Helping In Our Own Backyard

Helping in Our Own Backyard

In these times when media is constantly covering world news we sometimes overlook the people that need our help right here at home. This website is a directory of US charities and causes you can donate not only money to, but some of them just need your time, or used equipment. The listing is free to cause and the website doesn’t handle any of the donations that go to the causes. 100% of your donations go to who you want them to go to.

The website was a “brain storm from God”, say the owner of the site. “It’s his site not mine. I am just the tool he used to get it”. The site is working on getting non-profit status also, so people may donate to help defer the cost involved in having the site. In the meantime if you have a cause you would like listed contact help@helpinginourownbackyard.com

Tiffany, Colorado – 06/19/10 – Colorado

PROIS COMPETITOR SHOOTER’S SHIRTS NOW AVAILABLE!

Now Available in our Camp Store, Prois Competitor shooter’s shirt!

Hybrid flagship of the new Prois Competitor Line brings on the heat for competitve shooters and archers alike.  Today’s female handgun, shotgun and archery enthusiasts have given a whole new meaning to ‘shooting like a girl’- and they’re looking for serious tools to give them an edge on the range.  So Prois Hunting Apparel has answered the call of these focused women athletes and have introduced the Prois Competitor Line of shooter shirts.

If you are competing in any style or type of shooting, you need a tightly integrated set of advantages- technical skill, control and practice- to consistently hit the mark.  The Prois Competitor line is tailored with the same kind of precision with which shooters train for competition. This line is crafted from sturdy 100% polyester wicking fabric and is carefully engineered with an athletic design for complete ease of comfort and movement.  All three styles include bilateral shoulder padding tailored to protect both sides- whichever is dominant for shotgunning.

The Competitor Sleeveless is perfect for the balmy days on the range.  It is comfortable, athletic and allows the shooter to move about unhindered.

The Competitor Short Sleeve provides an athletic and attractive cut.  Perfect for indoor or outdoor ranges!

The Competitor Longlseeve is the ultimate shirt for the female shooter who does it all!  It is complete with bilateral forearm slap pads and thumbholes in the cuffline for the archer- and bilateral shoulder protection for the shotgunner.

Guru Huntress: ThermaCell on … mosquitoes off!

I have a thermacell that I won at a sporting event. I took it hunting this spring for Turkey and they do work great. Here is Nancy Jo’s review on the WON.

Guru Huntress: ThermaCell on … mosquitoes off!.

BlackHawk A.L.E.R.T. Bag

BlackHawk A.L.E.R.T. Bag

I have had this sweet bag for some time now and it was sent to me to “try” out. I have put it through some unbelievable paces.

It has rolled through snow in November to and from the deer shack. I have drug it through the gravel and spring mud on the way to expos and shows by its retractable handle. The push button on the handle makes it easy to extend partway or to full extension with one hand. It has been overloaded with Prois clothing and Camp Wild Girls logo wear until it is bulging at the seams. It is my bag of choice to take all the baby paraphernalia with, when spending a couple of days at Grandma’s. Sometimes I have to lay on it like a pair of tight jeans to get it zipped, but it keeps on taking a licking. It is a Blackhawk. Just the name alone reinforces that it is tough. Even more important than being tough, it is well planned out bag. There are 9 interior mesh pouches for gear storage. It sports an easy open lid and a cushioned compartment inside that is perfect for ammunition or other semi valuable items that need a bit more cushion (i.e. toys). It has loop handles on each end and the two side handle straps have Velcro to hold them together.

It does have on major downfall. I have to part ways with this bag, (sadly) when it comes to travel by air. It is oversized for airline industry standards. Ultimately, I have literally, drug this bag, through rain, sleet and snow and it delivers every time!

Louisiana – 06/04/10 – Louisiana

Aztec, New Mexico – 08/21/10 – New Mexico – New Mexico

Coffeeville, Kansas – 06/27/10 – Kansas – Kansas

There’s a new “Kitchen” in Town

Not sure what to have for dinner tonight? Lots of wild game in the freezer and don’t really know what to do with it? Maybe you have a great recipe you are itching to share? Well now there is a place to not only share your recipes but try out others favorite recipes besides.

Wild Kitchen.net is a new recipe website focused on the “Wild” side of cooking. Their moto is “Become one with Nature…then marinade it!” This site is easy and free to use. Started by Jodi Smith in FL,  just in time for cooking and grilling your favorite wild game. They have everything from Ostrich and Tortellini soup to Gator poppers. Stop on over and check it out!

June’s Woman of the Wild-Christine Appleberg

By Christine Appleberg

How does someone who grew up in the Northwest Suburbs of Chicago become an avid outdoorswoman, president of a bowfishing club and editor of a hunting website?

I credit my parents, particularly, my most understanding mom.   She started a lot of my interest by teaching me to fish and then how to fillet the fish that we caught.  This lit the fire in me that nature was not only wondrous and fun, but often downright tasty.  And despite her desire to see me wear cute frilly dresses and act like a proper little girl, she never attempted to quash my fascination with the outdoors and nature, even when I kept a live red bellied snake in my dancing ballerina jewelry box.

