My best friends gave me an opportunity to live on a beautiful ranch in Bergheim, Texas for about 10 years. During that time I raised kids, dogs, goats, calves, sheep, turtles, horses and ran my own business. One day, my best friend, Jerry, decided that his wife, Susan, and I should learn how to operate a handgun, for protection. Recently, a rancher’s wife was attacked and murdered by an illegal immigrant who came on her ranch when everyone else was gone. So, Jerry hired a specialist and brought him out to the ranch one Saturday for our first lesson. While writing this memory, I asked my husband what I should call this man who was teaching Susan and I to shoot the handgun. Ken immediately replied, “a dumb-ass!” Well, anyway, this gentleman was very knowledgeable and had taught at the Army base in San Antonio so I felt very comfortable learning from such an expert.

Now, this was not my first time in operation of a weapon as my first husband had taken me squirrel and deer hunting on several occasions. I might add here that only one animal has ever been affected by my hunting skills as I often said if I actually killed something, it would have been that the animal climbed up on the barrel, got me off balance and the gun would go off accidentally… or, in other words, the animal chose my gun to commit suicide. My last hunting excursion was when I was only 23 and I shot a poor squirrel, and didn’t kill it. It climbed into a hole in the tree and cried loudly. I never hunted again because of that incident.

My husband, Ken, decided to take me hunting deer with him, only once. He said I made noise and had to pee too much. Even then, he was able to kill a young buck and as I watched this happen, I was horrified and screamed at him that I would never go hunting with him again that he was a baby animal killer! I cried for the rest of the day.

So, back to my learning how to operate a handgun….. the gentleman sat down and showed Susan and me how to handle the gun properly, how to load the gun, how to take it apart and clean it…the whole nine yards of speeches on gun safety and the basic gun handling 101 course was complete. The next step was to take us to the target range to learn how to shoot the handgun. Susan took a stance lifted her handgun and steadied it with her other hand. She aimed, shot and hit the target. We all clapped and laughed and were so excited. Then, it was my turn. I did everything exactly the way Susan did except hit the target. I hit everything else in a 30 yard radius other than the target. Shot after shot I tried, to no avail. The training session was over. The sun was setting. The handgun specialist went home.

Several weeks later Susan and I went on a trip from San Antonio to Beaumont. The road between Houston and Beaumont is very isolated. There is only one rest stop and we both felt it was necessary to pull into the rest stop. There were several cars near the restrooms with some men with tattoos working on a car. We looked around and instantly felt uneasy. Susan said, “I’m going to take the gun in with us for safety.” I watched her put the gun in her purse, step out of the car and lock it. We both walked into the restroom together. Susan told me to stand outside her stall and to tell her if any of those men came in. Here she is sitting on the pot with a handgun in her hand and me alone outside her stall as the “real target!”

It really was uneventful…the normal pee and leave routine that travellers do. But at that moment I really wished I had been better at the target training because I, and not Susan, would be holding the gun. We got back into the car and proceeded on with our trip.

A couple of weeks later, my uncle came to visit. Jerry told him about my terrible use of the handgun…as I was possibly untrainable. My uncle calmly told Jerry, “Well, as I see it Deb needs a shotgun with full choke….hand it to her and say shoot and keep shooting. She’ll be fine from then on.” From that point on, I am a shotgun momma. Have had one by my desk for years. All I know how to do is lift and pull that trigger. I have never had any intention of using this gun for anything than protection of myself or my family; but, if you try to take my gun away, I’ll be the first one to tell you no, you can’t.

Last summer Texans watched empty rain clouds roll in and out on a daily basis. Lakes, rivers, aquafer, ponds (tanks here in Texas) all dried up. Water sports was a much wished for commodity. The temperatures were constantly over 100. During the winter rain came finally. All the lakes, rivers, ponds (Texas tanks) have finally come up to normal levels. This spring we’ve brought in more top soil and new plants for the flower beds and vegetables for the garden beds. We all hope to have some production. This reminds me of the plight of farmers who depend on weather for their financial well-being. We all complain about the price of groceries but never dig deeper into the roots of the problem. People say we do not have global-warming and that it is pure politics. We celebrated 40 years of Earth Day successes. The air is cleaner but hidden from us are many environmental threats to Earth’s gardens, animals, fish and birds. We all teased about doing rain dances last summer, and said we were “praying” for rain but nothing happened until it was “time” to happen. So, the question is, “when is timing” and how do we deal with “timing?” I say the time is now for all of us to do everything in our power to be good stewards of our Earth. We need to be examples to our children and our neighbors. When we all start doing our share, even if it doesn’t rain, we will be prepared. We need to remember the Texas drought and how it took away so many of our natural resources…resources that all of us have a tendency to take for granted. Live like there will not be rain again and then enjoy it when it comes.