North Vernon, IN Jan 21-22 AAR

[SPQR]

Oh the challenges we face...

At 8pm on the night of the 20th ol SPQR let his dog out.  The air was mild and clean.  An hour later he checked again and found nearly a quarter of an inch of ice covering and freezing rain coming down.  The temperature had dropped below 20 degrees and it seemed somehow odd that in such terrible cold nature still found a way to get liquid water onto the earth.  The car was loaded and pointing out of the drive.  He began to heat water.  Twice during the night he dumped hot water onto the doors of the car to free them.  HQ had dutifully prepared rations and necessities, bravely hiding her concern behind a veil of calm and relentless confidence. 

It would normally have been a drive of less than two hours, with the world encased in slickeriness, it took 3.  His mind wondered...

On Christmas Day, 1776, General Washington led a band of men across an ice-choked river in a blizzard of terrifying extent.  His men were given three days of rations, nearly all they had anyway, and marched ten miles, many without shoes.  Washington and some of the officers had horses to ride.  Many did not ride their horses as the going was treacherous.  Washington rode despite it, Jefferson calling him the "greatest horseman" of the day.  Along the way the men were witness to his horsemanship on several occasions, and these discerning men, the ones that had not quit, had measured him worthy of their support.  Heavy.  Desperate.  the men in the rear of the column marched on a pink road, the ice and cold splitting and bleeding the feet of the men without shoes...

Any shoot at a new range is in possession of its various anxieties, and no one is more keen to this than the Shoot Boss.  I say to you, if not a single shooter had shown up I would not have blamed them.  In fact, I would have applauded their sense.  But what would you say if I told you that, despite a half inch of ice on the road and firing lines and temperatures below 20 degrees, every shooter signed up for Saturday showed up?  Madness.  Sheer madness.  Surely they must some kind of masochist, some kind of glutton for discomfort and danger and Fear?  Not hardly.  Just folk.  Just Appleseeders.


So here we are at Muscatatuck Christian Ranch, testing whether our nation is still in the grips of people who possess the character and judgement to make their Country better?  Appleseed did not find them wanting.  Dennis and Anita were incredibly gracious and hospitable hosts!  Our shooters, Jennifer, Chris, Carl, Greg and Josiah persevered exactly as they should have and proved worthy of their heritage. They braved terrible cold and conditions.  They won their stripes.  Chris even won himself a patch with a hard fought 213!  HUZZAH!

Pictures to come.   

[SPQR]

Hello ice, nice to see you.  Its been a long time.










This is our youth shooter, Carl.  Remember, class, to show your work!




Ice left.  Mud came.  Spitfire sad.


Rifleman Chris!

[HQ]

Yes the weather was a bit crazy - but the shooters were awesome!  The support staff amazing!  The food delicious!  And of course - the hot chocolate was a life saver!

Thank you to Muscatatuck Christian Ranch!  I look forward to many more shoots over in your neck of the woods!

Congratulations to Chris! 

Everyone!  Remember to relax into your positions!  Go through the six steps and dry practice dry practice dry practice!  We'll see all of you with patches in hand soon!  I have no doubts!

[brianheeter]

Hats off to the shooters for not letting the weather stop them.  Hats off to the Instructors, for that matter!  Good job all!

brian

[crazyhorse]

Thanks to SPQR, HQ, and Spitfire for all their help in making this Appleseed a success!  To make that drive after an ice storm showed some real dedication. 

We had a blast!  Looking forward to doing this again sometime.....with no ice. 

Chris

[slim]

Prior commitments kept me away from this one but I'm hoping to join you folks later this year at that venue.

I too was out shooting this weekend and the elements added a whole new meaning to "moving while shooting" for some stages. - And we were trying to stay stationary!

Keep up the good work, folks. See you soon!

[spitfire51]

Ice left.  Mud came.  Spitfire sad.

Yeah, by that point in the weekend I had made my peace with the ice.  Still couldn't walk on it at all, but you gotta admit it's a lot easier to clean off the boots than the mud is.

I have to give another big thank you to our hosts for the weekend, the hospitality everyone at the camp showed was amazing and very much appreciated.  We had a great group of hard-working shooters, it was a pleasure working with all of you.  Congrats again to Chris on earning the patch.  Hope to see you all out at a future event.

[Uncle Davey]

Washington crossing the Delaware,  nice! Leave it to SPQR to come up with that..congratulations to Chris!