Gamedinner and Backyard Bow Pro

We may be between seasons right now but team Backyard Bow Pro is still as busy as ever! We've been having live Webinar Presentations (www.anymeeting.com/backyardbowpro1) to try and fill everyone in and keep yall up to date.

Lots of things have changed and progressed since the last time I wrote and we now have teams in 11 different states!! With new sponsors such as ScentLok, Lumenok, MDP (Maximum Draw Products), justfordoes.com, and more I expect that we'll continue to grow at an exponential rate! Recently we've been aquiring land left and right. We actually are looking for more members and team leaders, and with the cost of membership CRAZY low at just under $150 (most of that going to the background check) I wouldn't think it would be hard for people to see the value.

One of my favorite things has been traveling around (and sometimes sticking as close as the backyard) with our HitcHiker. If someone would fling targets from it for me I would stand out there with a recurve and shoot ALL day long. We even started selling them and have yet to meet someone who didn't have a blast shootin' with them!

This past weekend I went with a few of the guys (Joe, Billy, and Adam) to Mississippi where Kenneth Lancaster and Van's Deer Processing and Sporting Goods hosted a fund-raiser bow shoot for Shane Smith, a good friend of mine and awesome sportsman. Shane had lost his home and almost everything he owned in a house fire recently. While I knew how many friends and fans he had I would've never dreamed the event would be as successful as it was. I learned that the special minority of us that consider ourselves hunters really is a brotherhood. People who had never even met him came together to raise money for a brother in need and I have never been more moved. All too often in this world do people get caught up in pleasing themselves and never stopping to help those who need it...but WE are different! We use what God gives us and likewise give to others.

Now let's not get confused here...this past weekend wasn't JUST an emotional experience. We found time to work, cut up, goof off, laugh, play, and more. We drove down from good ol' NC with HitcHiker in tow! Everyone down there LOVED it! Here's a picture of new friend and Hoyt Pro-Shooter Brett Morgan shootin' the HitcHiker with his BITE TAB! Over 70 lbs of drawback...talk about some serious shootin'!   And he smoked it!

After the shoot that was held for Shane there was an auction with TONS of stuff donated by people just trying to do their part for him. This auction raised close to $44,000 for Shane's new house!! After the auction some of us hung around and talked about how special the entire day was and how great every single person is that contributed. Here's a picture of us with, Antler Insanity, and Bone Collector who all showed up to support a sincerely great guy.  (L to R:  Billy Stewart - BYBP; Travis "T-Bone" Turner- Bone Collector;  Randy Buckner - Antler Insanity; Shane Smith and John Young - Antler Insanity; Me; Nick Mundt - Bone Collector; Kenneth Lancaster - Antler Insanity/Bone Collector)

I thank God every day that I was brought up in a place that has allowed me to grow to appreciate the the benefits as well as the thrill that comes from hunting, harvesting, and laying the smack down on just about anything I have an opportunity to. I am SO looking forward to the cool air of fall and the sight of a sunset coming over the mountains in my tree stand! GAH it's good to be in this minority, isn't it???  :)

As a non-hunter living and working around avid hunters I often find myself feeling compelled to explain myself. It’s as though a non-hunter ought to feel uncomfortable around people who love the sport, and that the fine people who I count as friends who love to hunt ought to mistrust me for some reason.

Let me say that, having been raised in a family of Quakers, firearms have never been a part of my experience. I have never shot a gun. I have never shot a bow. To the best of my knowledge, the only animals that I’ve killed have been fish, softshell crabs and lobsters.

This is not to say that I in any way judge those who do… in fact… if I have learned anything by my association with hunters is that they often represent the best of what I admire in others. Joe Lasher is a good example. An honest and caring guy.. a good family man.. Someone who thinks hard about his place in the world and who tries to make a positive impact on the lives of those around him. I consider myself lucky to know him and call him a friend.

I might also say that I am not blind to the excesses that hunting sometimes leads to. As a boy in Missouri, I remember how every year at the end of deer season the local paper would publish a photo of a vast pile of dear carcasses that had been collected by rangers that hunters had shot, and lost, in the woods. The pile was bigger than a house, and seemed to me to be a huge pile of pain and useless slaughter.

Perhaps that image is one reason that I feel that my involvement in Gamedinner.com is so important. While I am appalled by such wanton waist, I don’t believe that it is representative of the people like Joe that I have come to know. I truly believe that, when practiced with intention.. when caring and respect lead the sport, hunting can be a valuable and important part of our culture. As a chef I value the food, of course, but as someone who considers our environment to be the greatest gift and responsibility we as humans have, I find a common cause with outdoorsman.

And so, to Joe, and Billy, and Mark, and all of the other fine people that I have been privileged to meet, hats off! Let’s work together to show the world that hunters and non-hunters alike have a responsibility to preserve and maintain the world around us, and that cooperatively, we can and must find a way to work together.

And while you are at it, there is always room in my freezer for some more game meat!