Poker Night and Women on Target

Our weekend was very busy, but it was a ton of fun. Ken and I arranged for Poker Night at our place on Saturday night, and we had two have two separate tables for poker to accommodate everyone.  By the end of the evening, a few people had left, and poker playing went to the back patio so everyone could enjoy the cigars at the same time. We were up until 2:30 playing poker and having a good time.


I only took a few pictures, but they were great!

Norm and Michael Gallagher hit it off - the two older guys of the night were discussing what were their favorite movies.  I do recall hearing about Shogun, My Darlin' Clementine, and some others.  I was really happy when I recognized The Quiet Man.  Haha!  Notice Ermanno trying to remain polite but laughing, and Grant in the background hasn't even cracked a smile - he's used to his father-in-law!

I have to say, that this picture of Martin Hoover is a favorite of mine.  Everyone was laughing at Norm (Grant's father-in-law), but I captured Martin absolutely caught up in the crap that Norm was talking. Kathy was also laughing at the craziness of that old man....and this was before Norm walked into the patio pole.

This would be Kenny showing off his mad skills.  Of course, it is only an 8 oz beer can, but it was still funny to see.


On Sunday, I helped out at the Gun Club with the Women on Target event.  I was again a chaperone, and I had a great time working with my group of women.  Most of them found me to be crazy, and every one of the ladies had a great time. I was actually forced into the group photo, so I made sure to be in the back so that the participants would get the focus instead of me.  

Sunday, we had temperatures at 95*.  It was insanely hot, and according to Miki, 8 cases of water were consumed that day.  We volunteers had a great time, and I only heard a couple of complaints from the ladies about the short shooting time on the pistol range.  I personally love that we have the banners now and are taking group photos!  It's a couple great additions.

Women on Target

I am completely exhausted this morning, but yesterday was so much fun!!  I have been away from the Gun Club and the Women's Programs for so long while working on the Law stuff, so I spent a ton of time catching up with everyone and giving them the update on what is going on.  When it was time to get everything started, I was ready. I was simply a chaperone, but it was awesome!  Brie Wells finally made it to our Club with her friend Irena, and then Aaron Garcia's wife, Jennifer, was in my group as well.  I had never had a "simple" job when working the WOT events, so it was great to sit back and talk with the ladies during the day, and to make sure that they had a blast.  


There were pictures taken all day, so I'm hoping that the men get those photos posted soon not only so I can forward them to Brie and Irena, but so I can get copies for myself.  It was so great to see these ladies enjoy their experience, and to enjoy the sport that we love so much.  I remember now why it was that I wanted to push the Women's Programs and fought the Board and the Men so hard for it.  I can't believe that a few months away takes the memories so quickly.  

Brie did really well on all of the ranges, but she excelled at pistol.  I made sure to get the picture of her handling the 1911 for Jeff.  She kept joking through the day that if she was to take a shopping list to Jeff that he would buy her ANYTHING she wanted.  I kept laughing because I know how true that is.


What was impressive was listening to how much the Ladies enjoyed having these men around. There were so many comments about how helpful the men were, how patient they were, how supportive, etc.  The most important comment I heard was how protective these men were of the women shooting.  Each woman that approached me - whether in my group or not - and told me that the know that if they join the Club or shoot at the Club that there is no doubt they will be included and that the men will look out for them.  I had never thought about this aspect before.  I always knew that our Club was a Community, but I never gave it a second thought about what a Family we are.  These women saw that very quickly!  


At the end of the day, I had to leave shortly after the closing so that I could get Brie and Irena to lunch.  I was able to hand out membership applications again which I love to do - let's get more ladies to be members and drag their husbands over!!  

Women and Guns

It was "that time of the month" for us women to head to the Apple Valley Gun Club.  I inserted Ken's funny joke that it is really ironic that our program is "monthly."  Very funny.

We had an extra day in our schedule to host Deputy Sarah Hendrix from the County Employee Resources Department.  These are the people in charge of handling the Concealed Carry Permits for our County.  Many of our women have asked how they can get a permit since our County is one of the few that issues these permits, so I called Sarah and asked if she would speak to our Club.  She was able to get permission to drive up with Joyce Martinez and they gave a great presentation to 43 women. 

During the process of registration, I managed to anger many, many men from our area who wanted to attend.  Unfortunately, this was something that I had decided for my Women's Program, and we just didn't have the room for anyone else.  In addition, I had spoken to Sarah, and she wanted to limit this to women only since they wouldn't ask the questions they needed to if a guy was huffing that it was a "stupid question."  I agreed with her, so I spent a month getting called nasty names and yelled at for being a sexist.  Hahahaha!  Really?  Funny!

The night ended with many women making their interview appointments and some women choosing to turn in their applications because they didn't believe that this would work for them.  I was really happy with how things went, and we received some great feedback.

Our Shotgun event was the very next night.  Paul Neidermann from J & S Aircushion came up and volunteered his time to show the women how to properly use a shotgun - and for many women, to get over the fear of using a shotgun.  Properly finding the pocket on a woman is often the hardest part for us, and when it hurts, we won't shoot it anymore.    Well, Paul solved that problem for us, and we had a great time.  There were a couple women who had never held a firearm before attend this month's event, and they left with some safety background and had a great time.  There was one woman who had never fired a shotgun who went three rounds of trap and was hitting 20, 22, and 24.  Way to go! 


As for my personal shooting, I waited until all of the women had gone through the line once or twice and worked with Paul.  Once they were done, I jumped in so I could give it all a try.  Paul was patient with me, explained what the hell I was doing "looking down the barrel."  That was one of the hardest things for me to comprehend.  I understood that I wasn't to use the bead to aim, and that I wasn't to aim, but simply to react and shoot.  But I had no idea what it was to look down the barrel because when I tried to, then I was reaching my head over the stock rather than resting my cheek on the stock.  When I hit the first clay, I think Paul was more excited than I was. I went on to hit quite a few clays and I had a great time!

Showing the proper place to mount

Once mounted, put your face to the stock and bring the barrel down.  

Now, you're ready to shoot

Joelle is on the left of me and Wendy is on the right

Myself with Jodi Marhoefer and Miki Marhoefer

Found the pocket

Paul is telling me, "Look here!"

And here's where I finally hit the first flying clay of my life!

Once the ladies were done with their lesson, they tried some rounds of trap

One of our helpers even worked with Paul and then tried out the information.
And he was a great sport about the pink shells.