The antlers I am holding are called Shed Antler. Bucks shed their antlers in January and growth restarts in spring. Click for huge pictures.
The sun is out, but it's freezing!
Just look at my messy nail station!
For those of you who do not believe that hunting has a valuable and important place in our modern society, I beg you to read on...
Readers, have you ever been hungry... not as in a couple of missed meals hungry, but
truly hungry? The closest I've come was June 1981, while in my last month of (my first) pregnancy. My first husband, Pete, used my whole $120.00 paycheck to throw a 4th of July party. The very next day, while I was at work, Like The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, he packed up everything useful (right down to the toothpaste and toilet paper), and left me to move in with some dancer. I am not exaggerating when I say that all that was left in my kitchen was a bag of yellow onions and a box of Red Rose Tea Bags.
I was devastated, scared and too embarrassed and proud to ask my boss for an advance on my pay so I could eat. Fortunately for me, I worked for a farmer packing zucchini and thankfully, one of my perks was being able to take some home. For a whole week, I ate boiled zucchini and onions, breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was hungry, but not starving to death. I was pretty naive back then, and didn't know about services to help the needy.
Fast forward to the present, 2009, in the US, the land of plenty- hunger is at an all time 14 year high.
49 million people in the US are going hungry. 16.7 million are children.
Households with children experience food insecurity at almost double the rate for households without children.
Hunters Helping the Hungry is an organized, non-profit corporation that works with food banks, enabling hunters to donate venison meat at little or no cost. http://www.huntershelpingthehungry.org/
In addition to helping the hungry, donations also address the overpopulation of White Tail Deer in NJ.
Conservative estimates say that, at present, there are 200,000 deer in NJ, compared to 100 years ago, when there were practically none. Since wolves and coyotes were decimated years ago in NJ, there are no other natural predators, aside from humans, to balance out the food chain. Deer are the largest herbivore in this state. They are stressing the habitats of native wildlife, and introducing invasive, non-native plant life that is detrimentally changing our ecosystem.
This year, there were 1.5 million (reported) motor vehicle accidents, 22,498 (reported) injuries and 200 deaths due to collisions with deer. They are also the cause of 1.1 million dollars in vehicle damage and 1 million dollars in property damage.
I am not anti deer. In fact, aside from the birth of my 3 children, one of the most beautiful moments in my life involved deer. One day, a few years ago, a herd of doe crossed the road I was driving and jumped a fence on the other side. It literally took my breath away.
That said, I'd rather know that a deer died to feed the hungry rather than suffer diseases from overpopulation or suffering from motor vehicle injuries.
Mani details;
Base- 3 coats of my Franken, I Don't Iguana This
Stampings were made to replicate
Real Tree Camoflague.
Konad plate-M66, Fauxnad plates; H23, H9 & H1, randomly stamped with colors I frankened
Orly Tip Guides.
To replicate
Hunters Orange/International Orange, I layered China Glaze Orange Knockout over Sally Hansen Insta-Dri in Whirlwind White
2 coats Seche
Stats from my local food bank
http://feedingamerica.org/foodbank-results.aspx?state=NJ
