Life

Been a long time since I rock and rolled…

/ hsoi

Daughter has been asking me to teach her to play guitar.

About a week ago she pulled one of my guitar’s out of the rack. Mind you, I haven’t seriously touched my guitars in years… they’ve mostly been collecting dust. 😦   But she pulled out the classical guitar, I tuned it up, and showed her an E chord and sent her to practice it.

Last night I rummaged through a box and found a “new” set of strings and restrung my steel-string acoustic. Now I’ve taught her an A and a D.

She knows 3 chords. She can officially start a rock band now. 🙂

Our fingertips are hurting, but had a lot of fun. Played a lot of Led Zeppelin for her, some Badlands, John Cougar Mellencamp, even some stuff I wrote years ago. Amazed at how much I remember.

Time with my kids, teaching them, seeing the look on their faces as they discover and grow… hard to beat that.

How to get your car broken into?

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

If you want someone to break into your car, all you have to do is leave things in plain sight.

Austin Police has an effort underway to scan cars in parking lots and leave notices about such practices.

(of course, does that piece of paper become a “rob me!” flag?).

I used to work with a guy that used to work in the Maine legal system. I was surprised when we went to lunch one day and he left his car doors unlocked and said he never locked them. I asked why. He said because it doesn’t really matter. The majority of car break-ins occur because you leave attractive things out in plain sight. Money, cigarettes, CD’s… anything that’s easy to smash and grab, consume, or easily hock for money. If you leave nothing in your car but the car itself, what’s there to break in for? They’ll move on to the next car because there will always be a car with stuff left in it that’s worth stealing.

So what about the car itself? Well, there’s really no point. If they want the car, they will steal it. Devices like The Club? My friend said he’s seen so many cars with the steering wheel quickly sawn through to remove a Club.

I’ve had my car broken into twice. The first time I had just bought my car, factory radio which I replaced with a nice Kenwood. The Kenwood had a detachable face. Well, one day I was in a hurry and didn’t take the face. I didn’t get back to the parking lot until late at night and came back to find my door pried open and the radio gone. I replaced it with another Kenwood. A couple of years later in the parking lot of the apartment I lived in, I had become complacent and left the face on. I had also left CD’s sitting on the passenger seat. I went to leave for work and found a back window shattered. The police said a little piece of spark plug was all it took (Google about it if you’re curious). They ripped out the radio, took the CD’s, rummaged through everything, used the interior trunk release to pop the trunk… took all that was easy.

I learned.

My car is empty, save perhaps a soda can or candy wrapper.

There’s only so much you can do, but the easiest thing is to not let your car be an easy and appealing target. Keep your car empty, or at least, the appearance of empty.

Maduro

/ hsoi

It started back in college.

Three friends of mine from high school. We’d be away at school for a few months, then return to “home base” for holidays… and we’d get together for a “stogie night”. Thus, I started smoking cigars. Nothing serious, just the occasional thing. But it was fun to do every once in a blue moon.

Over the years I’d have a cigar now and then, but never really enough to gain enough understanding of different cigar types, fillers, wrappers, flavors, sizes, draw, whatever… all those characteristics that make this cigar different from that cigar.

A few years ago my buddy W, who likes good cigars, introduced me to Rocky Patel’s. Boy… talk about a quality cigar! And since I can find good cigars fairly easily in town (thank you, Spec’s), I’ve started to smoke cigars a little more often… much to the dislike of my children. 😉  (stinky!)  But it’s also a nice thing to be able to do now. I go outside, have a cigar, a glass of wine, spend an hour with Wife just talking in the evening in the backyard, and now that we have Sasha she comes and romps around in the yard. It’s a nice bit of quality time with Wife (and dog).

So I’ve been enjoying the Rocky’s, and with a generous gift from W a little while ago I got to try a bunch of different RP’s. And I started to say “ok, I like this… no, I don’t like that”. Like the RP 1961? Great cigar, but just not my thing. Why?

Well, one thing I’ve noticed? I prefer maduro wrappers.

For instance, the Rocky Patel Edge Missile with the maduro wrapper? I’d say that’s my present favorite. The corojo wrapper? there’s a “spice” to it that I find is OK, but not a strong preference. But the maduro has a smoother, more mellow flavor. And the way the Edge Missile is wrapped? It’s not too tight, I get a great draw, great smoke, great mouthfeel. Just good good stuff.

