Author: Jackie Koerner

Kids are Under a Ton of Bricks Because…

College Consultants

While doing a service learning project at Roosevelt High School last fall, I heard about the strangest thing: a college coach. What did he do for this family? He helped their girls get into their schools. Got great aid packages. Hired ACT coaches for them. Seems a bit odd to me still.

Even though I am going through some of the college crunch now trying to get my youngest sister in-law into school, file the forms, etc. I’ve been doing this for students for about five years now. For what? My salary. My satisfaction. Their education. I understand orchestrating all of these services and knowing the ‘ins and outs’ can be difficult, especially for first generation college students. High schools and colleges offer many of these services for free! Seek and find. Make some phone calls. Maybe these consultants are great, but I don’t see the value in their extra cost.

The Power of Touch

I love technology. I love blowing someone away with something – “look what this can do” and his or her mind just stops. Amazing. It’s great when one can touch someone with technology like it completely changes their world.

I have to admit, one guy has touched me. I got an 8GB iPod Touch for Valentine’s Day this year. I have been sick for the past week with the flu, and needed something to fill my couch time, so Chris gave it to me a little early.

I am terribly excited about this little device. Apple has just brought so much together into one sleek tool. Of course, one could argue that it is no different than any other ‘PDA’; however, I’ve used PDAs and I don’t see myself ditching this anytime soon for one of those clunky things in the attic. The interface is nice. I don’t read directions. I just dive in. I picked this up without even fumbling one bit. My everything can be with me: music, photos, traffic, weather, videos, Internet, calendar, contacts, and any other programs I toss on there to make my life more organized. Kudos on another consumer electronics development by Apple.

Robo-Kari

Just another day at the Koerners

I ran all over town buying Christmas presents for this child on Black Friday. I got up at 2 a.m. after cleaning up from Thanksgiving until 11 p.m. I froze my tushy off without a Starbucks in sight. I got punched in the kidney at Target. I got motion sick in the line at Toys R Us – it just was too much weaving back and forth. I dealt with ripped bags and tripped up the deck steps. I wrapped and wrapped and wrapped. And, after all that effort, she puts the cardboard bucket on her head and walks around the house.

Student Loan Stress

I work in financial aid, and there is a ‘big hoopla’ going on right now in regards to financial aid. Essentially, due to said ‘big hoopla’ propaganda/media is advising students not to trust financial aid offices and to apply for the loans they need on their own. This is causing complete insanity for the following reasons:

1. Students must abide by the rules set out by the Department of Education. The financial aid offices at universities help students follow such rules. Without following certain rules (borrowing within the set cost of attendance), cheaper financial aid could be revoked.
2. Financial aid offices also work FOR the student. I don’t know how many students I had to counsel about the difference between Federal and private loans just last semester alone. I ended up just saying, “Listen, I’m returning your private loan and you need to call ‘lender’ to get it changed to a cheaper GradPLUS loan”.
3. Financial aid offices are the watch dogs. We read the fine print that some students overlook. If a lender or a loan sounds kind of funny, we have the experience to know this and we counsel the student. Good financial aid officers will always do so.
4. Financial aid offices know the rules and regulations. Similar to point 3, but on a bigger scale. Some private lenders have a business of taking students for a ride. They will offer benefits and great teasers, but when it comes time to repay the loan, it could be really ugly. Financial aid officers know who is good and who is bad. It’s not about offices signing with lenders and making partnerships.
5. Other aid could be available. Do not take a loan of any kind before grants and scholarships are exhausted. At that point, take Federal loans. Only take private loans if desperate.
6. Only use non-school channeled loans after speaking with a financial aid officer. These loans can be scary because they don’t even go through a financial aid office. So, the ‘guard dogs’ don’t even see if anyone could be raiding the ‘cookie jar’.

Just be careful and borrow wisely. Remember that not everyone graduates making six figures, so don’t throw money away! Keep your credit clean – you don’t want to have your college borrowing mistakes follow you.

“You need to live like a student, so you don’t have to live like a student for the rest of your life.”
-my good friend from TG

Dogs: How to Train your Humans

Hot Dog

The people at the Humane Society of Missouri offer services through a wonderful partnership with Greater St. Louis Training Club. GSLTC offers a variety of courses to inform humans about canine behavior, how to best communicate with your fuzzy bud and provide resources for specific behavioral issues. They have been a great resource for me over the past year and I hope to continue to work with them.

Last year, I attended two of their courses and received wonderful suggestions about reading materials and future courses for Busch. In the next few weeks, I will be taking a human course to better handle my anxious pup, Busch. Also, Coal and I will be starting down the Canine Good Citizen path!

If anyone is looking into training, see what your local Humane Society suggests. Often times you’ll run into wonderful people who really love working with people and their pups to produce a more productive relationship.

P.S. Coal is now 55 pounds! Great from her 45 pounds a little less than two months ago.

Heating Small Outbuildings

For the coop, I have two infrared heat lamps that I put in 3 gallon plastic buckets so the metal wouldn’t catch fire with feathers, etc. I took a short extension cord, cut it and used the male end to hook into an extension cord from the deck. I wired the bare end of the extension cord into a baseboard thermostat on the inside of the coop (you must get one that is 120 volt and water heater thermostats didn’t have the desired temp range). The thermostat then powers the outlet inside. Once it’s above 50 degress, the lamps kick off.

Cost of all materials ~$80

Heat lamps $6.50 each from Buchheit
Buckets $3 each
Cord $6.50
Thermostat $19
Bulbs $11 (noticed that name brand put off stronger heat than o ff brand)
Extension cord $10
Protective box for outdoor cord union $3
Outlet $.46
Face Plate $.20
Insulated housing $2 each
Wire nuts

Need drill, pocket knife, screwdrivers.

Took an hour. Hang lamps low (not too low to catch straw on fire, but remember heat rises). Keeps uninsulated 8×10 coop at 35 degrees in single digit windy, weather.

Holy Moldy, Batman!

A fellow chicken lover posted a great suggestion online:

Supplement your chickens’ diet with grocery store greens (not moldy!) that are past their selling prime.

Great idea! My free ranging flock doesn’t have much to munch on recently since the grass is dying back for the year, so I started calling grocery stores in the area.

The first store said they donate old veggies to charity, then the second store said they no longer give produce to the public due to health and legal concerns. They had to even switch to trash compactors instead of dumpsters due to people diving for food, and in the event they got ill, would sue the store. I would have never thought of such things happening – wow!

Needless to say, I didn’t find any greens for my chickens. I do have to call one store back tomorrow to talk with the manager, but I’m not hopeful considering all the other information I have heard today.