Life

We now know about Sasha’s past…

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

I haven’t written much about our dog training because well… I just haven’t. But we haven’t stopped. We’re still working with Sasha and the new (well, she’s not new any more) trainer. We’ve done a lot of the basic obedience, working on her territorialness, and teaching her how to be calm on command (“settle”).

What’s really interesting is the recent turn of events. If you remember, we took ownership of Sasha around 8 months of age. She had another owner for 4 months prior. We had a lot of questions about what went on during those 4 months because the time from age 2 months to 6 months can be a very vital stage in a puppy’s development. But we resigned ourselves to never really knowing what happened apart from the few things the breeder told us.

Let’s hear it for the Internet. A few weeks ago I get an email from Sasha’s previous owner! You see, when he returned Sasha to the breeder they said she’d become a show dog. Well, a few weeks ago he happened to be thinking about her and figured he could Google to see if perhaps she was listed in any dog show results. Instead, he found my blog and based upon what I had written knew it was her. He wasn’t sure about reaching out to me, but because he’s always dealt with recuse dogs and wondered about their pasts, he figured now being on the other side of that coin he’d contact me so he could fill informational void.

We’ve been exchanging some emails, with him telling me a lot about her past, including sharing pictures. It’s been very useful and answered a lot of the questions we had. We gave all of this information to our trainer, and it’s creating a new course of action for us in terms of behavior modification work. All good. It’s still going to take months of work, but we’re dedicated to this dog. She’s awesome… it’s just that well… “this one goes to 11” and we sometimes just need her to turn it back to a 10. 😉

Here’s a puppy picture her previous owner shared with us. Ain’t she cute?

If you need tree work done in the Austin area…

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

I just had some tree work done at my house. Took one tree out, some serious trimming on another that was causing constant roof and fence issues for myself and a neighbor. I am pleased with the work: the job done, the cost involved, how long it took, etc.. I wanted to give some credit to the guys that did the work. If you’re in the Austin area and need tree work, give them a call at least to get a bid:

Don Glass of Arbor Logical Tree Care: 512-368-6523

Silvester Rodgers of Awesome Tree Service: 512-466-1169

Technically two companies, but they work together. Call either one.

They have almost 50 years experience between the two of them, are arborists, and from the looks of the services offered can handle almost any tree need you have. Estimates were free, so there’s no downside to contacting them when you need work done.

I write this because everyone bitches when things are bad, but people aren’t so quick to provide support and complements when due. I try to give both: if it’s bad, say it’s bad; if it’s good, say it’s good. Let people know there’s good out there. 🙂

My son’s first hog

/ hsoi / 11 Comments

Oldest just passed a milestone — he bagged his first hog; in fact, he bagged his first anything. And it’s a doozy.

The Big Weekend

I’ve been trying, struggling to have a weekend hunt with my long-time friend Charles, of Tactical Gun Review. Something always comes up, usually on my part, and we can’t get together. Charles has a deer lease in the South Central Texas area, but what makes it a great lease is not just the property but that he has year-round access to it. Outside of deer season you can go fishing, dove hunting, turkey hunting, and yes… hog hunting. A few months back we set this weekend on our calendars as a “must do” and it happened. It wasn’t going to be just us tho, we brought our older sons with us as well, who have known each other for just as many years as Charles and I have known each other.

The goal for the weekend? Have fun. If we could bag a hog? even better. And while I would have loved to have bagged a hog myself, what I really wanted was for Oldest to bag one. He’s been out in the field with me before, sometimes a bust, sometimes we got something, but it was always me that did the work, he was just a spectator. This time, he was going to do the work. 🙂

Friday after work I packed my car with food, some clothing and essentials, a few rifles, and away we went. On the rifle front, I originally wanted him to use the 6.8 SPC. The whole reason I bought the 6.8 was for kids to use it because it doesn’t recoil that hard, shorter and thus easier to manage, plus some time ago I bought a powerful red LED flashlight to mount on the rifle precisely for hog hunting. But I changed my mind. Instead, I had him shoot the Savage bolt-action in .308 Win. My reasoning? It was a simpler manual of arms to operate (no gun, light, etc.), and that .308 would provide a much wider margin of error. Being as this would be his first time, he’d get excited, heart pounding, might rush things… never know. I figured the .308 would work out better for him. Prior to the hunt I had him work the rifle dry at home: get a feel for the trigger, learn how to work the bolt. He learned how to work the gun, but he had never live fired it. In fact, he’s never shot something as big as a .308; he’s had aversions to shooting rifles larger than a .22 LR because he doesn’t like the noise, but acknowledges that if he wants to bag something he has to. So, this was into the fire feet first. 🙂