But I’ve also noticed, I prefer smaller cigars. The size of the petit corona, robusto… those tend to work for me. Even the Edge Missile is a little big for me in terms of when I get to a point of saying “OK, I’m done”.

So when I went to the store today to restock on cigars the criteria was: maduro, small size. I picked up some RP’s because it’s something I like, and I picked up a few more random brands that fit the criteria.

We’ll see how they go.

I just finished smoking a RP Edge Missile with a nice glass of red wine. Oh so good.

Deer hunting – opening weekend 2010

/ hsoi / 13 Comments

This is opening weekend for general season (gun) whitetail deer hunting in Texas.

Of course, I was out in the field. 🙂

I had such a great experience at Storm Ranch last year, I opted to go there again. My goal? If I could bag a couple does, I’d be thrilled. Meat was the goal, didn’t feel like paying for a big rack of antlers since they don’t cook up very well. 🙂  However, if some awesome monster came along, I wasn’t opposed to taking him.

The cool thing about this go-round? I took the kids.

Saturday Morning

Oldest went with me Saturday morning. He’s hot and cold about hunting. Sometimes he’s all gung-ho, other times he groans when I talk about it. But he talks about wanting to go hunting enough that I figured he needed to go like it or not (tho I think he does like it). I also figured to take him out first, because I haven’t been able to spend a lot of time with him lately. The plan was to alternate: Oldest on Saturday morning and Sunday evening, Daughter on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Youngest isn’t ready to go (he doesn’t care, and would just be beyond bored). Thing is, Oldest only committed to going Saturday morning. *sigh* Oh well, I’ll take what I can get.

I got him up around 3:30 AM, then again at 3:45, then again at 4:00. 😉  We got dressed, a little breakfast, load the car, and off we went. We get in. Casimero the ranch hand, and his son, once again picked us up. He had a new truck, but only with a standard cab so 4 people were cramped up in the front. Good thing the kids can still sit on my lap. We went to a stand, got ourselves settled in, and waited. I remember this stand well — it’s where I had “redemption” last year.

Let me just say that I’m glad I planned ahead for Oldest. I made it clear to him a few days ago how cold it was going to be, so that he couldn’t ignore my telling him to dress in layers, wear gloves and a hat, and so on. The notion of freezing his buns off was obviously unappealing, which worried me that the day might flop. So while at the sporting goods store yesterday on a whim I picked up those dry pack “hand warmer” things as well as a small propane heater. Man, I’m so glad I did. There was a freeze warning out for the Hill Country, and I reckon it was around 32Âş that morning. We were layered well, but still it was cold. I recalled how last year was a bit miserable just sitting in the stand bored and cold, so yeah… I was happy for the warmth and Oldest was too. . The heater didn’t make it feel like we were indoors (the blind windows of course let all the heat out), but it did take the edge off and allow us a nice way to keep our hands toasty. The little hand warmer packets were so-so… didn’t live up to my expectations, but I will say my hands weren’t as numb as they could have been. I also bought Oldest a big insulated thermos so he could bring some coffee. In the end, good purchases… we were still a little cold, but the gadgets took the edge off.

But that’s all there was to write home about. We saw nothing. No deer. Just birds. Did see an owl, which was cool. Thankfully, Oldest has been fishing enough to know there’s “fishing” and then there’s “catching”, so he knows there are no guarantees. But he was very positive about everything and told me he still had a lot of fun. I asked if he wanted to go back out Sunday evening and he said yes. Frankly, I didn’t care so much about the lack of deer; just being out there with my son was satisfying enough. We got to talk a lot, fun around, make jokes at the other’s expense, I got schooled at Doodle Jump. Sure, bagging a deer would have been nice, but as clichĂŠ as it may be, time with my son was priceless.

I will say tho… while sitting and growing mildly impatient to even SEE a deer, I realized that while I want meat, I also want to finally bag something with that 6.8. I found myself itching not so much to bag a deer, but to bag a deer with that 6.8. If a warm gun is happiness, then I have a very unhappy gun. 😉

Saturday Evening

Came home, cleaned up, then got Daughter ready for the evening hunt. Drove back out to Storm Ranch with our hopes high. Got there about 3:00, loaded into the truck, and Casimero took me out to a stand that I remember well. This was the stand where last year the feeder went off, then a bunch of horses came out and never left… I spent the evening watching horses and wishing they would go away. I was fearing another repeat of the same for there were 5-6 cows parked right at the same fence juncture. Great…. But, I spoke up about it. When I was left the ranch that morning, I spoke on the phone to Josh about how the morning went and where I’d like to sit that afternoon. I actually wanted to sit in the same location as I did last year’s first night when I got the doe. So I mentioned that to Casimero and well… I don’t know if there was a mix up in the communication, if I didn’t describe it right, if another hunter was already there… don’t know. But, we did pack up from that horse-and-cow laden location and went somewhere else.

