Moving&shaking

And this little piggy…

If your children come home smelling a bit goat-y this week, don’t worry. It’s Farm-City Week, and it’s a good thing. The Kids’ Day at the Chico State farm was Nov. 7, and the beasts (the animals, not the kids) are hitting the Chico Mall for the Farmers’ Fair on Nov. 10.

The festivities continue with events ranging from an agribusiness bus tour to the Dog Days of Fall walk/run and a harvest dinner dance. Meanwhile, Chico restaurants are cooking up special dishes with foods from the farm.

Tod Kimmelshue, of the Butte County Farm Bureau, said the week is a chance “for the rest of our area to understand how much agriculture means to the area and the local economy.” The events also raise money for scholarships.

Joyce Mikkelson, international-trade specialist for Butte College’s Center for International Trade Development, is especially excited about Garrett Wasny, who will speak at the FFA breakfast on Nov. 12 at 7:30 at the University Farm. She said he’s a “very energetic, very motivational, very informative” speaker whose expertise lies in showing businesses how they can best use Internet Web sites to help themselves grow. The CITD is sponsoring Wasny’s visit, and he will be appearing in various venues around town.

State your business

There’s a cool event coming down the pike, in which Butte County is sponsoring a workshop where businesses can learn how to sell their stuff to the state. Deputy County Administrator Officer Bill Curry said the idea for the seminar arose after he looked at a list of contracts awarded and, “I could not find any company in Butte County that had a contract with the state.”

The workshop is open to “any business that sells products or services that might be useful to the state,” or even local governments.

It will be held Nov. 20 from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Durham veterans’ hall.

Look Rocky, nothing up my sleeve!

Move over Playboy and U.S. News & World report. Chico State has made an important list. It’s the Campus Squirrel listings, lovingly maintained at www.gottshall.com/squirrels/campsq.html.

The premise is that “the quality of an institution of higher learning can often be determined by the size, health and behavior of the squirrel population on campus,” writes Jon Gottshall, who maintains the listings as part of his Web site Jon’s World o’ Squirrels.

Dozens of schools nationwide are ranked with one to five brown, smiling squirrel heads. Chico State earned a respectable three squirrels, with the notation that the ratio here seems about right. "I’ve scientifically determined that the optimum campus environment requires at least one squirrel per 28.3 undergraduate students," the site states.