First Night

We arrived Friday evening but with more than enough daylight to get us into the blind and wait. We parked our cars, pulled out the rifles, climbed into “The Beast” (an old Toyota 4×4 Charles keeps at the property for getting around) and headed for a stock tank on one side of the property where hogs had been seen. Unfortunately the pop-up blind blew into the tank, so we just plopped down on stools under a tree and obscured by tall grass. We waited. Night fell, but with that “super-moon” out you could see a lot going on, it was so bright.

We never saw any hogs. Some deer, an owl, lots of other critters. But alas, no hogs. We piled back into The Beast and checked out some other tanks, parking The Beast well away from the area and stalking up on it. It was obvious there was activity, just not when we were around. Ah well. We eventually headed back to the cabin for dinner and hanging out around the campfire drinking beer (boys – root beer, dad’s Dogfish Head brown ale) until the wee hours.

Saturday Morning

After a few hours of sleep we headed back out. Charles put Oldest and I at one of the stock tanks we visited Friday night, while he and his son headed to another area. The sun came up. A turkey was calling and showing and we watched him for a while. Then across the stock tank, probably 100 yards or so away, 2 does. No, 3 does… 4… 5… 6. It was nice to watch all those does grazing, but darn that the season is well-over. 🙂  After maybe 15 minutes or so we noticed the does spooked and took off. Seconds later we see why.

Hogs.

We were atop a high bank on one side of the tank. The opposite bank was probably 60 yards away, then up that bank 35 yards or so starts a tree line. Deep within those trees we saw all these little black masses running across the way. Yes yes yes! Hogs! But they were way back in the trees running in a manner that took them directly away from us with no chance of a shot. Oh man!

“Son, get your gun! get your gun! get it up! get ready!”

I of course went for my gun too, but I put it down. This was for him. Yes I’d love to get one myself, but this was for him. I was going to be the eyes, the coach.

Come on piggy… come on… please don’t run off…. yes!

We see the pigs turn and one by one start to run into the area. It’s a stock tank. Water. Plus there was a corn feeder at the far end. Food. A perfect ambush spot: at food and water. A swarm of piglets runs out. I don’t know… 30, 40, 50 of them? A lot. They all headed right for the feeder. Adults follow out of the trees but head down to the water.

YES!

One goes to drink but is head-on facing us. “No son, can’t” Come on… turn… turn…

More big hogs come down to drink.

“SONSONSONSON! There!  That one!”

A big one. Drinking. Perfectly broadside. And… holding still. You see, hogs almost never stop, they are almost always in motion so windows of opportunity for a shot can be hard to come by. But drinking? He stopped, he was still. Perfect opportunity.

“You got him?”

“Got him.”

“OK, let it rip!”

And the rifle roared.

He got him.

The hog ran for maybe 25 yards, did a circle and dropped.

High fives all around.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen Oldest so excited. 🙂  He was wired. Electrified!

Once we confirmed he was down, and of course all the other hogs scattered from the sound of the gunshot, we left the blind and headed over to see him.

I thought he was maybe 150 lbs? But I’m terrible at such estimates. We snapped copious amounts of pictures. We sent text messages to Wife (and kiddos back home), to Oldest’s grandfather and uncle (Wife’s family, life-long hunters). Much happiness.

While waiting for Charles to come get us, another hog came through the trees! I snapped up my rifle and knelt down, got a bead on him and was prepared to take the shot, but a clear shot never presented itself. Either the hog wasn’t positioned well or there were trees/brush in the way. Eventually the hog got close enough, noticed us, and took off running. A second hog would have been nice, but no matter.

Heaving this big boy into the truck was a chore, even with a winch. But we got him back to the cabin, hoisted him up and weighed him.

Just over 250 lbs..

That’s big.

We gutted him (I got more practice at cleaning an animal) and while looking at the organs I saw the heart. The bullet had fully penetrated the heart. Right through the shoulder — and the massively thick “shield” (and his was a formidable one), right through the heart, and complete passthrough. Based upon how the entry and exit wounds looked, it looks like that Barnes Bullet functioned as advertised. This is why I love Barnes Bullets. For the record, it was a Federal Premium P308H Vital Shok (165 grain Barnes TSX). I figure he was shot at about 60 yards, so he got hit with that 165 grain bullet going about 2500 fps and probably hit with 2300 ft/lbs or so of energy, with that Barnes Bullet expanding and dumping almost all of that energy inside the body.

