My Puppies :)

This blog is just for you, Professor Wright!

I previously wrote about coon-hunting, but now I'll write about our precious coon dogs! My family has three dogs. They are all mountain curs. This is actually the breed of dog that Old Yeller was in the book Old Yeller.   Before we got our three current dogs, we had a mutt named Whiskey and a beagle named Chocolate. Chocolate was hit by a car only a few years after we got him, and Whiskey, who was 17, was run over by a trailer about a year after we got our first mountain cur. Mountain curs are excellent treeing dogs and come in three main colors: yellow, white, and brindle. They are also known for their distinctive bobbed tails.

Kujo

We got our first cur in the summer of 2001 and my brothers named him Kujo after the killer dog in Steven Speilberg's horror film Cujo. Kujo is a yellow cur. Because he is the oldest of our dogs, he fits into the "old and wise" category. He is the best coon dog our family has ever had, but unfortunately his age is catching up to him, and  he has a heart murmur and recently developed thyroid problems.

Gunner

Our second mountain cur, Gunner, came to us a year and a half after we got Kujo. The breeder who we got Kujo from asked us if we wanted the white puppy. He had these weird swollen looking ankles in his front legs and one of his feet was angled inward slightly. The breeder wasn't sure if he would develop properly or not, but said we could have him for free if we would take him. With much begging from my siblings and I, our parents gave in, and Gunner was ours! His ankles still bulge (you can sort of see it in the picture if you at the leg on the left of the picture) but he isn't affected by it at all. Gunner is an endless ball of energy and very strong, but not exactly the brightest crayon in the box. If I were to label him, he would be the strong-but-stupid-jock.

Rebel (on the left) and Bell (on the right)

In late 2007, we got our third dog. The breeder offered us a deal. If we raised our puppy and another puppy from the litter together for the first year, we could keep our puppy for free. The breeder chose a female, Bell, and we chose a male who we named Rebel because of his unique brindle coloring. We raised the puppies together, teaching them the basics of being a coon dog, and after a year, we gave Bell back to the Breeder and kept Rebel. Rebel is still fairly young, so he is still pretty new at coon hunting, but he is showing great promise!

My Dorm Room Hates Me!

Update on last week's post about the TV...it still doesn't work. Our RA still hasn't gotten back to us. Mediacom still sucks in my opinion. And now, another fun problem. It seems to be well known across campus that the dorms are kept at a toasty 90 degrees. Most everyone I know constantly has a window open or else we would die of heat exhaustion. In addition to being uncontrollably hot, our heater has another annoying surprise for my roommate and I. Last night, we both had trouble sleeping due to a lovely high pitched squealing noise. Too drowsy to actually figure out what it was, I attributed it to some strange musical instrument being played by my ever musical neighbors. After I actually gained consciousness this morning, I discovered the constant high pitched noise was coming from our heater. Imagine a tea kettle constantly screeching and that is precisely the infuriating sound currently slamming into my skull. Occasionally, the noise will cease, and we will be rewarded with a few minutes of blissful silence, but then inevitably the ear-piercing screech will come back to slowly drive us insane. Several times today we have tried to talk to our RA about it, but of course she is never in her room. If this noise doesn't stop, I am going to never get any sleep and go on an insomniac rampage with a sledgehammer against this stupid heater!

I am thankful for...

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I feel a list of all the things I am thankful for is a perfect blog topic.

-My family: Although we aren't perfect and we don't always get along, I am still incredibly thankful for my family. My parents are loving and supporting and have providing a stable home for my siblings and I. I have always been close to my sister and have always learned from her example. Over the last few years, I've grown much closer to my brothers and am so happy they brought my sisters-in-law into our family. Now that we're older and we don't all live at home together anymore, I am very thankful for the times when we can all be together, however seldom they may be now.

-My friends: My friends are my source of sanity. They are always there to give me advice, listen to me vent, and just relax with in the hot tub on a cold winter night.

-Jordan: Jordan is probably my favorite person in the world. He can always make me smile, and I am very fortunate to have him in my life.

-Good health: I am thankful myself and all of my loved ones enjoyed a year of good health. There is nothing more devastating to a family than an illness or death, and we were very fortunate to not have experienced either.

-Opportunity: I am thankful that I live in a situation in which I can get a college education. I am also thankful I have the intelligence and skills to succeed in college.

-Not-sucky-roommate: I am thankful I didn't get an annoying or loud or hostile or obnoxious or mean or crazy or smelly roommate :)

Television Rant!

My roommate and I have not had TV in almost three weeks, and it's starting to get on my nerves! We had no problems until Mediacom decided to switch to all digital channels a few weeks ago. We have a brand new digital TV, and at first, we didn't have any problems. We got a bunch of digital channels and everything was fine, but then slowly, our signal started to deteriorate. The picture would break up, then freeze, and we would eventually lose the signal. After a couple days, we were unable to get any channels. All we got was a message stating "Digital channel strength is too low." We figured there were just a few bugs in Mediacom's system so we patiently waited a few days and attempted to rescan for digital channels a few times a day. Unfortunately, nothing changed. After about a week, I contacted our RA, who is never around, about the problem. She didn't get back to us for almost another week. She told us she would figure it out and let us know what we could do, but she still has not contacted us. I also tried calling the Mediacom company to find out what could be done about the problem. I talked to a stupid machine for about 10 minutes, then was put on hold for another 20 minutes, and when I finally talked to a live (but foreign and hard to understand) person, she told me she would have to transfer me to a different department. After being put on hold again, I finally talked to a guy who I though was going to be able to help me. After explaining the problem to him, I asked him simply what the nature of the problem was and what steps I could take to fix it. He told me he couldn't help me and then proceeded to hang up on me. So much for customer service! A week, one phone call from hell, and an ever-absent RA later, we still have NO TV! It's not that I watch a lot of TV in the first place, it's just the fact that I couldn't watch it even if I wanted to that really bothers me.