I don’t believe I ever sat in this spot. And to be honest, the picture cannot do the beauty of the location any sort of justice.  That picture was taken from within the stand. The stand was up on a hillside looking down at a feeder 100 yards away (you can see the feeder as a little dot in the center of the picture). Behind the feeder the hills went up and it was just a gorgeous view from that stand. Thing is, the deer could have come from any direction since trees were everywhere and paths everywhere. So we just had to keep our eyes open.

4:00… 5:00… feeder goes off. We continue to wait. Last year my father-in-law gave me a deer grunt call as a Christmas stocking stuffer. I really don’t know how to use calls, but I studied some prior to going out so… what the hey, might as well try. Oldest and I tried in the morning, but had no luck. I tried a few calls and nothing. Nearing 6:00.

Now about this time I was changing my mind about going back out on Sunday. You can only get a deer if you’re in the field, but did I really want to be in the field another day? Yes, because I wanted some deer. Yes, because I wanted to share more of the experience with my kids. But no, because I’m dead tired. I haven’t been sleeping well lately and the lack of sleep has been affecting my performance. Furthermore, with Daylight Saving Time ending well… technically it’s “fall back” so you gain an hour of sleep, but not in my case because the sun and thus the deer still rise at the same relative time, so instead of waking up at 3:30 AM to get ready I’d have to get up at 2:30 AM and oye, that’s just even more lost sleep. I was giving serious contemplation to staying home on Sunday and resting. I can go hunt later, but I need to heal my body now.

I changed the deer call to a “tending/hyper grunt”… a buck mating call, used only during the rut. I gave it a whirl. Waited 5 minutes. Gave it another whirl. I looked down in my lap at my phone, and when I looked back up… I saw her.

“Here child… here!” and I shoved my phone and the deer call into Daughter’s hands. “Deer! Deer!” I excitedly whisper. “Where? What?”, Daughter replied. I’m working to get my rifle into position. “Down there, in front of the feeder”. It was actually hard to see her with the naked eye, she blended in with the terrain very well. I had the rifle up… but ugh… I was facing south, the sun was setting, and so my right eye was getting flooded with sunlight and I couldn’t see. Reposition. Sun gone. Got her in my crosshairs. Breathe… breathe… calm down… steady… deep breath……. breathe.

“There’s another!” Daughter whispers. Scan scan scan…. ah, there. Doe. Smaller. Switch back to the first one. Damnit… she jumped inside the low-fence around the feeder. Well, that’s OK. She’s hungry, she’ll be here a while. Wait.

Wait.

Wait.

Come on… jump out. Perfect broadside shot, but I’m not going to take her while she’s inside the fencing…. tempting tho it was. Finger went to the trigger a couple of times, but I wasn’t going to take it.

Wait.

Wait.

SHIT! They just flew the flag. “Dad, it’s a bird on the fence.” Doesn’t matter why, they got spooked well enough by something. Big doe jumped out of the fencing and was looking to bolt, but she paused. OK, now or never. Damnit, another almost front-on shot… why can’t I get a broadside? well, I know the anatomy, so here goes. “Daughter, plug your ears.”

Boom!

I press off the shot. I follow through. I see the doe take off running towards me (to her 1 o’clock, my 11 o’clock). Her front left leg is moving funny so I know I got her and broke her shoulder. OK…. running behind that little group of trees, I can’t see her… I’m still following her though, my head turning to my left and oh! What’s this?

It’s the other doe.

She of course ran when she heard the shot, but only ran about 50 yards to the east, stopped, and looked back in the direction of where the loud sound came from (me). Gosh… the grass is tall, you’re down the hill and mostly hidden, but I have a perfect and clear shot on you.

Boom!