The Rest of the weekend

After we dressed the hog, we put him in a walk-in cooler because we were tired and not in the mood to clean him fully. Went fishing, and Oldest caught a nice bass. Best I did was get some nibbles and got one on but he jumped and threw the hook. Charles landed a nice one, and his son did too. But fishing didn’t last long as it was getting hot and we were all tired and hungry. Back to the cabin, eat, nap.

Upon rising, Charles and I went back to the task of cleaning the hog. That was a chore. Son, next time you need to shoot a small hog. 🙂 I’ve never shot a hog this size or dealt with one this size this close up. It was constantly amazing to me how thick his shield was. The entire side of this hog was just armor, thick, and very heavy. You need a solid and strong bullet, all hail the mighty Barnes. We spoke with the ranch manager and he contacted a local guy to see what we could do with the head. We’re going to see about having a European mount done. We don’t need to make a trophy out of everything, but this is not just his first but yes it is a big one. Might as well have something more than just memories. 🙂

We went back out that evening but we didn’t see anything. Charles and his son did have an opportunity, but the hog ran off and they were unable to connect on the running shot (it’s not easy). Oh and Charles’ son had a bummer earlier. While we were cleaning the hog, Charles’ son was still out in the field. Hogs came by, he stalked up, knelt and took aim and… click. The round didn’t go off. Bad primer? hard primer? who knows, but no bang. He was quick enough to work the bolt and chamber a new round, but alas by then the hogs were off. Bummer that he didn’t get the shot off, but he did everything right from staying in the field to stalking to remedying the malfunction. I say that’s well-worthy of praise!

Had to get home early on Sunday so we left before sunrise, leaving Charles and his son sleeping in the cabin. Bummer we had to go so soon, but we were both tired and drained and ready for a shower. 😉  Charles has the bigger cooler and will drop the meat off on his way home. I’ll take it to the butcher in a few days and we’ll have lots of sausage in the freezer.

My take

I’m so happy.

Oh sure, if I bagged one that’d be nice… but this was so much better. It’s great to see my Son so excited, so ready, so happy. But also, so disciplined. He took instruction from me so well, from studying anatomy charts, to listening to me talking about visualizing success, imagining the hog there, calming yourself, finding the target (“Aim small, miss small, right Dad?”), don’t take too long but also don’t rush it, smooth trigger press. He did everything right, and it paid off.

What all did he take from this? I don’t know. He doesn’t really know either, other than the immediate payoff of the joy of the accomplishment along with lots of meat. As his uncle congratulated him, “You put dinner, lunch, and breakfast on the table!”. I’m thinking more about the long-term. Will there be something in his life that will be able to be traced back to this weekend, to that moment? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Meantime, I have guns to clean. It’s all sandy out there and there’s grit and sand in everything. You work the bolt on that rifle and it just grinds and makes me cringe. I can’t expand/collapse the stock on my 6.8 without it sounding like sandpaper. I think that was the only bummer of the weekend was all the sand and dust everywhere.

I must give big thanx to Charles. His support and generosity made this all possible. Thank you, my friend. Y’all go visit and support his site, Tactical Gun Review.

Son, you did good. I’m proud of you.

Iron and the Soul

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Found over at RossTraining.com, a reprint of an essay by Henry Rollins.

I have never met a truly strong person who didn’t have self-respect. I think a lot of inwardly and outwardly directed contempt passes itself off as self-respect: the idea of raising yourself by stepping on someone’s shoulders instead of doing it yourself. When I see guys working out for cosmetic reasons, I see vanity exposing them in the worst way, as cartoon characters, billboards for imbalance and insecurity. Strength reveals itself through character. It is the difference between bouncers who get off strong-arming people and Mr. Pepperman.

Muscle mass does not always equal strength. Strength is kindness and sensitivity. Strength is understanding that your power is both physical and emotional. That it comes from the body and the mind. And the heart.

That bullying video

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

There’s a video that’s been going around lately where some small skinny kid is picking on some larger kid. The small kid gets in some punches to the big kid, and eventually the big kid has enough, grabs the small kid and slams the bully to the ground. Backstory is that the big kid has been bullied for quite some time.

Here’s a story telling what’s happened since then.

