December Woman of the Wild

Holly Heyser

Holly A. Heyser, hunting blogger and college lecturer

I am pretty much the last person anyone – including myself – would have expected to take up hunting. I was born in Southern California and have spent all of my adult life in urban areas. After college, I spent 19 years as a newspaper reporter and editor (Orange County Register, San Jose Mercury News, St. Paul Pioneer Press, Virginian-Pilot, Sacramento Bee) before leaving the business in 2006 to teach journalism at my alma mater, California State University, Sacramento. Reporter. Professor.

Urbanite. Not someone you think of as a gunner.

But I have always craved unusual experiences, and hunting started worming its way into my realm of possibility back when I was in my late 30s. I was living in St. Paul, Minnesota, with my boyfriend Hank Shaw, and we were both working for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. We had befriended the hunting and fishing writer there – Chris Niskanen – and what he did was really piquing Hank’s interest. One day Hank announced that he wanted to take up hunting. “That’s fine,” I said. He’s a cook, so I knew he’d eat what he’d kill, which was my threshold of acceptance for hunting.

He was really getting into it, spending a lot of time out in the woods, and pretty soon he started asking if I’d like to join him. I didn’t, because I was busy training for marathons at that point, and I rightfully concluded that I couldn’t fit two activities that intense into my weekends. But a couple years later we moved to Sacramento, and I stopped running, and I finally said I was ready to join him. My first hunt was a pheasant hunt, but what really grabbed me was duck hunting. Half of the ducks in the Pacific Flyway spend their winter in the Sacramento Valley about an hour north of us, and the duck hunting can be amazing. I will hunt anything that I’m willing to eat – pheasants, turkeys, wild boar, deer – but there’s just something about ducks. They’re fast, the marshy terrain is challenging and the worse the weather, the better the hunting. I love a challenge. And ducks taste divine. Duck is by far my favorite meat, followed closely by wild boar.

I very quickly dedicated myself to my new pursuit. I had just started my teaching job and was overjoyed when I realized my winter break covered the last six weeks of duck season, so when Hank was working, I’d drive up to one of my favorite wildlife refuges and head out into the marsh myself, determined to teach myself how to actually hit these birds. (Three years later, I’m sorta kinda getting the hang of it.)

A year to the day after I fired my shotgun for the first time ever, I started a blog about hunting, NorCal Cazadora (www.norcalcazadora.com). NorCal stands for Northern California, and “cazadora” is Spanish for huntress. I figured no one would care what a novice hunter had to say, but boy was I wrong. I quickly found that even the most veteran hunters enjoyed the frustration-filled tales of trying to learn how to do this hunting stuff right. Since, then, I’ve expanded a bit and have begun writing for magazines including California Waterfowl, Delta Waterfowl and Turkey Country, and I’ve done quite a few hunting stories for the Sacramento Bee, which has shown amazing openness to hunting.

I’ve also taken up photography, and do a lot of food photos for my boyfriend, who started a blog shortly after I did – Hunter Angler Gardener Cook (www.honest-food.net) – and writes for a variety of food magazines. I’ll be doing photography for his upcoming book as well.

Writing and photography has opened many doors. I’ve begun doing a lot of volunteer work for California Waterfowl, which graciously honored me with its Artemis Award this year. And I’ve made friends all over the country and world, which means if I can afford a plane ticket someplace, I could probably find someone to hunt with there. I feel incredibly blessed.

Probably the biggest blessing, though, is having been able to enter the hunting world in the first place. I was not naïve about where food came from before I started hunting – I spent some time in the country as a kid, and my family raised a lot of animals for meat. But participating in food, nature and the cycle of life at this level has been a revelation, and it has improved both what I eat and how much I appreciate it exponentially. So many things had to fall into place to get me here: meeting Hank, moving to Minnesota, befriending Chris. There are any number of different choices I could have made that would have put me on a different path. But I got lucky, and I’m incredibly grateful for that.

See the original article at CampWildGirls.com

See the original article at GotHunts.com

TeamHuntress-Priceless

Well I have finally decompressed from the fantastic TeamHuntress weekend that Jane Keller put on at Pheasant Phun, in South Dakota, hosted by Dave Olsen. I have never, in my life, had such a wonderful time, with a bunch of women.
Team Huntress Family

Team Huntress Family

Life for, me, has forever changed. I was the first to arrive at the TeamHuntress event and as I met each woman that arrived there, I knew something was different. I immediately started to connect with each of the gals arriving. We all had so much in common that it felt like we had known each other for a lifetime. I didn’t have to try to explain my love for the outdoors, the others felt that way too.

