First Two Kills!

So today I now have two kills in my name. Both of these were just so darned unlikely that I couldn't believe it until I saw the stuff on my arrow and the impaled critter on the cardboard target face. If I had been prepared, I would've had my digital camera to take the pictures, but this time, you'll just have to take my word for it and given the nature of these shots, I don't think I could repeat those!

Kill #1: A huge dragonfly. Apparently it wasn't doing so well, as it didn't quite move in time to escape being hit by my nice self-fletched Carbon Express Heritage 150. It had a pretty nice "squish" effect since it was big enough to get hit by the arrow but was still smaller than my nice 125 grain field point. Bug stuff isn't so bad and I easily wiped it off when I got home.

Kill #2: A lizard. Yes, you may be asking me how the heck I pulled this one off, given that I'm in a hot, humid climate and lizards are pretty active. So basically this lizard decided that the small space between the cardboard target face and the foam backstop was a good place to take a nap. This makes sense because it's still fairly warm and it's inaccessible to any raptors that might be looking for an easy lunch. There's also plenty of bugs, so the lizard has a nice little hideaway. So what happens is I'm practicing and then I do my usual thing and as I'm pulling arrows, one arrow is covered in what looks like red fluid and some random other gunk. Ok, rotting plant material. Then I pull the arrow further out and my nice Heritage 150 and the 125 grain tip is covered in red stuff and when it fully comes out, a lizard drops out. It's got a pretty good size hole in it that matches my field point. I put 1 and 1 together and realize that I actually hit the lizard. Reluctantly in an attempt to show it some respect, I pick up the punctured body (and it was a nice chest shot too!) and place it away from the trail and bury it under some dead leaves. After that target, I made it a point to check for lizards.

Now, for those of you who know me, I actually do have a bit of a liking for reptiles, especially snakes and turtles, but I also do have a soft spot for small lizards because they're just so darned cute. To be honest, I have far more qualms about killing or hurting a rattlesnake than a rabbit. One of the coolest things to watch I think is just seeing how a snake or a hawk or any other predator catches a rabbit and eats it.

Two kills... and I wasn't even hunting for them. I guess that's Nature's way of taking out the "lazy" population!

My Masterpiece

So one of the things I discovered about going from an arid to a humid climate is that some items don't quite transport very well. Point in case being my wooden arrows, which are still usable, but I wouldn't rely on them in a tournament. They're perfectly good for me just to take it easy on the range with my Little Hawk or even my X-200 (although they're a bit stiff and heavy for the 30 lb bow). The fletching on my experimental carbon arrows kinda came off during transport as well (made a bad choice in adhesive apparently!), so I decided to re-fletch my carbon arrows and add some cresting just so they stand out a bit more. Fletching is very relaxing activity for me, although I do have to keep the windows open to make sure I don't accidentally get high from working with Fletch-Tite, which is a methyl-ethyl-ketone based adhesive. Here's the results of my re-fletching work as well as my trusty Hunter I fully equipped.

I can't wait to start shooting again! I've already taken a couple of trips just to get familiar with the Gator Bowmen range and have made my "required" sacrifice of 3 good arrows to any unfamiliar range, including one shatter and two in a nice bed of poison ivy. As far as these re-fletched arrows go, these are the best I've ever fletched myself and I would even venture to say they're even better than a lot of store-made ones I've encountered!

Hey, I Just Cracked my Book Open...

So in the last 2 days, I have accomplished the following:
1) Get my Florida Driver's license. The entire process from start to finish (leave home, do my thing at the DMV and then come back home) was about 2 hours. About 35-40 minutes was dedicated to driving and finding a parking space. I was shocked at how quickly things moved with an appointment and even more shocked that I got to watch the printing process. While I was at it, I also registered to vote in Florida. How hard could it be to cast a proper vote in Florida?

2) Get Florida law-approved car insurance so I could get the Florida license plate and take care of all that good stuff so I can get Florida residency. Suffice to say, as soon as I plop my butt down on the chair in the waiting area, the agent is already eager to go over the materials with me.

3) Get my Florida license plate and registration. I got referred to the local TAG agency and again, as soon as my butt touches the chair, I get called up and all the paperwork gets taken care of. This process was also insanely fast, with most of the time revolving around me running back home to bring back a piece of paperwork I forgot to bring and finding an appropriate tool to replace my CA license plate with my new shiny FL license plate.

And all through the process, everyone was professional, curteous, but they were also good-humored and extremely friendly. Gainesville is really growing on me!

Gainesville at Last!

I've officially made my move from southern California to Gainesville, Florida. Let's just say even though I'm now away from the people I've grown up with at Caltech and Cal State LA and already missing them, I'm still happy to be here. So far, it's been hot and humid, but I'm used to the hot part, having done field work in chaparral and gone to summer-time archery tournaments.

Today I decided to take a semi-random trip south to Marion and Levy counties because someone once told me that it was a beautiful drive through the country-side and there were some nifty state parks to check out, including Rainbow Springs (which I had poked my head into) and Goethe State Park, which is a beautiful forested area. I managed to miss a turn because someone managed to cut me off, but being a bit of an adventurer with a map and a full tank of gas, I decided to explore the area. Let's just say... I wouldn't mind living for a while somewhere as open and undeveloped! I'm already visualizing all of the time I'd spend outside mastering my skills as an archer!

I was hoping to get more work done on the Dunheasa/Telcontar series, but between family and general chaos of setting up, I haven't really done anything, but I think that little jaunt today gave me more inspiration... Stay tuned!