My personal feeling was the bully got what he asked for. I also bet the victim won’t be picked on any more now that people (everyone around the world, in fact) know he’s willing and able to stand up for himself.

What bothers me more is some typical reactions:

 

“We don’t believe that violence is ever the answer,” Mr. [John Dalgleish, head of research at Kids Helpline and Boys Town] says. “We believe there are other ways that children can manage this.”

[…]

 

[An older girl] physically stops a friend of the younger boy from going after the older boy, telling him to “back off”.

“The longer term way is about developing better relationships between kids in the school, that will then empower young people to not be passive bystanders when these acts occur but to stand up and say ‘this is wrong’,” Mr Dalgleish says.

[…]

St Marys Police duty officer Inspector Jason Green said posting the video had the effect of glorifying violence in schools.

 

 

 

 

Violence is never the answer. I used to believe this myself. The trouble with this belief is it takes our value system and imposes it upon someone else, someone who does believe violence is the answer or violence is the first resort. When someone is punching you, what are you supposed to do? Politely request them to stop punching you? It doesn’t work out very well. Walk away? They’ll follow you and keep punching you. Hope and pray for someone else to step in? If someone finally does step in, what happens when that person is no longer around to protect you? I do believe one needs to try to resolve situations in the best manner possible (e.g. maximize enjoyment of beer & tv), that we should work for non-violent dispute resolution, that we take steps to avoid such a situation in the first place. But when you are dealing with a predator that won’t back off, sometimes bearing teeth in return is the only response they will understand.

To deny violence’s place, to deny realities of violence, is a cover-up and a lie. When we don’t talk honestly and realistically about things, we do a disservice to all involved, including greater society. Jack Donovan wrote a great essay titled “Violence is Golden”. Give it a read.

 

 

Various rambling

/ hsoi

Oldest and Daughter are now American Red Cross Babysitting, CPR, First Aid and Water Safety certified. Very awesome. Proud of them. Skills they can use for a lifetime.

I’ve been out of it. Many things going on in my life right now. Nothing necessarily bad, just some positive, some negative, some turbulence, some change. Some of the change is from myself, some of it comes from others. In fact, there’s some things I’m trying to change but still haven’t been able to… like the inability to get back to regular martial arts classes. It all adds up to just being in an odd state right now. I’ll get through, no big deal. Just makes it hard to find motivation to do things like blog. 😉

I am happy that my Hsoi Enterprises work is coming along well.

Still need to get tax paperwork to my accountant. *sigh*

Some hog hunting would be nice.

Going to be helping out with a women’s self-defense clinic. What’s cool about this is it will be something more than the “that’s my purse, I don’t know you!” sorts of clinics, which I think is great. It gives some hard skills, but also some more things to think about. I like it. More details as I have them.

I’ve gained some unexpected insight into the dog. It’s been very enlightening. Some of the things we suspected were there, and some of the things we suspected we were flat wrong about. I’ll write more on this sometime in the future.

Oh… and be careful what you wish for in life. You just might get it. 🙂

Why should we learn lifesaving skills, like CPR?

/ hsoi / 3 Comments

The local chapter of the American Red Cross has this babysitter boot camp. It’s a two-day course that teaches not just stuff about babysitting (and certifies you in that), but there are aspects of how to run a business. While that’s good, the “boot camp” adds CPR and First Aid certification. It was an opportunity that knocked, and I enrolled Oldest and Daugther in it.

Daughter wanted to be there. Oldest was made to go. I want Oldest to take the course because no only do I think it will help his gift in working with small children, but First Aid and CPR certified? To me, that’s worth it.

I think about the notion of CPR and the notion of First Aid. Why do we encourage people to learn these skills? Here’s what Citizen CPR of Tulsa, OK says on their website:

Why Learn CPR?

Cardiovascular disease is very common — it’s the #1 killer in US and in Oklahoma.
Heart attacks can happen suddenly, especially if you and your family have one or more risk factors (family history, overweight, poor diet, smoking, etc).

Most medical emergencies occur in a person’s home or other place of recreation.
You can’t count on medical personnel to be nearby when you have an emergency, because chances are greater for sudden cardiac arrest to occur at home. If your family and friends don’t know CPR, life can be lost in mere minutes while waiting for help to arrive.

The reasons for learning CPR and first aid are simple: because when a situation that requires those skills happens, the fastest person to respond is the person right there when it happens. In a case like CPR of course it has to be someone else. For first aid, the situation may be something you can perform on yourself and certainly no one can be closer to you than you nor respond faster to you than you.

