Hunting

Hunting

To my family and I, hunting is a passion and a privilege. I have been hunting for four years, but I have been going out to the woods and blinds with my dad since I was about four years old. Although many people believe that hunting is cruel, this does not stop us. We are true hunters. Deer hunting helps the natural ecosystem by reducing the number of deer and controlling the deer population. But this is true about all wild animals.

I have hunted various species of animals including White-tailed deer, Colorado Rocky Mountain elk, Cotton Tail and Jack rabbits, squirrels, black bear, turkeys, and other migratory birds. All of these types of animals require different tactics. My favorite hunt is the elk. Mostly because it involves a trip to Colorado during the school year.

Over my years of hunting I have succeeded in my hunt of seven deer in which four of them were bucks. My biggest buck was 13 points. This means that there were 13 tines in the antlers. Last weekend I went hunting and observed a very nice eight point buck which never got close enough to get off a shot.

I hunt with bow and arrow but also with firearms. I prefer to bow hunt because it seems more challenging to be consistent with a bow. I also like that I need to be closer to the animal in order to have a successful shot, and when the animals so close to you your heart starts racing and you get this adrenaline rush, it’s a great experience.

My dad and I hunt together. It is a special time that we share with one another. My little brothers are not old enough to go yet, so this is a peaceful time away from them and the day to day craziness of the house. Hunting for us, is a year round event. We build blinds in the off season so that they are not new to the hunting area. We walk the farm land that we hunt on, and we keep study the deer’s behavior. We set up shooting lanes and create places/pathways that are irresistible for deer to avoid. We practice shooting our weapons because we always want to make a good clean hit. We also watch hunting videos to learn from other people. We even have filmed our own hunts just for fun.

Hunting is probably my favorite thing to do. I just love being one with nature and experiencing the out doors.

The Melting Glaciers

Chris Petz

10/15/09

6^th hour

Melting Glaciers

According to the “Big Melt” news story found on the New York Times http://video.nytimes.com/video/playlist/the-big-melt/1194811622279/index.html, the glaciers are melting more and more each year. It is melting earlier each year and refreezing later each year. This has three serious effects.

The first effect relates to the ecosystem. There are micro-organisms that live in the ice. These organisms feed the algae. As the ice decreases so does the amount of algae. The fish that are native to that part of the ocean feed off the algae. Less ice means less algae. Less algae means less fish. When the fish die or move to other areas to feed the seals that need the fish for food are unable to feed. So now the seals will start to become short on food. When the seals are forced to move to other areas the polar bears will no longer have their food source. So the ice melting causes this big chain reaction in the ecosystem. Polar bears also need the ice to rest, hunt and breed. Other animals that use the ice include herds of caribou that use the ice the walk across from one piece of land to another.

The second effect is that the ice that is melting is turning to water and raising the sea level. Many people think that if ice melt somewhere else if won’t effect us here in the United States, but water has to move and even out. If the sea level continues to rise then some of the land that is well known and populated such as the Florida Keys, will be covered with water. It is predicated that many of the small islands throughout the world that are popular tourist attractions will no longer exist. Both the land and the people will be gone.

The third problem effects the native people that live in the Antarctic. The people actually live on the ice and permafrost. They need the ice for transport of goods and materials to live. It was noted in the news story that because the ice is melting sooner in the year, the people have a harder time getting their supplies. The people also did not have sunburns in the past because the ice acted as a reflector of the UV rays. Now that the ice is smaller in size, the native people are being treated more for sun burns because the sun rays have nothing to reflect them upward.

My Pup.

My Puppy

My puppy was brought into the family in the end of last November. When we got her it was so cold, all the pups were bundled together in the corner of a barn stale. All the dogs were shivering as they split to see us walk in. We all pick and choose the ones we wanted but we all knew that only one that could go home with us. We came to a decision and picked the darkest lab there was.

At first we couldn’t come up with the right name and ended up calling her many names through out the first month. We called her Winnie, Bella, ect. Then we came up with the most perfect name for her. MAGGIE. Maggie was a little fight sty from the night we brought her home. Maggie developed her own way of getting attention. She would do things that wasn’t normal for dogs to do. She would find ways to escape for barriers that we would put her if so she didn’t chew anything. She would get out then chew soft toys, and shoes.

Maggie to this day is also a barker. She likes to bark. Weather its to get attention or to simply just bark. She would bark if she was left alone for one second. She would bark if she couldn’t hear you in the room. She would bark if she thought she was alone but really just couldn’t see you.

Now my puppy loves my dad. She loves my dad so much that we say that she’s my dads dog. If she’s to do any thing wrong we say dad your dog did this or she did that.But since she is so in love with my dad once he leaves the house and she hears his car start and pull away she is a totally different dog. She will terrorize my other dog so much that they will start to case each other around and start fighting with each other, Its very annoying because really my other dog hates Maggie.

Maggie also loves to chew things. She has chewed the wires off of our trailers 4 or 5 times and it pisses my dad off. But most of this bad chewing and barking has slowed down after Maggie has been going to obedience school. She really has changed a lot if you had the chance to meat her when she was little.

Maggie is currently 10 months old and weighs’ 69 pounds. Yes that’s a big puppy

First Day of School Essay

Chris Petz

9/20/09

6^th hour

A Start of a New Home

The sound of panting followed by a cool wet feeling hit me right in the face. This is how my dad woke me up on my first day of school, by sending my dog upstairs and telling her to “sick ’em” or in this case sick me. It sounds cruel, but really it’s just a funny thing my dad has always done on a school day. After my dad woke me up we had breakfast together. I like this time of the day because it is just him and I. After breakfast I continued with getting ready for school. I was nervous and excited about going to high school. I was excited to see my friends, but I was nervous that I would forget my locker combination or do something embarrassing.

My mom drove me to the bus stop because I was nowhere near being ready to start a new life in a new home called Stevenson. Even though I got up early, I still wandered around like I had no place to go. I thought I had my school stuff together, but when the time came to walk to the bus stop, it seemed I could not find all my supplies. So my mom drove me. I was glad she did because I would have missed the bus and she would not have been happy about driving me all the way to school.

Once I got to the bus stop, it felt good to see some of the friends I had not seen all summer. We quickly re-acquainted with each other and talked about the summer and how nice it would be if we could all be still be sleeping instead of standing there in the dark.

When I got to school I didn’t quite remember where to go, but soon figured out where my locker was located. I unpacked my things and put them away. I reviewed my schedule and walked to my first class. The hallways were crowded and I felt a bit overwhelmed. I wanted it to appear I knew where I was going, but I found myself watching the people more than I paid attention to where I was going. This worked out because I was able to find some other friends from last year. We got to spend a little time talking about our summer vacation and how the summer went by so fast. We also talked about how we wished we had one more week of summer. It helped to talk about something other than think about how nervous I was.

When the bell rang I entered the classroom. I quickly realized the teacher had a seating chart so I located my chair. I was happy to see a friend from last year in my class. Our seats were next to each other so I got more comfortable. My friend and I found our- selves talking about the football team and how much they would like to win the game this week. I learned that the football team was 2 and 0. As first hour continued we played a game to get to know everyone. . We also talked about what we were going to study during the school year. Before I knew it, the first hour was over. I thought to myself, I survived first hour I can survive the rest of the day.

Soon enough I was back at my locker, and off to second hour. I met up with a few of my friends and we found ourselves talking about school. I had an idea that the rest of the day was going to be very similar the first hour, and it was. I’ll tell you that when I got home I was worn out. I knew that the school year was going to be tough but it was a fresh start to my new home for the next four years.