Annie Oakley at the Farm

This past weekend Nita invited me up to Red Boiling Springs for her childhood friend Sam to teach me how to shoot. My father has given me his 32 revolver and I am taking the Handgun Carry Permit class in April. The problem is that I was terrified (still a little) of guns. I had never shot one before and needed some major help. Sam, according to Nita was the perfect person to teach me. Was she ever right!

So, Sunday morning Beth and I loaded up in my car and headed to the farm. It was a beautiful drive for such a glorious Sunday. We could not have asked for better weather. The drive took us about 1.5 hours and we just cruised along the highways.

We got to the farm around 11:30 and Nita and Linda had made us lunch. The 5 of us sat down and enjoyed some homemade barbecue, coleslaw and potato salad. I’m sorry to say I did not try the potato salad due to my low carb diet. I did get it on good authority that I had really missed out though. Hopefully I will get another chance to try it at another time.

Just as we were getting finished up some of Nita’s extended family showed up. We were not expecting them and I believe it really threw off Nita’s plans. Suddenly she had two extra adults and five children to entertain.

Sam decided it was time for us to get started so Beth, Sam and I started up to the barn. Sam spent a good amount of time walking me through the gun and all its features. He then explained the differences in ammunition so that we both had a much better understanding of the whole process. Once we were ready to start shooting he got an old gas can out of the barn and set it up about 10 feet from me. He only put one bullet in the first time so I could see what it felt like to shoot. It was not as bad as I thought it would be. So we loaded up the gun and turns out I was pretty good. I could consistently hit the can after the first couple of shots. Truthfully, I never dreamed I would be able to hit anything I was aiming at.

Sam was great and thorough. He had me shoot a few rounds with it cocked and aimed, then he had me aim and just pull the trigger. This is a bit harder but I figured it out. Finally he had me just point and shoot to check my accuracy there.

As a souvenir they had me load up my bulleted gas can in the trunk. This way I can prove to daddy that I actually did hit it as many times as we said.

When we got down to the farm house again, Nita’s family was still there. So, Sam took the time to show me how to clean the gun while we waited on them to leave.

After the family left, Nita and Beth wanted me to see the pond. So the five of us started up the street to the pond. In route we lost Linda. Not literally lost, but she took a spill on the side of the road and busted up her lip pretty good. Luckily we had not gotten very far and Nita ran across the street to her neighbors (actually her grandparents old house that has been restored) to get some paper towels to try and clean Linda up. Her neighbors came over to help and drove Linda back to the house in their ATV. Such wonderful people!

After looking over the pond we walked back to Nita’s and decided to go see Sam’s son’s house across the field. Apparently Sam had found this house that was going to be demolished and asked if he could have it for his son. Sam moved the house himself and his son and friends have been remodeling it. All I can say is “Wow” They have done an incredible job and the house looks like brand new construction at this point. We did a walk through and it is just gorgeous! I really wish I had remembered to take some pictures.

After we had walked through the house I discovered that they raised goats. In the pen were 4 or 5 new baby goats. I of course wanted to pet one and so Sam’s son went and caught me one so I could pet it. I had never petted a baby goat before. It was actually very soft and sooo cute!

All in all it was a wonderful day and very productive. Too bad the extra family showed up. Nita had brought her camera and video camera to catch all my training on tape. Maybe next time.