I didn’t see anything. No idea if I got her due to the terrain… she could have run and I wouldn’t know where she went. Daughter and I gave a small celebration. Daughter reported she saw the first one crash on the ground, and the second was either dead or long gone. Yeah yeah… wait before you get out of the stand. I saw no reason to wait. But I tell you, I felt like a clumsy fool trying to get out of the stand. Trying to move the chairs, trying to get through the door… I was shaking so much from the excitement, from the aftermath. I strapped the gun over my shoulder and headed down the hill.

We found the first doe. about 25-30 yards from where she was shot.

But we didn’t stop to take pictures then. We flagged where she was, then went searching for the other one. I knew her general location, but with all the rain we had this past year, the grasses were pretty tall and plentiful… figured it would be a lot of scouring around. A little bit of searching and we found her. There was a splotch of blood on the ground, and from how the deer was laying, all twisted up, we deduced she was DRT and never took a step.

I talked with Daughter a bit about how she felt, what she experienced. She was excited, it was thrilling. I talked to her about being thankful, about giving respect and thanks to the deer for giving their lives to nourish ours… and Daughter finished the sentiment by saying then when we die, we go into the ground, feed the plants, which then feed the deer. And the circle of life continues. 🙂  While we waited to be picked up, I phoned Wife to tell her the news. Her take was that I placed my order (“I’d like two does, please”) and God served it up. And how.

Casimero came to pick me up. We loaded the deer, went back to the cabin area to clean them. Daughter was feeling tired so I asked if Casimero could clean them because he’s amazingly fast at it (I’d take twice as long, at least). While he did that, I got to talk with Josh and catch up with him. Another group of folks was in for the weekend to hunt and the had a campfire going. Daughter went over there to warm up. I admit, I was a little nervous about Daughter going over to a campfire with a group of strangers… not that they’d do anything, but I had no idea who was there, if they’d be nice and accepting of a little girl coming over or what. Turned out to be great tho, since Daughter got to meet Lauren who was so welcoming and kind to Daughter, as well as the other group in for the weekend. Everyone was so nice to her, they all talked for a while. I eventually wandered over myself and chatted with everyone. Seems this other group saw 8-10 bucks during the day, a dozen hogs…. so that’s where everything was! 🙂  We stayed and talked to everyone for a while. Makes me think that one of these times I need to just stay the weekend; sure it’s a 30-45 minute drive so it’s nice that I can sleep in my own bed, but gosh if the camp isn’t part of the fun of the experience.

Daughter was fading, so it was time to head home. Two deer in the cooler. Earlier I wasn’t sure if I was going to hunt on Sunday, but having 2 in the cooler? I figured I could rest on Sunday and head back out to hunt another day. I spoke with Oldest about it and he’s cool with it; we’ll go out again together, just him and me.

When I got home, I washed all the quarters and put them on ice and water. I’ll let them wet-age in the garage for a couple of days then take them to Johnny G’s for processing. The fun part? While I was cleaning things up, Wife came out to the driveway and brought Sasha. Oh… I guess a primal nerve got struck with her. She’s never smelled deer and so much fresh flesh and blood, but she was mightily interested. I had a couple chunks of the fresh venison flesh that I set aside, and when I was all done cleaning things up, gave Sasha the chunks. She wolfed them down. When the deer were cleaned, I had them keep all the organs they could (that which wasn’t blown all to hell). Got a heart, a liver, a couple kidneys. Going to cut them up today and make another “stew” for Sasha. She’ll love them. 🙂

Gun (and other) Geekery

What would this entry be without a little gun geekery.

I shot these two deer with my rifle chambered in 6.8 SPC. It’s a mild franken-gun, with the upper being a Wilson Combat 6.8 and the lower from a Bushmaster, and the trigger a Rock River Arms 2-stage match trigger.. The scope is a Burris Fullfield II 3-9x40mm with a standard Plex reticle on their P.E.P.R. mount. I used Silver State Armory 6.8 SPC 85 grain Barnes TSX tactical load for ammo.

Interesting on the ammo. On the second doe, the bullet passed through. Hit in the front shoulder, exited out the side. On the first doe tho… there was no exit wound. Now, her heart and lungs were sufficiently destroyed, the shoulder joint was blown… but where did the bullet come to rest? There’s a lot of deer it had to go through (remember, it was an almost front-on shot) so the bullet came to rest in her somewhere… just… where? Don’t know. We didn’t find it. It could still be in the meat somewhere (tho I didn’t find it), or in the carcass that is now buzzard and fox food somewhere on the Storm Ranch property. If the bullet is in the meat I have, I’d love to recover it. But the bottom line for me is… it shows the impressive performance of Barnes bullets.

