UberPest's Journal - personal

2008/11/17--Donate to help Mason

uberpest — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:49:38 -0500

My nephew, Mason Tikkanen, is afflicted with Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome and needs a bone marrow transplant to beat it. If you would like to help him, please consider donating. My brother set up a special page at tikkanen.us to allow people to donate to help our nephew.

Donate to help Mason Tikkanen

2008/11/09--Across Indiana Interview Update

uberpest — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 10:19:01 -0500

This post is to update some news I posted about back in September.

The episode of Across Indiana (WFYI/Indianapolis PBS 20) has aired. The segment can be seen online here. It is the segment titled "Travels with Darby."

You get to see me both in my spiffy uniform, as well as sporting a kicky orange PFD.

Some of the other segments are interesting, too. Especially if you like zombies.

Links:

2008/10/31--Petable-Portraits

uberpest — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:01:10 -0400

About a week ago I was contacted by Daniele at Petable-Portraits.com regarding Daniele doing a portrait of one of my dogs. Since I have a ton of pictures of Beau, and Ranger isn't done turning into a little dog yet (he's going through some crazy growth spurts), I chose Beau as the subject of the portrait.

I sent her several pictures with Beau NOT wearing his pack, but she chose to do the portrait with Beau in his pack since it shows he's not just out for a jaunt, but he's out with his person as a working partner.

2008/10/27--Go West Young Man

uberpest — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:49:04 -0400

Today I got to briefly meet a very cool Cowboy, Mr. John Wayne Haynes. He is traveling from his home in Michigan to New Mexico to visit his family. His is no ordinary road trip, however, as he is on horseback (2-year-old Misty, and Appaloosa). and is accompanied by his pack horse (Harley, 23, another Appaloosa) and dog, Sheila. I didn't get to talk to him very long, but heard about his stop from an online friend many states away. Her hometown is nearby and Mr. Haynes stopped to spend the weekend in my neighborhood.

Mr. Haynes is hoping to make it to NM to spend Easter with his family.

2008/10/15-- Ranger goes to school!

uberpest — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 19:25:23 -0400

Mr. Ranger has started Puppy Kindergarten at a local trainer, Training Tracks. This past spring Beau completed a class through Training Tracks to help me learn the basics of clicker training and he did very well--he's a much faster learner than I am. Ranger is taking to the clicker very well and I can see the benefits to the method for the show ring, the trail, and being a good companion.

I will make updates on his progress as he grows, learns, and accomplishes new things.

2008/09/29-- J Cross' Currahee

uberpest — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 22:02:41 -0400

Last night I was visited by some friends (Carlye and Craig from Cross Check Catahoulas). They left a new little friend at my house, a littermate to their own little girl "J Cross' Ammunition".

J Cross' Currahee--a.k.a. "Ranger".

I thank Tori Earls and Justin Starnes at J Cross Catahoulas for allowing Ranger to come join my family.

2008/09/24-- Across Indiana

uberpest — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:42:59 -0400

The PBS Program "Across Indiana" (produced by WFYI, Indianapolis) came out at the end of August to shoot some footage of the park where I work and live (well, the Park end of it. the other end, Brookville Lake, is 16,000 acres with 5,000 of that in water).

We spent 8 hours out on the lake (Whitewater Lake, 200 acres), on the horse trails, in the campgrounds, etc. gathering interviews and just cool looking footage of people enjoying themselves.

At one point while on the lake I was asked why I like to work here and I gave my canned response of "This is my office!" as the camera panned at the scenery (Whitewater is very calm, it's trolling motors only). A few minutes later Jay, the camera man, was still rolling and I was still miked while I pointed at some trees. "My house is over there. I'm really lucky that not only do I work here, but this is my back yard." Which, of course, is the sound bite they liked better than the canned response.

Included with this was the host's dog Darby (a 13 year old Lab/Husky mix), who is the mascot of this segment. She got to go on the boat, on a hayride, and walk around a bit as we visited with people.

The segment is somewhere in the 4-5 minute range and will air on WFYI (Indy channel #20) on October 27 at 7:30--the season premier. Other Indiana PBS stations will carry it either that week or the week after.

For folks outside of Indiana, or outside the reach of any Indiana PBS stations (yours truly--Dayton and Oxford, OH stations here), it's also going to be available online at :

Across Indiana

It's under the archives section at the bottom. Program #1901.

Beau didn't get to do a cameo. Oh well.

2008/09/18-- Let There Be Light!

uberpest — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 13:13:44 -0400

Sunday night SE Indiana/SW Ohio was rocked by the remnants of Hurricane Ike. I lost power from 2:15 Sunday until 10:30 last night (I celebrated Beau's 8th "Homecoming Day" in the dark with him on the 16th). I was all right since I have enough food on hand to survive a zombie uprising, plus I have good water sources close by to filter with my backpacking filter after I do run out of potable stored water. I also have my JetBoil and a French Press coffee maker. A friend of mine got me an early birthday present--a hand-crank coffee grinder (yeah, it's those little things that make the day brighter).

2008/08/26-- Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall

uberpest — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:34:17 -0400

One of the projects I'm currently involved with--and why this site hasn't had much by way of updates this season--is hosting the Vietnam Memorial Moving Wall as it visits Whitewater Memorial State Park in September.

This is a half-scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C.

Whitewater Memorial State Park is located approximately 2 miles south of the town of Liberty, IN on State Road 101. It was established as a living memorial to those from the surrounding counties (Fayette, Franklin, Union, and Wayne) who served during WWII.

If things go as currently planned, I will be ~~speaking briefly~~ running the sound equipment during the ceremony on Saturday, September 6, 2008.

2008/06/16-- Beau's UKC Premier Show Results

uberpest — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:37:25 -0400

Beau and I traveled to Kalamazoo, Michigan to partake in the festivities of the UKC Premier. This was our 8th appearance. We showed in the Top Ten Breed Finals, COBRA Breed Specialty, and all three days of the Premier.

In Saturday's show Beau earned the Grand Champion Award of Merit under judge Karen Johnson. There were three dogs in the class including Beau.

In Sunday's show Beau showed under judge Joe Allen. Beau won his class as he was the only Grand Champion entered. He went on for Best of Breed over ten Catahoulas. Later in the day, during a thunderstorm, Beau earned a Group 2 placement in the Herding Group. I can't remember for sure how many breeds were represented in the Group ring, but it was at least 15. He defeated approximately 200 dogs that day.