The Heroes of Paschal High in the Piney Woods

Once again this year the three of us who call ourselves The Heroes of Paschal High met up for another Summer confab. This time we took off to the Piney Woods of East Texas to a little cabin near Woodville. From the outside this cabin looks like any other quaint house in the woods. But Austin architect Ken Routh (one of the Heroes) created something unique for the owners. He encased an old log cabin built back in the 1830's (when Texas was still a Republic) inside the otherwise unassuming outer structure.

Ken's idea was to protect the original cabin and its fragile logs from the outside elements yet maintain the charm and history of the space on the inside. When you step into this cabin it is almost like walking into a diorama in a museum. This strategy not only preserved the original cabin but allowed for the addition of an upper floor to accommodate more guests and a kitchen and bath to make the cabin livable by today's standards. We definitely enjoyed our short stay in this historic place where we cooked, ate, drank and commiserated nightly. But that is not the only reason we came to the woods...

We came to shoot our guns! Since the cabin sits on over 800 acres of thick woods in the middle of nowhere we could plink away to our hearts delight. And speaking of hearts, before all you PETA types get all worked up, nothing with a heartbeat was harmed. We did kill a lot of innocent beer and soda cans however. Note the exit wounds on the cans pictured here.

One of our other Heroes Bob Coalson was not as familiar with guns as myself and Ken, so we had to give him a little education in the ways of weaponry. But Bob did just fine and was able to hit his can with almost all his shots shooting the Ruger Single Six pistol we assigned him. Ken and I spent most of our time with my Ruger 10-22 rifle with a 25 round magazine. I also brought along my Winchester Model 1894 lever action carbine which is an original manufactured during that year. As Sigourney Weaver's character Ripley is warned by Michael Biehn's character Corporal Hicks in Aliens: "It will kick some". And it did, leaving a nice bruise on my upper right arm when I let the gun slip off my shoulder a bit. But the shot from that gun definitely made a well-shaken Diet Pepsi can "blow up real good"!

You can see three videos of our exploits in the woods at: www.youtube.com/ronscott