I’m also happy that the 6.8 performed so well. This is my first kill with the 6.8 and it did great. I’m certainly looking forward to loading those 95 grain Tipped TSX bullets and using them exclusively for my Texas hunting needs.

The gun was zeroed to be 1.5″ high at 100 yards. That worked well. The first doe was at about 100 yards and the second I’m guessing 125-135 yards. There was only the occasional slight breeze (5-10 MPH at far most). Everything performed well and did what it was supposed to.

In other geeky stuff… notice in the picture I’m wearing a white shirt? There was no camo wearing in the afternoon. I know… wearing camo is the way things go. It’s part of the tribal aspect of the event. But come on. Siting in a box blind is all the camo needed. I might not wear white again since it’s kinda reflective and visible. Camo has a place, but I’m not going to get religious about it.

The deer call. Who’s to say. It was evident these does were hot, so did that “excited buck mating call” bring them in? Or were they just aware of the feeder and came out of habit? Who knows. I’ll continue to practice calling.

Sum

It’s evident from speaking with some long-time hunters that I’m in a different place than they are. They’ve been at it a while and generally only want to shoot “that big one”. They want something different from I want. I want experience: I’m now up to 4 whitetail deer in my lifetime, and the fact I got to shoot 2 in row? Wow! I want meat in the freezer. I am a little impatient. I am not picky. I want to give my kids an experience I never had growing up, and just like fishing vs. catching I know that it’s sometimes better to catch a little bluegill quickly than to sit all day and never catch Big Bubba Largemouth, if you want to capture their interest. Sure I’d love to bag that big buck of a lifetime, but why? For the stories, for the experience. Well folks, right now I’m having one heck of a fine experience as it is, so I’m good.

What made me most happy? My shooting. Yes as soon as I saw the doe my heart rate went up, my breathing went up, I started to shake. I calmed myself. The two shots I took? They were calm, steady, true. Bullet went right where I wanted. I had to make quick decisions, and decisive shots, especially on that second one. My mind was made up to take two deer if I had the opportunity, so when it arose I didn’t have to think if I wanted to do it, I just acknowledged the situation, assessed if I had the shot, and since I did I took it (had plan, executed it). To be able to make such a shot quickly, calmly, accurately, and decisively felt good and reassuring of my skillset. This has extrapolation into other areas.

I’m happy with how things turned out. The gun performed well. The weather was fantastic. I love how Storm Ranch is so close to home, but being buried in the middle of the ranch you have deep stars and absolute silence (other than someone else’s gunshots ringing out in the distance). I got to spend good time with my kids. I got to provide some true free-range organic meat for my family to be nourished by. Folks, life is good.

I again want to thank Josh Storm, Casimero and his son, and everyone at Storm Ranch for again making for a good time. I want to also give special thanks to Lauren for being so kind and friendly with my Daughter. We’ll be back.

And now… to rest. 🙂

Updated: I edited the post slightly to add in some details of things I forgot to add the first time around.

Updated 2: On the big doe, due to the “hit from the front” angle, there was no exit wound. Thus the bullet was somewhere inside that deer. I wanted to recover it but we couldn’t find it. Well, I just got an email from Josh Storm. He found the bullet! He said it was lying on the slab where the deer was cleaned. He emailed me a picture:

I reckon he took the picture with his iPhone, since it’s a little blurry. But you can still see that 85 grain .277″ Barnes TSX expanded perfectly! Petals all curled back. Looks like no loss of petals either. THAT is Barnes performance. THAT is why I love Barnes bullets.

I do wonder where it actually ended up inside the doe. That is, how far did it penetrate, especially after hitting the shoulder. I do know the heart and lungs were demolished. While trimming out the right backstrap, I saw a hole in the ribs right next to the spine and wondered if that might have been where the bullet ended up. We’ll never know exactly.

Josh is going to mail me the bullet. I expect no loss of weight (or negligible), and for it to look picture perfect…. as long as it makes it through the US Mail without a hitch.

Cold weather = excited dog

/ hsoi / 4 Comments

Who knew that introducing a lot of wind, some rain, and cold temperatures could get a dog so excited.