Gaining permission to hunt where I lived was difficult but finding a place to trap was far easier.  Even in the waning days of the fur boom there were plenty of raccoons, ‘possums and skunks on the edges of suburbia for a kid to catch.

When I checked my traps I often carried my Browning Nomad recurve bow and a mismatched assortment of arrows with me.

The bow was a gift from my older brother and the arrows were whatever Kmart had on sale.  I knew nothing of arrow spine, or bow ‘tuning’ concepts.  At 45lbs @ 28″ the bow was far too heavy for me. Yet, a surprising number of rabbits, squirrels and the occasional woodchuck became dinner and tanned hides due to my bow.   Deer were scarce in the area back then, so while I did buy a mail in permit a few times, I never actually went hunting for them.

After high school I went to college in Bottineau, North Dakota.  Going from the Chicago suburbs to ND was quite a culture shock.  If I remember correctly, there were about 7 million people within a 40 mile radius of where I grew up.  There was only a little over a half million people in the whole state of North Dakota at that time.  While this meant I had to accept that there were no real pizza places or sushi bars for couple hundred miles of my college, the upside was outstanding.

There were miles and miles of State Wildlife areas teaming with critters and hardly any people.  Creatures quite exotic to someone from Illinois, like moose, elk, pronghorn, mulies, snowshoe rabbits, jack rabbits, ruffed grouse and porcupines.  There was an unbelievable amount of waterfowl around too.  The college even had a bird cleaning area for the students. However, my only attempt at waterfowl hunting resulted in me shooting a single blue winged teal, which dropped into the middle of a slough.  I had to wade into the cold water and mud to retrieve it and this experience chilled me on water fowling. My other hunting adventures were more productive, and I kept myself busy with rabbits, ruffed grouse, furbearers and even took my first turkey in ND.

It was also in North Dakota that I started to get serious about archery.  A very entertaining and patient sporting goods shop owner and his wife helped me get set up with JVA Astro Stinger bow.  Even back then this was not a very high tech bow but I became enamored with it.  I shot it every day.  At my first outdoor tournament I won the women’s division but what really made me proud was that I would have been in fourth place had I been competing in the men’s division.  I also managed to win a moving target competition. I was officially hooked.

It was still a couple of years later, when I moved back to Illinois, that I finally started to make a real attempt at hunting deer.  Like most of my other outdoor pursuits, I am a self-taught deer hunter which means that I made a whole lot of dumb mistakes.  One of my first deer bowhunting  experiences I made the mistake of sitting down right in the deer trail and waited for a deer to show up. This was thinking like a trapper rather than a hunter.

Sure enough, a nice buck comes ambling down the trail and just about runs into me.  I was desperately trying to pull my bow back but was unable to because I was overcome with a serious bout of buck fever.  When the buck finally noticed the weird blob waving a bow around in front of him, his eyes bugged out and he simply bounced off the trail snorting (and I swear laughing) at me.

It only took once to learn that lesson but I plenty of learning to do after that.  Thankfully, I was fast learner (and lucky) and did tag my first deer that same year.  Like most hunters today, deer hunting makes up the majority of my hunting time afield.  However, these days I find myself referring to deer season as the ‘off-season’.   Don’t get me wrong, I love deer hunting. However, my latest outdoor obsession lets me pursue my quarry day or night, warm or cold weather, and I can do it, literally, with a boatload of friends.

Bowfishing.

Bowfishing combines the ‘thrill of the hunt’ with fast paced archery action and it’s only as serious as you want to make it.  I am blessed with a great circle of friends and truly some of my fondest memories are times we’ve had together bowfishing.  It’s a sport where on a good day or night you will shoot so many times you may simply become too tired to shoot anymore. Laughing, yelling, high fiving and plenty of ribbing is all part of the sport. After a good bowfishing outing, a new appreciation of the simple things like a hot shower and good soap are realized.

I have been bowfishing almost year round for several years now.  I’ve bowfished from Lake Guntersville in Georgia to Saginaw Bay in Michigan and many places in between.   My boyfriend Kendall has a tricked out pontoon boat that has a raised shooting deck, lights, generator and uses a pusher fan instead of a trolling motor to get into very shallow water.   It gets us some weird looks when we pull it down the road but it is an absolutely sweet bowfishing rig.  [If you're reading this Kendall, I do love you for more than your boat!]

I am currently President of the Illinois Bowfishers Club.  It’s a not for profit club that promotes bowfishing in Illinois through education events, outdoor shows and also host several tournaments and fun shoots.   We also work with state and federal fisheries biologists who study both native and invasive non-native species.  This makes the sport not only fun and entertaining but downright interesting too.

If you are someone who is interested in cutting back on your ‘down time’ between deer seasons, I urge you to look into bowfishing.  You might be surprised at just how much it will change your opinion of the ‘off season’.   I will be teaching a bowfishing class for women at an upcoming Women in the Outdoors class in July at Clinton Lake in Illinois.

For information about bowfishing, check out www.illinoisbowfishers.com

I am an editor and administrator on www.HuntingNet.com There’s a wealth of hunting information there that will help a new hunter avoid learning so many lessons by trial and error like I did.