In like a lion, out like a lion

This March has been very busy!  We've hosted friends from school for a long weekend, and then my folks for a little over a week.  We also went to an International Defense Pistol Assoc. competition, and of course, there are the night classes, the work, the horse-back riding, writing, and housework that we always have going on.

We had some gloriously warm days in mid March, but the muddy month has returned to its winter ways as it hands over the reins to April. We'll see if April will pursue the "flowers" or "showers" route...

In the mean time here are some pictures from Saturday's adventuring:

 it was far too cold Saturday morning. And far too early.

 IDPA specializes in creating situations/scenarios for you to shoot through--including having to use "cover" and move from cover to cover, crouch, use your weak hand only, or shoot from a prone position, things like that. The idea is to teach you how to shoot in realistic situations, so that should the occasion arise you can defend your life, or the lives of those you love without endangering innocents.

 After you shoot through a specific "set" the range is made safe, and then everyone toddles down front to see how you did--if you hit the target where you are supposed to, etc.  Points are tallied, and then the targets are patched up for another round.


patching up the target

Each set is also timed.

 Did I mention that it was cold?

Here is an example of close quarters shooting (I'm 6' from the targets):

 After freezing our little fingers off from about 9:30am-2pm we went to Uncle Frank and Aunt Joanie's house for soup and refreshing, and to clean our pistols. We also warmed up by playing with the 1 year old Springer Spaniel, Dandy, who loves to be chased.

Dandy

 After dinner Nick and I headed back home to our little big house and crawled into bed for some much needed sleep under our nice cozy covers.  Because March missed the "out like a lamb" memo.