Day 42--Women in the Outdoors

The day I have anxiously been awaiting turned out to be the most beautiful weather!  This event was held at a ranch about 35 minutes from Belton and started at the awful time of 7:30 a.m.  I got there in plenty of time to find a beautiful setting and lots of women like me, ready for an adventure.  Women in the Outdoors is a women's group dedicated to getting women outdoors and teaching outdoor skills, etc.  It is a branch off of the National Wild Turkey Federation--that is not the whiskey, but the birds!  In my pre-registration, I signed up for four classes for the day:  photography in the outdoors, cowboy campfire cooking, geocaching, and trailer backing.  When I got to the registration sign in, they told us that the geocaching teacher couldn't make it, so I signed up for light rifle shooting in place of that.  Some of the other classes that they offered were:  kayaking, fly-fishing, bow fishing, shotgun shooting, pistol safety and shooting, gun cleaning, archery, outdoor first aid, self-defense, welding, and others.

Views of some of the area and the beautiful oaks and lake

My photography class was first and wasn't good.  The instructor was totally unorganized, and couldn't get pictures to pull up on her computer, and we never snapped a shot.

Photography class--total boredom

The cowboy cooking was awesome.  We learned about cooking with dutch ovens over coals and got recipes and techniques for doing all kinds of things.  Got to taste cinnamon rolls, tandoori chicken, Hungarian goulash, pineapple upside down cake, pizza, and a baked banana dessert done on the coals or in Dutch ovens.  Everything was great and we got the recipes--which can also be done in regular ovens.

Cowboy campfire cooking

Next was trailer backing which I once again failed at miserably--but the instructor was such a laid-back sweet guy letting us drive his pickup and back his boat, that I had a great time failing at it!  No pictures of this miserable attempt!

The last class was the light rifle shooting where we shot .22 rifles.  I didn't do too bad--but no solid bull's eye.

Light rifle shooting

The place we went was absolutely beautiful--Jack Hilliard Ranch in Devilla.  This group has this event the 2nd weekend of June every year and there were probably 150 people there at least.  There were raffles (I didn't win anything) and silent auctions (I got a t-shirt), catered lunch, and just a lot of camaraderie with women old and young and from all walks of life.  The weather was beautiful with light breezes and high of 90 so we were never really sweltering.  The majestic oak trees on the property kept us in shade most of the time except on the rifle range.  It was just a great day that I would have never signed up for had I not been looking for "a first".  I will go back for a 2nd and a 3rd I believe.

PS:  Update on the previous day's excitement.  Bill took his dad back out to the lake today and stayed most of the day with him, and he seems content there now.  Of course, he doesn't have his pickup this weekend, but he asked when we could get the rest of his stuff moved out there so that was a good sign.  Hopefully, this will work out until we can get his tiny house built on the property.