Babbs in the Woods: Iowa Road Trip ’09 includes Babes, bullets, pheasants and fudge

barb1It’s never good when you wake up and you have to think twice about the effort to slide your feet across the sheets in order to get to the floor beside the bed. That’s the hurt-bag (as my dad, the coach, would say) I find myself in today as I come off a five-day road trip that included Babes with Bullets Camp in Iowa, followed by a half-day afield hunting pheasants with national champion shotgun shooters Kay Clark-Miculek and Sheila Brey. And no Internet access at the old farmhouse bed and breakfast where our hosts treated us to margaritas out of the Jose Cuervo pig pitcher every night along with a combination of Miss Bennie’s homemade cookies, artichoke dip, homemade picante dip and/or chopped veggies from the garden.

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So, where are those birds? Babbs in the field of sorghum. Photo by Maryanne Dabney.

So The WON went silent for a few days while its editor and associate editor shot hundreds of rounds of ammo, visited the Amana Colonies, ate fudge, learned to load and reload fast, ran between targets with loaded guns, ate delicious food in a shed, visited Brownells in Montezuma, tried dandelion wine, waded through chest high sorghum and marched around 200 acres (or so it seemed) of a field with 30+ mile-per-hour winds howling.

And I came home with eight birds (Thanks, Sheila and Kay) that are now soaking in saltwater in the fridge and two will be on the table tonight. I have even more of those things we call good memories and will be ruminating on those shortly.

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Paige Eissinger on the move while instructor Judy Woolley watches. Photo by Barbara Baird.

So … stayed tuned, because we collected photo documentation and some video footage of women shooting guns, dogs running and working a field, Paige riding a tractor into the ground, Babbs up to her elbows in pheasant feathers and innards. And, we collected a few more church sign sayings along the way for our new fun webpage about church signs.

Church sign in Freeburg, Mo. Photo by Barbara Baird.

Church sign in Freeburg, Mo. We don't think a guy put this one up, or maybe, he did? Photo by Barbara Baird.


  • About Barbara Baird

    Publisher/Editor Barbara Baird is a freelance writer in hunting, shooting and outdoor markets. Her bylines are found at several top hunting and shooting publications. She also is a travel writer, and you can follow her at https://www.ozarkian.com.

     

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