Gave Daughter a rough time during a backyard potty break (she took off to play and gave Daughter some “leash burn” on her palms). 😦

It’s like any child… you make some progress, then suddenly they get all stupid again (e.g. enter teenager years) and you have to start over. 😉

Doggie School – Day 4

/ hsoi / 1 Comment

Doggie school today wasn’t very eventful. But really, that’s a good thing.

When I took her on her morning walk, she was in rare form. Not 100% sure why, but my guess is the colder weather, the fact it rained overnight, the gusty winds… had her all excited. She was very alert, nose to the ground a lot. Someone left an upright vacuum just sitting on the corner, which in the dark freaked her out a bit. Nothing really odd, but she was just very excited and a little less obedient.

But at school? She was on. We went into the event building where all the student trainers were working with their dogs, so there was a great deal of distraction around. She handled it quite well, even kicking her legs out to the side when she was “down”… very relaxed. We worked “sit” and “down” more, putting her on a long line this time so we would back up further than 6′. We also added “down” to her “place” such that now “place” will come to imply “down” as well. Since she’s working officially on “down”, we’ve now added a correction to “down” if we don’t get compliance. We also work to refine compliance: if I say “sit” and she doesn’t immediately sit, correction must be immediate (instead of allowing her a few seconds to leisurely comply).

So there’s our homework: “sit” and “down” on a long line for distance; adding “down” to “place”, then also working some distance into that; adding corrections to “down”; getting compliance to be more immediate.

Really, she’s doing well. Abel continues to note how well she’s progressing, even as we ramp up the distraction and introduction to new things (e.g. she went into the Pro Shop today for the first time; more dogs and other people around her). He also noted how her coat is looking better than when we first brought her in: vet said just good diet and grooming is the best we can do there and in time it will improve.

So far so good. Her manners at home are improving as well, been able to introduce her to some people… still a little unsure of them, but so much better than a few weeks ago. She is getting a little cocky when we’re in the backyard and she’s off leash, but next week’s class will be about “come”. 🙂

Muscovy Regulation – an update

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This is important for all of my readers to read and act upon.

US Fish and Wildlife regulation CFR 21.54 has caused quite a stir with people who care about muscovy ducks. I mentioned the problem regulation before.

FWS has published proposed changes. From George T. Allen:

We have published proposed changes to the regulations governing waterfowl.  The changes are intended to accommodate activities with muscovy ducks, particularly keeping the ducks for exhibition, or as barnyard animals for personal consumption and egg production.  The changes also address sale of the ducks and their eggs.

You can submit comments by either of the methods highlighted in red in the proposed rule.  Submissions by any other means may not be considered when we prepare the final rule.  Comments on the proposed rule are due no later than 30 December 2010.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

George T.  Allen, Ph.D., C.W.B.
Chief, Branch of Permits and Regulations
Division of Migratory Bird Management
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
4401 North Fairfax Drive, Mail Stop 4107
Arlington, Virginia  22203-1610
703-358-1825     fax 703-358-2272
George_T_Allen@fws.gov

You can find the proposed changes here.

Tobi Kosanke has been active in protesting the changes.

“I have two very large issues with this regulation.  First of all, it regulates a non-migratory domesticated bird that has been kept as both pet and livestock since the inception of our country.  A bird designated as livestock should NOT be regulated by the FWS,” Kosanke said.  “Second, the issues with the Muscovy that the FWS is trying to address are nearly identical to those of the Mallard, which IS a migratory bird.  Like the Muscovy, the Mallard duck is a waterfowl that individuals commonly purchase from hatcheries, has become a nuisance population in some areas, and also breeds with other species of duck, yet there is no national control order for the Mallard, nor are all Mallards in the U.S. required to be marked with leg or wing bands; instead, problems with Mallards are dealt with on the local level.”

The regulation just isn’t right to begin with. It makes no sense. It’s not well-thought out nor well-researched. It’s good that they listened to the people (they’re supposed to… they are serving us) and revised the regulation, but the revisions aren’t good enough.

 

“When the FWS announced that they were amending the regulation, I was very hopeful.  But, unfortunately, while the amendment does address the issues of the bird clubs and livestock industry, both of which heavily lobbied the FWS to not include exhibition birds or poultry raised for meat in their regulation, the largest contingent of Muscovy lovers was ignored,” Kosanke said.  “As it is now written, regulation CFR 21.54 makes it illegal for individuals and subdivisions to maintain their pet duck populations.  It also makes it illegal for counties and cities to place Muscovy ducks on their ponds.”

 

 

Dear Readers: please take a few moments and comment on the regulation.