So we seem to grant and acknowledge that life-saving skills are important to know. That the more people we have on our streets with those skills, the better it is for society in general. Just ask Howard Snitzer.

With that in mind, let’s do a little word substitution. Same sort of importance about life-saving skills, just a different skill:

Violent crime can happen suddenly.

You can’t count on law enforcement personnel to be nearby when you have an emergency, because chances are greater for sudden violent crime to occur anywhere. If your family and friends don’t know how to defend themselves, life can be lost in mere minutes while waiting for help to arrive.

If we believe it’s important to know how to save lives, why are there people who say saving lives with CPR is permissible but saving lives by carrying a firearm is not?

Syd said it best.

No TV for Lent

/ hsoi

I asked Kiddos what they were giving up for Lent. Wife said that it’s going to be a group thing.

They’re giving up TV.

I’m impressed. It’s been a couple of days now and I haven’t heard the TV on and you know, that’s kinda refreshing. A little TV now and again is fine, but the kids have gotten into a bit of a rut and if they’re bored turn to the TV.

I think it will be cool to see what they opt to do to pass time, even if it’s just having to deal with being bored. And more curious, how will they come out on the other side? Will they just revert back to old habits? Or will they discover something new, something else worth spending their time on?

This will be an interesting journey. 🙂

What does it say about a person – blood donor

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Yesterday I went in to donate blood.

I was answering the donor questionnaire when it hit me: by virtue of being a blood donor, it says a lot about you.

Previously, I wrote about being a gun owner and concealed handgun license holder, and what that says about you. For instance, I’m not a felon, or even a class A or B misdemeanor. I’m not delinquent on taxes. I’m not chemically dependent. I’m mentally fit. I’m not subject to a restraining order. I’m a citizen of the US. And so on. So by simple virtue of saying “I’m a CHL holder” you can tell a lot about the person I am.

Well, the same can be said for being a blood donor. I asked the people at the center about the questionnaire. They said that yes there is an FDA list, so you can be pretty sure that all donor centers across the USA ask these same questions. But then each center may have different questions of their own. For instance, I think she said that some of the blood materials here go to Europe and thus some questions specific to those companies there need to be asked. Makes sense.

I found a copy of the FDA questionnaire here. Some things it tells you about me:

  • I’m eligible and still eligible to donate blood
  • I’ve not recently came in contact with someone who had a smallpox vaccination
  • I haven’t had organ, tissue, or bone marrow transplants, or skin grafts.
  • I’ve not had sexual contact with an HIV/AIDS positive person.
  • I’ve not been with a prostitute.
  • I’ve not stuck myself with needles for drugs or steroids, other than what a doctor may have done.
  • Haven’t been treated for syphilis or gonorrhea
  • Haven’t been in jail for more than 72 hours
  • Haven’t been outside the US or Canada in the past 3 years.
  • Didn’t spend a lengthy amount of time (months, years) overseas
  • Haven’t received money, drugs, or other payment for sex
  • Never had sexual contact with a male, even once.
  • Don’t have HIV/AIDS, never had hepatitis, never had malaria, never had Chagas disase, never had babesiosis, never had a dura mater graft, never had cancer, no heart nor lung problems, never been in or has sexual contact with someone who was born or lived in Africa, never had Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

This isn’t something to judge as good or bad. It’s just factual information to take for whatever it’s worth. You cannot and should not read into responses.

I just couldn’t help but think about that while filling out the questionnaire. You tell someone you’re a blood donor, and this is what they can know about you.

Random homeschooling stuff

/ hsoi

I recently joined a mailing list about livestock guardian dogs, and many people on the list of course own farms and ranches. Came across this website for the Red Falcon Ranch and lo, they are homeschoolers. What was interesting to me was seeing their particular approach, because certainly we overlap, but they have some different takes on a few things which I think could be useful for us.

Elsewhere I found this fun little blog called Weird, Unsocialized Homeschoolers. Because yes, that’s how a lot of the world looks at us. Fine with me, I’m used to going against the grain and having people stare at me; if all you want to look at is the surface, just shows how shallow you are. *shrug*

What brought me to the WUH webpage was this: The Public School Parent’s Guide to Homeschool Parents. It hit home because yes, so much of the critique and criticism of homeschooling surrounds the children, so it was nice to see something about the parents. She’s pretty spot on and I think even-handed in her treatment of the matter, giving fair insight into the mind and life of a homeschooling parent.