount.org for more information.

Anyone can participate, from beginning bird watchers to experts. It takes as little as 15 minutes on one day, or you can count for as long as you like each day of the event. It’s free, fun, and easy—and it helps the birds.

Participants count birds anywhere for as little or as long as they wish during the four-day period. They tally the highest number of birds of each species seen together at any one time. To report their counts, they fill out an online checklist at the Great Backyard Bird Count website.

As the count progresses, anyone with Internet access can explore what is being reported from their own towns or anywhere in the United States and Canada. They can also see how this year’s numbers compare with those from previous years. Participants may also send in photographs of the birds they see. A selection of images is posted in the online photo gallery.

Each checklist submitted by these citizen scientists helps researchers at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society learn more about how birds are doing – and how to protect them and the environment we share. Last year, participants turned in more than 92,000 checklists online, creating the continent’s largest instantaneous snapshot of bird populations ever recorded.

Statistics from 2011

Total Checklists Submitted: 92,218

Total Species Observed: 594

Total Individual Birds Counted: 11,471,949

The most numerous bird counted in the 2011 GBBC was the European Starling—a species that was entirely absent from North America before the late 19th century. One hundred birds were introduced in New York’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891. According to The Birds of North America Online, the descendants of these few birds now total more than 200 million and are distributed across the entire continent.

The American Robin was the second most numerous species reported this year with more than 800,000 reported from Florida—for the third year in a row, the site of a massive roost near St. Petersburg. Overall, GBBC participants made 1,044,346 observations of robins this year.

On December 12, 2011, my wife, Shirley, and I drove into Port O’Connor, Texas for the last time as outsiders. Oh sure, our surroundings seemed a little unfamiliar for a week or two, but in our hearts, minds, and spirits, we were residents of this leisurely, laid back location we’d never even heard of until early October of last year. However, having accepted the call of the First Baptist Church to be their new pastor, we saw our arrival in POC not only as a portent of progress and purpose in our lives, but also the fulfillment of a long standing passion and prayer on our part.

When I was about five years old, my family moved from Petal, Mississippi to Pasadena, Texas where I eventually started the first grade. My dad was a welder for the Brown & Root Corporation, and often plied his trade on the oil rigs out in the Gulf. Dad loved his job, even though it was hot, sweaty work during the summer months.

Though my family eventually moved back to my Dad’s and Mom’s home state of Mississippi, I secretly nurtured an inner love and longing for the State of Texas. I guess it had something to do with the grandeur and largeness of it all that captured my young heart, filling it with wide-eyed excitement.

Fresh out of high school, I enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, in September of 1969, and took my very first airplane flight to a place I’d only read about in history books: San Antonio, Texas. However, Basic Training kind of took the luster off of being in a historic town. Those six weeks were tough. Nevertheless, shortly after Basic, I took a 30-day leave and went home to marry my sweetheart, Shirley Brown. We made our first home together in San Antonio for the next couple of years, until I received orders for Cam Rahn Bay, Vietnam. Fortunately, after 10 months in Nam, I received new orders, assigning me to Carswell Air Force Base (SAC), in Fort Worth, Texas. It was there that I was honorably discharged for the Air Force in September 1973.

Shirley and I had every intention of living out the rest of our lives in Fort Worth, enjoying the relationships we had with friends and family who lived in the metroplex. However, God had other plans. I had recorded a long-play album of Christian music in the first year after leaving the service, and I had big aspirations of entering music evangelism, and recording other albums as well. But again, God had other plans. It was not before I felt led of God to enter Bible College and study music in Springfield, Missouri. Little did I know at the time, that two and a half years into my studies, God would call me to preach. Because of that calling, I changed my course of study to Pastoral Studies, graduating from Baptist Bible College in 1979.

Through the years, Shirley and I have ministered to a lot of people in places like Springfield and Raytown, Missouri; Camden, Arkansas; Bluford, Illinois; and the delta towns of Belzoni (that’s Bel-zone-ah, with an “i”) and Leland, Mississippi. We can honestly say that God gave us an endearing love for all those to whom we ministered. However, each time we arrived at a new place of ministry, we secretly hoped that the next place of service would lead us back to Texas, for it was there our hearts had yearned to be for so long.

All I have mentioned above is why I can honestly say that I am “Port O’Connor Proud”. I’m proud to be back in Texas; and I’m proud to be the pastor of such a wonderful, friendly, and loving flock of people as I have found at First Baptist Church. They have welcomed Shirley and me with open arms, and we are grateful beyond words to describe it.

I wish to thank all those who have welcomed us with cards, cakes, and other goodies. My waistline thanks you. I also wish to thank Rev. Erny McDonough, pastor of The Fisherman’s Chapel, for the abundant grocery items he and one of his men brought to us as a welcoming gift. Thank you so much.

Finally, for those of you who would be interested, on April 12 of last year, I released a book entitled Meditations of the Heart: Thoughts on the Christian Life. It is both devotional and exegetical in nature. I believe you will find it interesting and helpful in your daily Christian walk. You will find Meditations of the Heart at the following Amazon web address:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Heart-Thoughts-Christian-Life/dp/1453739238

May God pour out His blessings upon Port O’Connor, Texas.

In His service,

Rev. Donnie L. Martin, Pastor
First Baptist Church, POC

Do you have skills that are not being used to their fullest capacity? Are you looking for an organization that will use AND appreciate you? If so, give the Harbor Children’s Alliance & Victim Center a call at 361-552-1982. Whether it’s once a week, once a month, or once or twice a year, The Harbor is always looking for folks who want to give of their time and talents to help others.

If you are Chinese or celebrate Chinese years, 2012 is the year of the Dragon. If you are just a plain old Calhoun County person, well maybe a history buff, this could be classed as the year of the Historical Marker. Either way that’s a pretty impressive year.

I am sure you are aware that there are Historical Markers all over the County. That is one of the ways the Historical Commission helps to preserve the history. Getting a Historical Marker approved is a time consuming job. First you have to know where and what historical event happened at the where you know about. It is only in cartoons that you see a marker that says, “On this spot in 1782 nothing happened that we know of”.

You have to establish the locality and the event and then you have to perform historical research, write up a reason it is historically important and submit it to the Texas Historical Commission. They review and sometimes approve the Marker.

Of course there is money as well as effort along with the review process. Then you have to get the actual marker, and place it. Once that is done you have a little History book on the site where a piece of history happened. Often it is one or has details that aren’t in the regular History books.

The reason this may be the year of the Marker here in Calhoun County is that we just found out that four more of our submissions have been approved. That culminates a lot of work during 2011 and before by the Marker committee.

Some of you know that we already have 45 Markers spread around the County. This would make 49. For a County whose population is 21000 that is a whole lot of History. To have the same percent in Victoria County they would need 200. Harris County would need over 9000. It is doubtful that either has that many. At any rate we have that many and are working on more. We are historically intensive.

The new ones are interesting. One is about what happened in our area with the camps, bombing practice, airfields and enemy U-boats during WWII.. Another is about Ed Bell and his impact. Then we found out that a Civil War Medal of Honor winner actually died in Calhoun County as he continued to serve in the Indianola area. The last one is about the Chihuahua trail. That is that wagon trail from Indianola to Chihuahua Mexico. They carried, among other things, silver from the Mexican mines of Chihuahua to Indianola and then it was shipped to New Orleans and made into Coins.

There is still a lot of research about the actual route of the trail. It is not a well known route through the West Texas area.

The point is the Marker committee did their job well and we soon will have a few more pages in our little “local” history books.