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Guest
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Pain....in a Fathers\' Heart!
My daughter Shellie is 36 years old....5'2" and about 105# dripping wet with sweat with a bottle of pop and foam on top! Loves to deer hunt, shoot ducks, doves, etc. Her husband owns 300 acres of prime La. bottomland with striped oaks, white oak, pin oak acorn trees, and great deer habitat. Well...I went hunting with her yesterday and Shellie elects to sit in a shooting house about 15' above ground and when I came out of the timber last evening, she proceeds to climb down, slips and falls and breaks both bones in her right leg just above the ankle! She committed an unpardonable sin of not having a rope tied to the stand to attach her rifle/backpack onto to pull up to her and doing the reverse when gettin out of the stand! I came out early as I WILL NOT walk out of the timber WITHOUT A FLASHLIGHT and once on stand I discovered that my light was not good because of dead batteries. So since it was still daylight (I walked out on the shooting lane because I didn't know Shellie was there as she had gone to another area when we seperated but then she elected to go to the shooting house. Had I known she was watching that area I never would have gone there until after dark to keep from messing her up.) I stood 100 yds. off and saw my girl fall! Taking off like a flash (for a 65 year old guy I still move pretty good) I was praying that her back wouldn't be broken as she had her rifle over one shoulder and her backpack on the other when she fell! When she leaned back to shut the door to the shooting house...that's when she slipped and she did the only thing she could do which was shove herself away from the ladder...she rotated 1/2 a turn when coming down and hit on her right leg breaking both bones; a compound fracture! So....here I am....no help...she's in utter pain but she wouldn't let me pick her up to carry her for the pain and we're still 100 yds. off a woods road to where I have to get her to for loading into the truck! I'm a pretty "healthy guy"; 6' tall and about 230# and no weakling by any means but apparently she's worried about me croaking under the strain but having flown ag planes for 40 years...I've learned how to handle stess/strain! But she won't let me pick her up because she says the pain is terrible! Our truck is 500 yds. up the hill so I make a beeline for it to drive back down to where the shooting lane is and where she's laying! In the meantime...this gal manages to crawl half the distance down to the road by the time I get back and when I get back to her she says "Dad...I'm going to lay on my back and you drag me the remaining way down to the truck!" So...that's what I do and I finally get her into the truck! We're 40 miles from Monroe, La. and the hospital but we cut out! Amazingly...there's a friend of mine whom is probably the best bone doc in the country on duty last night and he sees her immediately upon our arrival at the emergency room! He takes Shellie right on to surgery, cleans the wound as the bone came through the skin, installs two steel plates and tells me she's going to be just great as the breaks were clean and the bones matched up perfectly when he attached the plates! She'll have to have the plates removed in about 6 months as her ankles are small but the Doc says that's no big deal!
So guys....the reason I'm posting this is that there's NO WAY that you can be TOO AWARE OF SAFETY! Shellie knows that she "messed up" by not abiding by my rules that I've drummed into both her and her brother but it's a **** sad issue to have to learn lessons the hard way!! So....you also "drum into your children" the SAFETY ISSUES and don't be too fearful of being redundant about them! Not to mention the pain/grief brought onto the back of a parent!
I'm just mighty thankful to the Good Lord for things not being worse as her back could have been broken or her rifle could have gone off as....SHE DID NOT UNLOAD HER .308 PRIOR TO GETTING DOWN!! When she gets better...she'll get a good "*** chewing" for this as that's a REAL NO NO!!
As an aside issue....this little gal is "deadly" with this .308! She consistently can "bust" 1 gal. milk jugs of water from 400 yds. with it and if a buck steps out....it's a BAD DAY AT BLACKROCK for his ***!!
SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY!! Stress it guys!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!
My daughter Shellie is 36 years old....5'2" and about 105# dripping wet with sweat with a bottle of pop and foam on top! Loves to deer hunt, shoot ducks, doves, etc. Her husband owns 300 acres of prime La. bottomland with striped oaks, white oak, pin oak acorn trees, and great deer habitat. Well...I went hunting with her yesterday and Shellie elects to sit in a shooting house about 15' above ground and when I came out of the timber last evening, she proceeds to climb down, slips and falls and breaks both bones in her right leg just above the ankle! She committed an unpardonable sin of not having a rope tied to the stand to attach her rifle/backpack onto to pull up to her and doing the reverse when gettin out of the stand! I came out early as I WILL NOT walk out of the timber WITHOUT A FLASHLIGHT and once on stand I discovered that my light was not good because of dead batteries. So since it was still daylight (I walked out on the shooting lane because I didn't know Shellie was there as she had gone to another area when we seperated but then she elected to go to the shooting house. Had I known she was watching that area I never would have gone there until after dark to keep from messing her up.) I stood 100 yds. off and saw my girl fall! Taking off like a flash (for a 65 year old guy I still move pretty good) I was praying that her back wouldn't be broken as she had her rifle over one shoulder and her backpack on the other when she fell! When she leaned back to shut the door to the shooting house...that's when she slipped and she did the only thing she could do which was shove herself away from the ladder...she rotated 1/2 a turn when coming down and hit on her right leg breaking both bones; a compound fracture! So....here I am....no help...she's in utter pain but she wouldn't let me pick her up to carry her for the pain and we're still 100 yds. off a woods road to where I have to get her to for loading into the truck! I'm a pretty "healthy guy"; 6' tall and about 230# and no weakling by any means but apparently she's worried about me croaking under the strain but having flown ag planes for 40 years...I've learned how to handle stess/strain! But she won't let me pick her up because she says the pain is terrible! Our truck is 500 yds. up the hill so I make a beeline for it to drive back down to where the shooting lane is and where she's laying! In the meantime...this gal manages to crawl half the distance down to the road by the time I get back and when I get back to her she says "Dad...I'm going to lay on my back and you drag me the remaining way down to the truck!" So...that's what I do and I finally get her into the truck! We're 40 miles from Monroe, La. and the hospital but we cut out! Amazingly...there's a friend of mine whom is probably the best bone doc in the country on duty last night and he sees her immediately upon our arrival at the emergency room! He takes Shellie right on to surgery, cleans the wound as the bone came through the skin, installs two steel plates and tells me she's going to be just great as the breaks were clean and the bones matched up perfectly when he attached the plates! She'll have to have the plates removed in about 6 months as her ankles are small but the Doc says that's no big deal!
So guys....the reason I'm posting this is that there's NO WAY that you can be TOO AWARE OF SAFETY! Shellie knows that she "messed up" by not abiding by my rules that I've drummed into both her and her brother but it's a **** sad issue to have to learn lessons the hard way!! So....you also "drum into your children" the SAFETY ISSUES and don't be too fearful of being redundant about them! Not to mention the pain/grief brought onto the back of a parent!
I'm just mighty thankful to the Good Lord for things not being worse as her back could have been broken or her rifle could have gone off as....SHE DID NOT UNLOAD HER .308 PRIOR TO GETTING DOWN!! When she gets better...she'll get a good "*** chewing" for this as that's a REAL NO NO!!
As an aside issue....this little gal is "deadly" with this .308! She consistently can "bust" 1 gal. milk jugs of water from 400 yds. with it and if a buck steps out....it's a BAD DAY AT BLACKROCK for his ***!!
SAFETY, SAFETY, SAFETY!! Stress it guys!!
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!
