My Dog

I have a two and a half year old siberian husky name Kahlua. He is very playful and full of energy. I decided to treat him to a delicious treat on sunday since he was so well behaved as of late. It was a huge cow bone from Walmart that must have weighed at least 5 lbs and was almost $10. I knew he would love it and couldn't wait to give it to him. When I gave it to him he didn't know what to do, it was the largest treat he had ever received. He was chewing on it for 2 hours before I decided to take it away from him so he wouldn't get sick. This is when I realized that giving him something this big was a huge mistake. He became very agressive and protective of his bone and didn't want anyone going near it. He didn't even want to go outside for fear of me or my roommate taking his bone away. Late last night he peed on my door and took a large number 2 on my stairs. He hasn't gone to the bathroom inside for 2 years until last night. After seeing the way he acted the past 2 days because of this bone I through it out.

Landscape/Horticulture

I am in the Landscape Horticulture program here at Western. The reason I decided to take this program was because I got sick of automotive and wanted to try something new. I enjoy being outside and working with the outdoors. After the first couple of class periods I realized that this would be a pretty cool profession. The classes I am currently taking this semester are Intro to Horticulture, Horticulture Soils, and Woody Plant Identification. All of them are interesting and am glad that I decided to take this program. Some of the other courses that I will be taking in the next three semesters are: Landscape Design 1 and 2, Garden Center Operations, Survey of Herbaceous Plants, Turf Management, Trends in Landscape Horticulture, Landscape Construction, Interiorscaping, Foremanship, Ornamental Plant Health Care, Arboriculture, and Horticulture Production. I'm excited to take the other classes and learn more about this type of profession. It's crazy to be able to walk down the street/sidewalk and know the name and type of plant that is right next to you. I strongly recommend that if you don't know yet what you want to do for a career to try the Landscape Horticulture program.

Fishing

As I said before I love fishing, anywhere at anytime. They say that the worst day fishing is better than any good day at work and I completely agree with that. I'd rather be fishing in a boat on a lake but I will go anywhere. Lakes, rivers, dams and creeks I love it all the same. My friends and I have had some success of late catching a 33" northern, 23" carp, 22" catfish and a 25" catfish. I love just being outside and doing stuff but fishing just makes it that much better. Waiting for something to bite and fighting to real it in is a really good time. I like using worms, leeches, minnows, and crankbaits. I like using the crankbaits more because your always doing something, casting, realing, trying new spots, switching lures, you just can't get bored. I love fishing and will never stop doing it until I lose both my arms.

About Me

My name is Joe Ranthum as some of you may know. As I said last time I'm 21 years old and have lived in the La Crosse area for about a year now. I am originally from Watertown WI and went to Luther Preparatory Highschool their. After I graduated I went to Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) in Waukesha for a one year automotive program. I finished the program and realized that I now strongly disliked working on cars all day everyday. I ended up taking a semester off to move to Onalaska and enroll in the Landscape Horticulture program at Western Tech. Now that I'm here and settled in everything is going good and I like my degree program a lot.

Some of the things I like to do in my free time is fishing, sleeping, working on my firebird, watching college and NFL football on weekends, watching the Brewers, wrestling with my dog, listening to music, and having fun any way I can. Some of my favorite bands are Pink Floyd, Tool, Jimi Hendrix, Metallica, Led Zepplin, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Crosby Stills and Nash, and Wilco to name afew but the list goes on. My favorite NFL team is the PACKERS and college football is the Wisconsin Badgers. I also love the Brewers very much. This is just a little bit about me and I hope it is a good week/weekend for wisconsin sports.

21 or older

It was my birthday on Tuesday this past week and I turned 21. It seems like its been forever. Now it is legal for me to drink and I don't have to break the law anymore. I do need to have some responsibility though since I am officially an adult. It is nice to be able to go out whenever you want and stop at the liquor store whenever you want.

A lot of people think that the drinking age should be lowered and a lot of people think that it should stay the same. Out of all the countries in the world the United States has the highest drinking age. Followed by Japan and Iceland with age 20, and South Korea with age 19. The rest of the world is age 18, 16 or they don't have any at all. Even though the U.S. has the highest drinking age, we still have the highest drunken driving rates and the highest alcohol related deaths. I don't think raising the drinking age will change anything. People in this country will always do what they think is fun and drinking is an American favorite. No matter what the drinking age is people of all ages will continue to drink.

Packer's season opener

It was a very long off season for the Green Bay Packers. First Brett Favre retired after having one of the best seasons of his career. We then went ahead and drafted two quarterbacks in the 2008 NFL draft to make up for this loss. After the Packers did this, Brett Favre decided he wasn't ready to retire and wanted back in. In the end we couldn't take him back because the Packer organization moved forward by changing the offense. And we would have wasted two draft picks on quarterbacks that we didn't need. The Packers ended up trading Favre to the New York Jets for a 4th round draft pick which will become better pending on how the Jets finish the season.

Here the packers are a month later and ready for Monday Night Football! It will be a huge test for Aaron Rodgers to see if he can lead the Packers back to the playoffs. They are playing the Minnesota Vikings in Green Bay at Lambeau Field at 6:00 pm. Hopefully the Packers will be able to stop Adrian Peterson and put a tally in the win column. I am extremely happy that football is finally back. Unfortunately I will be at work during the game but will check the score as often as I can. Go Packers!