Growing up I always had more guy friends, than girlfriends. Not that the girls I knew weren’t great, they were just not interested in hunting and fishing and being outdoors, like I was. I related more to what the guys were talking about. Things like, where the big bucks had been seen, or what kind of food they were eating. I hated going shopping, and didn’t really get into things like home parties, or doing your hair and makeup, etc. Participating in such things, for me, was usually agonizing. On the other hand, as I grew older, a lot of my guy friends’ wives, didn’t exactly want me to go hunting with their husbands anymore.

I started to realize I was gaining a new “family” or “Sisterhood” as northern California girl, Holly Heyser from Norcal Cazador Blog calls it. For me, someone who has lots of girlfriends, that she doesn’t have much in common with, it was an unbelievable experience.

We had a great mix of personalities. Joining us from the state of Colorado, were Kirstie Pike of Prois Hunting Apparel, Anne Vinnola from Colorado Institute of Taxidermy Training Inc., Big Timber South Taxidermy Studio and Annie Got Her Gun, along with Gina Pollard who is an up and coming huntress. Wyoming brought to us, wildlife photographer Stacey Huston, author of , A Focus in the Wild, and her Husband Mike “Hawk” Huston from “Journey with RedHawk“. (O.k. he’s not a girl but he has a great respect for women with weapons!). Joining us from Missouri was Barbara Baird, with “Women’s Outdoor News” and “The WOMA“, as well as her husband, and gentleman photographer, Jason Baird. Our mother daughter team, Janice McKenney and Marin Broucek , along with Julie Rozell all from joined us from South Dakota and all fantastic outdoorswomen. Last, but not least, Realtree’s Lynn Pankey from Alabama finished the mix.

Our mornings started us out with some social time or yoga followed by a tasty but healthy breakfast. Directly after that, was either some kind of fun skills in the outdoors or an interesting presentation indoors, depending on the weather.

It was hard to tell who was supposed to be the teacher, and who was there as a student. Everyone had very interesting experiences to share. I don’t think any one person walked away without having been both, a teacher and a student, at one point in the weekend. If one person was an expert in something, there was someone else, wanting to try it and to learn it. Others were practicing and the skills they already had. Fresh eyes and new perspective were just what was needed to hone them. Without pressure or preconceived expectations, it was, for the most part, gals helping gals. Occasionally the guys added their perspective, but never in a demeaning or “better than you” way. They always treated us as equals and as skilled outdoorswomen.

We learned about archery with longbows and compound bows. We gained shooting skills in both handguns and shotguns. GPS, optics, gear, safety, emergency care, field dressing for taxidermy, native wildlife to South Dakota, we learned it all and just when you thought there couldn’t be anything more, there was.

At the end of the day we would come into the beautifully decorated lodge and be treated to fabulous food(Thanks to Annie and staff!), incredible massages, refreshing facials, marvelous manicures, soothing foot massages, outstanding wine-tasting, and a relaxing social time. To top it all off there would be gifts on our pillows.

I mean cool gifts, like camo t-shirts, hats and videos, nutritious bars, scent-free personal care items, leather journals or gift certificates, and everyday there was something new and special waiting on your bed when you arrived there. I have never been that pampered before, ever. I didn’t even know how much I would like all those things. I am now ruined for life. I tried it all and found out, I like it!

Most of all, I will never forget the unbelievable time I had at TeamHuntress. The special feeling of knowing I had been accepted. That becoming part of an unbelievable group of gals, with whom I have so much in common, will far outlast any of the skills that I gained. I have never before felt that way.

I can’t explain my new found self confidence, my improved self esteem and the feeling of empowerment that I left there with. Those things will never be taken from me. It is not something money can buy. It was a weekend that, for me, was simply…priceless!

A Special thank you to those who donated our gifts!

Haley Vines: www.haleyvines.com/

Hahn Creek: http://www.hahncreekwinery.com/

Realtree: http://www.realtree.com/

Prois: http://www.proishunting.com/

Camp Wild Girls: http://www.campwildgirls.com/

Tanka Bar: http://www.tankabar.com/

Berdette Zastrow: Women’s Guide to Hunting

Faini Designs: http://www.fainidesigns.com/

Doeville: http://www.doeville.com/

See the original article at CampWildGirls.com