Cricket meets back tension

All in the same spot. Well, at least I'm consistent!

Well, I finally caved. Borrowed the hubs release and screwed up the courage to use it. After shooting fingers for so long, that thing scared the $hit out of me. But, after the first couple arrows (with an audience, jeeze) I sorted out how to get it to go off, complete with flinching, closed eyes and decent groups at a blank bale. Some days I'm such a baby. Haha.

Fortunately, shooting with the BEST system for a few years makes it really easy to use the right muscles.  Thinking about the aim sight picture and not getting the clicker in the right place at the right time = major frustration. So, this may well be the answer. You have the wall (ie. clicker) and you are good to go.

Pretty sure that Khatuna will be someone to be reckoned with before too long with hers. I have a feeling she will pick this up even faster. :D

Be Brave

Looking forward to the "Brave" Pixar movie this week. I'm sure it will be a major hit with the 6-12 crowd, along with bringing BIG hair back. Thinking we will see lots of red haired archers around Halloween maybe.

I posted a question about a month ago on LinkedIn to find out if archery is really getting a boost because of the summer movies. The short answer is, yes.  All over and down under as well. I love LI as one of my favorite social tools, as there is a robust archery online community there.  Now I feel the need to go visit those nice folks in New Zealand and Australia to see for myself. Add one to your class, please! There is a longer article on this subject coming out July 10 in Bow Adventures (aka Bow America) with great input from a 2012 Para-Olympian, writers and coaches around the world.

Alaska trip paddle

My summer of shooting has been sort of sidelined, which has made me grumpy, but also reminded me to slow. the. hell. down. I've remembered what my husband looks like (adorable), my dog, read at least three books, learned to make cheese from scratch, opened my Etsy store and have been thinking about buying a kayak. Last summer I was shooting for two hours, 4-5 days a week. Was in better shape physically but didn't do anything else all summer.  In the last few weeks, I have been starting to pick up my compound again, shooting a little 40-50-60 with friends in the evenings, and reevaluating my archery goals in general. I really don't miss working that hard, but if you want to do recurve stuff, then it comes with the territory.

Goals. I currently have none. It's a weird place to be in my head and I feel a little lost without them honestly. At work I live and die by deadlines, they are an evil necessity. And right now I have some major ones there, so trying to figure out when I will be sleeping and having a life in the next six months. Motivation. Fear is a good one, but not sustainable. Right now, I want to just hop in a kayak and paddle somewhere out of cell reach.

I get a bit neurotic about how I am shooting, which hasn't been great for the past six months. The only summer tournament I am interested in coincides with two straight weeks of travel leading up (no practice time) and a concert that Saturday that we signed up for months ago. My general attitude regarding this whole deal is "meh".  This is not a self-pity party, so much as a "what do I want to do with this?" question. Time management is a very real part of this equation. If my brain is melted by the time I get home at night, how much energy can I realistically expect to be able to put in?

Thinking back to when things were flowing along, my mindset was different. And yes, more positive.
How do I get back there?What things do you do to get yourself out of a shooting slump and excited about it?

(PS - shot my recurve on Monday with some lighter limbs. Felt SO good. Yeahhh!)

Say Cheese

Doesn't that view make you want to just fling some arrows?

I love three day weekends. Stating the obvious, as who doesn't right? Gave me some extra time to play and hang out with some friends I don't see enough.

Was able to snag some new compound gear and get moving on that end this week. Still needs some minor tweaking, but hey, at least I am shooting. Spent some time in the sun shooting 50 and 70 m finally. Felt soooo good to be out there.

Also had the opportunity to learn to make some homemade, from scratch cheese with some archery (and non-archery) friends. See the full story and recipes on Steph's blog. Yes, there were goats involved and I wanted to take them all home with me. Thank you to Sara Turnbull for letting us use your kitchen and giving us the skinny. 

The ricotta in question

My cow queso blanco (fancy-speak for white cheese) turned out fantastic, but the goat mozzerella did something odd and turned into the inedible brick version.  Made THE best grilled pizza ever for dinner, though. It's super easy, so I am sharing the recipe with you. We've trialed and errored our way out of the bugs.

Grilled White Pizza
Oil up some paper towel with vegetable oil and grease up the grates while heating up to 350-400.Turn the middle burner off on a gas grill so you get nice indirect heat.

We're usually in a hurry, so we use the premade frozen version, let it come to room temp and cut in half. Any bigger and it gets too hard to handle.  Work the dough out with your fingers, lay on a peel or a really large cookie sheet.

You can almost smell the garlic...

Sauce
2 cloves garlic, diced fine
1/4 c olive oil
1/2 t salt
pepper

Mix and let sit for at least 10 minutes while the grill is heating up.

Put your dough on your peel and oil it up good so it doesn't stick. Place on the grill face down for 5 minutes.  Pull off the grill, flip and oil up the other side. Flip back over and slather on your now garlicky oil. Add fresh mozzarella, parmesan, and ricotta (used the homemade, drier version from above).

Slide back on the grill for another 4-5 minutes. Watch so it doesn't burn.

Pour a nice glass of white wine and you have dinner.