ISU Upset!!

I am a huge Iowa State fan, and I try to get to at least one or two football games a year. This year, my friends and I got tickets to Friday's game against Oklahoma State. Okie State was undefeated and ranked 2nd in the nation, so everyone assumed Iowa State was going to get killed. Although I love my Cyclones, I thought I was going to freeze my butt off watching them lose big time in forty degree weather. Fortunately, I didn't even feel the cold because by the end of the game, I was jumping up and down with excitement; the Cyclones refused to lose!

Jordan and I on the field after the game!

At first, the game was pretty mild. At half time, the Okie State Cowboys were up 17 to 7. After the Cowboys' first drive in the second half, they raised the score to 24-7.We all sort of figured the score would continue to open up and we'd lose the game, but boy were we wrong! Iowa State overcame a 17 point deficit to tie the game 24-24 late in the fourth quarter. Jack Trice Stadium was insane with over 50,000 dedicated ISU fans exhilarated at the prospect of pulling off the biggest college football in the last few years. In overtime, both teams made touchdowns and the extra point, bringing the score to 31-31. In the second overtime, Okie State had possession first, but one of their pass attempts was intercepted. Iowa state scored the game winning touchdown bring the final score to 37-31. The crowd went insane! I along with tens of thousands of ecstatic Iowa State fans stormed the field at Jack Trice Stadium. Standing amidst a sea of Cyclones fans screaming the words of "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't Stop Believin'" as they were played over the loud speakers after Iowa State pulled off the upset of the decade is an experience I will never forget. I definitely chose the right Iowa State game to go to this year!

Thousands of Iowa State fans flooding the field after the game! I'm somewhere among them!

Tough Week

This week, I have been incredibly stressed out. One reason is the huge amount of work I need to get done before fall break begins and another is Jordan problems. Not Jordan problems as in me-and-Jordan-problems, but as in Jordan's-parents-completely-suck-problems. Last week, I wrote a little bit about his family history and I just need somewhere to vent about all that happened this week, so I figured a blog would be a pretty good place for that. On Tuesday, Jordan found out his parents had a court date  for child support that day. His dad has never paid a dime in child support and has been taken to court for it before, but Jordan knew nothing about it this time until the day of. I guess I'm not sure what the exact legalities of child support are, but I figure that it is supposed to have something to do with actually supporting the child. Unfortunately, Jordan's mom does not support him at all, emotionally or financially. The settlement ended up being that $300/month will be paid to Jordan's mom until he turns 18 and all of the retroactive child support for the last 6ish years is paid back. We both know that she is just going to pocket the money and spend it on booze and other stupid stuff. This upset Jordan enough, but things just kept getting worse. Jordan called his mom and asked if she was going to use any of the money to help him pay for food and gas. (Because she doesn't even live in the same house as him, he has to buy his own groceries.) At first, she claimed to know nothing about the settlement, but then went on to flip out on him, saying how it was Jordan's fault it all happened, and hung up on him. He tried calling her back numerous times, but she refuses to answer any of his calls or texts. All week, Jordan has been very upset about this whole ordeal. His mom is still refusing to talk to him. Lately, he has been all worried about next year and paying for college and stuff, and this is just adding so much more unnecessary stress to his life. I wish he could be done with all of this crap and just live like a normal teenager without having to worry where his next meal is going to come from. He is convinced his own mother doesn't even love him, which gets him very depressed. It's so hard being away from home when he's going through this stuff. For the last 2 years, I've been with him every step of the way, so now I just want to be able to be there with him like I always have been. It breaks my heart that I can't do that now :(

Coon Hunting!

After my last semi-depressing post, I decided to write about something a little more upbeat: raccoon hunting! My family is very, very into hunting. My dad and my brothers are most definitely hunting fanatics, especially when it comes to coon (raccoon) season! We have three dogs, specially trained for hunting raccoon. The process of coon hunting is quite different from most other types of hunting because it takes place at night and you have to rely on dogs to find your prey. Jordan and I went with my dad on Friday night and got 11, a pretty good haul. This is the process for a typical night of coon hunting...

First, you get dressed up in warm clothes and headlights (or flashlights). Then we put tracking collars on our dogs that send signals to our handheld GPS. This tells us where the dogs are if they get too far away from us. After we load up the dogs and equipment, we head to our hunting spot, usually a woods or farm. When you get to your destination, you let the dog out and basically follow him wherever he goes. The dog will sniff out a coon's trail, bark signalling he found something, and then follow the trail. When the dog has located the raccoon (usually in a tree), he will bark repeatedly and put his front paws on the correct tree. This is called "treeing." You then "shine" the tree by pointing your lights up in the branches so you can see the animal's eyes reflecting. I'll spare the gory details and suffice it to say that next you shoot the raccoon and that's the end of it. On an average night of coon hunting, if you go for a few hours and have good dogs, you can get 7 or so, but on a really good night, you can get 20 or more. Depending on the size of the raccoon, you can get anywhere from $3 to $40 for a coon hide.

Most people don't picture me as a hunter, but it's something I've been raised to do. I shot my first deer when I was 14 and have been coon hunting many times. Although some people think it's gross or cruel or stupid, for me, hunting has really been just a great way for me to bond with my dad and my brothers.