  1. Visit regulations.gov
  2. Search for docket: FWS-R9-MB-2010-0037
  3. Submit a comment on that docket.

It should take you 5-10 minutes to do. Even if you don’t care about muscovy ducks, I know my readers are folks that care about the state of our government. Inconsistent regulation is unacceptable. Come on you gun guys… you hate stupid laws like these, why should this be any exception?  We lose our freedoms not through sweeping acts, but through little things like this. I know you guys care about freedom and a well-behaved government. Please help out.

Thank you.

 

Doggie School – Day 3. Plus, first vet visit

/ hsoi

Today was a busy day for our “poo-vasz”. Yes… our new nickname for her is “poo-vasz” (or “poovasz”, however you want to spell it) since our little Kuvasz seems to think the cat litter box is the dessert tray. 😉

School

Started the day at doggie school. Brought her bed with us so she could start to learn “place”. We started on the basics of introducing the “place” to her last week, but today we wanted to put the command with the bed. We also worked on “sit” and “down”. While Sasha knows these commands already, she needs more discipline with them. For instance, I should be able to say “sit” and leave the room, come back 5 minutes later and she’s still sitting. We’re a ways from that… I can get her to sit, she’ll stay there, but if I get too far away she will want to get up. So we’re working on things.

We also worked on getting the trainer closer to us. He kept throwing food down on the ground, letting her know that he’s a source of good things. Eventually she was sitting on my left, Abel would come up on my right and shake my hand. We’d chat for a moment, good dog, and life was good. Sasha was pretty well-behaved, even with lots of other people and dogs working in the same building/room.

We also received a complement from Abel, that we’re one of his best clients. Why? Because it’s obvious we’re working with the dog. We do work with her every day, a couple of times a day. I mean, why wouldn’t we? We’re paying money for this. We want the dog to be well-mannered. Why would you NOT work with the dog? Why would you NOT do your homework? But I guess most people don’t. Geez.. I’d love to have money and time to waste like they have….

Anyways, I’m pleased with her progress. We’ll be working more on “place”, “sit”, “down”, and introductions with people in the coming week.

But the interesting thing is how well-timed this session was because….

The Vet

….Sasha needed her first trip to our veterinarian.

We’ve had this vet for many years, taken care of all our cats. We didn’t want to go the moment we got home because well… we knew she was a handful and the vet would have to do things like touch her. We just didn’t want to deal with it. But the goal was to have the visit done before the end of the month. So here we are, mission accomplished.

The trip went amazingly smooth. She was cool and mellow for the most part. Alert sure, but didn’t get all crazy or anything. New place, new people, a few other animals, but no big deal. She didn’t want to get on the scale, but I used the technique for introducing her to the “place” and found out she’s gained some weight (good!) and is at 71 lbs.

The first odd sign? When the assistant was moving around getting us into the exam room, she had to walk right by Sasha, even brushed up against her. Sasha didn’t flinch. Awesome! Now, I figure part of that is due to being on neutral ground (no need to protect the area), but still… before she would have had a fit. When the vet came in, she almost took food from his hand.. didn’t like his biscuits.

Here’s the impressive thing. We needed to do a blood draw. Took her in the back, put a muzzle on her to be safe. I’m holding her so Doc can take her front leg and do a blood draw. I’m watching and I see the needle go in, Doc pops a few things off the syringe, then suddenly Sasha jumped. Doc’s eyes were wide open… but not because he got bit or hurt or was afraid. No, he was impressed. You see, when I thought he had stuck her? He hadn’t yet. When she jumped? That’s when he stuck her. What impressed him was her reaction time. He said that in his 40+ years of being a vet, he has seen few dogs with reaction time like that. He was impressed. 🙂

Anyways, we got the blood draw, we got her microchipped. Talked about a few other things with the vet. During the final talk, Sasha did unleash towards one of the assistants. She came into the room quickly, reached over her head towards me to hand me something. Sasha didn’t like that, but the reason is simple: fast, swift, towards me… she was defending me. Good girl. 🙂  You could even see her reaction time there… instant on.

All in all, it was a good trip. Yes, expectation was that it was going to be a difficult visit. But I just kept using all the stuff we’ve been learning at Triple Crown. I had my treat pouch, I used the techniques, I kept the positive reinforcement flowing. It went very well!

We’ll get test results tomorrow.

Sasha is doing well. 🙂